Well, I said it would hurt.
When you sit in front of a computer all day, doing nothing more energetic than lifting a cup of coffee every few minutes, there is nothing quite like being surrounded by 100 nine-gallon barrels of beer and knowing that most of them need hoisting three feet into the air.
This was the scene that faced the dozen or so volunteers setting up the 18th Tamworth CAMRA Beer Festival at about 2pm last Monday afternoon.
Ale had arrived on time from breweries as far apart as Newcastle and Devon, as Herefordshire and London; now, it needed lifting on to our three-storey stillage as soon as possible so that it could rest under our hi-tech chilling system and be just at the right temperature and in the right condition when we flung open the doors to expectant customers for the first of three days at 11am on Thursday.
And we were almost there. Two-thirds of the barrels were in their rightful place and we had just wheeled in the mechanical lifter to raise the final 30 on to the third floor, so to speak.
It was just a matter of pushing a few of the remaining barrels a few inches across the floor to create some extra space to bring in the lifter.
And so, I steadied myself to shift one barrel no more than six inches; I bent down, grabbed both ends of the barrel, got it roughly three inches off the ground and suddenly felt my back lock up in a manner I haven’t felt since........oh, ever.
I dropped the barrel, managed to prevent myself from swearing too loudly (there were, after all, ladies present) and stood there frozen.
I should, of course, say that this was entirely my own fault. I had signed the regulation elf’n’safety documents exempting the venue from any blame, I knew I should have enlisted some help, I knew I was being over-confident.
And yet, something told me that Martin Warrillow, who had a desk job for 24 years and who has spent the last 18 months sitting on a less-than-comfortable wooden bench in front of the computer in his ‘office’ could lift a nine-gallon beer barrel on his own.
There’s a word for that.
I’m glad to say that, thanks to several hot baths and lots of massage, the pain eased off through the week although an offer to sit down all day and run the bottled beer/CAMRA memberships/T-shirt stall proved much more attractive than stretching up and down behind the bar for seven hours a day.
And the Festival itself was a triumph. We signed up more new members for the Lichfield/Sutton Coldfield/Tamworth/Atherstone branch of CAMRA than we have for many years, the venue was busy during daytime and evening sessions on all three days, the beer was of a standard which lived up to the quality expected by our late, great, festival supremo Chris Fudge and even the real ciders and perries seemed to go down smoothly.
Our ‘chocolate lady’ Emily Flanagan of Merry Berry Truffles, proved a popular edition to the menu (if you have never tried chilli and orange chocolate, you really should - Emily is becoming a regular at CAMRA beer festivals across the Midlands and always does well) and everyone went away feeling that this year’s festival was as good as any we’ve ever done.
It’s hard work (even the beer-tasting on Wednesday afternoon, just to make sure everything is in order...) and you always ache at the end of it, some more than others, but it’s a week I wouldn’t miss for the world and if it encourages people to try real ale for the first time, rather than the bland national brews, it must be doing the right thing.
See you there in September 2012. By which time, I will have taken up weightlifting classes.
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