CAMRA's National Club Champion, the Albatross Club!

So, I walked along the seafront to Bexhill-on-Sea from Hastings, a nice little 10 mile 'round trip', plus or minus, depending on which part of Hastings you start and finish at, because I hadn't been here for a while, and they have come first in the country, out of over 28,000 entries!

I am a branch associate member of the Royal Air Forces Association, Albatross Club, although CAMRA members are also allowed to enter. Non-members of the RAFA are asked to make a £1 contribution to the club, which, considering their ales cost just £3.10 a pint, is fair enough.

They have a regularly changing 4 ales served from handpumps at any one time, with a board at the back of the bar showing what else is to come on soon! This visit, their 4 ales included Sussex brewers, Rother Valley (website) Well Sprung (4.3%), which I didn't try this time, but my first drink was from Somerset brewers The Wild Beer Co (website) Bibble (4.2%), an unfined, so slightly hazy, pale dry bitter, pale gold, with a very fruity aroma, the result of the Mosaic and Amarillo hops used in the brew, no doubt, very nice too!

The third ale, which I didn't try either, was again local, from Sussex brewers Downlands (website) Devils Dyke (5%), described as "salted caramel!" But I did enjoy the very good Derbyshire brewers Shiny Brewing (website) Affinity (4.6%), which I'm sure I've drunk before, less obviously fruity than the Bibble, but a citrus aroma all the same, with a hint of honey, a wee bit sweet at first but drying out bitterness, another nice one!

Taking a photograph of the award wasn't so easy, as you can see, with lights on, lights off, using flash, not using flash, anyway, you get the point; I probably need a better camera! Oh yes, and the Albatross Club also has 2 real ciders and some bottles of Belgian beers too, well worth a visit!

Again, congratulations to the Club and staff!

Bexhill Beer Festival Part IV (Final Resolution)

OK, back to Bexhill for the second day, and a new pale hoppy bitter had been put on upstairs in the Club bar, ie Lacons Affinity, a 4.5% fruity bitter, not bad at all, but not on a par with the 3 mentioned at the end of the previous blog, which I had to try again before comparing beers, of course, if only for scientific purpose... Anyway, here goes for the darker beers... 

I started from the weakest again, and one that others had spoken with great warmth about yesterday, whilst dunking bourbon biscuits in their pints (true!), the Sonnet 43 Brewery Bourbon Milk Stout (4.3%). Yes, the biscuits did work with this stout, very pleasant, though I didn't 'dunk', just ate a few. However, I found it a bit 'thin', hardly surprising as it was the weakest stout/porter here. Then I tried the very good 4.8% Deeply Dale Breakfast Stout, which had much more body. lovely and well-balanced, and a wee bit bitter too, it hit the spot!

Actually, I came to find that the 4 darker beers downstairs were all very good, and not too much to chose between them really. The next 2 had mucho body, the Londinium (5.5%), brewed by Roosters Brewery, was very well balanced again, I tasted more coffee than the tasting notes suggested, too easy to drink at the strength though! The final stout I drank was the impressive 7.4% Russian Rouble, brewed by Flipside Brewery, another very good beer, if a wee bit too sweet for me. I liked them all! 

I had to try the 3 real ciders too, it would have been very poor not to, and quite a few visitors to the beer festival, certainly seemed to be here for the cider, not the ales! Memories of the old Cider Bar in Newton Abbot came to mind, in the days when I first went there and they still had only 3 draught ciders, before their expansion in the 1980s, and, like there then, Geoff had brought in dry, medium and sweet ciders. So a good choice, and all 3 certainly were true rough-ish ciders, one was even called a 'scrumpy', the 'dry' PalmersHayes Kneebender Scrumpy (6%), which, like they all did, did what it said on the label, it was dry and real cider, indeed, very good!

The other 2 were similarly true to their labels, the 'medium' cider, Hancock's Real Devon Cider (6.5%), was also quite dry really, and very nice (I could have drunk this all day if there hadn't been ales to drink). The stronger 'sweet' cider was the cloudier Gwatkin Yarlington Mill Cider (7.5%), which was certainly a wee bit sweetish, but with a nice dry aftertaste. All in all, 3 pretty decent real ciders reminiscent of my years living in the West Country, cheers! 

Anyway, I changed my mind and gave the Derventio Cleopatra (5%) the winners certificate, well, there wasn't a certificate, but you get the meaning... after resting the night and certainly developing, and my directly tasting all the leaders from the day before, it just shaded it from the Niamh's Nemesis (5.7%)in second place; with Deeply Vale Breakfast Stout (4.8%) coming in third, best of the stouts! As regular readers will know, I do like hoppy bitter beers, so this may not surprise them...

An excellent beer festival, indeed, and another will be held very soon at the First In Last Out in Hastings (more to come very soon, as it will be held over the Easter weekend), I shall be able to stand back and make more critical judgement as I'll not be working there, unlike I did at the Bexhill festival, cheers!