CAMRA Great British Beer Festival 2016

OK, I've taken a while to write this, but I can only say that I have quite a few other responsibilities too, well, that's my hogwash out of the way, so, to the beer festival, and ale! We were a wee bit concerned about visiting this year, mainly because of industrial unrest on Southern Rail, but we came up anyway by way of South Eastern, so to Charing Cross rather than Victoria, that is, Mark, Dermot and myself.

I'll start at the very beginning, and have to admit I pretty much enjoyed every ale, but, after collecting my Festival pint glass on entering Olympia, I first tried the Marble Lagonda IPA (5%) and eventual Bronze winner in the Golden Ale category, this was an excellent first choice! Nice body, grapefruit flavour, dry and bitter, my kind of ale!

People happy to be here, mostly!

From that bar, I moved on, my next ale was another quality brewer and ale, from the Welsh brewers of the 'Supreme Champion' last year, Tiny Rebel Juicy (4%), a brand new seasonal ale with "American" hops, which does what it says on the label, intense tropical and citrus fruit flavours and a lovely dry bitter finish; a brewer that continues to not disappoint!

I then had another seasonal ale from another of my favourite brewers, from Yorkshire, Ilkley Summer (4%), with Citra, Chinook and Galaxy hops from the USA, a fruity refreshing golden ale I could drink all day, but I couldn't this day, as I had so much more to choose from...

This bird doesn't look so happy!

After being chased off by the big bird, we went on to our first free drinks... I'll have to explain a wee bit about this first. Dermot and I had accompanied Mark, a local pub landlord to us down in Hastings, with free entry to the festival on the Trade Day, so many thanks to Mark for sharing with us, cheers! And our first free drinks were courtesy of Harvey's of Lewes, who had supplied us with the free trade passes, so many thanks to them too! The others had some darker ale, may have been the Dark Mild, but I had the hoppier golden ale, Armada Ale (4.5%), not as fruity as many of the golden ales, but nice and bitter, cheers to Harveys!

My next ale was from another Yorkshire brewer I trust to provide excellent ales, and they certainly didn't let me down, this was Salamander Blondie Pale Ale (4%), not Debbie Harry on the pump clip this time, sadly, though an interesting adaptation of Botticelli's Birth of Venus... This Blondie was another lovely dry pale golden bitter ale, true to West Yorkshire ales, indeed!

From one Italian job, to another Italian Job (5%) from Cornish brewers, St Austell, brewed with Sorrento lemons and Mount Hood, Waimea, Dr Rudi, and Pacific Jade hops from New Zealand, a pale new-style IPA with lemon in the aroma and taste, unsurprisingly. This was another free drink, luckily, Mark knows the local rep, cheers again to him, and to her!

On to an ale from Grantham in Lincolnshire, and a brewer I haven't drunk anything from for years, but only because I moved to where I don't see their beers, sadly. This one was Oldershaw Sorachi (4.2%), brewed with the Sorachi Ace hop, which was originally developed in Japan in 1984 for Sapporo Breweries Ltd! Another golden ale with a lemon aroma, (are you getting an image of what I like here? Though I usually prefer the 'grapefruity' hops), pale and quite bitter, nice...

But to my favourite ale of the day, and from the other side of the Pennines in Lancashire, Pictish Citra (4.5%), obviously brewed with Citra hops, hence the strong citrus aroma and lemon, grapefruit and peach in the taste. Another pale golden ale with a lovely dry bitter finish, loved it!

But it wasn't a nice pale dry bitter than won the CAMRA "Supreme" Gold award, nope, it was something much darker, hence my not having drunk any of it, but the Berkshire brewers Binghams Vanilla Stout (5%), you can guess, dark and infused with vanilla pods, congratulations to the Binghams lads! A quick mention for the overall Silver award winner, Kent brewers Old Dairy Snow Top (6%), a winter ale, so 'seasonal', just not this season; see an earlier blog of mine for my opinion, it's pretty good!

I can't believe I only drank 8 different ales at the beer festival, though we did sample some of each other's ales during the afternoon, but there was an excellent choice of food too, much more than I can remember from previous years (best was an amazing Game Pie!). I met some old friends from when I lived up in Sheffield and elsewhere, nice one! And, walking back to Earls Court tube station we did pass the last abode of Harold Laski, an old political and academic hero of mine, which was interesting...

If you've read my recent blog you'll know where we went drinking near London Bridge Railway Station, ie Borough Market, a good time was had, cheers!

Albatross Club 2013 Beer Festival

As I've already alluded to, there was a beer festival at The Albatross Club (RAFA) in Bexhill on Sea at the weekend, which I attended on the first day, ie Friday, all ales at £2.60 a pint, and mostly gravity fed, thank you very much!  There were 15 ales on, all told, including 2 from Thornbridge Brewery, old favourites, Jaipur (5.9%), and my personal favourite of their's, the excellent (grape)fruity pale bitter, Kipling (5.2%), which is currently on sale at the Dolphin in Hastings, by the way.

There were 1/3 pint glasses available, for those wanting to try most, if not all, the ales, but I mostly stuck to half pints, and I shall only detail the ales I tried myself, starting with the lower alcohol beers, and working my way up.  Indeed, the lowest gravity ale was my favourite for most of the session, ie the Redemption Trinity, only 3%, but the combination and volume of hops (and malts) used provided more body and flavour than I'd though it would, lots of peach in the nose and, quite frankly, a surprise, very good!  

Also were Ilkley Mary Jane (3.5%), another good pale hoppy bitter, and Joshua Jane (3.7%), a slightly darker dry bitter; Tyne Bank Jamaican Mild (3.8%), a dark copper coloured mild with a spicy and slight fruity taste; Roosters Wild Mule (3.9%), a pale bitter with a weird aftertaste, maybe 'roasted' grapefruit, not quite what I expected from past experience of their ales.

 

In addition, I tried Boggart Hole Clough I Am Beer (4.2%), a much too sweet malty beer for me, virtually liquidised Caramac; Liverpool Organic Josephine Butler (4.5%), a full-bodied smooth beer, quite sweet again; and Binghams Space Hoppy (5.2%), which was slightly sweet to start (may have been influenced by what I drank before it, but a nuttier roasted flavour as it went down, not bad at all.    

But my favourite of the day was left until last, Ascot Ales Imperial Stout, 8% of a rich dark, full-bodied, beer, as you'd expect.  Strangely, for all the flavour it packed, not much aroma, but much liquorice domination, and coffee and chocolate coming through too, liquidised christmas pudding...  Very enjoyable, cheers!