FILO Beer Festival Report 17-21 April 2014

I visited the beer festival at the First in Last Out (FILO), High Street, Hastings, only on the first day, Thursday 17th. Due to circumstances, on the day, I only sampled 7 of the 20 ales available, and their own have been reviewed by me before, so were not included this time. In order of strength, below are my reflections on those 6 festival ales, and I was surprised at both my favourite and least preferred ales... 

First, I tried the Elgoods Spring Challenge (3.7%), which was 'pale and refreshing', as the tasting notes said, and with a dry bitter aftertaste, a pleasant start at 6.5/10. Then, I drank the Dark Star Seville (4%), their first ever 'fruit' beer, first brewed 3 years ago, and including a hint of bitter orange, as you'd expect. I'd tasted this at the previous beer festival reported on this blog, and had been a bit underwhelmed. This time, however, I got a lot more flavour, and it was quite bitter and dry, and very good, obviously improved with time settled in the cask, 8/10. The third ale, in turn, I was disappointed with, surprisingly, as I usually enjoy Roosters beers. This Roosters, 41 Degrees South (4.1%), was pale and fruity, dry and bitter, but neither quality was as pronounced as I expect from this brewery, 5.5/10. 

The fourth ale was Hop Back Spring Zing (4.2%), which was very pale, dry and bitter, very refreshing, and very good too, 7/10. Nine Standards Silver Standard (4.3%) was a wee bit different, described as "a classic pale ale", and the hoppy aroma and taste did make me think English hops, though I have no idea what was used, though I'd guess Fuggles if questioned, but please don't quote me on that! It had a light malty aroma, was quite a dry bitter with a nutty aftertaste, not bad at 6/10. My final ale, or finale, was the slightly stronger Cairngorm Wild Cat (5.1%), all the way from Scotland! This had a malty aroma with a hint of burnt oats, and received 6/10 too.

Today, I sampled my seventh ale, Elgoods Golden Newt (4.1%), which was also pretty good, and I think I may have had this before. The malts used seem to include lager malt, at lest that's what my tastebuds told me, and this is, apparently, dry hopped. The dry aftertaste supports the dry hopping, and there was a fruitiness about it hat I just couldn't quite distinguish, but, considering this is near the end of the cask, in very good nick and got 7/10!  

Consequently, I was surprised that the Roosters came last in my marking, perhaps my high opinion of the brewery made me more critical as a judge? Whatever, the local Sussex brewer, Dark Star, came out tops in this small sample, their Seville being much more to my taste, even more so than it did when I tried it for the first time a couple of weeks ago!

Cheers!   

Bexhill Beer Festival Part III (The Early Beers)

Obviously, sampling ales needs some sort of benchmark on which to base your comparison, so the 'unlucky' beer you drink first becomes that baseline mark. I started with the weakest first, it being unfair to drink weaker ales following stronger, more full bodied ales...

On the first day, I only drank pale and medium coloured bitters, leaving the dark beers, the porters and stouts, plus the ciders, 'til the following day, and the baseline was set by Redwillow Headless (3.9%), which I have had before, a bitter dry bitter with fruit and malt in the flavours, not a bad start. Then, another ale I think I've had before, Saltaire Blonde (4%), which uses Czech and German hops, another pale beer in which I detected a hint of wheat, if they don't use wheat malt in this, then the hops confused me! Again, not bad at all, and very different. The third was the only local ale of the festival, incredibly, Dark Star Seville (4%), which, I was assured, by the locals, ain't as good as it used to be (I still have my theory about our tastes changing, remember). Anyway, yep, a fruit flavoured beer, though very subtle, a deep golden bitter, shading it as the best ale so far...

My 4th ale was, and I assure you I wasn't drinking pints of everything, Hopstar Lush (4%) a slightly darker coloured bitter flavoured with Amarillo hops, not bad. The next two were heading upwards from 4%, ie Big Hand First Hand (4.2%), paler, with a biscuit flavour, dry and bitter, and Dancing Duck 22 (4.2%), a slightly darker bitter. Both were very drinkable, but not up to the level of the local ale, Dark Star Seville, which still had the edge for me. 

So, we were now heading towards the stronger ales, where you would expect more flavours, but the next choice disappointed me, especially after everyone else had said how good it is, but it just wasn't to my personal taste, and became my least favourite ale of the festival. This was Hand Drawn Monkey What Would Jephers Do? (4.5%), others loved it, but not for me. The next bitter was much more to my taste, Heavy Industry 77 (4.9%), 2 ales with numbers as names, great for bingo callers, though this was much more interesting to me. Described as a "big amber IPA", which gives it a job to follow up, but it did, plenty of body and a nice dry and bitter finish, it did the job for me, cheers, so now became the leader!

But 2 ales were now coming up on the blind side, both pale and hoppy bitters, but very different! Derventio Cleopatra (5%) was, quite frankly, full of apricots, both in aroma (and the aroma could be detected from a distance!) and in taste. The tasting notes mentioned other fruit, but I only got the apricot, but very refreshing and very nice. The final ale of the session, 5 Towns Niamh's Nemesis (5.7%), did win the day, though, a great dry pale bitter with grapefruit in the aroma and taste, I loved it!

Cheers for now, because, much more to come!