Sussex Beer Festival, Hastings, starts tomorrow! 20-21 September...

Well, not actually a beer festival, but at the Hastings Seafood & Wine Festival, the FILO has a bar in the main marquee, with 12 different ales brewed in Sussex + more! Here you can see the bar being constructed yesterday... 

So? What ales are there? 

From Hastings Brewery, there is their Porter, and 2 of their 'Handmade' ales, number 5, the single-hopped Galaxy Pale Ale, and number 14, their 3 Cs American Pale Ale. You can find reviews of them elsewhere within my blogs, nice and hoppy! 

From Long Man comes their very good Copper Hop and darker Old Man, similarly reported on before. 

Dark Star provide their ever hoppy Hophead and Vice Beer, a new one for me! 

Of course, the FILO Brewery are also providing 5 of their lovely ales too: Gold, Crofters, Old Town Tom, Churches Pale Ale and Bourne Blonde, so a good variety of their ales, indeed! 

Come and enjoy, cheers!

More great ales and sunny too!

 

Memories! A walk along the seafront, westwards, 5 miles-ish, and I get to The Albatross Club, (RAFA) in Bexhill, and open to CAMRA members too, for a nominal entrance of £1, as are all guests, and to RAFA members free as well, obviously, (both of which I am a member of, by the way), and 4 lovely ales, usually, at a decent price, was £2.60 a pint; but from this week, £2.80 a pint, apparently...

I shan't mention the other, very good, ales on offer, but 2 excellent ales here! I have gone on about both a bit, particularly, the Green Hopped IPA from Dark Star (6.5%); so more can I say?!? And the Cascade hopped, Hastings 'Handmade' APA, a lovely pale, grapefruit flavoured bitter, and one from the local imbiber, and Hastings brewer, who recently won the "beer of the festival" in Eastbourne, nice one, and nice one...

Oops, thinking of 'champion brewer' Brett and Hastings Brewery, up t' Tower! They did have the excellent Oakham 20 Years (5.8%) on, which I have already reported on, surely... and Dark Star APA, at just £2.50 a pint, etc etc... but I have been back again (it's a hard life), and these were the ales on offer the second time,,,



Dark Star Hophead and APA, virtually 'regulars' and 2 great ales I regularly commend, and 2 other interesting ales too, the first of which was (for moi) Brighton Bier English Garden (3.8%), a "golden ale", that was very nice, and tasted like a 'typical South East England 'best bitter'. Also, Cottage Normans Conquest MM (5%), another 'traditional' tasting ale (the name appears to be more to do with the brewer's surname than Hastings!), though darker, a "Strong Premium Ale"; the name appears to be more to do with the brewer's family name (not 1066), and a full-bodied, darker ale, not bad!

Cheers for now!

Hastings Brewery "Handmade" Ales, an update, following chat with Brett...

More on a very tasty ale from Dark Star recently drunk at The Tower in a coming blog, and about their ex-brewery member of staff who appears to have been the creator of Hophead, and lots more of course!

However, whilst at The Tower, I did have a chat with Brett, the creator of the above 2 ales from Hastings Brewery, both made with Australian hops, but the series isn't about Aussie hops, but the idea is to use just one variety of hop, and make them 'hoppy' too...  Anyway, I missed both of these, which says a lot about how quickly they were knocked down!

Hopefully, I'll get to try No6!

Swinging from the scaffold with a flagon of ale in each hand...

... not really, though the scaffold's still up, but even more great ales! Latest, at The Tower, St Leonards, with 4 great pale hoppy bitters!  2 from Hop Back Brewery, the famous Summer Lightning (5%), and the lemon grass flavoured Taiphoon (4.2%), which I hadn't drunk for a while, so I gave a pint a try.  It had a maltier flavour than I remember, maybe I'm just getting too used to the excellent pale and hoppier ales now brewed by Dark Star, amongst many others. So, I also drank a pint of Dark Star Hophead (3.8%) at £2.40 a pint, and more than one of the excellent American Pale Ale (APA, 4.7%) at £2.50, and had a good chat with Louisa, the landlady, cheers!

Louisa also suggested I note these upcoming ales from Hastings Brewery, apparently, single hopped beers "handmade" by Brett, a regular drinker at the Tower. Both of these use Australian hops: No4 Australian Blonde Ale (4.4%), which was brewed using Ella hops, and No5 Hop Forward Pale Ale (4.8%), which used Galaxy hops.  If I do get the chance to try either of these ales, I'll write up about them, and it looks like I must have already missed 3 of the brews... 

Back at the Dolphin, Rock-a-Nore, Hastings Old Town, down opposite the fishermen's working beach, the same regular 4 ales have been available, and I have started getting much more into the Dark Star APA, though still have been drinking the Hophead too, both excellent.  2 other ales of note that have been on sale there very recently include Triple fff Moondance, a nice pale 4.2% bitter, with citrus flavours and nose, initially a sweet taste, with a drying out on the palate, and a bitter finish, "sweet & sour" beer, nice one! Also, on Sunday in particular, I've drunk a few pints of an ale I've reported on before, and it is still outstanding, ie Salopian Hop Twister, 4.5%, obviously hoppy, tasting of grapefruit, with good body, and a very dry and bitter finish, love it!

I've visited the First In Last Out (FILO), High Street, Hastings, a couple of times too, and have grown back into their own FILO Gold (4.8%), amongst their own 5 ales on sale; they have had Dark Star Hophead on too, a good choice for the summer, which appears to have arrived.  Anyway, the Gold is a nice pale golden bitter with plenty of body, and you know you've had a drink too. I was even talked into helping out as a traffic 'marshall' in the old town for Pirate Day (last Sunday, 21st) by Adam there, and I had a couple of pints of Gold after 7 hours standing in the sun, Hastings does love to dress up and 'party', cheers Adam!

Finally, for this blog, I had a pint of Palmers Dorset Gold (4.5%) in the Jenny Lind, further down High Street, with the wee Pre-Raphaelite, Sarah serving up. The Dorset Gold is another pale dry golden full-bodied bitter, but don't let the aroma put you off, it's a decent beer... Oh, and, for a change, I've included a photograph of their cider pump clip, with the locally produced Trappers Laughing Jester (Pear) Cider, it tastes like ciders should taste from my memory of living in Devon, nice one.

Cheers!