Current Hastings Beer Festival Tasting Notes!

So, having visited the FILO Hastings Week Beer Festival (still on until tomorrow, though I can't see all ales still being available tomorrow!), here are my early-ish tastings notes of the 12 ales I already referred to a couple of blogs ago! First, I should say that I would be happy drinking any of these ales if the others weren't present, but I am going to put them in preferential order, of course, or I wouldn't be me... 

'Pale Ales' - Skinner's River Cottage (4%) uses Cascade hops, is quite light and easy to drink, with a dry aftertaste I couldn't quite work out, not bad at all. 

Whitstable East India Pale Ale (4.1%), another pale hoppy ale that would be happily consumed by me all day, not so bad either! 

Caveman Prehistoric Amber (4.5%), described by the brewer as being an "atypical pale ale", and with a definite roasted malt flavour in there, I wasn't so sure at first, but then, as it went down, I came to enjoy the aftertaste!   

Not-so pale - Rudgate Battleaxe (4.2%) uses East Kent Goldings and Challenger hops, and is a decent chestnut coloured bitter, slightly malty and with a nutty aftertaste. 

Hanlons (I'm sure they used to be called O'Hanlons!?!) Copper Glow (4.2%) uses Phoenix, Willamette and Cluster hops, is copper coloured, too sweet for me though... 

Bespoke Running the Gauntlet (4.4%), another slightly sweet malty beer, but with a hint of roasted barley and dry aftertaste, not bad. 

Loddon Russet (4.5%), with Slovenian Styrian Goldings and Fuggles hops and multi-grain, a "red" ale that has a lovely aroma I couldn't quite fathom out what is so nice about it! Very interesting at first taste, quite complex mix of flavours with a nice dry finish, really easy to drink, but I felt there wasn't really anything to stand out in the end, very strange, complex to rate this bitter, but not bad!?!  

Runners Up - Oakham JHB (3.8%), no need to say much about this excellent session bitter from the ever-dependable Oakham Ales, it started as my bench-mark for the tasting! Pale golden bitter using Mount Hood and Challenger hops, refreshing and fruity with a dry crisp bitter finish, I love it! 

Orkney Dragonhead (4%), which is a stout and a half despite the low gravity strength! Uses Goldings hops, and is a very very dark black stout (probably the darkest I've ever seen!), with much body, roasted barley++ and a dry bitter aftertaste. Quality stout! 

Triple fff Rock Lobster (5.0%), named after the B52s song, uses Australian Ella and Galaxy hops and is a deep copper colour. It is a bitter, though with a dark berry flavour and aroma, and finishes dry, I really liked this! 

Rudgate York Chocolate Stout (5.0%) uses Challenger hops and is a very complex dark ale, not as chocolatey as the Youngs and Saltaire Brewery versions of chocolate stouts, but not bad at all. You get a lotta beer!

And the first prize goes to (regular readers will not be surprised with my choice) Oakham Citra (4.2%), though they do brew even better ales! The hop's in the name, obviously, and described as having "grapefruit, lychee and gooseberry aromas", well I always get the in your face grapefruit! Pale golden, fruity, with a dry refreshing bitter finish, if this was the only ale left in the World, I could cope, cheers!  

Another Beer Festival in Hastings starts on Thursday!

Yes really, another wee beer festival, this time in the restaurant area, ie the room down at the back of the First In Last Out (FILO); which is an event for Hastings Week 2014 (today being the anniversary of the Battle of Hastings). The FILO is in the High Street, Hastings 'old town' (website). The beer festival starts on Thursday evening (16th October) and ends on Sunday 19th October, though I wouldn't put too much money on many festival ales remaining by then. 

Ales at the festival are session ales and stronger, dark and pale, from the North and South, and from East and West, you've got it, there really is no theme other than a variety of different ales for Hastings Week! From the North and far-North (Scotland) come Rudgate Battleaxe (4.2%) and Chocolate Stout (5%) and Orkney Dragon Head Stout (4%). From over to the West there will be Skinners River Cottage (4%), O'Hanlons Copper Glow (4.2%) and Bespoke Running the Gauntlet (4.4%).

We'll be universally challenged by ales from the counties of Cambridge and Oxford, 2 of my old favourites from Oakham Ales JHB (3.8%) and the single hopped Citra (4.2%) and Loddon Russet (4.5%). Then from closer to home in Hampshire and Kent will be Triple fff Rock Lobster (5%), Caveman Prehistoric Amber (4.5%) and Whitstable Brewery East India Pale Ale (4.1%). Hard to imagine a more eclectic choice of ales! 

Of course, in the bar will also be a selection of ales from the pub's own microbrewery, ie the FILO Brewing Company at Hastings Old Town Brewery. I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to it, cheers! 

www.drinkaware.co.uk

HOPS! Crackin' ales from Sussex and much further afield...

Where to start, and apologies for being away this last week, but so much more for me to publish over the coming days... So, to start with, here is a photograph of Adam, from the FILO Brewing Company based at the Old Town Brewery in Hastings, and of the First In Last Out Pub (FILO), High Street, Hastings 'old' town, wearing a Beermeister polo shirt, nice one! As are their ales... 

OK, this isn't one of the FILO ales, but I have mainly been drinking their own wonderfully flavoursome Our Auld Ale (6.5%), see earlier blog, since it first was served at the FILO pub, of course, as a seasonal beer, it won't be around for much longer, so hurry up if you want to drink it! However, there has appeared to be an influx of  ales into South East Sussex from the ever reliable Lincolnshire brewer, Oldershaw, including two I have had at the FILO. Oldershaw Great Expectations (4.2%) is a very good bitter, pale and hoppy with a dry aftertaste, and Newton's Drop (4.1%) is another reliable pale bitter all the way from Lincolnshire. The FILO also has a regularly changing Belgian beer on draught, at the moment it is the rather too easy to drink 5.7% Palm Dobbel, which means "dice" or "gamble" in English.  

Moving on to the ales depicted in my previous near-blog and the Dolphin, opposite the fishermens' huts and beach, 'old' town too. Like at the FILO, I have had an Oldershaw ale here too, among the many ales available over a few visits, ie Oldershaw Old Boy, a 4.8% copper coloured dry ale with a malty and bitter aftertaste. Also available on that visit, Crouch Vale Yakima Gold (named after the valley where hops are grown, apparently, and from a native American name/word), a 4.2% refreshing and very pale, fruity bitter, with a peach flavoured aftertaste, very good. 

Another visit since, provided the ales featured in the previous blog's photograph and the one above, including the Yorkshire brewery, Saltaire's Blackberry Cascade, suspiciously named as if blackberry fruit and cascade hops were used in the brewing process ;-) A pale amber coloured, lovely dry bitter with a hint of grapefruit and bramble flavours, very nice indeed... In addition, 2 ales from reyt further up north than Yorkshire, ie Orkney St Magnus, a 5.2% slightly malty darkish amber bitter, and the 4.8% Orkney IPA, a pale dry bitter with a hint of maltiness, good body and a malty biscuity aftertaste.     

Further along the coast westwards in Bexhill-on-Sea, at the RAFA club, The Albatross Club, where, in addition to the local brewer, Rother Valley Level Best (4%) and Copper Ale (4.1%), there was, from Lancashire, OSB Absent IPA, a 5.5% deep coloured amber bitter, very good and with a dry aftertaste. There was also, and me drinking a dark ale yet again, as you can see from the photograph immediately above, the Manchester brewer, Privateer Dark Revenge, a 4.5% very dark bitter, with an oatmeal head, and a hint of liquorice and a fruity aroma, nice one.

Time now to look at my regular luvverly pale hoppy ale provider, the Tower, London Road, upper St Leonards/Bohemia, Hastings. 4 ales on offer usually provide at least 2 Dark Star ales, with American Pale Ale (APA, 4.7%) as its regular ale, as people will no doubt be aware by now... BUT! There's a 'new kid in town', another Sussex brewery producing ales with loadsa hops, ie Burning Sky! Not really all that new though, as the brewer there used to work at Dark Star, and was the originator of the Hophead recipe, and many of their other excellent ales... Burning Sky Plateau 'Pale Ale' is a 3.5% pale hoppy ale, very bitter, and with a grapefruit aroma and taste which takes the Michael out of the strength, I love it! 

... and what Dark Star ales has Louisa been providing at the Tower recently? Of course the APA and Hophead (3.8%), but also a variation on the Hophead, ie using the same grist, same strength, but with flavours and bitterness coming from different hops, Simcoe and Ahtanum, and with a pale green coloured pump clip. Believe it or not, I prefer this to the usual Hophead, which I've detected as a wee bit more malty flavoured lately, or is that just my taste buds forever evolving? Version 2, whatever you want to call it, is pale, bitter and dry, of course, and even more fruity than the original, with bitter orange peel and not so much the grapefruit, excellent Louisa, ta... and I haven't even mentioned the excellent 5.7% revelation that is Revelation, which I have written so much about before, spoilt for choice!

More to come soon, first from Sheffield, and my visit to the self proclaimed "Beer Capital of the World", cheers! 

More excellent ales...

OK, ales recently enjoyed in two Hastings pubs, the Dolphin, at Rock a Nore in the 'old town', and the Tower, London Road, St Leonards... First, probably my favourite of the bunch...

I've had some excellent ales very recently, including the Saltaire Challenger Special (5.2%), an ale from this excellent Yorkshire brewery, which obviously uses the challenger hop in the process. It is has a deep red colour, has good body with fruity flavours, and you'd be hard pressed to guess it was such a dark beer if you drank it 'blind'.  Sorry if I overuse the word in this blog, but it is excellent!

Another dark beer, a wee bit darker than the Challenger Special, and this time from a Scottish brewery, The Orkney Brewery's Dark Island (4.6%). Nice again, but a bit more like a stout in flavour, at least how I always think of a stout, with the roasted malty flavour I'd expect in a stout.  Carry on...

Thanks to Maz for modelling this pump clip of the Stonehenge Great Bustard, a 4.8% amber ale that I really had to mention as their ales are consistently so good, and I have an anecdote this particular one lends a hand to share... I was at a football match up North with many mates, and a son of one (son of Teapot Dave, that is), purposefully ensuring I didn't swear in front of him, I shouted out "BUSTARD!" instead of another word at one highly charged moment, the little bustard told his dad I said the other word! Can't win, not so exciting, but always happy to share ;-)  

OK, to the ales at the Tower, and you'll be unlikely to be surpised I'm about to mention a very good Dark Star ale, or two, served up here, as there are usually 2 or 3 being served at this pub always! Todays newby for me was the 6% Victorian Ruby Mild, a crackin' dark beer, and I also had the much paler 4.8% Sunburst, mentioned before; this brewery doesn't seem able to do much wrong! 

Finally, for now, Sara was serving up Crouch Vale Apollo (4.3%), labelled "intensely hoppy", and not wrong! Nice and pale, bitter, fruity with body, grapefruit up yer nose and dry grapefruit flavours, loved it! OK, this was my favourite pale ale of the bunch, excellent...

Cheers!

...and a happier day (9th May)...

A beautiful day, and I headed for the Hastings Arms and Jeny Lind first, but forgot, neither open til 12.00 on Thursdays...

So, down to Rock a Nore, and the Dolphin, hardly arduous, a wee chat with Mark the landlord, and the wonderful Louise behind the bar, what more could I want? Oh yes, Laura made a cameo appearance, and Debs turned up a little early before her shift started, and ale of course!

 

The usual regulars, Sussex Best, Youngs Special, and Dark Star's Hophead and American Pale Ale (APA). The quite exquisite Kelham Island Mistress Flames (5%) was near the end of its second firkin, and the other 'guest' was Moorhouse's Blond Witch (4.5%).  Now the Blond Witch ain't bad, and you'll be aware I love Dark Star's paler and hoppy ales, anyway, I had a pint of the Hophead, and Mark gave me a half of the Mistress Flames, so I was mellow when I made my way back up High Street to the Jenny Lynd, which was now open.

In the Jenny Lind were Tony, this side of the bar, who I'd seen in the library earlier, and who asked for a bit of advice about drinking in Greenwich; I suggested he ignore the pubs near the Cutty Sark and head westwards for the Dog & Bell, but he wanted an easier pub to find, so I now suggested he walk eastwards along the river, past the Palace, to the Trafalgar, which I believe used to be, if not now, a Youngs pub.  But even better, is the Yacht, just around the back of the Trafalgar, and in a little alley, fronting onto the Thames too. 

 

In addition, the second Pre-Raphaelite barmaid I approve of in Hastings {I saw the first working at the Dolphin again the next evening, where Otter Head (5.8%) had replaced the Mistress Flames, a paler ale, a bit of a 'sweet & sour' taste}, ie Sarah, was working behind the bar, dead enthusiastic, and a pleasure to be served by.  Anyway, ales there included regulars Directors, Theakstons Best and Old Peculiar, a couple of Hastings beers, Blonde and Pale Ale, and I had a pint of the Palmers Dorset Gold (4.5%), unsurprisingly, a golden ale with a hint of caramel. 

My final visit of the day, partly because I wanted to meet up with buddies Paul and F***ing John, you need to know him and you'd understand why I call him that, was the First In Last Out (FILO).  Good to meet up with them both again, as it's been a while since I've had a drink or three with them, though I've seen Paul quite a few times outside of pubs recently.  Mike the landlord was behind the bar, and one of his sons too, Sharon the landlady was in the kitchen with their Eastern European colleague, Elena (spelt something like that anyway).  And the manager, Tony, turned up a couple of times too...  

 

5 of their own ales on sale, and Orkney Raven Ale (3.8%) too, which I'm sure I've had before, but today was to be spent drinking their own ales.  The FILO beers were Mike's Mild (3.4%), Old Town Tom (4.5%), Churches Pale Ale (4.2%), and the two I had, first, Crofters, 3.8% and £3 a pint, is a good session bitter.  I was pleasantly surprised to see both Paul and John drinking this too as they're usually Guinness drinkers, so it has been a while since I had a drink with them! 

Anyway, I finished off with the FILO Gold (4.8%), a nice stronger pale bitter with plenty of body, and some of it was served up from the wee cask you see in the photograph above, reyt cute!  Then I had a pint from the cellar...

 

Oh yes, both the FILO and Jenny Lind sell a local real cider too, the 5.5% Laughing Jester, cheers! 

The Dolphin, Hastings, and an excellent ale, or six…

I thought an update concerning my ‘local’, the Dolphin, was due, particularly as I drank here, yesterday, what must be my favourite ale for years, it stood out that much.  Also, a testament to Mark, the landlord, and all the family and staff there, that they have kept to 6 ales since the New Year, as their sales of real ales have kept up, so no need to have a month or two with just five ales as in previous years, as Mark always likes to ensure to his ales are served in best condition, quality!

On Thursday, the real ales included the 3 regulars, Dark Star Hophead (3.8%), Youngs Special (4.5%), and Harveys Sussex Best (4%), and three guests: Franklins Mama Knows Best (4.1); Milk Street The Usual, a 4.4% bitter, with a hint of roasted malt, and aroma of toast and marmalade, very interesting and very good; and a very drinkable pale ale, Orkney Scapa Special (4.2%).

By the 25^th, the guest ales were all different, and I’ll start by describing the excellent ale mentioned in the first paragraph, sitting next to my regular favourite, Hophead, it was the 5.6% Ilkley Lotus IPA, a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”, to quote Ilkley’s pumpclip… As soon as you smell it, a citrus aroma fills your nose, very big on grapefruit in the drinking too, good body, dry, pale and bitter, what more could I ask for? All the way from Yorkshire and, although I had drunk this last year, as previously reported, it hadn’t stood out as much then, but yesterday, I loved it!  

2 other new guest ales too, both very drinkable: from a Sussex brewer, so much more local, Isfield IPA, a light beer, with a slight flavour of roasted malt; and a ruby ale from Plain Ales of Wiltshire, Intrigue, a full-flavoured 4.2% bitter.

 

If you want to taste the Lotus IPA, I’d suggest you get to the Dolphin very quickly, as I doubt it will still be available for much longer, despite 2 firkins, as it really is that good, and really is being drunken in quantity, otherwise, visit Yorkshire, cheers!

21st September and Central Hastings

Pissarros, sadly, has had a repaint, now Battleship Grey on the outside, instead of the Green it used to be, what came over them was my immediate thought, but, apparently, this was it's colour many years ago, so reverting to the past (though the photo they have from then isn't in colour, so grey, hmm...).  They usually have 2 ales on sale, the regular is the ubiquitous Sussex Best and a guest, at the moment from Long Man Brewery (see website) Long Blonde, 3.8%, a pale golden ale, not my favourite ale, but very easy to drink. There are plans to bring in a darker guest ale soon for the Autumn/Winter. 

 

 

I then popped into Frank's Front Room, which is certainly a comfortable bar to visit, it sells coffee, food and bar drinks too, eg the 2 regular ales are Hastings Best Bitter and Blonde, and a guest ale, today it was Black Sheep Best Bitter.  It really is a bright and airy watering/feeding hole, very woman friendly, and not just full of old men quaffing beer! Near the railway station, and certainly worth a visit when in Hastings.

 

I had a very friendly and informative chat with the barman, Paul, and another young woman working there (sorry! I missed your name), talking about pubs, ales and 'fishermen's rolls', one of which was eaten by me at the food & wine festival on Sunday last.  Today, I drank the Hastings Blonde (a lot of 'blondes' about today), which is 3.9%, was clear, quite bitter too, best I've tasted it so far. Hastings Brewery are brewing their ales without finings, to cater for vegetarian and vegan diets, so they can sometimes come up cloudy, but not today! 

Then I walked up to the Dripping Well, where I drank the Hastings Best Bitter, 4.1%, again an unfined ale, medium coloured, what I always grew up to think a bitter should look like... It's a fair enough bitter to drink, does what it says on the label, so I was happy to imbibe. They usually have 3 ales on sale from their 4 handpumps; the 2 others, regulars really, were Henry's IPA from Wadworths and Courage Directors. 

 

Also, Nick the Landlord made a short visit, whilst they received a delivery from Hastings Brewery (see website). Always friendly and easy to chat around the bar here, to other customers and staff alike, and good to see Nick, even if only briefly.

 

I ended my session by visiting the Hastings only Wetherspoons, the John Logie Baird, as, being a CAMRA member, I can get 50p off a pint there each day, which for me is every now and then, but worth taking advantage of every now and then.  They had the usual suspects, including Fullers London Pride, but I like to drink their guest ales for 2 reasons, they usually come from micros and are even cheaper!

 

The guests included Blindman's Icarus, a 4.5% ruby ale; Stonehenge Danish Dynamite, a 5% dry bitter; Orkney Raven Ale, at 3.8%, a session bitter; and my choice for a mere £1.49 a pint after my CAMRA discount, Exe Valley Shepherd's Crook, which I had to try as I lived in Exeter during the 1980s and regularly drank Exe Valley bitters at the Welcome Inn there, which is a medium coloured bitter, whose aroma was a bit off-putting, it smelt of wet dog, but was easy enough to drink, if a shade more boring than I expected at 4.7%.

 

So, report over, cheers!