Pre-Sequel: After the Beer Festival 2016

On the way back home from the 2016 CAMRA Beer Festival yesterday evening, we had our last pints (and shared a cheeseboard), before catching our train back to Hastings, at the Market Porter in Borough Market SE1, where I drank a pint of G2 Brewing (website) Vella, a 4.2% golden "blonde" bitter, not too bad, with a dry finish. Beforehand, we'd drank at a bar I personally prefer in the area, though with only 3 ales at a time, a more interesting selection usually, though, plus all sorts of cask and craft beers, where we had our penultimate pints...

ie The Rake (website), on the other side of Borough Market, which has a nice view of Southwark Cathedral, and which was where my great-great grandparents were married before it became a cathedral many moons ago! Here we'd all drank the 4.2% Crouch Vale (website) Yakima Gold (4.2% also), named after the Yakima Valley (which was named in turn after the Yakima Nation, whose reservation is on the east side of the Cascade Mountains), here is where the Amarillo hops used for this ale are grown. Indeed, 77% of all U.S. hops are grown in the Yakima Valley, and many grape vines too! I've had Yakima Gold in many different bars and never had anything but a great pint or three, samples of my notes say "fruity, quite bitter, excellent"; "refreshing and very pale, fruity bitter with peach aftertaste, very good"; "genuine pale bitter, lovely stuff indeed!"

Another wonderful thing about drinking here was that, despite my mate telling me I'd paid £1.05 a pint more than I had (!), and I apologise for anything I may have said detrimental following our many ales imbibed beforehand, we were served a quality ale by quality bar staff, in this instance, the very wonderful, patient, and beautiful Alex, at about 17.15 (09/08/16), please give her a pay rise (!); and I understand there is more than just the one Alex working here!

Anyway, more to come about the beer festival itself, very soon...

Best Beers II - Premium ales

I say "Premium Ales", but it's really ales between 4% and 5% in strength! Again pale ales and darker ones in my analysis, but starting with the darker ales this time.

Old Mill (website) of Snaith, West Yorkshire, who started up in 1983, brew some great ales, and I would have included their GBH (Great British Hopefuls), an excellent 4.2% bitter, but sadly it's only brewed every 4 years around the time of each Olympic Games. It is so good that I drank this only at a beer festival once I'd got the taste, ignoring other offerings, because it was that good. I first drank this back in 2000 AD, I do believe, and would happily drink it at any opportunity! 

Some great darker bitters are brewed more regularly, though, but not really to my taste, despite my being raised drinking London Pride and Youngs Special, both ales I continue to drink now and then, depending on where I am. However, Butcombe (website), a brewery established in 1978, and who moved to a 150 barrel brewery at Wrington in Somerset in 2005, brew the excellent Butcombe Bitter (4%) using Mendip spring water, and which I first tasted in the 1980s. This is a near perfectly balanced quaffing ale, tawny coloured with a dry refreshing bitterness, quality!

Hepworth (website) of Horsham, West Sussex, started brewing cask conditioned ales in 2003 and use locally sourced malt and hops for all their beers. Their 4.8% Classic Old Ale, does what it says on the label, it is an old ale, and it is a 'classic'! I suppose it is really a winter warmer, but it is a darn good ale, rich and flavoursome, with a lovely bitterness coming through at the finish. A very tasty dark old bitter indeed! 

All the ales already mentioned are very worthy of winning awards in all types of festivals, and in various categories, and have done! But I do have some humdingers to include with my paler choices, and Tiny Rebel (website) from Newport in Wales, have come onto the scene like a flash of lightning, brewing some crackin' ales at their 12 barrel plant since just 2012, winning numerous awards already!

Tiny Rebel's 4.6% Billabong is described as an 'Australian Pale Ale', and uses hops grown in Tasmania. I have seen numerous superlative reviews of this ale, "citrusy, bitter sweet, well-balanced, grapefruit aroma, lemon aroma" etc etc... My notes say it all, really, I believe this is an excellent pale bitter, with good body, and peach and grapefruit aroma and flavours, with a dry bitter finish. Say no more... 

I had to chose between 2 ales from Oakham Ales (website), either their superb 4.2% Citra, or the one in the photograph above, the 4.6% Bishops Farewell; though a very tough decision! One of my favourite breweries, as regular readers will be well aware, and the Bishops Farewell is a pale, fruity, hoppy ale with plenty of body and a lovely dry bitter finish. I'll even add the notes my brother sent to me when he drank this at the Swan & Rushes in Leicester, after I suggested he visit that pub whilst up there: "Pale, hoppy, fruity, smooth and slightly bitter", says it all, mostly!

From Salamander (website) in Bradford, West Yorkshire, founded at the end of the last century, and who expanded to a 40 barrel plant in 2004, comes a comparable ale to Oakham's contribution. Golden Salamander is a 4.5% golden bitter that uses Challenger and Styrian hops, and has a citrus aroma and taste, Salamander say it has an "assertive hop bitterness", and they ain't wrong! It is refreshing, fruity, and has a lovely dry bitter finish. Salamander are yet another excellent Yorkshire brewery, consistent, and their ales are always worth drinking, quality again...  

Twickenham (website), guess where they're based, consistently brew excellent ales too. They started off with a 10 barrel plant in 2004, expanding into larger premises and a 25 barrel plant in 2012. I first drank their 4.4% Naked Ladies well before trying it at the Crooked Billet, on the edge of Wimbledon Common, in March 2012, when I first made notes. It was excellent, and I have continued to drink it whenever, and wherever, I see it on the bar. My last couple of pints were tasted very recently at the Watermans Arms in Richmond, in the photograph above. Both of these pubs are Youngs pubs, by the way, which says a lot, but I have enjoyed my Naked Ladies at various freehouses too, eg the Bricklayers in Putney.

The name of the ale is inspired by the statues of water nymphs in York House Gardens in Twickenham, and the Naked Ladies is well-reported by me, obviously (love it!). This is an excellent pale golden bitter, very hoppy (using Pilgrim, Celeia and Chinook hops), citrus and peach aroma and flavours, with a light 'biscuit' malt about it, and a dry refreshing bitter finish. I'll repeat what I first said about it over 2 years ago, "Naked Ladies, you just can't beat them, continues to impress..."   

So! How is it that the Naked Ladies was pipped at the post, and it was just by a 'short-head', by a beer from Essex? I'm still scratching my head really, I was sure the Twickenham ale would be victorious in this category, but no... I kept looking at my copious notes and compared the two, and was surprised how Crouch Vale came into the reckoning right at the finishing post. Crouch Vale came into existence in 1981, moving to larger premises in 2006, and I have had quite a few very decent ales from them over the years; probably been drinking their ales for nearly 20 years now.

Anyway, the champion in this category is their 4.2% Yakima Gold, named after the Yakima Valley (named in turn after the Yakima Nation, whose reservation is on the east side of the Cascade Mountains), where the Amarillo hops used for this ale are grown. Indeed, 77% of all U.S. hops are grown in the Yakima Valley, and many grape vines too! I've had Yakima Gold in many different pubs/club and never had anything but a great pint or three, samples of my notes say "fruity, quite bitter, excellent"; "refreshing and very pale, fruity bitter with peach aftertaste, very good"; "genuine pale bitter, lovely stuff indeed!"

So, congratulations to the runner-up in this category have to be made (though all the ales mentioned are excellent!), I love the Naked Ladies, but the 'Gold Medal' goes to Crouch Vale Brewery and their Yakima Gold, cheers!   

Something old, something new...

But nowt borrowed or blue, I think...

First, at the Albatross Club (RAFA) in Bexhill on Sea, the reigning local and regional CAMRA Club of the Year, where I had a, now becoming, old favourite, Crouch Vale, and you get very few poor ales from this Essex brewery, Yakima Gold (4.2%), pale, dry and bitter, and not one of the particularly fruity pale bitters on the market, this is a genuine pale bitter, lovely stuff indeed! The Albatross also, on my last visit, had 3 other local ales I have reported on before: Rother Valley RWB, a 4.4% "ruby wheat beer"; Isfield Toad in the Ale (4.8%), a medium coloured ale that was a typical hue of bitters in the past; plus the wonderful Dark Star Revelation (5.7%), though, surprisingly, I did not try that here, preferring to stay on the Yakima Gold, which says a lot about that ale, and not just to do with strength! 

However, Dark Star Revelation, and American Pale Ale (APA, 4.7%) have both been enjoyed by me at the recent addition to the CAMRA Good Beer Guide, The Tower in London Road, Hastings St Leonards, another fine purveyor of my favourite type of ales. The APA was dry, grapefruity, bitter and lovely, actually, and the Revelation was, as ever, packed with hops, Liberty, Centennial, Citra and Cascade, excellent! 

Also available has been fellow East Sussex brewer 1648 Signature (the signature being Cromwell's), a very pale 4.4% bitter with a slight biscuity malt in the flavour. In addition, of course, the ubiquitous Cornish brewer Sharp's Doom Bar (4%), why is it everywhere? Something to do with their sponsoring televised football, I do believe... The beer? Well, it's a medium coloured bitter, which most people will say, including the Cornish, by the way, that it doesn't taste like it used to (though my theory is that we're now spoilt by so many very hoppy ales being brewed, that our tastebuds have been altered significantly, consequently causing false memories). Oh yes, and the Dark Star collaboration with the West Yorkshire Saltaire Brewery, Bock (5.6%) was soon to come on, surprisingly a darker ale than one would expect from these two excellent brewers of pale and hoppy ales!

Meanwhile, back at the reigning local CAMRA Pub of the Year, the Dolphin, at Rock-a-Nore, Hastings 'old town', and a few new ales for me. This, the Salisbury Sarum IPA (4.3%), a very pale dry bitter, with a surprising hint of smoked malt in the aftertaste; the local Kings Poacher's Moon (4.1%), their 'flagship' best bitter; and all the way from the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, Bespoke The King's Shilling (4.2%), a dark brown ale with a nutty flavour. In addition, the Dolphin's 3 regular ales are Harveys Sussex Best (4%), Youngs Special (4.5%) and the crackin' Dark Star Hophead (3.8%), all well reported on before.

Cheers for now! 

Monday 9th July 2012 - Crossing the border (into Kent)

We ventured across the border into Kent, and virtually straight away you come to 'Danger' areas (firing ranges) near Dungeness... However, we continued further east to Folkestone, which we promptly left walking back eastwards to the start of the Military Canal at Hythe, where we then walked northwards and reached the 2000 year old Roman fort, wall, and port, HQ of the Roman fleet in England, Thomas a Beckett's home and castle, and these 4 giraffes!

We carried on to Burmarsh and visited our first hostelry of the day, the Shepherd & Crook, a lovely old 16th century pub, restored in the 18th century, with a high beamed ceiling, plastered walls and cricket paraphernalia and photographs adorning the walls.

There was Weston's Organic Cider, Adnams Southwold and Naylor's Black & Jan being served from the bar. We drank the Black & Jan, a very good 4.4% porter, a crackin' pint.  We also made friends with the 12 year old pub dog, Jess, a grey collie cross, sadly, I forgot to take a photograph of her :-(

We then ventured further, saw many Norman churches, for some reason, walked a few miles southwards along the coast, then came back inland to New Romney, where we enjoyed the ale and convivial company at the 18th century Cinque Ports Arms.

There are 4 ever-changing ales at the Cinque Ports, today were Wadworths Red, White & Brew, Landlord, Whitstable Brewery's Fathersham Creek (3.8%, pale-ish biscuity tasting bitter, that the Routemeister enjoyed) and Crouch Vale Yakima Gold, that I rather enjoyed! The Yakima Gold was 4.2%, fruity, quite bitter, even a little bit 'sour' maybe, but excellent, in fact.

We then returned to Hastings by the 101/100 bus, having visited 2 excellent pubs today... cheers!