Festival/Event

24th Battersea Beer Festival

Posted by Colin on February 12, 2014
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As you can guess, a beer festival isn’t the kind of place where you can make a lot of notes on the beers you have tried so there isn’t a lot of descriptions for these.

First up was me mis-reading a sign and asking for a Blue Monkey (the first drink choice is always done by a name that gets my attention).  This happened to be the brewers name and made me look rather silly.  After re-reading the signs I went for 99 Red Baboons.  Next was a trip over to the Strong Beers table and a taste of Skullsplitter.  At 8.5% its not silly strong but tasted a lot better than some other drinks I’ve had at that percentage (yes Kestral, i’m looking at you, you foul tasting bastard).  A quick fire alarm evacuation later and it was back to the Strong Beer table for a Doppelbock.  I didn’t get which brewery it was from but it tastes like the Smoked German beer we discovered at Ealing but without the smoked element.  From here I can’t remember the order (can’t think why) so it just a list.  Given my fondness for porters, Devil’s Dyke Honey Porter was particularly nice.  Dave was had purely because of the name.  I tried Summer Lightning due to a recommendation by the landlord of The Royal George.  XP was nice and refreshing and bought due to its namesake.  Pump House Pale Ale’s description said a hint of citrus aroma, thats enough to get me to try it.  Same goes for Black Troll.  And then we have Rat of Kahn.

IMAG0132Always nice to leave one of these events having not had a bad beer.

23rd Battersea Beer Festival

Posted by Colin on February 12, 2013
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Both Scott and myself attended the above mentioned event, and these are my brief opinions of the drinks consumed.  I’m using the format of name of beer (name of brewery)

Alley Cat (Ascot) – As you can guess we went straight to the start in our quest for new ales.  Alley Cat was a fine starter, but it didnt impress on any level.

Great Eastern Transatlantic Porter (Black Iris) – Nice and easy drinking, though I do like porters

Swift One (Bowman) – rather nice

Dark Delight (Downton) a nice pleasent porter

1872 Porter (Elland) very tasty – if it wasnt obvious by now, I like me some porters

Crop Circle (Hop Back) very pleasent

Lamplight Porter (Longdog) very nice

and on the imported bottle side we have Cantillon Geuze.  Just saying sharp is a dis-service.  This will have you making this face

mahoraba01_04

It really is that sour.

Overall – the event was great.  There was lots of ales, and you cant get much better than that.

Nottingham Robin Hood Beer Festival 2012

Posted by tiskatrowa on October 27, 2012
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It has been far to long since I have visited Nottingham, so this was the prefect excuse.

To keep up the tradition, the act of picking the first beer is random, usually by silly name, before looking at the booklet. Which worked out well once again as the first keg that caught my eye, the name was Cough ale but the percentage was ?… seriously it hadnt been confirmed yet. Tasted like a 5-6%. though

Managed to break my previous years record, maybe as this is the first time going for two days rather than just one, but managed to try 15 different ales and from memory only 2 were not too my tastes.  Inbetween the chocolate and vanilla, coffee and hazelnut, toffee and caramel ales (balmy fellow), some that stood out were Black rose port stout because it was a vegan drink fortified with vintage port. An Eastoft elderberry stout. A Sublime chaos with infused ethiopian guji coffee beans. A Viking bitter, which was GLO.RI.OUS (sorry as injoke).

The surprise favourite was called Rhubarb and Custard with fruit and vanilla flavours, a real nice mix of light fruit but a smack of vanilla when the drink left your lips

It was a shame that all the Beer Geek beers weren’t ready or hazy, would have loved to try a dark side of the geek.

Nottingham beer festival still holds a place in my heart, even after four year, can’t wait till the next.

Great British Beer Festival Olympia 2012

Posted by tiskatrowa on August 21, 2012
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Hello there first post.Image

It was a shame that we (myself and Colin) couldnt go earlier due to work but we made up for it when we got there.

In keeping with tradition, after getting in to any beer festival even with a programme in hand, the first beer is picked at random. Usually gravitating to a silly name. So first drink was a Dutch draught Rasputin on Speyside, was very nice but at 11.4% it would be a killer to carry on with. Good start.

Throughout the night in no order also had a Binghams Vanilla stout 5.0%, would like to have again. Durham White stout 7.2%, not to my tastes, i even read the word floral (very rarely like beers with floral like characters) but was still curious. Greene King Belhaven Black 4.2%, forgettable it seems. Dunham Massey Chocolate Cherry Mild 3.8%, now this was nice and had a real smack of cherry at the end. Possibly also got a Goff’s Black knight 5.3%, as i definately had a ruby beer at some point and I marked it off.

Wish I could remember, as I didnt seem to mark it off in the programme, just which USA bottled beer I tried to get. I say tried as the guy behind the stall raised an eye brow, told me to wait, then brought over a wine bottle sized bottle… if I had this i wouldnt have been able to have anything else. So i asked for a beer that would be like it and recieved a bottle of Baba Organic Black Lager 4.0%, which was nice.

It may be a strange thing to say, as much as i enjoyed this festival, it felt a lot more controlled, a lot more corporate maybe the term I am after.

Lets us not speak of Colins missed chance of a Amber Chocolate Orange Stout 4.0%.

Ealing Beer Festival

Posted by Colin on August 2, 2012
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So Scott and myself attended the recent Ealing Beer Festival to sample some hopefully distinct ales.

My choices ranged from the average (Milk Stout and Orange Wheat) to the good (Jack O’Legs, New World Pale and Lemon Coach House) to the very tasty (Baltic Trader Imperial Stout and Schlenkerla Rauch Marzen).
The Baltic Trader was an impressive 10.5% and only sold in half pints or less.  The Schlenkerla Rauch Marzen was a bottled beer from Germany and tasted of liquid smoked bacon.  Below is a pic of the amazing smoked beer