This was the final GBBF to be held at London's Kensington Olympia, before the move to Earls Court next year. It ran from Thurs 2nd - Sat 6th August 2005 and was the country's biggest beer festival - featuring over 450 beers - spread over regional, international and corporate bars.

Myself and Dan headed down for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday's sessions - and were also joined by John on the Friday. Below are the notes, and the photos can be found in the Gallery.

Wednesday
By far the booziest day, the drinking began at around 2pm in Victoria Train Station. I somehow missed the Iron Duke after leaving the train, and ended up in the trendy Reef bar round the corner - which served a warm, stagnant pint of London Pride with a hefty price tag. A swift call from Mr T denoted his arrival at the station, and also yielded directions to the Duke - unfortunately the Youngs Bitter served there, whilst cold, was poorly kept - and was probably served so chilled so that you couldn't taste it. So two pints that would usually get 7-8/10 got a poor 4 and 5 respectively.

Fortunately these were the worst pints (bar one) to be sampled all week. Arriving at Olympia, and having had bags well and truely searched, we were finally into the festival. Same layout as previous years, with minor shuffling around of the regional bars, and a few new brewery bars. Managed to avoid all tombola action, but made full use of the food stands. Wednesday saw sampling of steak cornish pasties, hefty cheese rolls, a delicious ham and mustard pie, and chilli cashews and chocolate raisins (which when eaten in the same handful tasted bizarre yet fantastic!) Of course there was plenty of drinking, and on the whole the standard was quite good (and I found my beer of the festival in Belhaven's Fruit beer)

Brewer	Region	Name	ABV	Tasting Notes	Rating
Poachers	Lincs	Shy Talk	3.7	Light colour, quite crisp but a rough flavour and aftertaste	5/10
Badger	Dorset	Stinger	4.5	Quite pleasant, well rounded flavour	6/10
Salopian	Shropshire	Lemon Dream	4.5	Quite wheaty + a very pale yellow. Poor man's Hoegaarden	5/10
Rebellion	Bucks	Plastered	4.2	Just horrible. Light, tongue-tingling, ropey flavour	3/10
St Austell	Cornwall	Black Prince	4.0	Very nice stout. Very easy start with a wet, fresh, slightly malty flavour	7/10
Wharfedale	N Yorks	Executioner	4.5	Very nice rustic flavoured bitter.	7/10
Belhaven	E Lothian	Fruit	4.6	Very fine fruity nose, and even more druity taste. Strawberries and other summer fruits galore. An experience (and my ale of the festival)	9/10
Brown Cow	N Yorks	Edge of Darkness	4.5	Quite malty - chestnut colour	7/10
Eccleshall	Staffs	Monkey Magic	3.4	Dark, but pretty non-descript	7/10
Smultynose	USA - New Hamps	Old Brown Dog	5.7	Very pleasant. Well rounded, full flavour	8/10
Greene King	Suffolk	Alfresco	4.3	Lovely	7/10

Naturally, on arrival back in Stevenage a trip to the local was in order - where we finished off the night with a few vodka + tonics and some dodgy keema naan from the Indian.

Thursday
Feeling a bit delicate, but aided by bacon sarnies (and in Dan's case, Stella), we headed to London for Day 2. The swathes of fluorescent yellow jackets sported by the legions of police certainly didn't help head matters, although it was amusing watching them eyeing up anyone with a tan and a backpack.

Took it a bit easier on the beer front, and only managed a burger from the Splendid Meat Company (although I'm not sure it fully deserved the title) and a tasty pork and stilon pie. Beers not bad again though:

Brewer	Region	Name	ABV	Tasting Notes	Rating
Fullers	London	Discovery	3.5	Light and hoppy. Slightly dry aftertaste	6/10
Butts	Berks	Bit O' Posh	4.2	Dark gold, quite fruity; somewhat dry	6/10
Sharp's	Cornwall	Atlantic IPA	4.8	Gold. Very flavoursome - good session beer	7/10
Pictish	Lancs	Alchemist	4.3	Light and fruity. Very pleasant	7/10
Exe Valley	Devon	Barron's Dark	4.1	Quite flat and watery, but an interesting caramel flavour	6/10
Keesman	Europe	Heller Pils		Pale yellow, very fruity, quite sharp lager. Slightly sweet and refreshing	6/10
Iceni	Norfolk	Raspberry Wheat	5.0	Bit bland, light	5/10

Headed to the Euston Flyover afterwards to meet up with JK - a quality pub which, despite the name is actually closer to Kings Cross than Euston. A very fine Fullers pub, they had Adnam's Regatta on guest - which was tasty but a bit too dry for my liking. Some Red Bull action followed by Bud soon refreshed my palate though. Avoided the takeaway back in Stevenage, and settled down to some quality sleeping in preparation for Day 3.

Friday
With the 2 hour train journey to look forward to after this final session, I decided to opt for the milds. There was quite a mix, but the outstanding winner was definitely Cain's Dark Mild - a truely tasty pint. This was naturally helped down with a steak pasty, stilton pork pie and a cheddar and pate selection. To finish off the fest I made a return to the Belhaven Fruit, which was still tasting mighty fine - and a cheeky half of Budvar Dark, which rounded things off very nicely.

Brewer	Region	Name	ABV	Tasting Notes	Rating
Adnams	Suffolk	Exporer	4.3	Light, refreshing session ale	7/10
Hydes	Manchester	Jekyll's Gold	4.3	Pale but quite dry	6/10
Batemans	Lincs	Dark Mild	3.0	Quite bland and inoffensive	6/10
Cains	Merseyside	Dark Mild	3.2	Coffee aroma and flavour. Interesting. Nice nose	7/10
Inveralmond	Perthshire	Independence	3.8		6/10
Loddon	Oxon	Kite Mild	3.2	Very light coloured mild. Quite malty but otherwise nondescript	6/10
Budvar	Czech Republic	Budvar Dark	5.0	Very tasty, refreshing, unusual looking drink	8/10

So with 3 days of drinking under the belt, 25 beers sampled, and having consumed more pastry and cheese than you can shake a stick at, the rest of the weekend was spent doing pretty much nothing. Roll on next year!