Beer Festivals > Great British Beer Festival (August 2007)
This year the Great British Beer Festival celebrated its 30th birthday, and it also marked our fifth visit. The plan was 2 days of beer - Thursday and Friday - although events again conspired against me... [Photos can be found here]
Thursday As the minutes ticked on I got more and more hungry as the punters around me munched on their lunches. Unable to wait any longer I ordered up a chicken/bacon melt - expecting to get a sandwich, and ending up with a full meal. A true schoolboy error, especially as this was now taking up valuable pie and pasty room. Minutes later Dan walked through the door, so after hasty muching we headed down the District line to Earls Court (much easier for both of us to get to than Olympia was)
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As it was the first session we decided to take it easy and go for pints of favourites and halfs of new beers:
Brewer |
Region |
Name |
ABV |
Tasting Notes |
Rating |
| Caledonian | Scotland | Rebus 20 | 4.4% | (1pt) Dark chestnut, smooth and creamy. Full lasting flavour - slight cake mix aroma. No idea what the secret ingredient is though | 9/10 |
| Titanic | Staffs | Lifeboat Ale | 4.0% | (half) Very roasted hoppy flavour that coats the back of the throat with a sharp bitter taste | 4/10 |
| Sharps | Cornwall | Cornish Coaster | 3.6% | (1pt) Pale, drinkable session beer. Light hoppy taste. Quite pleasant | 7/10 |
| Atomic | Warwicks | Atomic Bomb | 5.2% | (half) Straw coloured, very spicy and peppery. Not to my taste | 4/10 |
| O'Hanlons | Devon | Port Stout | 4.8% | (half) Smooth, pleasant, nice slightly burnt aftertaste | 6/10 |
| Cambridge House | USA | Abijah Rowe IPA | 6.7% | (half) Very fruity nose. Dark amber, full flavour | 8/10 |
| Budvar | Czech | Budvar Dark | 4.7% | (pint) Nice. Good as usual | 9/10 |
Friday What was intended to be a time-saving operation turned into a nightmare. BBC Report link. Motorway signs displayed generic M25 queue warnings about a mile from the M20 junction with the M26. Not advertising a diversion, I made the mistake of turning off anyway. Unfortunately some idiots had had a crash on the M25, causing 15 miles of tailbacks. The trouble with the M26 is that once you're on there, there's no exits until Junction 6 of the M25 - neatly summarised by Wikipedia:
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"Eight miles to the west the M26 merges with the M25 at junction 5. There is no exit from the M26 at junction 5 and all traffic must join the clockwise (westbound) M25. The next M25 junction, number 6, is ten miles west at Godstone , thus traffic joining the M26 at Junction 2a cannot leave the motorway for 18 miles – the longest distance between motorway exits in Britain." With little to do other than be thankful I had 2 bottles of water in the car on a very hot day, I spent the next 7 hours listening to traffic reports, chatting to Dan by phone as he enjoyed himself at GBBF with Chris, being glad I hadn't eaten breakfast so had nothing prompting my digestive system, and sunbathing next to the motorway. 8 hours after I'd left home, I arrived at my destination 75 miles away. We didn't fest today. |
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Saturday
Having never fested at GBBF on a Saturday, we weren't sure what to expect. Gill and I headed up for lunchtime, and soon found that entry prices were down, the £1 programme were free and the beer was rapidly running out. In order to get good quality pints we stuck to the classics, although a trip to the wine-tasting section was also made (as well as some dubious purchases of ginger wine and mead...)
Brewer |
Region |
Name |
ABV |
Tasting Notes |
Rating |
| Caledonian | Scotland | Deuchars IPA | 3.8% | (1pt) A firm favourite | 9/10 |
| Okells | Isle of Man | Aile | 4.8% | (half) Dark, very burnt and quite bitter. Fresh. | 8/10 |
| Caledonian | Scotland | Rebus 20 | 4.4% | (half) A firm favourite | 9/10 |
| Triple F | Hampshire | Alton's Pride | 3.8% | (half) Very sharp, very hoppy, very dry. For me, completely unpleasant and couldn't finish | 2/10 |
| Greene King | Suffolk | XX Mild | 3.0% | (half) Quite bland, but a pleasant flavour and aftertaste | 7/10 |
| Theakstons | N Yorks | Traditional Mild | 3.5% | (half) Another bland mild. Nothing special | 6/10 |
| Theakstons | N Yorks | Old Peculiar | 5.6% | (half) A lot less flavour than the bottled version. Sadly lacking | 7/10 |
So that's it for another year - I think a return to the 3-day session will be needed in 2008 - and no driving or food before the fest!
Links
GBBF - Homepage
Bieres Sans Frontieres - International beer bar