Great British Beer Festival 2020 Cancelled!

2013 GBBF

The 2020 Great British Beer Festival (GBBF), which was to have been held in August, has been cancelled by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) due to the Coronavirus 'crisis' (CAMRA website). The GBBF has been an annual event for over 40 years now, and attracts about 40,000 visitors a year, enticed by a selection of over a thousand different beers. Not only real cask-conditioned ales are sampled, but American and British crafty keg beers, and real ciders too; also a range of great food is usually available. I have visited a number of times, for example in 2013 (my older, unused now, blog), but more rarely in recent years. Still, it's sad to see there is no GBBF after more than 40 years of one, oh well, keep safe fellow drinkers.

I seem to be sharing just bad news all the time... 😧

Roll on re-opening, whenever that is, cheers! 

Pubs Closed, BUT!

OK, pubs are now closed in Britain until... Well, we have NO IDEA! Certainly, the Government has no idea, but I have a few blogs in the offing, and quite a few ideas coming to me too (indeed I certainly have ideas!). Quiet for now, but I will get noisier very soon, cheers!

PS. Best wishes to publicans and their staff, hope to see you very soon-ish!

The Ram Inn returns to Wandsworth, AND Microbrewery

I wrote a year ago about the return of brewing to the historic brewery site in Wandsworth (blog), but I have only just found out that The Ram Inn (website) has reopened, indeed, opened in October, apologies for missing that. The photograph of the pub, above, I have borrowed from their facebook page (a wee bit edited by me, but many thanks!).

The Ram Inn is at 68 Wandsworth High Street, right at the central crossroads in Wandsworth, London SW18 4LB (tel: 020 8871 9752), and is still a Youngs pub. I remember it as the Brewery Tap (which it was called from 1974 until it closed down), and when I last drank in there when visiting my mother many years ago (I drank Youngs Double Chocolate Stout as a cask-conditioned ale that day, and had a long chat about it, and the first time they brewed it, with one of the brewers, it was gorgeous!). They also serve food, and they're brewing in the pub too...

The photograph above is taken from the Slybeast Brewing website, again, many thanks, and is of the pub interior, including the brewing equipment. They appear to brew a number of crafty keg beers, but cask-conditioned ales too; I do look forward to visiting in the next few months, cheers!

The Tower Ale & Cider Festival 2020 Review

"You took your time!" I hear you say? Well, yes, I was at the 3rd Annual Ale & Cider Festival at The Tower, 251 London Road, Hastings & St Leonards TN37 6NB, all 3 days of last weekend, obviously just as a volunteer serving up ale by gravity, straight from the casks. I also did taste quite a few of the ales, with just a sip here and there, of course... 😉

I shall start off with the ales with less strength, and served from the bar (below) from which I (and other volunteers) was dispensing for a couple of hours each day:

Dancing Duck (website) Waitangi (4.0%) is brewed with New Zealand hops, indeed, Waitangi Day (6th February) is the National Day of New Zealand (the Treaty of Waitangi was signed by Maori chiefs and representatives of the British Crown on 6th February 1840). A very pale, dry crisp bitter with hints of citrus, not a bad start;

Purple Moose (website) Cwrw Ysgowen (4.0%) is the Welsh brewer's Elderflower Ale, pale and slightly fruity, easy to drink;

Crouch Vale (website) G.I. Joe (4.1%), with its cocktail of hopes from the USA, wasn't as citrus as I expected, but was actually a very good bitter, liked it indeed;

Wylam (website) Cascade (4.1%) unsurprisingly brewed with Cascade hops and, unsurprisingly, with a huge citrus aroma, lemon and grapefruit. Wonderful aroma, but a wee bit disappointed that the taste wasn't so big, pale and bitter with a dry finish, I would be happy to drink any day;

Stroud (website) Twinkle (4.2%) produced by this organic brewer, with New Zealand hops (Nelson and Taiheke) and Cascade hops from the USA. A pale golden bitter with hints of citrus and exotic fruit, again, easy to drink;

The Festival Bar

Intrepid (facebook) O'ir (4.3%), the name meaning 'gold.' A pale golden ale from a microbrewery in Sheffield, quite refreshing, and I noted 'pretty good' which means I liked it quite a bit;

Ampersand (website) On The Wing (4.7%) unfined and unfiltered (consequently hazy), and brewed with oats and Pilgrim, Amarillo, Citra, Ekuanot and El Dorado hops. Gentle citrus to the taste, and not bad at all;

Parkway (website) Mad Dog (5.0%), my first dark beer of the festival, well, at least my first from the festival bar. Very dark, with an aroma like toasted bread, slightly sweet and malty taste at first, nutty and a dark roasted barley taste, I liked this;

Salopian (website) PURR (5.0%), another unfiltered and unfined ale, but clear this one (which shows it can be done!). With hints of citrus and tropical fruits, I wrote that this ale was "pretty good" and that's good from me, but a reliable brewery too;

Cairngorm (website) Wildcat (5.1%), a deeper amber colour, tasting more like a traditional special bitter, with malt and darker fruit flavours from the more traditional British Challenger and Fuggles hops, not bad at all;

Black Lodge (website) Order of Magnitude (5.3%) brewed with Amarillo, Citra and Simcoe hops, also hazy, so presumably unfined too.With those hops you wouldn't be surprised to get a big citrus aroma and taste, and you wouldn't be wrong, pretty good;

Three Legs (website) South East IPA (5.7%) brewed with 'modern English hops' giving it a more tropical fruit aroma and flavour, and, yet again, unfined and hazy and not bad at all.

Salopian PURR

You will guess from the image immediately above that of the ales at the festival bar, the Salopian PURR was my favourite, but now I ventured over to the main bar itself, on finishing serving, and to watch the rugby too, where I tasted the stronger, mostly darker side:

Gun (website) 'Pimped' Parabellum (4.4% I think, sorry, I didn't make a note of the strength, and they have brewed it at 4.1 and 4.4%, tasted stronger anyway) which is usually a 'milk stout' but this version had added chilli! OK, very dark, with hints of chocolate and chilli, and I liked it a lot;

Downlands (website) Muntjac 'mocha stout' (5.8%), brewed with Eureka hops, very dark and smooth, with hints of liquorice, coffee and chocolate, not bad at all; 

Bedlam (website) Stollen (6.5%), and yes, it does what it says on the label! Deep red colour with a hint of dark fruit and almonds in the flavour, and I do love almonds and marzipan, so I liked this, though I wouldn't be able to drink too many pints of it.

Okay, I missed a few of the festival ales, and all of the 9 ciders, but I couldn't drink everything and I did my best! But, as I hinted at in my blog the other week, I did find my favourite ale of the festival to be the 9.0% Iron Pier (website) Speyside BA Imperial Stout, that is, aged in Speyside whisky barrels, and matured for another few months in Louisa's cellar, gorgeous, and frankly, excellent! Well that's what I wrote in my notes and in the earlier blog, plus with a "big dark fruity aroma with hints of roasted barley and whisky, tasting like a stout should, big flavour and body, sweet to start with, but drying out into a bitter finish." QUALITY. 

There you go, I enjoyed myself and cheers to Louisa!