The Betjeman Arms at King’s Cross St Pancras is having a little ale and cider festival right now. I’m drinking a very passable pint of Dark Star Hophead (our beer of the year last year) right now.
It’s a very variable but extremely convenient pub.
Archive for the ‘beer festivals’ Category
And another little festival
Friday, July 23rd, 2010Beer festivals are growing on us
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
At a loose end, we decided to pop to Manchester for the weekend, taking in the National Winter Ales Festival, of which Tandleman was one of the organisers.
After startling him with our unannounced arrival (he made a very effective bouncer) we made our way upstairs to the main hall. Our first impressions were of a relatively young crowd with the kind of male-female mix you’d expect in the real world. The atmosphere was like that of a large, busy, if rather brightly lit pub. Or, with people sat on the floor in groups, was it reminiscent of a music festival? We felt very comfortable and soon completely forgot we were in a wedding banquet hall on an industrial estate in a city we hardly knew.
We headed straight for the German rarities. Uerige Sticke Alt, which we’d been wanting to try for a long time, had the trademark Uerige bitterness, although after such anticipation, it was a little disappointing. Schlenkerla Urbock (or did the label say Eichbock?) (6.5%) was clear and syrupy and, frankly, balanced too much towards sweetness for our taste.
A brief detour to Bohemia next with Bernard Kvasnicove took the idea of unfiltered beer to the extreme: there was a bit of wood in it. It was mellow and, again, sweetish. It wasn’t warm, but it could have got away with being two degrees colder.
Lowenbrau Buttenheim Bock didn’t taste as strong as 6.5%. It was very nicely balanced, clearly a well crafted beer, and far from bland, but we wanted a bit more zing.
We went closer to home for the next round. Broughton 80 Shilling was bland; Acorn Gorlovka Stout astounding. What a contrast. We were sceptical as to how a 5% beer could lay claim to the ‘imperial’ moniker but this beauty did it, through hop bitterness, chocolate intensity and a very heavy, chewy body. It was the stand out beer of the evening.
JW Lees Darkside was really interesting — so fruity and sour that if someone said it had plums or maybe even cherries in, we’d believe them.
Red shield, White Shield’s weaker, blonder, cask-conditioned cousin, could have borne a lote more hop aroma and came off as a bit boring in comparison to, say, Dark Star Hophead or Marble Pint.
Pirates, pale ale and pork sandwiches
Sunday, September 20th, 2009
We’ve got a standing commitment to go to the annual Wedmore Real Ale Festival in Somerset as often as possible.
We’ve described the unusually young, party-like, community atmosphere before, so we’ll just update a couple of topical details: the fancy dress theme this year was pirates, and the live band, Loose Change, were led by the absurdly charismatic local hero Pete Hicks.
These were the highlights on the beer front:
- Bristol Beer Factory Milk Stout — nice in bottles, even better from a cask; rich and delicious, like coffee and rum.
- Titanic Chocolate and Vanilla Stout — fantastic aroma of the headline ingredients; tasted like Young’s Double Chocolate but more bitter.
- Thornbridge Jaipur — no need to rave about this intensely hoppy, delicious IPA again; a real shock to the system after two stouts and maybe a little astringent next to…
- Dark Star Sunburst — hoppier than Hophead but sweeter, too; fresh, fragrant and flowery.
- Dark Star American Pale Ale — similar to the above, but with more lemon and sherbet flavours. This was the outstanding beer of the night for us and maybe makes Dark Star our favourite UK brewery at the moment.
- RCH East Street Cream — rich, brown and fruity. Somehow not a party beer, though nice enough.
Not-extreme beer at GBBF
Saturday, August 8th, 2009
We’ve always had mixed feelings about the Great British Beer Festival but our experiences are getting better and better each year.
This year I went along to the trade day, which was definitely the best way to experience it. It’s a bit quieter, and the beer seemed in much better condition. It also helped that I was drinking in such fantastic company — Ally, Bionic Laura, Beer Nut, Thom and other representatives of Irish Craft Brewer were great drinking companions.
I decided to stick to beers at 4% or less for the first couple of hours — partly to save the liver and partly to narrow down the choice a bit. I got to try some excellent session beers from all over Britain and particularly enjoyed:
- “Good as Gold”, by the Spire Brewery (4%)
- Butt’s “Jester”, 3.5%, fruity and dry, like a nice Franconian wine
- Hooky Dark, 3.2%, sweet, chocolatey with a touch of coffee
- Moor Revival, 3.8%, crisp and floral
- Welton’s Pride and Joy – for a mere 2.8% this is a remarkably tasty beer and doesn’t taste “low alcohol” at all.
I had a few others that didn’t float my boat, but all in all, it goes to show that you can pack a lot of flavour (and different flavours at that) into relatively low-strength beers.
I had a couple of pies, then hit the stronger stuff. Midas Touch “Ancient Beer”, by Dogfish Head, is brewed with honey and saffron. Sharing a bottle was definitely the way to go. This stuff was rich. I mostly got honey and not a lot else, but it was a very interesting beer, and would make a nice appetiser.
A sip of Ally’s Tsarina (by De Molen) was a revelation. It’s possibly the most intense Imperial Stout I’ve ever tasted. Too intense for GBBF, in my view. This is the kind of beer I want to savour over several hours in a cosy Belgian bar, not knock back in a bustling aircraft hanger. It deserves respect.
So, I went for Portsmouth’s Milk Coffee stout, which tasted like cold Irish coffee (that’s a good thing). I liked it a lot, but not as much as Rogue chocolate stout, which my phone tells me I’ve drunk before, but which I don’t recall being as tasty as it seemed this time. It’s like a grown up version of Young’s Chocolate stout. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to finish the evening there.
It was also nice to meet Mark, and to see Tandleman, Pete Brown and Brad/Dubbel again.
Boak
Duran Duran and Carlsberg
Sunday, July 19th, 2009
We spent yesterday at London’s Lovebox festival watching Florence and the Machine, Gang of Four and Duran Duran, amongst others.
This seemed to be one of those festivals fuelled by alcohol rather than drugs, so there were lots of young men swaggering about shirtless, slurring and falling over.
Sadly, the booze options were limited to Tuborg in tins, Gaymers cider in paper cups, or a generic product simply called “BEER” served from back-mounted kegs by roving salespeople. We eventually worked out that it was Carlsberg.
Surely there must be some way to combine this kind of thing with the Great British Beer Festival? One’s got soul but no beer; the other has beer but no soul.
The ups and downs of big beer
Saturday, July 4th, 2009
If it’s 4th July, it must be the American Beer Festival at the White Horse.
Knowing this pub gets seriously busy even without a special festival on, I decided to take Friday afternoon off to pickle my liver in the sunshine. Bailey was off sick, but Ally and Pete made excellent drinking buddies.
It was difficult to know where to start. Or where to end, for that matter. With very few offerings under seven per cent, there was just no way I was going to be able to try everything I wanted.
I started with an Arrogant Bastard v Oaked Aged Arrogant Bastard showdown. There was definitely a difference between the two, but you couldn’t really taste oakiness. Still, it’s the first time I’ve had Arrogant Bastard, and it didn’t disappoint: big body; citrusy crisp hops; and a very pleasant feeling in the throat and belly.
I can’t decide whether the highlight for me was the Dogfish Head 75 minute IPA or the Meantime Porter. The DH (cask version, no less) was a fruity delight, with mango and pineapple flavours in abundance. The Meantime Porter (aged in a whisky cask) was like liquid tiramisu. Both were dangerously drinkable.
My recollection fades a little after this point. My phone reveals that I thought that the Stone Pale Ale with coriander tasted like carrot cake.
Unfortunately, even though I felt that I was drinking quite moderately, I still ended up feeling very ill at the end of the day.
There’s definitely a place in my life for “extreme beers”, even if my internal organs disagree. I tasted some truly memorable beers yesterday. Would I have done it if I’d have known I’d end up throwing up all evening? Almost certainly. But it’ll be another year before I tackle that amount of big beer in one go.
The festival continues today and tomorrow.
Beer festival in South London
Friday, April 3rd, 2009
Hoopers, a pub in South London, have dropped us a line to tell us about their contribution to Cask Ale Week. They’re running a beer festival from today (3 April) through to Monday 13 April. The beer list is here.
We’ve never been to Hoopers, but the standing 50-strong bottled beer list is quite interesting, with everything from Polish porter to sour Belgian efforts.
Any other landlords who want to tell us about interesting beer they’ve got on should feel free to drop us a line.
A final thought on Oktoberfest
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008We recently overheard a young German woman talking to an Australian friend on the tube. He said he’d love to go to Oktoberfest sometime. She snorted derisively and said:
“Oktoberfest is only for tourists. It exists to make rich men even richer. I would never go.”
Fair comment?
That’s what Oktoberfest is about
Saturday, October 11th, 2008Just surfacing after last night at Zeitgeist. My stomach is turning somewhat thinking about beer, so this is not the time for detailed beer reviews. Suffice to say, we had a great time, and so did our non-beer-geek friends.
Can’t really remember a lot about what I drank, but it was all good stuff. Standouts for me were Scheubel-Sternbrau Dunkel Rauchbier and (in a bottle) Kanone Zwickl. Go Go Go (but do line the stomach first…)
In case you’ve forgotten, all the details are here. It’s due to run all weekend, and they may just have enough beer this time…we’d go back, but we’re Never Drinking Again.
Boak (never has my nom de plume seemed more appropriate)
Some interesting Oktoberfests in London
Monday, September 29th, 2008
A ferris wheel at a beer festival in Bavaria
While the main event is underway in Munich, there are a couple of interesting options for Londoners.
- Wholefoods Market in Kensington is matching beer and sausages on Wednesday 8th October from 17:00-21:00 (more details);
- Zeitgeist is doing another festival from 9th-12th October, featuring draft altbier, Franconian rarities and other wondrous brews. (Read about the first one or find out more details about this one)
And this is without mentioning the Oktoberfest Pub in Fulham. I’ve never been, so perhaps I’m being judgemental, but from their website it looks awful. Is it connected to the Bavarian Beer House, who are also putting on Oktoberfest fun?
London Drinker has details of other beer festivals coming up.
