Compare and contrast as my school exams always used to say. Beer festivals, tap takeovers, meet the brewers, there are so many events, which do you choose? In my fair handed, even way, I’d like to say they all have merit, it depends what you like. Continue reading
It’s a hybrid of a beer festival and market, and jolly good too. Old Spitalfields Market is one a of a zillion cool venues around London now and the Brewers’ Market is held in conjunction with the Independent Label Market. Music and beer, you won’t find DS of Chelmsford here.
You get all sorts here from the ‘have you got anything similar to Stella Artois?’ types (correct answer, ‘no, it’s all much better than that’) through ink sleeved Hackney hipsters to professional beer geeks (no, not me). It was also an event for my Meet-up chums of the Craft Beer Collective.
There was a nice selection of beer from some of London’s finest but the best thing about this event is the stalls are manned by the brewers so you can have a pleasant chat with them over a beer – and then buy more to take home. What’s not to like? (Ed: Overused phrase?).
Favourite beers? You won’t normally see much about lager on these pages so let’s start
off with Signature Brew’s Unfiltered Vienna Lager. Vienna lagers have more malt character and this one is also unfiltered. Most intriguingly there is a hint of smoke, which I always loveWe are talking flavour. This is still a beautiful refreshing drink but not bland, fizzy and tasteless. Signature Brew’s schtick is beer/music collaborations (I don’t understand them, but hey ho, if the beer is good…) and so you will see something remarkably similar under the Doctor’s Orders label too.
Best beer on show (imho, natch) was Crate Brewery’s collaboration with the Norwegians called Imperial Stout vs Nøgne Ø. 8.3% of thick, heavy treacle, roasty, toasty dreaminess as my companion put it. “Apart from pizza the best thing Crate have been involved with” was another comment.
Also on show and selling well were the Beavertown cans, Hop Stuff’s new Arsenal Pale Ale, new By The Horns offerings such as Bastard Brag and Sour to the People and Windsor & Eton’s Republika lager. There, two mentions of lager in one piece.
Jaded with ordinary beer festivals? Want to drink and take home too? This is the place for you. Check when the next will be.
Venue: 8/10
Beer selection: 7.5/10
Beer quality: 8/10
Atmosphere: 7.5/10
A good night out: 8/10
Total score: 39/50, 78%
Coolest Brit brewer?
And so to The Gun in Docklands for a ‘meet the brewer’ and talk about beer in cans. Lovely old pub on the river with the O2 Arena directly across the river and Canary Wharf rising behind us. Lovely summer’s evening. Great beer in a great cans. Logan Plant of Beavertown. What was not to like? Continue reading
A lovely day, local brewers, good venue and a trade session (all invites gratefully accepted!) but something slightly missing? I enjoyed it though.
Space Studios is a cool venue close by London Fields Brewery – but note, it was dry so all the space could be used and more importantly the toilet facilities are totally inadequate for a beer festival. Thank goodness it was a nice quiet trade session. Continue reading
I was taken to a Wetherspoons for my birthday treat. No, really. But the sympathy vote is not required because it was great. It was a Meet the Brewer evening with Twickenham Fine Ales at The Wrong ‘Un in Bexleyheath.
I’m not going into the big ‘Spoons debate here because this isn’t your ordinary JDW outlet. Sure, it looks the same, but manager Rob is trying to make this a proper beer destination pub with evenings like this in the neatly divided back area.
Stuart Medcalf was present from Twickenham Fine Ales. Apart from a wealth of experience Stu has also acted as consultant to several new breweries in the London area. This was friendly chat not a formal presentation and all the better for it. After a brief history of the brewery it was straight into the beers, a short introduction and then walking the individual tables to discuss the beers and ask questions. Relaxed, friendly, knowledgeable and professional.
What sets Twickenham Fine Ales apart from many other small brewers is their excellent brewing technique. The beer is particularly clear and consistent. (Technical bit, the clarity is particularly impressive because of the relatively high wheat tariff.) Listening to Stu I was also surprised at the number and type of hops used, mainly US varieties.
4 core, 1 seasonal and 1 monthly usually available
We tried the four core beers, Naked Ladies, Grandstand, Sundancer and Heavenly Red plus the current seasonal Spring Ale. Naked Ladies is their flagship and is a pleasant hoppy bitter, hoppy by British cask ale standards. Grandstand is a session bitter that we were able to try in bottle as well as cask. I and several others thought the bottle better, maybe slightly less character but more vibrant. Sundancer and Spring Ale were both hoppy golden ales, well made but unexciting. Heavenly Red is a red ale, who’d have guessed it, getting some spiciness from the roasted barley and English/German hop mix (but no rye, as far as I am aware).
Heavenly Red was my favourite. I predict that red or rye ales could become the next drinking man’s bitter. The slight spiciness that characterises these beers is just interesting enough but doesn’t get people out of their comfort zone – you read it here first.
As always it doesn’t matter what you know but who you know. Me, I don’t know many
Really must take better pics
people but some of the ones I do know know lots of other people. And so a bottle of Oud Bruin arrived. It is a barrel aged, sour stout (Bass for short?) made as a collaboration with de Struise and Alvinne. I could spend another 500 words, mainly adjectives, describing this. But I won’t. Suffice to say if you like the sound of it then you will not be disappointed. If the thought doesn’t appeal don’t waste your money on it. I think it is absolutely, phenomenally good. It’s running out – get to the brewery shop before I do. Why do Twickenham Fine Ales keep this quiet? It won’t appeal to the core drinkers but it is a great showcase of their innate talent.
So, what a lovely evening! A genial mein host, a friendly knowledgeable brewer, excellent company (including the rebel faction of Bexley CAMRA), cheap as chips and a 5* ‘guest bottle’.
Date: Wednesday, 21 May 2014
Venue: 7/10
Beer selection: 7/10
Beer quality: 8/10
Atmosphere: 8/10
A good night out: 9/10
Total score: 39/50, 78%
A new event from a new player, Surrey Craft Beer, a new ‘beer events’ company. A sparkly new website suggests that they don’t quite understand the craft vs cask issues and are simply going to go for the craft beer = small breweries equation (and like every rule Hog’s Back are the exception to the small). Continue reading