The festival was organised as one large, rectangular bar in the centre of the hall housing 100 cask ales from all over Britain plus a handful of cask ciders and a perry; and one side of the hall housed the three guest stands. Food (basic fare - sandwiches, jacket spuds and the like) and merchandise were being sold in an adjoining room. Admission was £2.50 (£1.50 for CAMRA members), and there was a £2.00 deposit on the commemorative festival pint glass.
We made a rapid assessment of the beer list and made rough plans - i.e. to try as many as possible before passing out. There were some noticeable patterns to the organisers' selection of beers. First, pretty much all the beers were between 3 and 5% ABV, mostly at the lower end of this scale, with a few exceptions - the strongest beer available being Lees Moonraker at 7.5% ABV. Obviously, at a festival the predominance of session-strength beers makes sense, although of course we couldn't resist trying some of the stronger ones. The second noteworthy pattern was the large number of milds - a good thing in view of the degree to which this style has disappeared from pubs of late (and the fact that Morrell's Mild is now only a memory). Third, the festival seemed to boast more than its fair share of what might be referred to as 'gimmick' beers, with adjuncts including honey, cherries, ginger, lemon grass, coriander, and even whisky.
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We paid a fair amount of attention to the local brewery stands, in particular the Hook Norton stand, which boasted no less than five different ales, including the enigmatically named Steam Beer. On closer questioning, this turned out (rather disappointingly) to be commemorating the fact that the Hook Norton Brewery's steam engine is now 100 years old, rather than an allusion to the brewing technique, like Anchor Steam Beer (in fact, the Hook Norton rep was pretty disparaging of Anchor Steam Beer).
Here are some
of our 'concise' tasting notes taken on beers from the main CAMRA stand, in
alphabetical order:
Ales of Kent Wealden Wonder (3.7%): malty, smoky, mid-roast flavours. Not much hop.
Arkell's 3B (4%): lots of aroma hops, otherwise fairly unremarkable and middle-of-the-road.
Barnsley Bitter (3.8%): bready, cherry nose, fondanty, sherbety, malty palate.
Black Dog First Out (4%): hoppy, not much malt character but light fruit.
Blackawton Devon Gold (4.1%): acidic, very hoppy, dry finish. Above average.
Brown Cow No. 4 (4%): Malty, rich, dark.
Clarks Festival Ale (4.2%): mildly hoppy, very pale, bitter-sweet.
Crouch Vale Yardarm (4.4%): Incredible cocoa powder nose and flavour, with malt and flowery hops.
Federation Buchanan's Original (4.4): very fruity malt, ripe camembert nose.
Hanby Scorpio (4.5%): treacle/molasses nose; sour, fruity, smoky chocolate mouth, slightly phenolic.
Hanby Cherry Bomb (6%): strong cherry and sherbet aroma, very sweet, cherry flavours ride roughshod over anything else - similar to a Kriek but less subtle...
Hook Norton Celebration (5.2%): lots of malty chocolate flavours.
Hook Norton Steam Beer: very malty, with light, powdery chcolate.
Houston St Peters Well (4.2%): resiny hop aromas and flavours (continental hops - Styrians?) - very good.
Kent Garden Corn Rose (3.6%): light and hoppy. Not bad but a bit thin.
Lees Moonraker (7.5%): alcohol and sweet, heavy malt nose. Golden syrup palate with a touch of hop. Grainy character.
Marble Liberty IPA: Resiny, with blackcurrants in the mouth. Moorhouse's Pride of Pendle: Bittering hop, with a touch of butterscotch.
Warwickshire Stellar (4.5%): cask-conditioned lager, but a little young - hazy, with bready and citric notes, along with apple flavours.
Woodforde's Norfolk Nog (4.6%): strongly fruity nose with blackberries predominating. Malty, summer fruit palate, but more bitter and chocolatey in the aftertaste. Extremely good.
