Great British Beer Festival 2011

Brewery: Moles (Wiltshire)
Beer: Mole Catcher
Style: Premium Beer 5.0%

This was probably my favourite beer of the day.

I don't know anything about this brewery, its was first time i'd come across it. The best accolade I can give it was it reminded me of an old favourite of mine King and Barnes Festive, praise indeed!

http://www.molesbrewery.com/site/

The flavour description in the brochure probably backs up my claim by describing the taste as malty, spicy hop and the look as ruby, brown, and the taste - bitter/sweet, a perfect beer, maybe for a colder evening.

Great British Beer Festival 2011

Having visited last Thursday, I thought I'd pass on my thoughts about my personal favourites. I shall also do it over a number of posts. So here goes.

Brewery: Cheddar (Somerset)
Beer: Potholer
Style: Golden Ale 4.3%

This was my equal second favourite beer of the day.

http://www.cheddarales.co.uk/

This was my first beer of the festival, and I wasn't disappointed either. The taste description in the brochure said dry, refreshing and zesty, and I underlined refreshing, so there you go! With just a hint of citrus, (a hint is all you need and many of the summer beers appear to over do this slightly). A great beer on which to start the day.
Brewed in Somerset it adds to my opinion that west country beers are some of our best.

Otter Brewery

Last week I spent a very pleasant week in South East Devon, not far from Branscombe, and on three occasions we visited the Hare and Hounds pub at Putts Corner, a few miles south of Honiton.

The pub had Branscombe Vale Breweries Branoc which I tried first and whilst it tasted fine I just felt it didn't have quite enough flavour for me, that said I had it at lunchtime and would've considered more if i'd been 'on an all day sess'!

However, on the next two visits I tried the Otter Ale. (My wife had the Otter Bitter - which is a bit of a mouthful to ask for?! -which i liked but not as much as the Ale)

The Ale was rich in taste and rich in colour and went down very smoothly. Maybe this was, in part, due to the fact I was relaxing on holiday with family and friends whilst also surprisingly enjoying good weather too. It would definitely also be due to the fact that all the beers here were being served straight out of the barrel and the pub clearly looked after its ale!

Otter and I go back a long way in fact, I've been a regular attendee a the GBBF over the years, but i have to say I don't often follow up a beer I've drunk at the festival and look out for it elsewhere, that wasn't true with Otter which I found 'bottled' in an off licence just up the road from where I was living, Otter Head in this case, a bottled beer well worth investing in!

http://www.otterbrewery.com/

Beer: Otter ale

Brewery: Otter Brewery

Category: Premium ale
ABV %: 4.5

http://www.cyclopsbeer.co.uk/dynamiclist.php?beer_id=4207

crystal palace ale

http://www.cpfc.co.uk/page/News/0,,10323~2388874,00.html

Not sure how often i'll get to sample this, but what a top idea! I can't think i'll miss the saturdays at the Two Brewers for this, but certainly at an evening game i'd go there and have one.

I'd be interested to know how many if any other clubs have something like this? I've not heard of it, butthen I've not done much research either

Spitfire Ale

Currently Morrisons (or at least the one in Oxted, though I suspect nationally!) are doing Spitfire at £1 a bottle offer lasts until 17 July!

These kind of deals seem to come around less and less these days, so I thought i'd share!

Great British Beer Festival

With the GBBF just around the corner I thought I'd give you a list of the three overall winners from last year

Champion Beer of Britain - Castle Rock, Harvest Pale (3.8% ABV, Nottingham, Notts)
Second - Timothy Taylor, Landlord (4.3% ABV, Keighley, West Yorkshire)
Third - Surrey Hills, Hammer Mild (3.8% ABV, Guildford, Surrey)

The link below has all the category winners
http://gbbf.camra.org.uk/cbob

I have sampled 2 of the 3 winners, but to my shame i've not had any beers from the Surrey Hills brewery!

I recently tried the bottled variety of the Castle Rock and was pleased that I had. A sharp, crisp fresh taste. Clear and light in colour.
(I know my cousin who lives in Nottingham speaks very highly of it ... I know I know - I should get up there and have a go myself!)
3.8%

http://www.castlerockbrewery.co.uk/site/?page_id=70

I have also had Timothy Taylor Landlord ... on many ocassions ... its one of those beers that calls out to you when you see the badge on the pump. A good session beer with a pleasant looking colour. A beer that you can rely on!
4.3%

http://www.timothytaylor.co.uk/OurProducts_Landlord.aspx

So who will triumph this year?
Why not get along to Earls Court 2-6 August to make your own opinion!

Westerham Brewery - Summer Perle

Monday night beers ah the joy!

Went out to celebrate my wife's birthday in our local - The Crown, Old Oxted. They had four real ales on last night, London Pride, Adnams Southwold, Old Speckled Hen and Westerham Summer Perle.

What with Westerham Brewery being our most local brewer* it seems only right to support them. I've had and discussed the SPA previously on this site and would now add Perle to a long list of enjoyable session beers!

The first pint went down very smoothly, a clean clear light summer beer almost yellow bronze in colour, with a definite citrus taste to it and a zingy bitter finish. (maybe my tastes are changing because i'm sure in years gone by I would have found the citrus flavour not to my liking).
I had thought I might try one of the other ales but this pint deserved a second chance and the second one went down just as well!


* Mileage wise it maybe the Reigate brewery - Pilgrims, but they don't seem to supply many pubs!