10th Egham Beer Festival 3rd-6th Nov 2011 report

This is a nice easy festival for me to get to, being 10 minutes walk from home. The usual great selection of beers from new brewerys and special beers from not so new ones. I worked at the outside bar on wednesday evening ( a preview session for club members), thursday and sunday evenings. I also visited friday afternoon but didn't work. I also manned the door for a couple of hours on sunday afternoon.

This was the state of play at thursday morning (with thanks to Bob Inman)

OUTSIDE `DARK' BAR
Ascot Ales - Last of the Blue Devils: Cassis – 8.0% – *Special*
Botanist - Night Porter – 5.0% – *New*
Brightside - Darkside Stout – 4.6% – *New*
Canterbury Brewers - Foundry Black – 4.0% – *New*
Kent - Coffee Porter – 5.5% - *New*
Old Dairy - Tsar Top – 8.0% - *New*
Vibrant Forest - Dark Castle Porter - 5.2% - *New*
Windsor & Eton - Conqueror 1075 – 7.4% - *Limited edition*

OUTSIDE STILLAGE
Ascot Ales - Single Hop Nelson Sauvin – 4.6% – *New* (corrected ABV)
Ascot Ales - Emporer Penguin – 7.0% – *Limited edition*
Binghams - Hop Harvest Best – 3.7% - *Limited edition*
Binghams - Hot Dog – 5.0% – *Special* Doodle Stout plus chilli
Botanist - Organic Pumpkin Ale – 5.4% – *New*
Brightside - Brightside Best Bitter – 4.3% – *New*
Brightside - Solstice Dry Hopped Golden Ale – 4.8% – *Limited edition*
By The Horns - Pale Ale– 3.8% – *New*
Camden Town - Showboat Brown Ale – 4.5% - *New*
Canterbury Brewers - Biggleston's Brown Ale – 3.8% - *New*
East London Brewing - Foundation Bitter - 4.2% – *New*
Havant - X-Rated – 4.2% - *Special* (Blackberry Milk Stout)
Kent Brewery - Chilli Ginger – 4.0% - *Special*
London Brewers Alliance - IPA - 5.8% - *Limited edition*
Longdog - Bunny Chaser - 3.6% - *New*
Moncada - Notting Hill Blonde - 4.2% - *New* (cask 1 of 2)
Moncada - Notting Hill Bitter – 4.3% - *New* (cask 1 of 2)
Old Dairy - Fresh Hop – 4.0% – *New*
Redchurch - Bethnal Pale Ale – 5.5% – *Special*
Vibrant Forest - Ginga Ninja 4.0% - *New*
Vibrant Forest - Mrs Miggins – 4.5% - *Special*
XT Brewing - X Egham Ten – 5.1% – *Special*

INSIDE BAR (non-festival beers)
Acorn – Moor Porter – 4.6%
Binghams – Coffee Stout – 5.0%
Binghams – Vanilla Stout – 5.0%
Havant – 7 Pointer – 7.0%
Rebellion – IPA – 3.8%
Rebellion – Decomposed – 4.2%

TAPPED IN CELLAR (Next on inside bar)
Hammerpot – Harvest Ale - 4.8% (non festival beer)
Binghams - Old Ale – 4.5% - *New* (cask 1 of 2)
London Fields Brewery - Love Not War – 4.2% - *New*
Moncada - Notting Hill Amber – 4.9% - *New*
Windsor & Eton - Irish Conqueror – 5.8% - *Special* bottle of Irish Whiskey
added (corrected ABV)
XT Brewing - XXXXX Sorachi Roast – 4.1% - *Special*

STILL TO COME
Ascot Ales - Single Hop Mount Hood – 4.6% – *New* (corrected ABV)
Ascot Ales - Last of the Blue Devils: Aniseed – 8.0% – *Special*
Binghams - Old Ale – 4.5% - *New* (cask 2 of 2)
Botanist - Humulus Lupulus Mk 2 – 4.6% – *New*
Botanist - Dunkel Berry – 4.8% - *New*
Botanist - Organic Pumpkin Ale – 5.4% – *New*
Brightside - Solstice Golden Ale – 4.5% – *New*
Brightside - Maverick IPA – 4.8% – *New* (correct ABV not 4.5%)
By The Horns - Pale Wheat – 4.0% – *New*
By The Horns - Red – 4.9% – *New*
Camden Town - Town Bitter – 3.8% - *New*
Canterbury Brewers - Scrumpkin - 4.6% – *Limited edition*
Canterbury Brewers - Foundry Steam – 5.4% – *New*
East London Brewing - Pale Ale – 4.0% – *New*
Havant - By A Nose – 4.0% – *Limited edition* (Ascot Racecourse Festival
Special)
Kent Brewery - Harvest Moon – 4.6% - *New*
London Fields Brewery - Hackney Hopster – 4.2% - *New*
Longdog - Lamplight Porter – 5.0% – *New*
Moncada - Notting Hill Blonde - 4.2% - *New* (cask 2 of 2)
Moncada - Notting Hill Bitter – 4.3% - *New* (cask 2 of 2)
Old Dairy - AK1911 – 4.0% - *New*
Old Dairy - Czech Mate - 5.0% – *New*
Vibrant Forest - Summerlands - 3.8% - *New*
Vibrant Forest - Stormbrew - 4.2% - *New*
Vibrant Forest - Wheatwave - 4.8% - *New*

NO SHOWS
Botanist - Three Nine One – 4.0% – *New*
Botanist - Kew Green – 4.8% – *New*
Slaters - Colombia Coffee Stout – 4.5% - *New*
Slaters - Western American Pale Ale – 5.0% - *New*

LATE DELIVERY (due tomorrow 3rd November)
Rectory Ales - St Michael's Bitter – 5.0% - *New*Unfortunately this beer didn't arrive due to logistical problems.

Outside casks

The outside bar

Inside the Club

We had visitors from far and wide. Sheffield, Stockport, Retford, Ipswich, Norwich, Swindon, Blackburn, Croydon, Tonbridge, Southampton, Woking, St Albans, London, amogst others, and not forgetting a lot of club members were enjoying the festival beers as well.

Happy drinkers inside

A few notes about some of the beers I sampled follows:

Ascot Ales website Emperor Penguin, aged for a year in a rum cask was amazing. Dark and rich tasting and very very enjoyable.
Windsor & Eton's website Conqueror 1075 was brilliant. A 7.4% version of their 5.0% Conqueror was much more smoother and a more even and balanced taste. They also did another special version Conqueror for the beer festival called Irish Conqueror at 5.8%, this had a bottle of Irish Whiskey added to the cask, which made a very interesting tasting beer. Well done and thank you to the brewers for this.
Brightside Brewerys (website) Maverick at 4.8% had good hop flavour and a well balaced overall taste.
Old Dairy (website) Czech Mate. a 5.0% lager style ale also stood out for me.
Binghams (website) Old Ale was good, very similar to the classic Harveys (website) Old Ale as a friend remarked.


On the saturday afternoon the club was visited by 4 representatives of the Irish Guards. Windsor and Eton brewery and the Egham United Services Club have been raising money for Ale4Forces website and were both very pleased to hand over cheques for the money raised.

4 Irish Guards plus mascot who has the rank of Lance Corporal

 

And finally some photos from sunday afternoon

When I left on sunday eveming, there were 12 beers left outside and a few inside. A great result. The festival was once again more successful than the previous. Big thanks to ALL the clubs staff and volunteers that make this festival what it is.