Great British Beer Festival 2010 Report

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Category: Blog Entries
Published on Tuesday, 10 August 2010 20:02
Written by Alex Vokes
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Last week I spent Tuesday to Friday at the Great British Beer Festival at Earl's Court. This will be the third year I've attended so this is becoming a regular event in my yearly calendar. This year Earl's Court hosted 700 beers, ciders and international ales and split them into a number of bars, each with their own name taken from a prominent British figure. My season ticket gained me entry into the festival trade session so I was able to start sampling beers as the festival opened. During this first session I made straight for the handful of beers features in Roger Protz' "300 Beers to try before you die". I was able to tick off Holdens Black Country Bitter, Holts Mild and Mordue Workie Ticket, and once these were in the bag I and my drinking companions started our tour around the bars sampling beers we'd not tried before. At the end of day one we'd managed to sample 60 new beers between us. Day two was spent in a more relaxed fashion. We met up with friends and made a table our base of operations for the day. I was a little disappointed about the lack of seating at this year's festival, I guess there was probably only half the chairs that were available last year. At the end of day two we'd managed to increase our beer count to 104.

One area of the festival that we had neglected last year was the international draught ales section, not so this year. During days three and four we sampled a great many american, dutch, german and italien ales. Foremost amongst these was the excellent "Affumigator" by Beckbrau. This slightly cloudy 9% ale smelt just like your clothes after you've been standing near a bonfire. It was incredibly smokey and full of dark flavours. Early friday morning we had a chance to try the barrel aged "Habanero Black IPA" by Boston Beer Works - Fenway. I've tried making chilli beers before, but the sheer quality of the warm spicy flavour and the length of the heat in the aftertaste was excellent. We tried a large number of american pale ales and IPA's including "Big Eye IPA" by Ballast Point, "Bottle Rocket IPA" by Portsmouth and "Freshchesters Pale Ale" by Captain Lawrence. Most of these ales were very strong, averaging around 6.5%. The international bar was very popular, but I was disappointed with the actions of some people at the festival. Many insisted that they were "Real men" and "could handle a pint of that 9% beer". Unfortunately once they'd tried it and found that it wasn't to their taste they headed to the nearest toilet to dispose of the remainder of their glass. Next time lads why don't you try a third and see if you like it first, that way they'll be some beer left for those who actually enjoy it.

Day Four saw our return to the British Beers and we circled the venue visiting all the bars once again. Some of my favourites were the "1872 Porter" by Elland, winner of the 2009 Winter Beer Festival and "1503 Tudor Ale" by Kingstone which was remarkable, packing so much flavour dispite it being 4.8%. There were quite a few chocolate orange stouts at the festival and some were better than others, and it was also good to see Thornbridge brewery established with their own stand and Blue Monkey brewery making an appearance. Shepherds Neame were back this year with their brewing demonstration area, and we spend a good ten minutes trying the malts on show there from Simpsons Maltings. The food at the festival was almost identical to last year - A firm favourite was the crusty pie stall with its alcohol absorbing morsels.

In addition to the beer there was also some great entertainment. I went to see the Blockheads play a 90 minute set on thursday evening. I wasn't previously familiar with Ian Dury but thoroughly enjoyed the style of funky blues the newly reformed band was playing. The apex of the set was the famous "Hit me with your rhythm stick" which was flawlessly executed and had everyone cheering at it's climax. I had been looking forward to Friday night's entertainment for 12 years. I last saw the Hamsters play live in Aberystwyth Arts Centre at 9pm on 4th March 1998. I was very amused that I'd set an alarm to go off in the middle of the set informing me of these very facts. The Hamsters were excellent again, and although I thought they started slowly once they'd played "Purple Haze" the crowd was won over. They finished with the same crowd pleasing finale as the last time I saw them. Slim ( guitar ) and Zsa Zsa ( Bass ) walked off stage into the crowd and swapped instruments before returning to the stage and Slim then swapped with the drummer. A thoroughly excellent performance by once of the world's best blues bands.

So this year the total beer count was 174, not bad considering that my breakfast most mornings would be a 7.2% IPA, a 6% Pale ale and then a 4.4% Stout. Even better, I managed to record all of the beer information in my new beer application for my N900 phone, so I have tasting notes ( thanks Dan ) and scores!