A busy diary last week did not afford a visit to the London Drinker beer festival but I did manage to take a trip to the seaside yesterday for the festival at Hove.
A beer festival would normally pass without comment with one or two beers on the list being from favourite breweries leaving one out on a limb to choose from the vast choice of other less known micros.
Something about Hove was different. Every beer I tasted was from one of the really outstanding microbreweries that have broken away from the pack in recent years.
I tried beers from Dark Star, Brewdog, Crouch Vale, Elland, Marble, Roosters, Saltaire and Thornbridge Breweries.
There were too many to try. Beers from Kelham Island, Oakham, Otley, Roosters, Pictish and Surrey Hills had to go begging.
A great list and a great day polished off with a couple in the Evening Star and one for the road in the Lord Nelson.
I find that beer at a beer festival is more enjoyable when you drink beers from favourite breweries rather than leaving it in the lap of the gods ticking off new beers from new breweries.
This list includes pretty much every one of today's great micro-breweries. Are there any missing ?
5 comments:
Any missing?
Well I'll start at the beginning shall I:
A Ascot
B Bowman
C Crondall (maybe not)
D Dorking
...
That's a list of great breweries alright, although I've yet to try anything from (or at least take particular note of) Elland. Here's Tandleman raving about them in his most recent post, though.
Certainly Ascot should be on that list, and two which get on with producing consistently interesting and tasty beer without perhaps generating the publicity of fan-boy favourites such as Brewdog and Thornbridge, are Acorn and Titanic.
Tom
Thank you for the kind comments of Hove, the volunteers worked hard to make it a sell out success. Due to excellent beer ordering we still had 38 beers on at close Saturday night. Don't think any pub can match that!
Reading Tom and Tankard, I think Ascot have much to do to become a top micro. I really enjoy their dark beers particularly the Imperial Stout but I do find their regular beers slightly lame and they do not enjoy a very wide distribution. I think there is much potential there.
Needless to say both Acorn and Titanic were both represented on the Hove list.
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