Farnham Beer Exhibition 2012

Everything will pass, and the world will perish but the Farnham Beer Exhibition will remain.

Farnham Beerex rolled round again and much to my surprise some of my beers were on this time. Not sure how they got there, but a wholesaler must have been involved as I didn't deliver them.

The tokens system was even more irritating this year, with a strip now costing a fiver and each token worth 20p. The beer selection was good and it's one of my favourite festivals so I should really stop whinging but hey, I'm on a roll. So I will mention that there was a shockingly inaccurate article on Farnham hops in the programme that made me place my fist, which is rather smaller in size than a common loaf, in the mathematical centre of the maltings's little table, and with it give a bump or two thereon. Oh yes.

Back to the beers though, aside from the delights of my own, Mighty Oak was on form, and Summer Wine Teleporter got the thumbs up. The wooden spoon sadly goes to Sarah Hughes, as the normally excellent Dark Ruby Mild wasn't up to scratch and the Pale Amber was decidedly dull.

The Bricklayer's Arms Yorkshire beer festival

We got up to Putney for the Bricklayer’s Arms Yorkshire beer festival yesterday. It was a very impressive affair for a pub, with well over 100 beers on. When we arrived morris dancers were doing their thing, banging sticks, waving hankies and jingling bells. Sadly the excitement of this spectacle wasn't enough to make people shift outside to watch it on a cold February day so the pub was packed. I was suffering from a severely dry throat by the time I got to the bar so I just picked one from the handpumps in front of me and had a Timmy Taylor's Best. It was good in a like Landlord but weaker kind of way. 

We shuffled in to the marquee out the back after this to have a look at the range of beers available on gravity dispense.

I spotted a beer from Daleside, and as my mate Rob works there I had to have it. The beer, Pride of England, was good stuff, and unusually for Daleside a pale hop driven beer. Next I had Copper Dragon's Freddie Trueman's Ale, as I could remember seeing him at a charity cricket match when I was a child. Sadly the beer was so boring Geoffrey Boycott's Ale would have been a better name! As I was finishing this pint the entire Ramblers' Association seemed to arrive at the pub, a long line of people in outdoors gear (some even with walking poles) streaming into the pub. As we knew they'd have to go to the bar and pay a deposit for their pint glasses before they could get any beer we dashed back into the marquee where I had a pint of Summer Wine's Houblon on the carefully considered basis that I liked the name. It was another pale and hoppy one but it lacked in excitement. 

At this point I was starting to look longingly at the pints of mild my friend Dan (who normally drinks lager) had been supping. Is lack of bitterness combined with a slight sweetness the way to win lager drinkers over? I may come back to this one...

It was time food next, and as we often seem to in London we ended up in a tapas bar. Amongst the quality pork and potato products there was some mucusy octopus. This was unfortunate as the effect on the lovely Lisa was as bad as a green crisp or moldy peanut and she was definitely a bit peeky this morning.

We called in at a Fuller's pub next but it had not one, not two but three big telly screens so we thought bollocks to that and moved on to the Duke's Head. This was an ornate looking old pub (though not up to Sam Smith's standards). 

The beer I went  for was Young's London Gold, which though I'm not generally a fan of Young's wasn't bad at all. 

It was back home after that for a well deserved rest, though we didn't sleep well. The full moon was out which is sure to mean a restless night, particularly as some people I could mention seem to have lycanthropic tendencies.  

Rob's stag do (part one)

I've just beer to the beer oasis that is York for young Rob's stag do. I know Rob from when I was studying brewing at Heriot-Watt. He now works for Daleside brewery.

First stop was the Lowther pub:



It was only a brief stop though as the only cask beer they had on was John Smith's, so we made our excuses and left.

In York you're never far from the next pub so we called in at the King's Head.



The is a Sam Smith's pub and was a keg only establishment, as it didn't even have their piss poor Old Brewery Bitter on. More annoyingly it didn't have their wheat beer on either so I had a bottle of pale ale. It was OK but nothing special.

After this things improved as we got to the Ackhorne.



This had some decent beers on but I wasn't too taken with my first choice Saltaire Blackcurrant cascade. It had the citrussy smell of Cascade hops but I found the flavour too much in the way of blackcurrant. My next choice was more like it, Wylam Summer Magic. This was a pale beer with Amarillo hops that really hit the spot.

The it was on to the Maltings, an excellent beer pub I've been to before.



My first one here was Outlaw IPA. It seems Outlaw brewing is the name that Roosters brewery use for their experimental beers. Outlaw IPA was beyond being a pale hoppy beer and was in fact a full on American style IPA. I'm not convinced cask is the best way to serve this type of beer but it certainly worked in this case. If Roosters fancy doing any more experimenting I'm quite happy to be a guinea pig.



For my next beer I was looking for something darker. No matter how good golden coloured beers are I don't generally make a session of them as they don't seem to sit that well. So I went for Summer Wine brewery's Teleporter. This was at the other end of things from Outlaw IPA, being as black as your hat and made from ten types of malt. It was excellent and put me back in balance.

Then it was on to the Guy Fawkes, the pub I stayed in when I was last in York.



The sign's had a V for Vendetta makeover.

I went for a Timothy Taylor's Landlord here and it was as lovely as ever. There was a brief outbreak of arm wrestling at this point for reasons I can't quite remember. It was clearly time for some food now so some of us went off for a curry, whilst others moved on to the next pub. Still having my wits about me I opted for the curry, washed down with plenty of water.

We caught up with pub goers at the Old White Swan.



They were looking a bit worse for wear and had decided that maybe food wasn't such a bad idea after all.



I had a Yorkshire terrier, another pale hoppy beer, but a good example of the style.

It was getting late by now and some people there was talk of going on to a club. That's not really my thing so it was bed time for me, and as the talk the next day was of Chardonay I don't think I missed anything.