CAMRA Beer Tent at Crawley Folk Festival 29th and 30th June 2008

As usual I was at this festival mainly for the music, but that didn't mean I wasn't interested in the beer. This year I managed to taste every single brew on offer (except the ciders and perries...).

My beer of the weekend was the West Berkshire Maggs Magnificent Mild. Definitely magnificent!

Bowman Eldorado (3.7%): Delicate and fruity with a distintive elderflower taste. Lovely. 4
Castle Rock Harvest Pale (3.8%): Beautifully balanced pale yellow bitter. 4
Church End Grapefruit (5.0%): Disappointing. I couldn't detect any grapefruit in this strong beer. 3
Copper Dragon Black Gold (3.7%): Very fine dark fruity mild. 3
Dark Star Festival (5.0%): One of my all-time favourites, strong and perfectly formed, possibly not at it's best today. 3
Dark Star Summer Meltdown (4.8%): A very strong ginger taste to this popular beer. 3
Dark Star Summer Solstice (4.2%): Zesty and hoppy, perfect for a sunny afternoon. No wonder it ran out in record time. 4
Hammerpot White Wing (4.0%): Excellent fruity bitter. 4
Hanby Cherry Bomb (6.0%): Apart from the colour there's no clue this is actually beer. Very pleasant tasting cherry flavour drink. 3
Hepworth Iron Horse (4.8%): Another old favourite not quite at its best, a bit tangy. 3
Hepworth Summer Ale (3.4%): Zesty fruity golden beer. Lovely. 4
Hornbeam Black Coral Stout (4.5%): Dark, gritty and warming. 3
Humpty Dumpty Porter (5.4%): Decent strong porter. 3
Leeds Midnight Bell (4.8%): Rich and complex unusual mild. 3
Leeds Yorker (4.0%): A massive hop taste to this light-coloured beer. Very similar to Dark Star Hophead, but the Yorker is made with Slovenian hops. 3
Mighty Oak Simply The Best (4.4%): Fresh with quite a bitter taste. 3
Oakleaf Nuptu'ale (4.2%): Golden, sharp and hoppy. 3
Ossett Wot No England (4.3%): Pleasant drinkable bitter. 3
Pictish Alchemist (4.3%): Very sweet hoppy beer. 4
Purple Moose Madog's Ale (3.7%): A little sharp but with a lovely smooth malt taste. 3
Spectrum Light Fantastic (3.7%): Gentle bitter. A little earthy. 3
Spectrum Old Stoatwobbler (6.0%): Strong, dark, sweet and malty. 3
Thornbridge Brother Rabbit (3.7%): Good bitter, similar in flavour to a golden ale. 3
Vale Best Bitter (3.7%): Well balanced bitter; very light in colour. 3
West Berkshire Maggs Magnificent Mild (3.8%): Mellow and dark, exactly as its name suggests. 4
White White Gold (4.9%): Almost tasteless pale beer, although with a pleasant aftertaste. 2
Whitstable Wheat Beer (5.2%): Lemon and grapefruit hoppiness to this delicious wheat beer. 3

Some fine beers available over the weekend. This year the beer tent opened on the Friday evening of the festival, which meant there was not a great selection left on the Sunday afternoon. Good for keeping wastage down but not so good for thirsty morris men!

The Gardeners Arms, Lewes 5th September 2007

A popular hangout for real ale drinkers, today we tried Harvey’s Sussex Best Bitter (4.0%) which was excellent as usual, and Mighty Oak All Washed Up (4.2%), a pleasant fresh, light coloured beer with a hint of spices and citrus.

CAMRA Beer Tent at Crawley Folk Festival 30th June and 1st July 2007

Now officially well again, I was determined to enjoy the CAMRA beer tent at this festival as fully as possible. Which meant tasting as many of the beers on offer as possible, over the two days.

1648 Ginger Nol (4.7%): Not great on first tasting but with a pleasant, subtle aftertaste. 3
Crouch Vale Brewers Gold (4.0%): Tasty, hoppy light beer. Good. 3
Dark Star Original (5.0%): Gorgeous, malty warming dark beer. 4
Dark Star Hophead (3.8%): Very sweet light beer with strong hints of grapefruit. 4
Dark Star Sunburst (4.8%): Interesting and zesty; very light in colour and strong. 4
Hopdaemon Incubus (4.0%): Excellent well balanced bitter with a rounded finish. 4
Mighty Oak Burntwood Bitter (4.0%): Very smoky, bitter, and as the name suggests, burnt-tasting. 2
Mighty Oak Oscar Wilde (3.7%): Sweet yet bitter dry mild. 3
Oakham J.H.B. (3.8%): Very light coloured, slightly hoppy, fruity and not too strong. 3
Oakham White Dwarf (4.3%): Very light hoppy beer with a zesty, fruity flavour. 3
Oakleaf I Can't Believe It's Not Bitter (4.9%): Hmm, I can actually. Ordinary lager. 3
Ramsgate Dogbolter (5.6%): Malty porter with caramel tones. 3
Ramsgate Gadd's No. 3 (5.0%): Interesting hoppy and bitter pale ale. 4
Rebellion Mutiny (4.5%): Excellent bitter with a hint of fruit and hops. 5
Ringwood Boondoggle (4.0%): Good ordinary bitter without being excessively hoppy or bitter. 3
Triple FFF Stairway (4.6%): Not quite ready for drinking this was very bitter and otherwise bland. 3
Vale Black Beauty Porter (4.3%): Well rounded and mellow creamy porter. 4
White Fagged Off (3.8%): Really interesting - hint of ashtray yet not unpleasant! 3
Whitstable Oyster Stout (4.5%): Heavenly, smooth, dry warming stout. 5
Wolf Wolf In Sheep's Clothing (3.7%): Fruity well balanced mild. 3

I was very pleased to see that the selection included two milds, two porters, a stout and a couple of speciality beers. The only downfall seemed to be that while there were about five golden beers, there were only three standard bitters, one of which wasn’t great. Overall a good selection, and certainly one which ensured bitter drinkers tried other beer styles.

My beer of the festival was Rebellion Mutiny. Mmm.

I also managed to see some of the performances and although it rained for what seemed like the whole weekend, I had a great time. The highlight was The Copper Family on the Sunday evening.

NB All breweries and beer names taken directly from the beer list supplied by beer tent staff. Marks out of 5 as per CAMRA marking system.