The Selden Arms, Worthing 21st March 2009

This was a small "local" pub, which we couldn't get into at first because the doorway was full of excited dog.

There was a bad smell inside, which may or may not have been connected to the presence of the animal.


Cottage Champflower Ale (4.2%): Decent, rounded bitter.
Vale Black Swan Mild (3.9%): A gorgeous dark, mellow, chocolately mild.

Both were served a touch too cold for my taste.

There were about ten locals watching the rugby in the corner of the bar, but it was not loud and didn't get in the way. A lovely pub apart from the smell.

CAMRA Beer Tent at Crawley Folk Festival 29th and 30th June 2008 (copy entry)

In order to index the breweries using the label field, I've needed to create a copy entry as I drank so much beer here they don't all fit in one entry. So all the text below is a direct copy of the following entry.

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 Great British Beer Festival, Earls Court 7th August 2007 (copy entry)

All the below test has been copied from the previous entry. In order to fully link each brewer with a searchable 'label' I have had to create another blog entry, as there is a 200 character limit in the labels field. So for the full version, please go to the previous entry.

Nethergate IPA (3.5%): Stunning hop flavour and it tastes stronger than it is. 4
Nethergate Suffolk County Best Bitter (4.0%): Good rounded tasty bitter. 4
Nethergate Umbel Magna (5.0%): Made with coriander, it smells of herbs and tastes of light, delicate porter, an achievement in such a strong beer. 4
Oakleaf Hole Hearted (4.7%): Zesty, hoppy and spicy. 3
Olde Swan Original (3.5%): Smooth and fruity light coloured beer. 3
Potton Village Bike (4.3%): Decent bitter (shame about the silly name) but with a particular hop flavour that’s not my thing. 3
Rebellion Shaken Not Stirred (4.2%): From one of my favourite brewers, but first taste of this is ordinary. However it mellows into a lovely rounded aftertaste. Wonderful. 4
Rebellion Blonde (4.3%): Nasty insipid lagery tasting pale coloured beer. Not my thing. 2
Robinson’s Oldham Bitter (3.8%): Tangy, sharp and fruity. 3
Sharp’s Doom Bar Bitter (4.0%): Ordinary bitter. Usually one of my favourites but served too cold. 3
Sharp’s Eden Ale (4.3%): Dry, bitter and hoppy. Again served too cold. 3
Teme Valley This (3.7%): Straw hoppy taste to this golden ale. 3
Triple fff Summer Is Icumen (6.0%): Light and strong but not backed by hop or malt flavour. 3
Vale VPA (4.2%): A dark golden ale with zesty hop character. 3
Winter’s Golden (4.1%): Mild in flavour with a sharp finish. 3
Wolf Golden Jackal (3.7%): Tasting more like a darker beer this has an excellent balanced hop taste. 4

USA and Rest of the World
Cambridge Brewing Co Bitchin’ Bitter (4.2%): Slightly woolly tasting malty bitter. 3
Cambridge Brewing Co Tall Tale Pale Ale (5.8%): Smooth honey hop flavour but a little too strong to support the taste. 3
Dogfish Head 60 Miniute IPA (6.0%): Citrus yet mellow IPA. Doesn’t taste this strong. 3
Gardner Ale House Facelift IPA (6.3%): Very bitter to start with and served grim and cloudy. Although too strong for me, mellows into a tasty refreshing drink. 4
Sierra Nevada Wheat Beer (4.4%): Very pale coloured wheaty beer served chilled and tasting more like lager. 3
YoHo Brewing Co Yona Yona Ale (5.5%): Tasty malty beer similar to a best bitter. Very pleasant and I don’t think you’d guess it was all the way from Japan.

All the above were draft, and, with the exception of the YoHo beer, from the USA.

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.