I find the name a bit confusing – if you read it one way it implies that it is a festival devoted to British beer.  That isn’t the case, and there are beers there from all over the world.  In previous posts I have sung the praises of American beers that are finding their way over to Britain, so I was interested in an article in The Independent last week that said that there will be 180 American beers at the GBBF this year.  I’m hoping to sample one or two of them at least.

Here is the press release (PDF format).  Beers With Attitude

We bought our souvenir glasses and started to explore – drinking half pints goes against the grain a little bit, but it does offer more opportunity to taste more beers.  Even by the time we arrived at about 1pm it was pretty much standing room only – there were tables and chairs around the place, but they had mainly been nabbed by people who intended to stay there for the duration and take it in turns to go for drinks – defeats the object of the exercise if you ask me, but then it takes all sorts…  Luckily, being CAMRA members, we were able to take advantage of the CAMRA Lounge up the escalator – a very welcome sit down later in the afternoon – and a very interesting chat with a chap who recommended the Derby Hop Till You Drop, which turned out to be an excellent recommendation.

Anyway, there were so many beers that we’d never tried before – many of them we’d never even heard of before – so we just wandered around until we spotted something that took our fancy, and tried that.  Between us we sampled: Greene King St. Edmunds (4.2%) and Bonkers Conkers (4.1%), Kelham Island Bitter (3.8%), Copper Dragon Golden Pippin (3.9%), Timothy Taylor Golden Best (3.5%), Clarks Classic Blonde (3.9%), Shepherd Neame Canterbury Jack (3.5%) and Whitstable Bay (cask version) (4.1%), St. Austell Proper Job (4.5%) – I know it’s a favourite, but I couldn’t resist – Cain’s Liver Bird (4.3%), Derby Hop Till You Drop (3.9%), and Jersey Liberation Ale (4.0%) – plenty of variety there.  I might write a few words about some of them in future posts.

We left the event at about 6pm – just as it was starting to get a bit boisterous as people were leaving work on a Friday evening and heading to the festival for a few beers.  Old hands had told us that it gets very busy in the evenings, and that it could take 20 minutes or more to get served at the bars – certainly wouldn’t be drinking halves in that case!

A couple of added bonuses during the day.  Firstly, we won a couple of prizes on the CAMRA tombola – a nice pint glass and tokens for two free halves of beer.  Secondly, when we got back to Paddington we realised that our day return tickets wouldn’t let us use a fast train to Reading until 7.30pm – so we decamped to The Mad Bishop and Bear – the Fuller’s pub in the station – and had a couple of pints of excellent Fuller’s Chiswick Bitter.

We’ll be there on Friday 7th, and hopefully I’ll have some nice things to write about afterwards.

Dark Star Hophead (3.8%).  I’d never come across the Dark Star Brewing Company before.  Although it has been in business since 1994, it is still a small operation.  It started out in the cellar of the Evening Star pub in Brighton, and in 2001 it relocated to a purpose-built brewery in Ansty, near Haywards Heath.  This beer was the star of the show as far as I’m concerned – it is very pale gold, has a floral, elderflower and hoppy aroma, and a dry, hoppy, bitter taste – lovely – if you can find it, I would definitely recommend it.

Chiltern Ale (3.7%) from The Chiltern Brewery.  Another small and fairly local brewery – based near Aylesbury.  another light, drinkable beer – amber, with a slight toffee aroma and taste.  Not as bitter as the Hophead, and with a slightly sweet taste – quite enjoyable though.

Oxfordshire Triple B (3.7%).  I’ve previously written about Oxfordshire Ales and their Pride of Oxford bottled beer (see Dreaming Spires).  Another local-ish brewery, in Marsh Gibbon, north of Oxford.  A dark amber beer, another with toffee overtones, but well-hopped and satisfyingly bitter.  Went down nicely.

West Berkshire Brewing Company’s Good Old Boy (4%).  Described by the brewery as a “good ordinary bitter”.  Full bodied and bitter, and very pleasant, but by this time I was starting to find the amber-toffee-bitters a bit samey – but I did enjoy this one.

Almost time to go home, but just time for another pint – I just couldn’t resist a pint of St. Austell Tribute (4.2%), even though there were other beers there that I haven’t tasted before – well, there’s always next year.  You’ll know from my previous posts that this is one of my favourite beers, especially the cask version.  A light-coloured bitter (“bronze” according to the blurb), light bodied as well, but with plenty of taste – aromatic, fruity, hoppy and dry.  A beautiful beer.

Despite the soggy weather this event was as enjoyable as it always has been (this was its 22nd year, and we reckon we have only missed one of them).  The 23rd event will be on 15th, 16th and 17th July 2010.

Never mind, I’m still looking forward to it – we’ll be there on Friday evening.  Look on the website, and you’ll see that there will be 34 beers on sale, from 21 different brewers – and there are some on the list that I’m really looking forward to sampling – some old favourites, and some that will be new to me.  Not a huge beer festival by any means, but manageable, with a good selection – anyway, I can’t manage as many different beers in a session as I used to be able to.

Oh, and there will be some jazz as well!