Last Saturday, I travelled to the
market town of St Albans for its annual beer and cider festival. This town in close to
CAMRA’s heart as not only does it house their headquarters, it was also the
location for the very first CAMRA branch meeting at the Farrier’s Arms on the
20th November 1972, and subsequently the inaugural CAMRA beer
festival at the Old Market Hall which was held on the 30th March 1974.
This beer festival now in its 26th iteration has been held at the Alban Arena
since 1996; this year marked my third visit to the festival, having visited it
twice before in 2012 and 2019 respectively. Since my last visit not much had changed,
over in the main auditorium, the Hertfordshire Bar was nestled in the stalls
whilst adjacently the National Bar was on the stage and the International Bar
was downstairs in the bar area normally used by the theatre. There was also a selection
of brewery specific bars that included the likes of Tring, Crossover, Mad Squirrel,
Ossett and Vale. Notably absent was the Keg Bar that specialised in exclusively
selling cold conditioned beers and lagers, and the range of beers in the
Hertfordshire Beer was vastly scaled back, with a third of the space being
taken up the more prominently positioned Cider & Perry Bar, and the Tring
Brewery bar. I found this to be only major drawback, which I found particularly
concerning since this festival was traditionally seen as the premier exhibit in
the county for promoting beers made by breweries in the region. Perhaps this
was a sign of money troubles for the local CAMRA branch or an excuse for
cutting corners.
We came the festival on the final
day of the four-day event, so I was half expecting some of the beers to be unavailable,
although thankfully only a few barrels had run dry. We arrived shortly after
opening time in order to take advantage of the wide range of beers, ciders and
perries still available. Upon entering the main hall, I made a beeline for the
Osset Brewery Bar as I wanted to sample some genuine Northern Beer for a
change, an opportunity which I missed out on at GBBF 2022. After some
deliberation I chose White Rat (4%), one of the brewery’s core range of beers.
It was a traditional session Pale Ale with a rather frothy white head that was difficult
to extinguish. The beer itself was distinctly hoppy, bready and exceedingly
bitter, the use of Cascade, Columbus and Amarillo hops were particularly
potent, giving off a kaleidoscope of flavours that gave the drink plenty of
character and could easily be mistaken for a much stronger beer than what was
advertised; by eck’ it was a ‘reyt good’ example of Yorkshire beer. After
starting on a high, I sought to go local for my second beer of the day since I
was at a Hertfordshire beer festival, so I went for Blind Poet (4.5%)
produced by New River Brewery based in Hoddesdon. A lightly smoked porter made
four varieties of malt, this beer was close to jet black in colour with a tan
coloured head. It had a thick and smooth mouthfeel, and there were distinct
coffee and chocolaty notes going on, there was also a strong hint of roasted malt
which added depth to the smoky bitterness, whilst the hints of liquorice and fruit
provided a decent counterpoint. I found this to be a great example of Porter as
it managed to hit all the right notes. Taking it up a notch, I decided to visit
the National Bar and immediately went for Green Devil (6%) by Oakham
Brewery. I sampled this beer before in bottle form, but the draught version has
always seemed to eluded me so this was an opportunity too good to miss. A
punchy double hopped IPA brimming with Citra hops, this beer is the bigger brother
of Citra (4.2%) which was the first British beer to utilize this notable
American hop variety. So understandably this was beer was exceedingly hoppy
with a profoundly bitter backbone; complimented by a caramel sweetness that underpinned
its cloying mouthful. The hops were rather citrussy which gave off buckets of
flavour and added strength to this rather strong brew. Overall, this beer was
full of depth and complexity in flavour, richly balanced between sweetness, strength
and hoppy bitterness, which makes it easy to see why it has one a slew of
awards over the past decade.
Notably this year, the festival has
showcased a number of rare beers that are seldom seen on draught; one of these
was Prince of Denmark (7.5%) by Harvey’s Brewery based in Lewes, which
is normally only available in bottle but occasionally appears on draught on the
festival circuit; so this was a unique occasion to try this beer in this
condition. A strong dark beer produced in the Imperial Stout style, it is based
on traditional recipes going back to the 18th century. I found this
beer to be rather potent, with profound winey and fruity flavours swirling
around it’s notable treacle like sweetness. There were also hints of chocolate
and coffee going on, with a whisp of sourness brought on by the damson like
fruitiness. It was smooth in mouthfeel without being too heavy which I found
rather rewarding. This beer had echoes of a dessert wine; the variety of
flavours present could easily pass it off for such a drink. So understandably
given its strength, it should be treated as a sipping beer that should be
savoured for its flavours rather than be drunk in huge quantities. Evening was
fast approaching, although I had sampled a variety of beers including Pale Ale,
Porter, IPA and Imperial Stout, I had not tried a Bitter yet. So, for my final
beer I went for Braveheart (5%) by Brentwood Brewery; a classic premium
bitter produced in the ESB style, this beer is not part of their core range, it
is only available in draught and normally appears in pubs in Brentwood and
nearby areas. Deep brown in colour, with a thin off-white head, it was strong
and packed with bitterness, there was also a notable hint of roasted and toasted
malt that gave it much depth of character. Moreover, there was a vague hint of
sweetness but the overwhelming bitterness seemed dominate the balance on
flavours. Although a decent and quaffable example of a Premium Bitter, this far
off from being the best that the brewery has to offer.
Overall, I enjoyed my visit, had
it not been for the Train Strike (now in its 2nd consecutive year)
and other contributing factors, I would have stayed there longer and sampled
more beers. This festival had a lot to offer in its beer selection from local Hertfordshire
breweries to regional examples from across the country. The presence of the
Cider & Perry, and International Beer bars provided decent counterpoints to
the main action, the showcase of rare beers was also an added bonus for aficionados
and connoisseurs alike and the range of brewery bars gave ample opportunity for
people to browse and sample from an assortment of beers that these respective
breweries had to offer. This festival was almost like a condensed version of GBBF,
since it had all the classic hallmarks, although much like its namesake there
was an uneasy feeling that this festival had been scaled down due to the
ongoing cost of living crisis which has had an impact on CAMRA and the brewing
industry alike. Hopefully this not a sign of things to come, and in subsequent
years from now the organisation will recover and build from strength to strength
with bigger and bolder beer festivals in the region.
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