Bushey Beer Festival 2024

On the last week of July each year, the Three Crowns in Bushey holds a three day Beer & Cider Festival, a charity event, where for the last few years it has been organised by the Bushey & Oxhey Round Table No 691 and the Ladies Circle. The festival takes place in the pub’s extensive garden, and the beer and cider selection is comparatively small in comparison compared to other beer festivals around, so ever the curious I trekked up to Bushey along with my loyal drinking buddy Ed to see what the fuss was all about. It was a sun-kissed late July day, the weather was increasingly heating up since we were on the precipice of another heatwave, the pub garden was close to full capacity and the barbecue was steaming away, cooking up delectable dishes like hot dogs and Cajun chicken burgers. At the rear of the garden in outdoor bar area resided the drinks selection, only eight beers were on tap with an additional selection of six ciders and perries, yet rather unusually for a beer festival in my experience, all the casks were available, not one was missing or had gone ‘dry’, this brought a smile to my face after my tumultuous experience at the Ealing Beer Festival a few weeks before.

 

All the drinks here are reasonably priced, £2.50 for a half and £5 for a pint, most of the beers came from the Herts/ Bucks region with Tring Brewery taking up most of the selection, which fooled me into believing it was an event sponsored by the brewery. Rather intriguingly though for a Herts based beer festival, there were three beers from further afield, Betty Stoggs (4%) from Skinners based in Truro, Blue Sky Thinking (4.7%) by Pentrich Brewing Co. based in Pentrich and Jarl (3.8%) by Fyne Ales based in Cairndow, thus proving that distance doesn’t matter in this instance. Eager to step up to the plate, I ordered my first tipple. I went for Beechwood Bitter (4.3%) by Chiltern, I’ve had this beer in bottle before but never in cask so I was willing to try it, a classic bitter that is one of the brewery’s oldest beers, dating back to 1982 no less. It is made with a combination of Maris Otter and Crystal malts to give its notable beechwood amber colour, alongside Challenger, Fuggles and Goldings for its distinctive taste. I found the beer to be laced with bitterness, a touch nutty with hints of smokiness rolling around in the background which really suited the beer’s woodland theme, the flavours were well balanced and it was easy to see why this beer has such legendary status. I subsequently decided to go for something lighter for my next round of libation so I settled for Fanny Ebbs (3.9%), a blonde ale, it was named after a philanthropist who owned a sweet-shop in the village of Lilley, Hertfordshire, since it first appeared in 2017, it has been an annual Summer release for the brewery. Flavoured with Saaz and Cascade hops, it had a rather low level of bitterness and mild hints of malt and citrus rolling away, it was far from impressive yet thankfully it was refreshing and a good thirst quencher, perfect for a hot Summers day.

Following lunch, I decided to take a pit-stop from beer drinking and sampled a cider for my half time drink. The selection was dominated by ciders and perries from Lilley’s, based in Frome, located well within the heart of cider country; this company boasts an eclectic range of ciders and perries that encompass all sorts of flavours and styles, from traditional scrumpy to innovative cider and perry mashups that would give the likes of Koppenburg a run for their money. I have sampled their ciders and perries a number of times in the past so I knew what to expect, so I went for their Rum Cider (4%), made from bittersweet and medium apples, its claimed that this cider0 has a mellow and smooth finish with a hint of rum. Although it was rather dark in colour for a cider, I had trouble trying to find traces of rum in the flavouring, and its low ABV did it no justice when it came to forming a distinctive flavour profile. After this experience, I was ready to go back to beer, so I went for the festival special, Isabelle’s Red (5.5%) by Tring. This was a strictly limited-edition one-off drink, only four barrels were made available for the festival out of the 200 litres that were produced by placement student Isabelle. A classic Red IPA, it was made with Rye and Crystal malt to give its distinctive ruby colour, and a combination of Citra, Chinook and Cascade hops for flavour. This beer had plenty of character, it was rich, with lacings of vanilla, toffee, citrus and hints of roasted malt swirling in the background, the mouthfeel was heavy and cloying which helped amplify the flavour profile. By far it was the strongest beer of the festival and the most impressive, a sterling effort from the brewery and let’s hope they re-release it at some point in the future. For my final libation, I followed Ed’s advice and sampled Betty Stoggs (4%), a legendary Cornish beer which he has sampled on a number of occasions during his visits to the region over the years. One of the brewery’s inaugural releases following its launch in 1997, its name is inspired by Cornish folklore, where a woman going by the name would go around the Cornish moors, entertaining the country folk. Yet in the process she left her baby at home, uncared for and one day the Cornish Piskies kidnapped the poor babe. Betty later found her baby in a bed of moss, cared for by the Piskies and vowed to take more care of her child. The beer is inspired by her full bodied and fruity character, it is swathed in malted barley and wheat with a trio of Nortdown, Aurora and whole flower Celia hops to help give its distinctive flavour. It’s a traditional amber coloured bitter, with a light malty back-taste, there were hints of caramel and citrus fruit in the background, perhaps even suggesting an element of marmalade in the mix. Lacings of vanilla and oak helped compliment the balanced bitterness that segued well with the rest of the flavours, the aroma was notably malty and lingering which helped round of the beer to a tee, it was the ideal drink to finish off the proceedings and something I would definitely try on my next visit to Cornwall.

Overall, I found the festival to be a pleasant and enjoyable experience, although the sun was beating down on us and the temperature was climbing, the staff made good effort to keep the beers cool and in good condition, away from direct sunlight. Yet it was slightly marred by the small number of beers on tap and the lack of selection, since it was dominated by sessionable Bitters, Golden Ales and IPA with no dark or strong ale in sight. I enquired to the barman about this oversight, and he rightly informed me that due to the warm summer conditions, a lighter and more sessionable beer selection would be more appealing towards the punters, and this was rightly justified as scores of customers queued up for beers. Moreover, for a pub beer festival its none to surprising why they can only manage a relatively small selection of beers given the limited resources, space and money which they can allocate towards this, and in these trying financial times we should be grateful for what we get. Although this beer festival may not attract the die-hard real ale specialist or a snooty craft beer guzzler, this festival had a genial and community feel to the proceedings, the atmosphere was enjoyable and the beer selection was decent and the ideal backdrop to spending a pleasant Summer Sunday afternoon, if only more pubs could follow this example, we’d all be better off as a result.