The GREAT British Beer Festival

My last day in England, and I have been planning this one since I first started travelling to the UK.  After nine trips, I’m finally in the vicinity when the Great British Beer Festival (GBBF) was being held, a celebration of cask beer where they award the UK Champion Beer for that year.  All About Beer rated the event #4 on their Top 125 places to have a beer before you die back in 2008, and I’ve been trying to get there ever since.  So I made my plan, travelling to the event via the Tube, finding the appropriate places for breakfast and dinner, and trying to pace myself appropriately for the task at hand.  So I walked to the station, grabbed my train, and headed to my first stop, the White Horse Pub at Parson’s Green (http://www.whitehorsesw6.com/).

I had taken Jenn to the White Horse almost 4 years earlier (to the day, actually) when we first toured London because it was #51 on the All About Beer listing.  It was memorable for their Eggs Benedict, delicious with thinly sliced ham (goodbye Canadian bacon in my household), and for their great beer selection.  I sat in the same chairs we had sat previously, and ordered my breakfast.  It was good food and a great memory, but wasn’t quite the same without having Jenn with me (kind of a theme for the day).  However, it was too early to get a beer according to the waitress, so I had to look fondly at the selection.  I shared my beer list and told my story about my search of new beers, and was allowed to sample a few (with the owner’s permission of course).  I tried pair of beers by Thornbridge which is based out of Sheffield; Knoll, a brown ale that was brewed in conjunction with the folks at White Horse, and their 10% ABV (glad it was just a taste) whiskey barrel aged Scotch ale that was awesome.  Buying beer is good, but getting free samples ahead of time while chatting with the owner is even better.  But it was going to be a long day, so I said goodbye and headed up to Olympia Convention center to get in line for the main event.

The GBBF (http://www.gbbf.org.uk/) is a celebration in beer, and had been running all week at the venue.  By Saturday, several of the beers were already gone but there were plenty left to choose from.  I walked around, checking the beer offerings from the different regions, and chose a Tillingbourne Black Troll bitter that was a great start at 3.7% ABV (low alcohol permits sampling longer).  Malty and refreshing, I filled my beer glass for a 1/3 of a pint (the best way to sample more brews) and even got a picture with the CAMRA volunteer.  I broke my rule on alcohol content 10 minutes later when I noted that Le Coq’s Imperial Russian Stout was available on cask at the Harvey’s tent.  This phenomenal beer’s recipe was currently owned by Harvey’s, having passed through several brewers in the last twenty years, and was the forefather of the current Russian Imperial Stout craze in the US.  My next stop was Welsh beer from Brains, who offered some brews similar to US craft brew with their A-Pork-Alypse (a double chocolate and bacon porter), Bragging Rights (a beer similar to a braggot), their Reverend James Bitter and Low Hanging Fruit (a bitter brewed with sour morello cherries).  It was a good start to the day, but I needed some more food, so I proceeded to get a Scrumpy beef pasty (marinated in cider) to go with a pickled egg.

I had been hitting the stands pretty quickly, and decided it was time to kick back, watch the people, and make a plan for the rest of the afternoon.  I looked for the festival winners and went and sampled those beers.  Elland won the Gold Champion award with their 1872 Porter, a chocolately dark beer that was 6.5% ABV, as well as a nice pale ale that was entitled Beyond the Pale.  Buttingford won the Silver Champion award with their Twitchell, a delicious bitter that was a fine session beer.  Finally, the Scottish brewery Fyne won the Bronze Champion award with their Jarl, a Golden Ale that was 3.8% ABV.  I bought a T-shirt and a lanyard for my badge at work, and headed over to Green King for the release of their 5X on cask, a rare barley wine that was 12% ABV that put over the top for the day and made me switch to water for a while (but it was worth it!).  I took my time and sampled some others, but my adventure was over for this event and I was ready to move on.  I called Jenn while I soaked up the ambiance before leaving, thinking of Pink Floyd’s, “Wish You Were Here.”  Knowing that the beer may have not have been her favorite, but there was always the cider tent!

I went for a walk down to the Thames which was about a mile away and close to a Tube station so that I could get back to my hotel, and got a little damp from the rain.  The Albion was hospitable and offered Thwaite’s Wainwright to sip on (it wouldn’t be right to use their shelter without ordering a beer, would it?).  Next the Swan offered a Great Heck Yakima IPA, a very bitter beer for this side of the pond.  Finally I made it to the Dove (http://dovehammersmith.co.uk/) which is on the river itself, and dried off by the fire with a Fuller Chiswick Bitter a Courgette (zucchini?) and Fennel soup.  It was tasty, but not filling, so I found a Subway on the way to the Tube (no irony there), picked up an Italian BMT (not exactly what I originally had in mind for my last dinner in London), and headed back to the hotel.

It was a great day, memorable, but not spectacular because I wasn’t able to share it with someone special.  I would have loved to share my passion with Jenn, and was left with doing it over the phone or with Facetime.  I was able to sample 41 beers today (193 for the 2 weeks), an impressive total that was done without many ill effects (I did have to travel 20 hours the next day), and fulfill a personal dream.  Next time, all my advanced planning will include a partner in crime. – 6327/14550

“A night of good drinking is worth a year’s thinking.” – Charles Cotton