Ealing Beer Festival

Believe it or not, but 80% of the people in the above photo are freaks

As mentioned on Friday afternoon, I took advantage of my CAMRA membership to gain free access to the Ealing Beer Festival. For some time now I have considered this to be the only CAMRA event worth going to but now I am reconsidering this position. We arrived in the afternoon to find that only CAMRA stereotypes were present. That's right, the crowd was mainly middle class older gents with beards and belly's who liked to wear fishing vests. There were a few other people who I would describe as socially eccentric there as well but I won't rip on the mentally disabled. We can learn a lot from all people in society (including the disabled and handicapped)- except real ale freaks. Actually on this point I should note that many of the CAMRA volunteers were amputees. I have nothing further to say on that, just stating my observation.

Anyway enough of the crap lets talk about the beer. From memory I had Thornbridge Jaipur, Fuller's Vintage 2008 (which was infected), Phoenix West Coast IPA, Ascot Alligator Ale, Harviestoun Schiehallion, Thornbridge Blackthorn and a few others (OK it wasn't a particularly long session and I was drinking with some pace. This affects the memory!). I only had the Harviestoun beer to see what the fuss was about. Apparently because it's a cask conditioned lager it's fine for CAMRA consumption. Well basically the beer is nice, but it could be mistaken for a bitter. I don't think there is any particular 'lager' like flavour that jumps out and grabs you. Anyhow this was the last CAMRA event I will ever go to. I'm not particularly sad about the fact either. Somehow the thought of never hearing about the game of table skittles and having to make small talk with the fellow below is rather appealing. Where do these people come from?

Ascot Alligator Ale

My wife surprised me for my birthday with a case of Real Ale bottles from RealAle.co.uk. The case is comprised of a number of tasty beverages upon which two of these were Alligator Ale (4.6% abv) from Ascot Ales. Alligator Ale is an American Pale Ale which is balanced a lot better than most beers of this style. Hopped exclusively with cascade hops, this beer is packed with all the piney citrus laden aromas you would expect, but it also does so without overpowering the predominant malt flavour. My only criticism of the beer is the amount of yeast sediment. There is at least a centimeter of sediment at the bottom of the bottle, which was hard packed and remained there. This will be welcomed by homebrewers who can propagate this yeast for use in there own breweries. I am going to be bold and say that this is the best beer that I have had this year to date. I would love to get out to the brewery one day and help out and have a look around (oh and yes, buy a gut load of beer!). This is definitely a beer to keep an eye out for. Information regarding Ascot Ales can be found at their website: http://www.ascot-ales.co.uk/

Ascot Ales began production in 2007, specialising in Real Ales with a New World twist.