SIBA Beer Festival report....

And speaking of Hops I wandered along to the SIBA South East Beer festival which was being held at the back of Tonbridge Juddians Rugby Club over the weekend. The cheeseburger was excellent! Oh and the beer wasn't bad either. Gosh what an amazing selection of varied beers all from independent breweries, mostly fairly local. Entry was free unlike, I'm told, last year when there was a charge of a fiver. I say free but you had to purchase a glass which cost £2 as you walked into the main marquee (where all the ale was) unless of cause you were tight enough to bring along your own half pint glass or else you wanted to drink beer out of your cupped hands! Frankly it was a kind of entrance fee but no one (not even me) was complaining about that, especially since it was also a souvenir of the festival. Having obtained my special half pint glass with the SIBA logo on one side and the TJ's on the other, and my beer tokens, which were £1.50 a time for each half, I was off in search of my first choice to sample, what else, but Tonbridge Breweries Blonde Ambition? Alas though, even on this Saturday evening only half way through the event, not a drop of this was left. So, spoilt for choice, I had to ask for the bar man's, who incidentally were all volunteers, recommendation. He suggested Quiver Bitter from Bowman's Ales and it was a great first choice; not too strong at 4.5% and gloriously rich golden in colour and with a wonderful mown grass aroma... full of complex flavours. At least that's what it said in the festival guide book. I'm not sure about all that but it certainly went down a treat after a hard day selling books in Mr. Books. Within a very short space of time, about four gulps really, it was time to move onto to sample number two. Walking around the site I spoke to several people I recognised, and a few I didn't, about what their favourite choices were. So I tried one of them called Incubus by Hopdaemon Brewery. This one I did find tasty but a little on the bitter side for my liking, obviously I manage to force it down without too much trouble so that I could move onto choice number three. Now I know that these were only half pints but it did occur to me at this point that, if I tried as many as I wanted to, at this rate, with no food in my stomach, I'd be pretty well sozzled after another three or four of the little beauties. I quite like a slight hint of honey in my real ales and noticed that one of the speciality beers, from 1648 Brweing Co. was called Bee Head. Sounded perfect. According to the guide it had a delicate touch of honey which you could taste if you looked for it. Well actually I couldn't and found this a little on the bitter side again. One of the girls from the ladies rugby team who was serving at one end of the bar saved my day by telling me that we were alowed to try a small (two fingers) sample first before committing to the full half. A tip which I put to good use; in fact, truth be told, I'd have been quite happy to just try a small taste of every one of those hundered different beers. But that might have been against the spirit of the festival so I just tried a few before making my selections from then on. There were loads that I didn't try, including all of Whitstable Brewery's Kent beers and all of Westerham's with names like British Bulldog and Pearl of Kent. I spotted on of the organisers when they were taking down the marquee yesterday after the three day event and mentioned to him that I'd like to have tried more of the ales to which he replied "that's why you need to come every day!" If I had it probably would have taken me three weeks to get over it! The whole thing was well organised, well attended and a really friendly, trouble free atmosphere, it was a real pleasure to be there. The fabulous summer weather helped as well. If only they could have the festival every Saturday night?! My favourite then? Of the ones I tried on the night it would have to be very first one: Quiver from Bowmans; it was the only one that I went back for a second half of so that's as good an indication as any I guess. One thing I do intend to do is to track down some of the beers in the guide and find out were I can buy the beer from, either on tap or in bottles. I'll stock up on those winter warmers....