The Brewery Tap beer festival last weekend was very successful… almost too successful with approximately 1600 pints of beer & cider in the beer tent sold on Friday & Saturday leaving only the 6 ales at the bar left on Sunday. First beer to sell out was WB-40, a limited edition beer brewed by the West Berkshire Brewery to celebrate 40 years of CAMRA (The Campaign for Real Ale).
Author Archives: The Abingdon Drinker
Abingdon Beer Festivals – March/April
There’s quite a few real ale related events going on in Abingdon over the next few weeks, coinciding with the Abingdon Arts Festival.
This weekend (Friday 25th to Sunday 27th March) sees the Brewery Tap‘s Beer, Cider, Music & Sausage festival. This features 12 beers in the beer tent, 6 at the bar, and 6 more in the cellar to replace the ones at the bar when they run out. As well as 11 real ciders and perrys.
More details including tasting notes of all the beers and ciders can be downloaded here:
Brewery Tap, Spring beer festival tasting Notes
There will be live music each day, as well as the now traditional selection of interestingly flavoured sausages.
Next weekend (1st-3rd April), the Broad Face will be having its first beer festival, combined with several live music events.
Then later on in April, the Kings Head & Bell is holding a Best of British Week, which encompasses St. George’s Day, Easter and the royal wedding, and hopefully some good british ale.
Don’t forget to keep visiting the other pubs in town that serve good pints of real ale including The White Horse, Cross Keys, Punch Bowl, Spread Eagle and Stocks Bar. Remember if we don’t use our local pubs they may close forever. We’ve lost 3 pubs already in the last 3 months and don’t want to lose any more!
Rehanging the Broad Face Sign
Dusty, the landlord of The Broad Face on Bridge Street will be hanging up the restored original pub sign (as featured on the front cover of the current issue of the Oxford Drinker) at the pub on the evening of Friday 4 March 2011.
Local band, Full Circle, will be playing and hopefully it will be a fun event.
Also see this article in the Abingdon Herald.
Loose Cannon Pale Ale Trials
The Loose Cannon Brewery in Abingdon in Suffolk Way has just finished brewing a new beer.
As with the Abingdon Bridge when it was launched last year, Will Laithwaite the owner and head brewer has made two different recipies, currently known as Trial Brew 1 and Trial Brew 2. They are made from the same malt and yeast but use different hops.
- Trial Brew 1: Made with Fuggles and Goldings Hops: Smooth, almost sweet, delicate, slightly spicy
- Trial Brew 2: Made with Challenger and Pioneer Hops: Lemon/Gratefruit citrus aroma.
Both trials can be sampled at the brewery shop, which is at the brewery in Suffolk Way.
You can also buy both of the Pale Ale trials as well as Abingdon Bridge in various sizes including 1 and 2 Litre bottles, mini-casks, polypins and Firkins.
We took a few litres back to our office to get the opinions of our colleagues. The reaction to each trial seems quite mixed. Both are very drinkable and different people seem to prefer different ones. Personally my vote is for Trial Brew 2 as it has a more complex taste, but brew 1 has more traditional English hops.
At the moment it is not being served in any Abingdon pub, but hopefully some of them will start stocking it in the next week or two. In the meantime, I recommend visiting the brewery to try it out. The brewery shop is open weekdays from 8am-6pm and Saturdays 9am-5pm.
The Cricketer’s Arms in Littleworth has both of the Pale Ale trials as well as Abingdon Bridge at their Beer & Sausage Festival this weekend, which features 14 mainly local real ales and 2 real ciders. More information can be found at www2.cricketers-arms.co.uk/beer_and_sausage_festival
This Week’s Beers Available at Brewery Tap
The Brewery Tap in Ock Street has a changing selection of real ales with a mixture of locally brewed ales, award winning beers from further afield and a good selection from Greene Kings guests.
For this week (7th February) they have:
- Morland’s Original 4.0% WEST GATE Suffolk 3.05
RUBY BROWN. Original is a fully fermented, refreshing ale with a very distinctive and intense
bitterness. Hints of subtle fruitiness on the nose follow through to the palette along with a light
touch of malt. - Good Old Boy 4.0% WEST BERKS BREWERY Yattendon, Berkshire 3.45
LIGHT CHESTNUT. A good balance of malt and hops giving a full-bodied bitter with strong malt
fl avours, yet retaining a rounded bitterness and a strong hop fi nish. Champion Best Bitter in
the CAMRA Champion Beer of Britain London and South East Regional Beer of the Year Competition
2009. - Riptide 4.1% BREW DOG Fraserbourgh 3.45
DARK. A strong, silky smooth imperial stout with a deep, dark ruby appearance. Mocha, bitter
chocolate, liquorice and dark cherry flavours prevail, before the balanced, warming and
encapsulating finish. - Original 5.5% EVERARDS Leicestershire, 3.55
CLASSIC TAWNY BROWN. A locally brewed ale with a good balance between hop and malt.
Full fl avoured and smooth, with well rounded bitterness from Challenger hops. Savinski hops
give the beer a light citrus and floral finish - Alpha Dog 4.7% BREW DOG Fraserbourgh 3.45
HAZLENUT BROWN. A rock and roll medley of summer fruit and pine gives way to hints of
roasted malt and a heady hoppiness, but with very low bitterness. - Yorkshire Terrier 4.2% YORK BREWERY 3.40
GOLDEN. This multiple award-winning Yorkshire beer is a golden coloured premium bitter with
a rich, creamy malt and full hop palate finish. - In the cellar: Pheonix by Westgate, Henry’s IPA by Wadsworths, Golden Glow by Holden’s, Abingdon Bridge by Loose Cannon
If any other landlords (or customers) would like to keep me regularly informed of the beer range in any Abingdon pubs, particularly ones which have a changing range of guest beers, then I will be happy to post them here.