Tag Archives: beer festival

Brewery Tap’s 3rd Beer Festival this year!

Abingdon is having a good share of beer festivals this year. We have recently enjoyed the King’s Head & Bell‘s 1st beer festival in August, and The Old Anchor’s beer festival in July. Starting today, the Brewery Tap in Abingdon is holding its 3rd festival this year (previously ones were in June and March. Incidently, ‘Abingdon’s First beer festival’ was actually held in the car park of The Brewery Tap back in October 2004.

List of beers and ciders, with tasting notes

The Tap’s beer festival features 16 real ales including Abingdon Bridge from Abingdon’s own Loose Cannon Brewery and 8 real ciders, and as with the previous Tap festivals this year…. specialist sausages and live music.

There will be live music on Saturday afternoon (4pm) from The Three Musty Steers and on Sunday afternoon (4pm) from George Haslam’s 18 piece Big Time Swing Band.


Saturday also coincides with the annual Runner Bean Day on Saturday, which offers prizes for things such as the longest runner bean.



If you want to travel outside of Abingdon there are a few other beer festivals going on including The Cricketer’s Arms in Littleworth which is holding its Autumn Beer and Sausage Festival featuring 12 locally brewed beers, and Far From the Madding Crowd in Oxford which is holding its Autumn Beer festival.

September 24, 2010Permalink Leave a comment

Kings Head & Bell – 1st Annual Abingdon Beer Festival

The Kings Head and Bell in Abingdon, which reopened last autumn is holding its first annual beer festival this weekend from saturday 29th August until monday. The festival features aproximately 20 real ales, which are all from local breweries including Appleford, Vale, Hook Norton and others that did not have pump clips on yet when I looked on friday.

Kings Head and Bell - Stillage, the day before

The full list of breweries is Hook Norton, White Horse, Abingdon’s own Loose Cannon, Oxfordshire Ales, Appleford, Box Steam Brewery, West Berkshire, Wadworth, Festival Brewery from Cheltenham and Vale Brewery.

The festival was officially opened at midday on Saturday by Beth Fleming, chairman of the Vale and Alastair Fear, deputy mayor of Abingdon.

Also this afternoon, members from the Oxford branch of CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) members will be giving a tutured tasting demonstration and will be on hand to answer questions about real ale and what CAMRA does.

Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers will be performing on Sunday afternoon starting around 2:30pm and will be followed by a folk music jam session.

The Freedom brewery had a stand on Saturday where you could sample their Hand crafted English Lagers, which if you are only used to the bland mass produced lager brands will surprise you with their aroma, taste and body. The King’s Head and Bell regularly serve Freedom Four

There are other things going on as well including a BBQ serving local farm produce. The banner outside also refers to a local craft market and face painting.

August 28, 2010Permalink 1 Comment

Brewery Tap Cider Festival


The Brewery Tap in Ock Street, Abingdon is holding a Cider festival this weekend (Friday 25th June – Sunday 27th June).

It will feature 21 different ciders, including a rare breed of ciders from local sources and CAMRA award winners.

The full list of ciders and perrys along with tasting notes can be downloaded here

There will also be a selection of world beers, and a selection of interestingly flavoured sausages that have been very popular at the previous beer festivals.

Sunday afternoon should be good, watching England beat Germany whilst drinking some traditionally made real English ciders.

June 24, 2010Permalink Leave a comment

Stocks Bar May Day Weekend Beer Festival

The Stocks Bar has a beer festival this weekend, starting on Friday 30th April and running until Monday 3rd May.

They expect to be offering a range of approximately 30 ales and ciders.

You can get more info from their facebook page or main website at www.crownandthistle.com

The Stocks Bar is at the Crown & Thistle Hotel, 18 Bridge Street, Abingdon, OX14 3HS

In recent months following changes of bar management the Stocks Bar has been up and down regarding its beer range, but recently it seems back on track again with a good range of beers including local beers from Witney based Brakspear, Wychwood and Grove based Pitstop, as well as guest beers from further afield such as Jennings. So let’s hope that this beer festival goes well and is a sign of good things to come.

The List of beers is:

  • Snecklifter 5.1%
  • Cockerhoop 4.6%
  • Mans Bitter 3.9%
  • Old Empire 5.7%
  • Fortyniner 4.9%
  • Old Thumper 5.6%
  • Marstons EPA 3.6%
  • Hobgoblin 4.5%
  • Oxford Blue 4.0%
  • Brakspear Bitter 3.4%
  • Dragon Tale 4.5%
  • Boondoggle 4.2%
  • Oxford Gold 4.0%
  • Stickle Pike 3.8%
  • Normans Conquest 7%
  • Golden Arrow 4.5%
  • Grumpling 4.6%
  • SaracenIPA 4.5%
  • Dragon Hill 4.2%
  • Bitumen 10%
  • IPA Indianapolis 7%
  • Star 3.8%
  • Jumping Jack Flash 3.9%
  • Dr Hectors Healer 5.0%
  • Mags Mild 3.8%
  • Gravitas 4.8%
  • Old Father Thames 3.4%
  • Tom Fool 4.0%
April 26, 2010Permalink Leave a comment

Brewery tap beer cider & sausage festival this weekend, 4th – 6th december

The Brewery Tap Beer, Cider & Sausage Festival started this afternoon (Friday 4th December) and will run until close on Sunday evening. The pub is located on Ock Street in Abingdon.

There are 30 different real ales, 8 ciders and 20 different types of sausage, including Steak & Marmite and other interesting flavours.

There will be live music on Sunday afternoon. Additionally on Sunday, anyone showing a CAMRA membership card will be offered a discount on beer prices

The beer list has a good range, including many local beers from breweries such as Pitstop, Vale, West Berkshire, White Horse as well some from further afield. I particularly recommend you try some of the Pitstop beers as they are unlike anything else you will have ever tried (Try the Sump in half pints as it is very strong… and on Friday was amongst the most popular). The complete beer and cider list is reproduced below:

Brewery Beer Name
Morland Original
Hardy & Hansons Bitter
Hardy & Hansons Rocking Rudolph
Greene king Abbott Reserve
Greene king IPA
White Horse Wayland Smithy
White Horse Blackhorse porter
White Horse Rudolph the red nose reindeer
White Horse Village Idiot
West Berkshire Brewery Magg’s Mild
West Berkshire Brewery Alecost
Vale Brewery Grumpling
Vale Brewery Gravitas
Vale Brewery Black Beauty Porter
Vale Brewery Black Swan Mild
Banks & Taylor’s Autumn Porter
Mauldons Black Adder
Lancaster Amber
Hoggley’s Resevoir Hogs
Ossett Big Red
Ossett Treacle
Banks & Taylor’s Two brewers Bitter
Titanic Chocolate and Vanilla Porter
Stonehenge Great Bustard
Cannon Brewery IPA
Hook Norton Steam on
Limestone Stone Cold
Pitstop Sump
Pitstop Grandprix
Pitstop Monaco
Ciders:
Thatchers Cheddar Valley 6.0%
Westons Old Rosie 7.3%
Westons Country Perry4.5%
Westons 1st Quality 5.0%
Millwhites Premium Whiskey Cask Cider 7.5%
Millwhites Organic single orchard 6.7%
Millwhites Single variety Dabinett 8.0%
Millwhites Single variety Kingston black 7.0%
December 4, 2009Permalink Leave a comment