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.

Flowing Well in Sunningwell

The Flowing Well in Sunningwell near Abingdon has recently reopened with new management.

They are currently serving Morlands Original, Olde Trip and GK IPA and awaiting new guest beer.

They will be holding a Beer Festival from May 27th to June 6th.

I haven’t visited yet since the new management took over, but previously it has been a pleasant place to visit in the summer with a large beer garden (With a well at the bottom), children’s outside play area and situated in the unspoilt village of Sunningwell which is easily reached by walking or cycling from Abingdon along the footpath heading north from Dunmore Road.

You can get more info about the pub from their web site at www.theflowingwell.co.uk

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%

New Brewery for Oxford

Shotover Brewery Logo

A new craft micro brewery called the Shotover Brewing Company is due to
open soon in converted stables in Horspath just outside Oxford. The
owner and head brewer Ed Murray has been craft brewing for over twenty years
and has made the decision to turn his interest into a commercial venture.
It is anticipated that beer will be on sale by the end of November.

There are photos of stables being converted into the brewery on their facebook group and their main web site is at www.shotoverbrewing.com.

I am hoping that one of the Shotover beers will be at the Brewery Tap‘s Winter ‘Beer, Cider & Sausage’ festival on Friday 4th December – Sunday 6th December. This festival promises 30 different cask ales, 5 real ciders. The Big Boys Blues Band will be playing live on the Sunday from 4pm.

Note to any publicans reading this… I don’t intend to only mention the Brewery Tap and the Stocks. There are many other good pubs in Abingdon including Nags Head, Spread Eagle, White Horse, Cross Keys, Punchbowl, Plough, Broad Face. If you have any news, information on guest beers, festivals, etc, then please let me know and I’ll post it here.