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Great British Beer Festival 2009 (CAMRA Beer Festival)

Beer (sort)Average Score (sort)No. Samples (sort)
Spectrum - Black Buffle StoutExceptional1
Rogue - Chocolate StoutExcellent1
Bray's Brewpub - Winter SolsticeGood1
Tipple's - The Hanged MonkGood1
Belhaven - 60/-Acceptable1
Caythorpe - Stout FellowAcceptable1
De Zenne - Taras BoulbaAcceptable1
Humpty Dumpty - Little SharpieAcceptable1
Girardin - LambiekPoor1
Picture 1. Great British Beer Festival 2009, Earl's Court, Central London

Visits Details

07 Aug 2009 (Ian)
Day 4. Sat back round by the Biere Sans Frontieres stand. Although not as busy as some years, there were still bars by the mid afternoon where you had to queue for a beer. I therefore chose other places to get a drink. The Shepherd Neame beer experience area I thought was pretty good and gave you the opportunity to try different malts and hops. Left around 18.00 to go to the White Horse, Parsons Green.
BeerABVScoreNotes
Bray's Brewpub - Winter Solstice6.50GoodLasting bubbly head, lots of fresh grapefruit on the aroma. Little bit of mineral tangerine in mouth. It's ok. Some decent grapefruit throughout.
04 Aug 2009 (Andrew)
What a big place this is. I actually got lost twice - and I'd not drunk more than a pint either. I met Ian in the queue and then sat with him and the Ratebeer faithful. Dubbel and Jeff & Jo were there too. I tried the few UK beers I'd wanted and then felt adventurous and tried some wacky stuff from the foreign bar.
BeerABVScoreNotes
Spectrum - Black Buffle Stout4.50ExceptionalSuperb. Even the cold temperature it was served at couldn't kill the flavours in this. It was a black beer with a hint of sourness, big roasted body, hint on soot and slightly acrid. Great stuff.
Rogue - Chocolate Stout5.10ExcellentWhat a great beer. Proper chocolate flavours rather than the usual powdered coco nonsense that most 'chocolate beers' have. Cracking stuff.
Tipple's - The Hanged Monk3.80GoodRuby brown beer that smelt musty (in a good way). Roasted with a slight tangyness, bit of caramel and bit of smoke.
Humpty Dumpty - Little Sharpie3.80AcceptableGolden, light, hint of yeast, hint of lemon, bit of pepper, bit of green leaf.
Belhaven - 60/-2.90AcceptableWoohoo! A Scottish Light. The last light I had was in Glasgow and tasted of water. This was a dark brown beer with a good head. It had a watery tartness with a low hopping rate. It was slightly reminiscent of a dead horse.
Caythorpe - Stout Fellow4.20AcceptableA bit cold. Watery, slightly sooty and not very stout to be honest. I don't think the low temperature it was served at helped to be honest
De Zenne - Taras Boulba4.50AcceptableWell what can I say about this. Looked like the output from someone with a kidney infection. Yeasty, lemon rind, blar blar.
Girardin - Lambiek5.00PoorDo what gov'nor!?! I'm sure this has some redeeming features but I'm blowed if I can find them. Fizzy, appley, very tart. If this is an archetypal Lambic then my old home town of Ashford in Kent had loads of pubs selling this in the 1980's.

About the Great British Beer Festival 2009

The pub sign. Great British Beer Festival 2009, Earl's Court, Central London

Summary of Beer Scores

 Total
Exceptional1
Excellent1
Good2
Acceptable4
Poor1

The pub is found in Earl's Court, Central London, SW5 9TA.

CAMRA's Great British Beer Festival.

We have visited this pub twice, seen 9 different beers and tried them all.

Map location

Postcode: SW5 9TA