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St Albans Beer Festival 2007 (CAMRA Beer Festival)
| Beer (sort) | Average Score (sort) | No. Samples (sort) |
|---|---|---|
| Acorn - Bramling X |  | 1 |
| Alehouse - Big Ape |  | 1 |
| Alehouse - Nine Above Zero |  | 1 |
| Alehouse - Rauchbier | | 1 |
| Arbor Ales - Slumberjack | | 1 |
| Ascot - Octoberfest | | 1 |
| Bays - Best | | 1 |
| Black Mountain - Off the Rails |  | 1 |
| Bridestones - Golden Cascade | | 1 |
| Dark Star - Autumn Equinox | | 1 |
| Fuller's (part of Asahi Europe) - Mr Harry | | 1 |
| Fyne - Maverick | | 1 |
| Grain - Tamarind IPA | | 1 |
| Mad Squirrel (formerly Red Squirrel) - Redwood Colorado American IPA | | 1 |
| Oakleaf (now see Fallen Acorn entries) - Green Gold Harvest Ale | | 1 |
| Orkney (Sinclair) - Bitter (Atlas range) | | 1 |
| Pictish - Centennial | | 1 |
| Pictish - Sauvin Blanc | | 1 |
| Quercus Devon (now see Salcombe entries) - Prospect | | 1 |
| Shalford - Hyde Bitter | | 1 |
| Shepherd Neame - What's Brewed Ale | | 1 |
| Tydd Steam - Steam Piston | | 1 |
Visits Details
28 Sep 2007 (Ian)
Day 2 for me and I met up with the usual London crowd from Ratebeer. I started with new UK breweries for me, but then got bored and started trying different stuff. Still good, but they had taken even more seating out, so we were lucky to get a table downstairs again. Unbelievably my best beer of the day was St Georgen Brau Pils in a bottle from Bamberg, which was the best lager I think I have ever had.
| Beer | ABV | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arbor Ales - Slumberjack | 5.90 | | Black with brown edges. Thin pale tan head. Stouty aroma. Quite oily. But hoppy as well. Good integrated alcohol. Bit of rubber. Good, bit minty on end too. Some ashtray. As Chris_o said, it had true ersatz, the whole was the better than the sum of the parts. Good start to the Friday session. |
| Tydd Steam - Steam Piston | 4.40 | | Amber colour with lasting bubbly beige. Yeast, hop, some malt. Good bitter, got everything I would want from an English bitter. Good tingly hop on tip of tongue. Best English straight bitter of the day. Good toffee. |
| Bridestones - Golden Cascade | 3.60 | | Hazy gold, thin beige head. Cascadey golden beer, a little chalky in mouth, floral cascadey aroma. Nice up front, disappointing in mouth, but it has got nice leafy nettley hop. |
| Alehouse - Nine Above Zero | 9.00 | | Copper/amber with lasting bubbly beige head. Acidic hoppy aroma, very good malts, really well put together, very very good. Nice grapefruit, good malt. |
| Fuller's (part of Asahi Europe) - Mr Harry | 4.80 | | Chestnut, lasting bubbly beige head. Some sickly syrupy malt, some good fruit. Some roastiness, toasty too, quite good, tasty, decent toffee. |
| Ascot - Octoberfest | 4.80 | | Amber, no head. Bready, biscuity aroma. Well it is a lager, some ok pukey malt settles down to a nutty toffee. Not at all bad. |
| Bays - Best | 3.70 | | Beautifuuly clear amber/gold, thin beige. Decent hoppy aroma, bit of farty yeast. It’s a bitter, quite interesting. |
| Quercus Devon (now see Salcombe entries) - Prospect | 4.00 | | Amber colour with thin beige head. Tea like, really quite hoppy. Tea like bitter, very drinkable. Quite harsh acidic on finish. Really challenges the gums. |
| Shalford - Hyde Bitter | 4.70 | | Hazy gold colour with no head. Oddly Belgian yeast aroma. Lots of cereal. Fine. Interesting. |
| Orkney (Sinclair) - Bitter (Atlas range) | 3.60 | | Gold/copper with thin off white head. Maybe diacetyl. Certainly buttery caramel which carries on in mouth. Otherwise it’s a bitter. |
| Black Mountain - Off the Rails | 4.50 | | Hazy gold, no head. Odd lemony aroma, bit like a lambicy lemony blond beer. Lots of lemon curd. Pretty poor. |
27 Sep 2007 (Ian)
I had nothing in my calendar at work, so I thought I would go both Thursday and Friday considering the beer list looked so good, over 30 new UK breweries featured for me. I sat downstairs by the foreign beer bar and enjoyed a chat with Warren Monteiro, an American beer writer for Ale Street News. Really good festival this year with plenty of interesting beers.
| Beer | ABV | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shepherd Neame - What's Brewed Ale | 6.80 | | Clear mahogany colour with lasting bubbly beige head. Slightly syrupy dry malt aroma, with dry malt as well. Some herby hop. Very clean in mouth, more raisiny dry malt and then a moderately heavy hit of hop kicks in leaving a sting on the tongue. Pretty good malty strong English beer with very nice hop on the finish. Another of the Sheps micro beers. |
| Dark Star - Autumn Equinox | 4.50 | | Deep gold with slight haze, lasting bubbly beige head. Pretty nice hoppy aroma. Little bit of yeast and toffee on aroma, the toffee continues and lends it a sweetish touch, before flowery strongish hop kicks in and makes it all tingly. Good hop finish. Very tasty. Love the hop on the finish. |
| Alehouse - Big Ape | 5.30 | | Hazy copper colour with lasting bubbly beige head. Lovely grapefruit hop aroma. It’s odd, I just don’t think that this works with UK malts and yeast. Too empty in the mouth. But then overall I sit back and think about it and I must admit that this is the best UK APA I’ve had. Still lacks sufficient malt, but it still rocks. |
| Pictish - Sauvin Blanc | 4.90 | | Gold with lasting bubbly off white head. Good sherberty hop aroma, a little soapy, nice golden blond beer. Decent hop on end. Moderate fullness/sweetness due to alcohol. This is a decent blond with some tea and leafy hop. Smooth in mouth and good grapefruit. |
| Fyne - Maverick | 4.20 | | Deepish brown with lasting bubbly beige head. Very decent bitter, some tea. Some decent ginger and malt. Very good bitter. |
| Oakleaf (now see Fallen Acorn entries) - Green Gold Harvest Ale | 4.30 | | Copper colour with lasting beige head. A little caramel/butter on aroma. Settles down to a slightly watery bitter, bit of tingly hop on end. Greenish hop grows on the finish, leaving the impression of having sucked on a hop flower. On the whole, very enjoyable with fresh hop drying finish. |
| Mad Squirrel (formerly Red Squirrel) - Redwood Colorado American IPA | 5.40 | | Gold with a haze, thin bubbly beige head. Grapefruit American hop aroma. Quite a sweet grapefruit I thought. Could really do with more malt. Hops are classy. Good grapefruit. It’s an American Pale Ale. |
| Pictish - Centennial | 4.50 | | Pale gold with lasting white head. Great Centennial hop aroma. Hey, this is my type of beer, a little soapy perhaps towards the end. Hop is good, decent floralness. Good example of this blond style, but no Hophead or JHB. |
| Acorn - Bramling X | 5.00 | | Copper colour with thin beige head. Spicy aroma. Has an odd hop flavour to it. Nice enough, hop is very distinctive. Thickish in mouth due to alcohol. Bit lacking in malt back bone. |
| Alehouse - Rauchbier | 5.90 | | Gold beer with thin bubbly off white head. Some smoke and bacon on aroma. Decent stab at a rauch. Still a bit too much like a bitter. But the smokiness is pretty authentic. Fairly close to something like a Spezial Rauch than a Schlenkerla. |
| Grain - Tamarind IPA | 5.50 | | Copper colour with an almost disappeared head. English hop aroma. Lots of English hop, watery in mouth though. In fact unpleasant moutfeel, good English hop harsh finish. I can’t remember having a beer that made me wretch as I drank it, even though in no way is there anything wrong with it. More or less has to go down as undrinkable. I had to pour it away. |
About the St Albans Beer Festival 2007
Summary of Beer Scores
| Total | |
|---|---|
 | - |
| 6 |
| 6 |
| 7 |
| 3 |
The pub is found in St Albans, Hertfordshire, AL1 3LD.
Located in the St Albans Arena. Main room has both the Main Bar and Stage Bar on the stage, there was an upstairs bar with more seating and beers from Hertfordshire breweries and then the downstairs with the foreign beer bar and more seating. Good range of both UK micros and foreign beer.
We have visited this pub twice, seen 22 different beers and tried them all.
Postcode: AL1 3LD