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St Albans Beer Festival 2006 (CAMRA Beer Festival)

Beer (sort)Average Score (sort)No. Samples (sort)
Green Tye - Coal PorterExcellent1
Spectrum - Black Buffle StoutExcellent1
Hopstar - Smokey Joe PorterExcellent1
Hidden - PotentialGood1
Alehouse - Milk & AlcoholGood1
Nethergate (was Nethergate Growler for a while then name reverted) - Black Shadow (superseded by 4.7% version)Acceptable1
Bartrams - Mother Mcleary's StoutAcceptable1
Picture 1. St Albans Beer Festival 2006, St Albans, Hertfordshire

Visits Details

30 Sep 2006 (Andrew)
What a fantastic beer line up and what an awful venue. Imagine having a beer festival in a council office block. The main hall had no seating because if was just too small for people to sit down in so you either went through the corridoor, down some stairs and into a basement room or up the stairs round a corner and into an enlarged corridoor with a balcony. Either way you were lucky to find a seat and when you did you were jammed in like a sardine. However, if we ignore the venue and concentrate on the beer I'd have to say the whole thing was good.
BeerABVScoreNotes
Green Tye - Coal Porter4.50ExcellentBlack with no real head. Smells of slightly sour malt and grain. Big sour taste with hints of oats and a low level burnt finish
Spectrum - Black Buffle Stout4.50ExcellentGood sparse copper-cream head. Smelt of watery stale coffee. Lots of coffee and whiskey flavours. Medium bodied with a sweet bitter burnt finish
Hopstar - Smokey Joe Porter4.00ExcellentLots of vanilla in this jet black porter. Smooth and bitter with a rough vanilla finish
Hidden - Potential4.80GoodListed as a Hilden beer but hey, with a name like 'Potential' I guessed straight away it was a Hidden beer. Copper coloured with a syrupy smell and tangy rich, slightly syrupy bite and dulled bitter finish
Alehouse - Milk & Alcohol4.40GoodThin body, jet black, with sparse head. Smelt of mild coffee. A milky coffe sour taste. Too cloying for a 4/5 so 3.5/5
Nethergate (was Nethergate Growler for a while then name reverted) - Black Shadow (superseded by 4.7% version)3.50AcceptableCouldn't work out if this was 1 minute away from going off or whether it was supposed to taste like this. Big sour bite with burnt finish on this black mild
Bartrams - Mother Mcleary's Stout4.30AcceptableMild seaweed smell. Acrid, but watery, taste with coffee bitter finish

About the St Albans Beer Festival 2006

The pub sign. St Albans Beer Festival 2006, St Albans, Hertfordshire

Summary of Beer Scores

 Total
Exceptional-
Excellent3
Good2
Acceptable2
Poor-

The pub is found in St Albans, Hertfordshire, AL1 3LD.

A CAMRA 300 beer festival held in the centre of St Albans.

We have visited this pub once, seen 7 different beers and tried them all.

Map location

Postcode: AL1 3LD