Tuesday 20 September 2011

The Snowdrop Beer Festival (or, the perfect beer list)


I’ve just got back from the Czech Republic. It was a tour around a few breweries which ended at Slunce ve Skle craft beer festival. Mark Tranter from Dark Star was also on the trip and was talking about the beer list for the upcoming festival which he’s organising at The Snowdrop in Lewes, taking place on 7-9th October. The list is based on the beers which have inspired him and continue to inspire him; a dream, Desert Island choice of cask, keg and bottle. The beer list is here. I think it’s just about a perfect beer list for a pub beer festival because I want to drink everything there. The festival will also have a scotch egg cook-off, beer and book matching with Pete Brown and beer and food matching with Melissa Cole.

Spending a few too many hours on a minibus over the weekend left me thinking about my own dream pub beer festival and the beers I’d want there; beers which have inspired or changed my way of thinking and drinking. Limiting myself to five from each of cask, keg and bottle (The Snowdrop will have about double that), and also thinking about the ability to actually get them, I’d have the following, with each having special significance:

Cask
Fyne Jarl
Marble Pint
Dark Star Saison
Dark Star Six Hop
Gadds Dogbolter

Keg
Pilsner Urquell
Camden Town Wheat
BrewDog Punk IPA
Jandrain-Jandrenouille Saison IV
Odell IPA or Bear Republic Racer 5

Bottle
Thornbridge Bracia
Mariage Parfait
Birrificio Italiano Tipopils (even better on keg – it’d replace PU)
Anchor Old Foghorn
Fuller’s Vintage (about 5 years old)

Mark’s list for The Snowdrop is brilliant and is reality opposed to my fantasy list. I’ll be there if I can persuade Lauren to drive me...


What's your perfect pub festival beer list?

7 comments:

  1. No hyperlink to Mark's list!!

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  2. That's the second time I've seen a pub selling unfiltered Camden Helles rececently. Will this become a more common thing (crosses fingers) ...

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  3. The Southampton had the unfiltered Camden on at the end of last week. But they only had 1 keg, which possibly suggests that it won't be particularly common. At least not at the moment. Very nice though.

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  4. I'll bite, starting on Cask

    Hop Back Entire Stout
    Fat Cat Honey Ale
    Saltaire Hazlenut Coffee Porter
    Thornbridge Kipling
    Steel City Shadowplay
    Acorn Barnsley Bitter
    Green Jack Norfolk Black
    Crouch Vale Brewer's Gold
    Darkstar Green Hopped IPA
    Tryst Blathan
    Marble Chocolate Stout

    Keg:
    Magic Rock Human Cannonball
    Saphir Weisse
    Thornbridge Versa
    Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
    Budvar Dark

    Bottle:
    Dogfishhead 90 Minute IPA
    Orval
    Odell Cutthroat Porter
    Westmalle Dubbel
    Mongozo Coconut
    De Molen Hemel & Aarde
    Marble Ginger
    Dogfishhead / Birra Del Borgo My Antonia

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  5. Dubbel - Sorted it! It was there, just in the wrong place.

    Mark - Nope, just the very occasional special. It was at the Southampton Arms as a gift for getting CAMRA's Greater London pub of the year and the one for the Snowdrop will be another special. Once we have a bar at the brewery we'll be able to sell it more often...

    T_i_B - Nice choices and some interesting ones too! It makes me thirsty looking at it...

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  6. 'Jandrain-Jandrenouille Saison IV'
    I'm off to Brussels in a few weeks. That will no doubt be my first beer in Moeder Lambic Fontainas.

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  7. Mark, our beer tastes are worringly similar. I really can't think of many substitutions i'd make. My only worry is that if I turned up at an event with all of those on, there is no way i'd be able to drink all of them.

    If I had to choose one from each category mind you....

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