CAMRA’s flagship event, the Great British Beer Festival, was held at Olympia from 2 to 6 August. Happily, although the long term building works currently in progress limited the space available and necessitated some changes to normal arrangements, they did not stop the event from providing a good day out for a large number of people. Although the attendance was slightly below what was expected, those who were there stayed longer and drank more.
HOME BREW COMPETITION
Traditionally, the Tuesday of the Great British Beer Festival sees the final judging for CAMRA’s prestigious Champion Beer of Britain competition. Alas, not this year because the pandemic had prevented the preliminary rounds from taking place. Instead, the organisers decided to run a home brew competition. At face value, this is a mixed message given that CAMRA encourages people to use pubs but this is how many of our best brewers started out and we need to encourage the next generation.
The competition proved popular, with almost 180 entries. A preliminary tasting to shorten the list took place before the Festival. The top 53 beers, in 11 different beer styles, were put forward for judging on the GBBF’s trade day. 49 judges from politics, pubs, breweries, CAMRA and EBCU had the enviable task of tasting them all. The judges thought the overall standard was excellent.
The top three were an eclectic mix. The winner, brewed by Stephen Folland from Berkshire, was a 16.1% ABV imperial stout which had been aged for five years. The judges said that this beer was remarkably drinkable for its alcohol strength and their overall feedback was simply WOW! Stephen will now be brewing commercially with the head brewer at the Brewhouse & Kitchen in Worthing.
Second place was a complete contrast: a perfectly brewed 3% ABV mild that drank stronger than its actual alcohol content. Its brewer, Stephen Sanderson, received a year’s worth of free beer from Beer52.
A Margarita Gose, brewed by Thomas Corry, came third. It was described as a remarkable interpretation of a margarita in a beer form and it was felt that this particular beer would really be attractive to a new audience. The full list of winners can be found here.
In addition, Adnams Brewery sponsored a prize for brewing a pale ale. Stuart Betts from Dudley will be invited to brew his beer at their brewery in Southwold. The beer will be sold for charity.
I wonder if any of the entrants will end up setting up their own breweries. The quality certainly indicated that there was a lot of potential among the contestants.
I have been judging beer at the GBBF since 1978 and the prospect of a GBBF without a judging would have been something of a disappointment. This was certainly different!
Christine Cryne