I wasn't able to attend the festival but passed by tonight in the hope some beers were still available and many still were.
I had a pint of the Neustadt Beaujolais Porter which was frankly sensational. It poured vigourously with a loose but reasonable head, and was fairly clear, which real ale should be in my view. The taste was pure dark malts wth a firm but but not overdone hoppy undertone, and the wine made a faint but definite impression. This was pure English-style real ale and would have wowed any CAMRA acolyte that's for sure. In fact it trumped 90% of the real beers I've had in England. If this could be available in this form, in this condition, all the time, I would drink it almost exclusively.
The only other beer I had (apart from small tastes courtesy Ralph of two others) was the H&H Black Oak which was really good too. It had a pure taste of top-fermented ale but the Jalapeno brought it to a different level: zesty yet very drinkable. By the way for those worried about the validity of such "odd" ingredients in beer, don't be. Capsicum (chile pepper) is an ingredient in many 1800's porter recipes - what's old is new again.
The small tastes were of a dark coffee peach beer which was superb and Cameron's dry-hopped Auburn Ale, also very good (although perhaps more cloudy than I like). There were 10 others I wanted to try, but hey it's Monday night.
Kudos to Ralph and Aina and staff for what evidently was such a fine event, glad I could taste even a morsel of it.
Gary
