GBBF 2013

Maybe the London Craft thingy nicked it all?

 

The dirty bastards.

 

Could someone who's previously attended on a Tuesday night tell me how busy it gets? As mad as it is on a Wednesday or Thursday night?

 

And they would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for us meddling kids.

 

all mistakes in the list are down to HQ, there weren't any in the spreadsheets I sent. Haven't had confirmation about De Molen but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Menno won't let us down

 

busy, it's always busy but on Tuesday you can be assured of the widest choice. We have been known to finish a few casks of the American beers very quickly.

 

Yeah, that's a good point, it's even busy on Wednesday at noon. Tuesday it is so. Do you know if Dirty Horse will be available on the Tuesday?

 

Yes it does

 

I was told yesterday that Weird Beard are bringing three exclusives to the London Craft Beer thing.

But having seen that line-up for GBBF's foreign bar the new kids on the block will have to pull some pretty spectacular things out of the hat to match up.

Jack's Abby on tap is definitely something I'd be very keen to try at the GBBF.

 

Leave some for the rest of us.

 

American here who happens to be in London next week for work. I plan on going to the GBBF one night, but I was looking at the massive list of beers and since I'm unfamiliar with most British beers, I was wondering if any of y'all could provide recommendations for specific breweries or even specific beers I should target? I don't want to spend all my time drinking all the Cantillon and Girardin in the building. Figured I should branch out a bit.

 

Depends on what styles you like tbh.
I tend to drink mostly overseas stuff at the GBBF. Even from a US perspective there will be one off specials or stuff you're unlikely to see in your state, where the vast majority of the British stuff are just standard releases.
My favourite British brewers don't tend to feature much at the GBBF or if/when they do tend to be middle of the road offerings from them. The GBBF acts as a showcase for real ales to the masses and as such you tend to find the selection, whilst vast, is fairly conservative in terms of styles. ie - not too many big ABV beers and not too many hop forward numbers.
If I were picking out a few brewers from the list I'd be going for Arbor, Marble, Oakham, London Fields, Ascot, Dark Star.
Others will tell you different and pull out the 'you've come from America - don't drink American style beers card'.
Drink what you want - it's all down to your own preference. Mix it up, unlike others I tend to get bored after a couple of pints of 4 % bitter, my palate demands more these days.
If you want what are considered in modern beer circles to be some of the best British brewers, The Kernel, Magic Rock, Thornbridge, Buxton, Brodies, Partizan, Summer Wine, Beavertown et al then simply hit one of the bars in the 'Craft Beer Co' chain or the Euston Tap.

 

I just noticed that there's no Czech beers mentioned on the BSF list. Presumably that's not indicative of what will be available?

 

If looking for a good selection of more British beers (with a few more US inspired beers thrown in) I would go for something like the below, starting off with the more subtle:

Bathams Best Bitter
Mighty Oak Oscar Wilde
St. Austell 1913 Stout
Salopian Oracle
Thwaites 13 Guns
Greene King 5x
Robinson's Old Tom
Harvey's Imperial Russian Stout

 

Thanks to both of y'all. I'll start with this list and go from there. I probably will spend most of my time at the Belgian area, to be honest, because damn.

 

that's because the list was unknown at the time, we should have Bernard, Kocour, Opat, Antos, Strahov, Matuska & Joe's Garage maybe more we'll see what turns up

 

The Belgian,Italian,Dutch bar will have plenty of excellent beers. I recommend trying some of the Italian offerings

 

That's terrific news -- thanks for letting me know.