Spoons Fest Who's tried what?

The Greene King Abbot's Confession is quite nice. They can make good beer when they want to. The Elysian jasmine IPA and (of course) the Stone/Adnams black IPA are supposed to be excellent but I haven't tasted them yet.

 

The stone/adnams one is excellent

Had the Abita/Wadworth pale ale after lunch, was ok, bit metallic tasting but a reasonable hoppy effort.

Also a Woodfordes Bure Gold golden ale, was a decent one to start with, had today as well, no idea if it's part of the fest. It's inoffensive.

Also got accosted by a "character" in the Edward Wylie, was amusing as always. They have the GK one and a hazelnut one??? and another couple on I think . I don't take notes as you can tell They had the Elysian on

As souless as 'spoons are, £1.90 a pint is pleasing to me as a consumer. Glad I'm not a brewer though, can't imagine they make much out of it?

 

Stone/Adnams black IPA is good, bitter without being overly fruity.
Fat Head/Batemans is fine if you like Batemens Acetaldehyde Ales. Which I do luckily.

 

Ballast Point Even Keel.
Enjoyable, I'd have another.

 

Missed that! £1.90 a pint? £2.15 out here in the sticks. Do we have a better class of bar characters, soaks and weirdos to justify such a price difference?

 

That's the cheapest one I think, I suspect the others in glasgow are a bit more

 

Think of CAMRA as you please, but I've never seen a real ale initiative taken to quite this level anywhere else in the world. I was seriously gobsmacked when I was there for the Fest last year. Had some good stuff, some not so great. The strawberry cider I had was... wow. Ghastly.

 

I know a brewer who likes brewing for them.First of all, they take a full brew so there's no phoning round getting pubs to take a nine of this here and a couple of nines there.No problems with collection/delivery and no need to chase missing casks.Lastly they pay a fair price* on the nail , the money's always in the bank on the due date.
* they expect a reasonable but fair discount.

 

Fair play to them then


I had the Calley Poltergeist Porter today, one of their better efforts. So it was decent

 

Thwaites Half Nelson is excellent, bitter and aromatic with heavy dry hopping.
The Ninkasi Cream Ale brewed at Caledonian is drinkable if you hold your nose, i.e. better than most Caley beers.

 

Had 20 or so thus far.

Only stand out, as per others, was the Adnams/Stone CDA - best beer I've had in a spoons!

Had most of the other US colllabs - all look good, feel good but bugger all in the middle.

With the exception of the excellent Adnams/Stone offering the other beers I've had have been inoffensive in the large. The Batemans Hazlenut Brownie seems to divide opinion. Does what it says on the tin but I struggled to finish a third, too sweet and smacks of artifical flavours.

One word summary of the majority of beers I've tried 'Bland' !

 

Had a few lately. The Sixpoint I've already dealt with, today I tried the Ballast Point Even Keel,Abita restoration Pale Ale,Elysian Avatar Jasmine IPA (the best of a pretty average group IMO) Abbot Confessional (decent beer) and the Hazelnut Brownie. Loved this, but is it beer as I know it? It would be ideal to have to finish off a meal.
All nice beers but the more I try these the more I find a sameness about them.As a change from "brown boring bitter" we seem to have "pale boring hoppy". Lovely beers but I wouldn't want to drink them night after night.As a change, an extension, a treat yes, as everyday drinking I see no reason for changing.

 

Pale and boring agreed, hoppy ???

I get more hop presence in my breakfast porridge than most of these beers !!!

 

I find beers which are all about the hops incredibly tiresome.One dimensional, what was ever wrong with structure and balance?

 

I've only had two that I'd call hop forward, the Abita and the Stone one. Abita was so-so, Stone was good.

Others I've had today -

Ninkasi Cream Ale - dull, not worth trying.
Sgt Pepper - Started dull, finished more interesting. enough pepper from the the peppercorns and yeast to keep it interesting but not too much. One of the worst looking beers I've drunk, floaties, cloudy and offensive looking head, although that could well be spoons fault. No off tastes. Worth a pop

Abbots Confession - Sticky toffee pudding in a glass. Simple but good.

 

I thought the Rooster's All-Star was quite nice. That's the only one I've had.

 

Thought the Harpoon IPA was reasonably hoppy. Enjoyed it more than the regular vers I've had in the US.

Terrapin, Ballast Point and Ninkasi were all all pretty blah I thought. As has been said the Stone is ahead by a considerable margin.

 

35/50 now, best of the rest for me ...

Butcombe Haka, Mordue Oatmeal Stout, Purity Longhorn IPA.

 

Tring Waimea today - meh.