Wednesday 6 August 2008

GBBF is No Good for Feet

Well, the tours seem to be going well, I've met a lot of lovely people and managed to enthuse (I think) even the most hardened beer rejector who came along.

My feet are killing me and I'm absolutely shattered but it's been great fun. It's been an unfeasibly busy time with the media as well as the beer, and there's been some great coverage/article opportunities - not least being one of the four most read articles on the Times Online yesterday! I'm a bit chuffed with that!

Find of the festival that I would really like to see more widely available is Caledonian's Deuchars XPA - it's like the IPA on steroids!

With more floral and tropical fruit aromas on the nose, and ever so slightly more creamy in the mouth it's an absolute stunner!

Other beers that I've loved have been Cribyn from Breconshire Brewery (not to mention the Ysbrid y Draig in Bowmore casks that Buster kept back for me, I love that man!), Otley's OG which won a gold medal in the strong category and Whitstable's Raspberry Wheat, which is even nicer in cask than bottle.

Other highlights have been Bateman's Salem Porter, which is in awesome nick, Moorhouse's Premier and Cairngorn Trade Winds.

Still not sure what I think of the new Canterbury Jack from Shepherd Neame, it's coming off a bit bland at the moment BUT when you're at something like the GBBF it's very easy to dismiss lower gravity beers that aren't trying to shout at you, but whisper gentle drinkability.

I'll revisit when my tastebuds haven't been partying for three days straight!

3 comments:

  1. The XPA is a bit special. I had my first taste of it at last year's GBBF. I'll be hunting it down this year too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was one of your ladies on the Girls Guide tours, which I thoroughly enjoyed btw - thank you! I hunted out the XPA after the tour and was very pleased to have done so, very very nice beer. Thank you for opening my eyes a bit wider.

    ReplyDelete
  3. thanks ladies, and also Thom for agreeing that XPA is tops!

    ReplyDelete