Three years ago, Essex University was a perfectly acceptable place to drink ale. While only ever stocking the one ale - Adnams Original Bitter - it was always kept in superb condition and, at £2.10 a pint, I was always up for a pint or twelve.
Then something happened.
For some reason unknown to me or my friends, the Adnams became vile. It was thin, stale, and soapy. This did not change for many months, and when we enquired all we got was a shrug of the shoulders and blank faces. While disgruntled, I had no reason to be dismayed as there were many, MANY good real ale pubs in colchester to visit, so that was exactly what we did up until present day.
Until last weekend. Last Saturday something very special happened - there was a mini real ale festival. On hearing the news I checked the beer list and my heart jumped for joy, not only was there a good selection of local ales, but it was indeed being put on in conjunction with CAMRA! Not only was I looking forward to the beers, but this was also a chance to chat to numerous CAMRA members outside of the big beer festivals, and finally I could work out if I would ever muster up the courage to turn up to a Colchester CAMRA meeting.
But anyway, onto the beer! There was originally going to be eight or nine ales on, but only six were settled in the end. Of course I tried them all and they were:
Fox and Hind (Red Fox) 3.8%
Saffron Blonde (Saffron) 4.3%
Silent Night (Saffron) 5.2%
Artic Fox (Red Fox) 4.5%
Essex Beast (Nethergate)6.2%
Umbel Magna (Nethergate)5.0%
Yo Boy (Mersea Island) 3.8%
I had tried the Umbel Magna, Yo Boy, and Essex Beast before (not that I remembered much after!) so was keen to try some new ales. We arrived just after noon and were one of the first groups of people to arrive minus people working there. Straight away I delved to the bar and ordered half a pint of the RFB.
Fox and Hind Bitter (3.8%)
A great little beer this one. A traditional session bitter with a medium body and nice, malty flavour. This one is packed full of good old fuggles and Herefordshire Dwarf hops. The brewery itself was set up only the other year and is run by the bloke behind Crouch Vale's Brewer's Gold so you know his beers are going to carry some prestige. As your sessions go this is a mighty fine one and was a great start to the day, slowly sipped as someone from CAMRA came over to ask us what we thought and was particuarly happy to know we were all already members of CAMRA. But back to the beer. This was a solid sessioner that avoided being too thin or void of flavour, better than your bog standard bitter, a solid 7/10. Good stuff.
Saffron Blonde (4.3%) *BEER OF THE FESTIVAL*
Well well, it is a quite a claim to give this pick of the festival considering Essex Beast and Silent Night are on the list, but this was a belter of a beer, especially consdering this usually isn't my territory (I'm a diehard mild/porter/stout lover) but let me explain why.
Ever since I moved to the south I have been flooded by hoppy/citrus beers such as Crouch Vale Amarillo and the ever classic St Austell Tribute. Saffron here have crafted their own hoppy masterpiece, mixing rich taste with an underlying hoppy greatness. What this beer has going for it is a subtle smoothness that mixes with the lively golden ale, an intruiging mesh of hops and underlying malts that leads to a quite unique flavour that mixes with the citrus undertones. Whether you like this style of beer or not, it is impossible to deny this ale its greatness - a superb perfection in this category of ale, one to be enjoyed over and over because it has that little something, that unique briliance about it. 9.5/10
Silent Night (5.2%)
This was very close to winning beer of the festival, and if it was a personal biased choice then it would win hands out (I love my dark beers)
Silent Night is a ruby porter brewed by the fantastic Saffron Brewery. This medium/heavy weighted beer has a full fruity taste accompnied by a rich chocoalte flavour that melds into a subtle coffee accomapniment to the main body of beer. As the pint goes down an invograting spice hits the back of the throat, a lingering bitterness turning into a fruity finish as the final dregs of the pint is finished. A quality pint indeed, and I make no overratings when I give this a
9/10 - it is that good.
Artic Fox (4.5%)
One of the drawbacks of being a beer lover is having to give negative reviews when you don't want to. Unfortunately, Artic Fox falls into this category. I am personally a big lover of the Red Fox brewery, their Wily Ol' Fox being a personal festival favourite of mine. However, here Artic Fox falls rather short of its targets. A thin, sourly fruity brew, Artic Fox tries to be a refrshing fruit beer but ends up tasting rather stale on the pallate. Whether this was the specific barrell we got I do not know, but this was an atnicipated drink all night, and I ended up with a rather bland tasting, strange beer that wasn't quite sure what it was. While not an awful pint, it let down expectations indeed, the only saving fact being a rather enjoyable hoppy flash of flavour. 4.5/10
Essex Beast (6.2%)
In the immortal words of a mate of mine the day after this festival, "The last thing I remember is having a pint of Essex Beast." Never has a beer been summarised so aptly - if you're not careful it will be the end of you. Essex Beast has been a love of mine ever since running into it at last years Colchester Beer Festival and again at the Clacton Beer Festival. Brewed by the ever solid Nethergate (who also make the very lovely Old Growler) this beer is a strong dark beer that creates a lovely toffee aftertaste accompnied by a beautiful sweetooth flavour, most likely a result of the chocolate malts used. A robust beer that delivers a warmful, real taste, you'd better make sure you love your dark beers, otherwise this little belter will sneak up on you and punch you in the face. 8.5/10
Umbel Magna (5.0%)
Based on a 1750's recipe, this red porter has a hint of coriander that completely changes the complexity of the beer. I personally find this to be a very heavy beer, one to be enjoyed in the evening, and as a result I only touched late aftenoon as opposed to my friend who had a pint at 1pm, holy cow! Irregardless of the richness of the beer it is one that should be savoured, a rather unique blend of spices, malt, and coriander that leads to a very unique tasting experience - a good one to say the least! I have always been a fan of this beer, one that has won many an award at festivals, including the bronze award at the Great British Beer Festival 2000 for speciality beer - go try it. 8/10
Yo Boy (3.8%)
I've always had good experience with Yo Boy and today was no exception. A brilliant, brown bitter, Yo Boy is a well balanced beer that has a great, malty body accompnied by a medium weighted texture. Mersea Island really know how to brew their stuff, this being no difference. Not much more to say on this one other than try it. A constant pleaser. 8/10
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Overall, while it may have been a very small festival, the day embodied what I love about beer and drives me to continue drinking and reviwing it. Not only was there a slew of good beers available, but there was a great atmosphere about the place including several CAMRA members as well as my own beer loving friends. As the day went on, the room only got more busy, with more and more people embracing the spirit of real ale and chatting away in excited jest. I very much look forward to the university hosting such an event again.
- The Ale Lover.
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