One week on from the annual CAMRA Belfast Beer and Music Festival, I've recovered enough to be able to tell you the beers that were quaffed. Here's my list (with the tasting notes from the provided pamphlet):
- Clotworthy Dobbin (Whitewater) - 5.0%
"Irish red ale style with a fresh crisp taste"
- 80/- (Prestonpans) - 4.2%
"Classic Scottish export style beer"
- White Dwarf (Oakham) - 4.3%
"Full bodied yellow golden wheat beer"
- Sanity Claus (Whitewater) - 4.5%
"Cinnamon & nutmeg warming Christmas ale"
- Proper Job (St Austell) - 4.5%
"Brewed with genuine Cornish ingredients"
- Pressed Rat & Warthog (Triple FFF) - 3.8%
"Complex ruby hoppy and bitter mild"
- Dark Ruby Mild (Sarah Hughes) - 6.0%
"Dark ruby well-balanced strong ale"
- Old Growler (Nethergate) - 5.0%
"Complex satisfying smooth distinctive porter"
- Crop Circle (Hop Back) - 4.2%
"Refreshingly sharp hoppy bitter"
- Landlord (Taylor's) - 4.3%
"Dry hoppy amber Yorkshire bitter"
- Late Red (Shepherd Neame) - 4.5%
"Richly flavoured autumn hop ale"
- Red Dragon (Breconshire) - 4.7%
"Red coloured beer - smooth & easy drinking"
- Hilden Ale (Hilden) - 4.0%
"Fine refreshing full drinking Irish ale"
- Flash Harry (Robinson's) - 4.1%
"Rich biscuity burnt toffee autumn ale"
- TEA (Hogs Back) - 4.2%
"Pale brown well balanced best bitter"
- Molly's Chocolate Stout (College Green) - 4.2%
"Full-bodied stout with a dry chocolate finish"
- T'OWD TUP (Dent) - 6.0%
"Satisfying strong stout with a roast coffee aroma & raisiny fruit-cake taste"
17 half pints of real ale was more than my fill...
There were three I wanted to try but weren't available when I was there:
- 80/- Ale (Belhaven) - 4.2%
"Malty with hops & complex flavours"
- Porter (Burton Bridge) - 4.5%
"Amazingly red with a pure white head"
- 80/- (Caledonian) - 4.1%
"Malty copper coloured beer"
As you can probably tell, I'm quite partial to the old 80 shillings.
