Kent CAMRA Beer Festival Guide 2015 by Orchard House Media Ltd

CAMRA Kent Beer Festival

@CAMRA_KBF

Welcome to the 41s t Kent Beer fest ival A very warm welcome to The Kent Beer Festival 2015. The UK’s second oldest CAMRA beer festival this year is our 41st year and if last years 40th anniversary celebrations are anything to go by, I’m hoping that I can continue Gill Keay’s fantastic work in keeping the Kent Beer Festival as good as ever. We have our usual mix of great ales and cider along with fantastic food and great entertainment. Our feature bar this year is “The dark and fruity bar”. As the name suggests I have attempted to source a wide variety of dark milds, porters and stouts along with beer with added flavours. This had been done following feedback from previous years, so I hope the range will be just the right mix. If these beers are not to your preference then there are plenty of others to tempt you on our Kent bar (only beers sourced from the 32 different Kent breweries) or from the Long bar at the end of the barn, which has beers from all over the UK. Couple this with our fantastic Kent cider bar and our Foreign beer bar and this will give you an unrivalled choice. Hopefully you will find something new and interesting. I would like to thank all the volunteer staff for their support and assistance with helping me to

run this festival, as without them there would be no festival. This goes for the organising committee and the sponsors as well. Finally, a huge thank you to you! Our beer/cider loving festival goers! I hope the 2015 festival meets and exceeds your expectations, and that you will come back again for many years to come. One sad piece of news is that this year we mark the passing of one of our most avid supporters and volunteers, Colin Soane. Colin worked on the Kent bar as cellar man for many years and always carried out his role without fuss and with great humour. He will be very sadly missed by us all. If you knew Colin then please join with us in raising a glass in his memory. Acknowledgements Thanks to Molly Cleland for the Logo design and NattyMItch photography for the photos used of last year’s festival.

Andy Mitchell Festival Organiser

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FestivEantl

ertainment

Thursday July 23rd

Saturday July 25th

6.30pm to 8.15pm

Stringendo

Breezers Blues Band

2pm - 5pm

Blues

12.30pm - 2pm String quartet

Juggle It All Children’s Entertainment

9.15-11.00pm

The Fabulous Grandads Covers

Friday July 24th 6.45-8.45pm

Gypskazz Folk, Gypsy, Scar 9.15pm to 11.00pm

2.15pm to 3pm & 3.45pm to 4.30pm Folk Rock

Green Diesel 5 to 7pm

Landslide

Country & Western

Lost in Music

7.15 to 9.00pm

Covers party band

Straight Eight

Jazz

Admission Times & prices Thursday 23rd July 18.30 - 23.00 £5 (pay on the door or online)

Friday 24th July 12.00 - 16.00 Free Entry 18.30 - 23.00 £8.00 (advance tickets only) Saturday 25th July 12.00 - 21.00 £5 (pay on the door)

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What is The terms beer, lager, ale and bitter are often confused. To help you understand what they actually mean and how varieties of beer differ from one another, we have described how beer is produced and the ingredients used.

provide both bitterness and flavour. There are dozens of varieties of hops and the way they are used contributes to the beer's flavour.

Water, grain, yeast and hops

These days, beer can refer to any style of ale or lager. In the past, ale meant a brew without hops, and beer one with hops. Now that hops are almost universal, ale generally refers to beer produced by 'top fermentation'. This is fermentation with a yeast that floats on top of the liquid, at temperatures up to 22°C – this creates the rich variety of flavours. After primary fermentation, the ale undergoes a slow secondary fermentation in a cask. As it matures, the beer develops its flavour and a light natural carbonation.

Water is the main component of beer. It naturally contains dissolved salts that can affect a beer’s flavour: Soft London water makes good stouts and the sulphur-rich waters of Burton upon Trent are ideal for bitters. The usual grain for brewing is malted barley. Malting involves allowing the grain to just begin to germinate, starting the process of converting the starch into sugar. The germination is stopped by heat. By changing the temperature and duration of the heat, a maltster can produce light malts, medium-dark malts with caramel flavour, or dark roasted malts. Other grains can be used, such as wheat, oats, rye or rice. Variation in the grains and malts used will alter the colour and flavour of the finished beer.

What is the difference between ale, beer and lager?

Lager is produced by bottom fermentation at lower temperatures (6–14°C). It is then stored for several weeks or months at close to freezing, during which time the lager matures. Most mass-produced UK lagers are matured for very short periods.

What is real ale? Yeast is a single-celled organism that converts sugar to ethanol and carbon dioxide gas. In real ale, this fermentation is the only source of gas in the beer. The strain of yeast used can also influence the beer’s flavour profile, and many breweries will guard their particular strain of yeast carefully. Hops are the flowers of a climbing plant and are used in almost all beers made today. They 6 41st Kent Beer Festival

Real ale is a beer brewed from traditional ingredients (malted barley, hops, water and yeast), matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide gas. Real ale should be served at cellar temperature (11–14°C), so the flavour of the beer can be best

What is beer? appreciated. You can recognise real ale in a pub as it is usually served using a handpump, although a number of pubs sell the beer straight from the cask using nothing but gravity – as at this festival. Real ale is also known as cask conditioned beer, real cask ale, real beer and naturally conditioned beer. The term real ale and the above definition were coined by CAMRA in the early 1970s.

What is the difference between real ale and keg beer? Keg beer undergoes the same primary fermentation as real ale but after that stage it is filtered and/or pasteurised. No further conditioning takes place. The beer lacks any natural carbonation that would have been produced by the secondary fermentation and so carbon dioxide has to be added artificially. This can lead to an overly gassy product.

malt character may be present. Bitters are normally up to 4% alcohol, whereas best bitters are above 4%. Golden ales are a relative newcomer, having first appeared in the 1980s. These are pale amber, gold, yellow or straw coloured beers with light to strong bitterness and a strong hop character that creates a refreshing taste. The strength is generally less than 5.5%. India pale ale (IPA) originally appeared in the early 19th century, and has enjoyed a resurgence in the past few years. First brewed in London and Burton upon Trent for the colonial market, IPAs were strong in alcohol and high in hops. So-called IPAs with strengths of around 3.5% are not true IPAs. Look for juicy malt, citrus fruit and a big spicy, peppery bitter hop character, with strengths of 5% to much more. The recent appearance of ‘Black IPAs’ has confused many, since they are definitely not pale.

What is craft beer? There is no definition of craft beer. Generally it implies a beer from a smaller brewery with an emphasis on flavour, rather than a bland massmarket product. Craft beer has its origins in the US microbrewery world – our foreign beer bar has some fine examples from that side of the Atlantic. Many real ales are craft beer.

What are bitter, mild, stout and porter? Ale style beers can be broken down further into various styles, although many beers are hard to fit into one of these categories. We’ve chosen a few examples for each style. Milds are not very bitter and may be dark or light. Although generally of a lower strength (less than 4%) they can also be strong. Flavour comes from the malt so there is often a little sweetness.

Porters and stouts are complex in flavour and typically black or dark brown. The darkness comes from the use of dark malts. These full bodied beers generally have a pronounced bitter finish. Historically a stout would have been any stronger beer, but the term evolved to mean a strong porter beer. In modern usage, the two terms are used almost interchangeably, although stouts tend to have a roast character and be less sweet than porters. They are usually 4–8% in strength. Barley wines range in colour from copper to tawny and dark brown. They may have a high sweetness due to residual sugars although some barley wines are fermented right out to give a dry finish. They have an almost vinous appearance in the glass and may have a strength of up to 12%. The fruity characteristics are balanced by a medium to assertive bitterness.

Bitter is the most common beer style. Usually brown, tawny, copper or amber coloured, with medium to strong bitterness. Light to medium 41st Kent Beer Festival 7

Dark & Fruity Bar Key for beer colour :

Bexley Brewery

Golden

Brown

Goachers

Erith

Black Prince Porter

Pale

4.6%

Dark

Maidstone

Mild

3.4%

A rich dark ale with roasted vanilla aroma and chocolate /coffee flavours

Brewed with chocolate and black malts hopped with Kent Fuggles

Binghams

Goody Ales

Berkshire

Ginger Doodle Stout

5.0%

A rich dark stout infused with root ginger

Hot Dog chilli Stout

5.0%

A rich dark stout with accompanied with the warm afterglow of chilli

Coffee Stout

5.0%

Coffee compliment this rich stout to give a tasty mellow beer

Bristol Beer Factory Milk Stout

Bristol

4.5%

Smooth chocolatey sweetness and bitter coffee with hints of berries

Burton Bridge

Burton upon Trent

Damson Porter

4.5%

Damsons give this a good sweetness to bitter balance

Canterbury Ales

Chartham

The Merchants Ale

4.0%

Herne

Good Lord Porter

5.0%

A rich full bodied Porter with a smooth coffee tinge and silky bitter finish

Grafton

Worksop

Marmalady Orange

4.8%

A deep golden ale infused with zingy marmalade

Apricot jungle

4.8%

Made with Beata Hops giving the ale its apricot honey/ almond taste

Humpty Dumpty

Norwich

Lemon and Ginger

4.0%

A crisp amber pale ale with a refreshing ginger and lemon tang

Kent Brewery

West Malling

Zingiber

4.1%

A light American hopped Ale with highlights of ginger

Berry Mild Porter

4.8%

A smooth mild with gentle roast malts gives way to a fruity finish

A cross between a mild and a porter with more than a hint of berries

Caveman Brewery

Mad Cat Brewery

Shatkora

Swanscombe

5.5%

Brogdale

Mild Disobedience

4.0%

Made using the shatkora fruit (of Indian origin) grapefruit/lime flavours

A naughty little mild with fruits of the forest flavours and mild bitter tones

Coach House

Millis Brewing

Warrington

Banoffee

4.2%

Lightly hopped beer with caramel and banana flavours

Elland

3.5%

A roasted malty dark mild with a smooth finish

Theives n' Fakirs Porter 4.3%

Yorkshire

1872 Porter

South Darenth

Kentish Dark Mild

6.5%

A rich dark strong porter full of dark fruits and robust flavours

A Fruity full bodied dark porter

Musket Brewery Cock and Stock

Maidstone

4.0%

A dark red ruby ale. Great malty flavours with good long bitter notes

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Dark & Fruity Bar

Nelson Brewey

Chatham Dockyard

Blackcurrant Mild

4.0%

A dark mild brewed wil mild malts and fresh blackcurrants

Pursers Pussy Porter

4.8%

A traditional London style porter hopped with Fuggles and Goldings

Old Dairy Brewery

Tenterden

Dark side of the Moo

7.0%

A formidable Imperial stout from the dark side.

Silver Top

4.5%

A smooth creamy stout with flavours of chocolate coffee and liquorice

Pig and Porter

Tunbridge Wells

Summer Stout

4.2%

Black and roasty with American hops to give an easy drinking beer

Swan on the Green Ginger Swan

West Peckham

Whitstable Brewery Black Lager

Graft Green

4.7%

Combines the depth of a stout with the lightness of a Czech lager

Oyster Stout

4.5%

A classic stout with chocolate /mocha flavours and a velvety finish

Raspberry Wheat Beer 5.2% A deep red and naturally cloudy beer. Just bursting with raspberries!

Rockin Robin

Maidstone

Mildly Rockin 3.7% Using a blend of Kentish hops delivering a beautiful rounded bitterness

Shepherd Neame

Faversham

Red Sails Cherry Porter 4.0% This rich dark smooth porter is packed full of Kentish Morello cherries

3.6%

A pale session beer with added root ginger for a nice spicy finish

Tir Dhn Dhlas

Dover

Real Irish Porter

6.1%

Made from an old Irish recipe . This punchy stout is very more-ish

Titanic Brewery

Staffordshire

Chocolate and Vanilla Stout

4.5%

An rich opulent stout with added chocolate and Madagascan vanilla

Cherry Dark

4.4%

A black bitter infused with cherries to give a long pleasing after taste

Tonbridge Brewery Ebony Moon

East Peckham

4.2%

A quaffable porter with a pronounced rich maltiness

Wantsum Brewery Black Prince Mild

Hersden

3.9%

A rich full bodied kent mild, smooth on the pallet with subtle hop notes

Galgotha Stout

5.5%

A broad malt base leads to hints of blackcurrant, liquorice and cedar

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