Kingston Beer and Cider Festival 2014

I completely forgot about the up and coming beer festival even though there had been a poster up in my pub for well over two months. I suppose I'd gotten so used to it that I no longer saw it for what it was, it simply became some words on a piece of paper blue tacked to the wall. It wasn't until an older gentleman walked into the pub whilst I was on a day shift and mentioned that the annual Kingston Beer & Cider festival was to begin on the Thursday that week. It was a Thursday now and was the first day of the festival, it was due to start at 5pm that evening. I was working in the evening so wouldn't have been able to make it, if I did I'd have to drink as many beers as I could in under an hour give or take the time it took to walk there and back. The idea was pointless to me, plus it had a cover charge for that evening and the first day of small beer festivals never seems to be that great. From my experience at least. There was a lunch session on the Friday, it was free to get in and I wasn't starting work until the evening so had time to drink and hopefully sober up in time for my shift. I was talking to one of the day time regulars about the festival, we both said we'd check out the Friday lunch session and possibly see each other there. It was decided, I would go on Friday. It started at 11am so I thought I'd get there for about 12.30/1pm.

On Friday I woke up early, had some tea and breakfast and did some odd bits around the flat. I wasn't feeling up to the beer festival, some unknown force was putting me off it. I went into the pub and saw the guy on the day shift, I sat a spoke to him for a bit over a glass of water. I had to pop out for something that I can't remember and think I actually forgot as I returned empty handed after my visit to the town. I walked around for a about half an hour and got bored. I had a look at the venue of the festival, there was no queue and barely any sign that anything was on apart from a laminated white sheet of a4 paper with the writing beer festival and an arrow pointing towards the door. The venue was the Working Man's Club behind the Princess Alice Hospice on Old London Road in Kingston Upon Thames. I walked through the main gate and still nothing to advertise a beer festival apart from the regular real ale fanatics scoffing down overpriced hot dogs from an outdoor grill. Presumably they had already been in, drunk too much beer to handle and desperately needed some substantial-ish food to help soak up some of the excess alcohol before they fell into an ale induced sleep. I hadn't even made it through the doors when I realised an error in the name of the place, if it was a working man's club, why then were none of these men working. Had they worked? were they going to work? Retired? I asked myself a number of unimportant questions, none of which had anything to do with beer of the beer festival.

I'd like to say that before I got the festival programme and my special festival glass I was already doubting whether or not there would be any decent beers (my preferences are porters and stouts and the full strength full flavoured special bitters). The last few small festivals I went to mainly seemed to have milds and weaker bitters with maybe more than a couple of porters and stouts if I could have been so lucky. I paid the £3 deposit for my glass, it works on a deposit system so if you don't want to keep it you can hand it in at the end and you'll receive your £3 back. It wasn't much for a pint glass and the logo is pretty cool, three fish on a Sopwith by-plane to celebrate some anniversary of it. I walked through carpeted rooms and corridors, past grumpy old bastards drinking pints of John Smith and Carlin through more rooms and into a small hall sized room with a big scaffolding structure in the middle. The structure was surrounded by a near 360° wraparound bar. On the structure itself were nearly one hundred barrels containing various real ales ranging from watery weak bitters to ridiculously strong ales that would knock you for six if you weren't careful.

Before I even had a look at the programme and list of beers I found the emptiest spot at the bar, leaned on it and ordered a half of whatever took my fancy at that very spot. It was a beer called Toffee Cog from the Kissingate Brewery in West Sussex. It was an amber ale of 5%abv. The description sounded quite tasty so I thought I picked well without even thinking about all the options that were there. I had a sip, it wasn't at all what I was expecting. It was verging on bland with just the slightest hint of toffee sweetness, nothing like a toffee apple as the description read. Not that I would want a beer as sickly sweet as one of those, it would have been better if it had a slightly more intense flavour of what I was supposed to taste like. It was a lot more bitter than I expected too, not unpleasant but a lot more than I would have wanted or thought necessary for a beer of its type. I took my time to examine the selection and systematically work out beers I was going to try in order of flavour profile and alcoholic volume. Before I knew what any were actually like of course.

The next beer on my list was a 4.4% bitter, it wasn't a porter or a stout but the description read well and it sounded very much like a porter but without the meatiness and body. The beer was Dragon's Breath from the Dartmoor Brewery in Devon. It is a best bitter flavoured with black treacle so in a glass looks very much like a stout. It smelt delicious, almost like a treacle tart in a glass. The first sip was a very long one that turned out to be more of a gulp as I finished half of my 1/3 of a pint leaving me longing for more. It was very rich, deep and full of flavour and body. The length and depth of its flavour went on and on, never wavering. After I emptied the glass I had delayed a moment to make the most of the Dragon's Breath before moving on to my next beer. My reason for moving onto thirds was so that I could try as many as possible and not get too drunk, also a little loophole that I noticed was that some of the beers were actually cheaper to by three thirds that a half or whole, some were over 20p cheaper by the third.

With the taste still in my mouth I ordered my next, Streetlight Porter from the Canterbury Brewers in Kent. It was a full strength porter at 5.8%, none of that weak watered down stuff you get at your local supermarket. It was very dark, it really looked as any decent porter should, dark and clear and translucent enough to let the patchy sunlight shine through the glass turning it a deep tawny. It didn't struggle in the slightest to overthrow the lingering taste of Dragon's Breath I still had in my mouth, I would say it was a dragon slayer but that sounds stupid! It was rich, sweet, almost impossibly flavourful. It was a true delight to drink, so much so that I had another cheeky third before moving on to my next beer. I marked it down as a mental note to drink and drink again if I ever saw it in the shops or in a pub or beer festival in the near future.

When I did go for another beer, I could still taste it through the first few mouthfuls. It was a good beer but just didn't have the intensity or complexity to stand up to the might of the Streetlight Porter. Quadrant Oatmeal Stout in itself is a fantastic beer, full of flavour a remarkably complex but unfortunately not enough to compete. It was 5.8% too and I'm being far to critical and wrong in comparing it to other beers but if you had tried the Streetlight Porter and liked it as much as me I'm sure you'd compare them too. They are different beers, and both excellent representations of their style. As a stout it is incredible with bags of flavour, the punch from the alcohol and mouthpleasingly full bodied and velvety. It's a local(ish) beer too coming from the East London Brewery in Leyton, London.

I began talking to the guy next to me, he too prefers porters and stouts so we instantly had something to talk about. I'd seen him order this beer that was directly in front of where we were standing. I had had my eye on it for a while now, it sounded great and being 6.5% would quite easily wash away the Streetlight porter that was still lurking somewhere in the depths of my palate. He really didn't like it, I was surprised at how much he was disliking the beer. Not to the extent that some do and ask for it to be poured away and the glass to be rinsed out. He finished his and went on my recommendation to try the Streetlight Porter. I opted for a third of the strong one. It's the 1872 Porter by Elland out of West Yorkshire. It looked like it should, had a more pungent aroma than the others and the first taste was almost of pure alcohol. It was not at all a balanced beer with a long and increasingly vegetal after taste more reminiscent of rotten fruit than beer. It was one that had to be finished off as quickly as possible to move on to something a little more tasty. Hopefully, well it can't really get any worse. It wasn't horrible I gave it a two star out of five rating in some very crude rating system I sometimes have when drinking beer. Even though I am criticising it a lot, it wasn't as bad as I'm probably making it out to be.

We were discussing what beers we've tried and recommending ones to each other, he was enjoying the Streetlight Porter and another one I told him about, the Dragon's Breath. I was yet to try the one he was raving about, it was a mild flavoured with licorice and blackcurrant. An odd combination for a beer I thought, sounds more a home being a flavour of a tea or sweet or even some kind of children's cough medicine. I said I would definitely try it before I went, at least I would have a third of it just to see what all the fuss was about. I noticed on the list a beer called Bottle Wreck Reserve Porter by Hammerpot, another brewery out of West Sussex. He'd tried it before in the bottle and said that it was a well rounded porter and though he'd never tried it on draught before thought it would be just as good if not with slightly more character.

So still with an alcoholic rotten vegetable taste in my mouth I quickly ordered a third of the Bottle Wreck Reserve Porter. At 6.0% it is a full strength proper porter. It was smooth and rich like on the description, it too was complex. Once again though, in comparison to the Streetlight Porter is was lacking somewhat, the overall roundness and character of it forced me to give it three stars. My rating system is totally based on my opinion of the beers and can be swayed by mood and all sorts so shouldn't be seen as a guide or a way to judge beers. I gave the Streetlight Porter and the Dragon's Breath between four and four and a half stars. Although I wrote down five, the a very few beers I have tried that I have awarded the top five stars to.

The Blackcurrant and Liquorice Mild was beckoning my drinking buddy, I'd managed to persuade him to try a couple of thirds that weren't on his list so he was over his imaginary limit. He was going to finish on a pint of the Blackcurrant Liquorice Mild but due to drinking more than he allowed himself he had to settle for a half and a hot dog from the food stand out the front. I opted for a Portobello Market Porter from Hammersmith, London. I must have missed it on my list as it is low in alcohol at only 4.6%. It was as I had expected, a well rounded soft, velvety porter with great depth of flavour and body but lacking in the intensity department. I gave it three stars and if I saw it in a pub would happily settle on it for the nights choice of booze, given no better alternatives that is. The festival was starting to get busier now, It was probably about 2.30pm or so, I think I'd been in there for about forty minutes give or take. In the short time I'd managed to drink approximately three pints and a third or just over two and two thirds because of a half making the mathematics of tracking my alcohol consumption rather difficult. I was quite drunk and the idea of another beer wasn't that attractive.

With his half pint in hand my buddy left the main hall and headed to fill his belly with something other than black gold. I said I would try the fruity beer so I ordered myself a third. Blackcurrant Liquorice Mild was as you would expect from a mild very low in alcohol. 3.8%. Which isn't that low on its own but when compared to the 5.8/6/6.5%'s that I'd been drinking it was. It was dark, much like a porter but with a brighter ruby tone. It was a mild but with bags of flavour, the blackcurrant there right at the beginning, a slight bittery sweetness coming through and then finishing with the sweet aniseedy flavour of liquorice. A third was enough for me, it had a bit too much flavour for what I was after. Anything more than a pint of one of those and I might end up spending more time in the loo than the bar. It left my glass smelling almost like a stout and black, a pint of stout with a dash of blackcurrant cordial. I did the only thing I knew to do and ordered half a pint of Streetlight Porter, that was sure to wash away any of the nastiness left behind by the sweet fruity blackcurrant mild. It was another one of those beers from West Yorkshire, not that it's anything to gauge it on but they must like a dark beer or two up there.

I left as the last minute free entrance cheapskates were piling in through the door. I got there early and due to restrictions with my having to work that very evening I thought that was excuse enough to get there for the lunchtime freebie. On my way out I saw my buddy on a small bench positioned underneath a fire escape staircase, the kind of place a contortionist would have have found it difficult to get in and out of. He had a couple more mouthfuls of what he called a 'not very good' hot dog and a few large gulps of his beer left. I too had a few large gulps of my beer left, and it did finish after a few large gulps. I was full, I'd had fun, good beer and good company, I was all festival'd out. The doorman stopped my as I was about to walk out the main gate, he directed me to the counter by the main entrance to get a plastic bag to put my now empty pint glass in. I did so.

It was a strange coincidence but the guy I'd spent the afternoon drinking with was the father of a barmaid that my friend frequents as his local and I have met a few times. He also has never stepped foot in my pub even though he lives in Teddington which is only a couple of small towns over the river.

My highlight had to be the Streetlight Porter closely followed by Dragon's Breath. If anyone didn't notice, I'm recommending those if they're seen anywhere.