Egham Real Ale & Cider Festival

Hi all,
Firstly, just to add to the many who have expressed their thanks and appreciation to Bob, Richard and all the team and volunteers at the Egham club, I’d like to register my thanks and appreciation too. Once again a top class festival delivered with all the professionalism of the great team at Egham Club.

Now here are my awards/scores for this festival:

Gold (18/20 or higher) – no contenders this time.

Silver:
HAVANT X-rated Blackberry Milk Stout 4.2% 17,A
Loads of flavour for its strength, there’s a bit of everything in there,
roast malt, chocolate, coffee and of course fruity Blackberries.
BINGHAM’S Old Ale 4.5% 17,A An excellent old ale in the style of Harvey’s etc, lots of malt flavours but also a little hop balance.

Bronze:
CANTERBURY BREWERS Foundry Black 4.0% 16,A Black bitter with good mix of bitter hop and roast malt flavours.
REBELLION Decomposed 4.2% 16,A Sweet but well balanced amber bitter with a good clean finish.
VIBRANT FOREST Dark Castle Porter 5.2% 16,A Excellent dark brown porter with a strong malt character and smooth mouthfeel.
KENT BREWERY Coffee Porter 5.5% 16,A Does what it says and very well too.
BINGHAM Hop Harvest Best 3.7% 16,A A sweetish and malty base with some hop character. Fruity finish.

Highly commended:
BY THE HORNS Pale Ale 3.8% 15,A
MONCADA Notting Hill Blonde 4.2% 15,A
XT BREWING XXXXX Sorachi Roast 4.1% 15,A
LONDON BREWER’S ALLIANCE (Windsor & Eton) IPA 5.8% 15,A
LONGDOG Bunny Chaser 3.6% 15,A
OLD DAIRY Fresh Hop 4.0% 15,A
MONCADA Notting Hill Bitter 4.3% 15,A
BRIGHTSIDE Best Bitter 4.3% 15,A
VIBRANT FOREST Stormbrew 4.7% 15,A
HAMMERPOT Harvest Ale 4.8% 15,A

Acceptable:
LONDON FIELDS Love Not War 4.7% 14,A
REDCHURCH Bethnal Pale Ale 5.5% 14,A
CANTERBURY BREWERS Biggleston’s Brown Ale 3.8% 14,A
VIBRANT FOREST Mrs Miggins 4.5% 14,A

Not to my taste:
ASCOT ALES Single Hop Nelson Sauvin 4.6% 13,A Hop flavour drowned out by too much malty, yeasty flavours.

Looking forward to Easter 2012 already!

Cheers,
Martin the Mildman

After three great days at the USC beerex Egham, we would also like to add
our thanks to Bob, Richard. Julie and the team for providing us with such an
enjoyable time. Excellent beer and food selection all served by friendly
staff. It was also great to meet so many scoopgeners under one roof.

Thanks again to the team

Cheers

Sheila and Alastair

Thank you all at Egham from us two too. Always a great time with such a grand beer list to choose from.
Gill.

Yes thanks again for a great fest well worth the five hour trip down and the bus ride

Cheers Glenn R

BF10 Another superb effort By Bob, Richard and the team produced a list to Die for….. on this occasion majoring on the new wave of London based micros.. Beer quality was as ever very good and a nice selection of Darks alongside the bitters with a couple of Brown Ales thrown in. This Fest deffo ticks all the boxes IMO and long may it continue. Thanks again lads. Great to spend time with some fest regulars not to mention a Landlord….on a busmans holiday

Camra Beer Scoring Guide: 0-5 (5 rarely given, tho one used today… However the highest appropriate score is used)

Egham USC TW20 9PE
Bar:
Rebellion: IPA 3.7/ Decomposed 4.2 (Score 3.5)
London Fields. Love Not War 4.7 (Score 3)
Windors & Eaton Conqueror 5.0 (Score 3.5)
Moncada: Notting Hill Amber 4.9 (Score 4)
Binghams: Old Ale 4.5 (Score 4)
XT: Sorachi Roast 4.1 (Score 4)
Acorn Old moor Porter 4.4

Outside Bar/Stiilage
By The Horns: Pale Ale 3.8 (Score 5)
Camden Town: Showboat Brown Ale 4.5 (Score 3.5)
Moncada: Notting Hill Amber 4.9 (Score 4.5)
Rebellion: Decomposted 4.2 (Score 3)
XT: Sorachi Roast 4.1 (Score 4)
Botanist: Night Porter 5.0 (Score 2)
London Fields Brewery: Love Noit War 4.7 (Score 3.5)
Kent: Coffee Porter 5.5 (Score 3.5)
Old Dairy: Fresh Hop 4.0 (Score 4./Tsar Top 8.0 (Score 4.5)
Havant: X Rated 4.2 (Score 3)

Those Beers tried have an indication of their quality/taste marked alongside with just a nod to personal prefernce. On this occasion they represent the view
of the compiler alone.

Bitter of the Day:
Actually a Pale Ale… By The Horns Pale Ale

Dark of the Day:
Old Dairy: Tsar Top

Rgds Rich
Brother Rich on Beer Tour

Thanks to Bob, Richard & all at USC Egham for yet another excellent festival.

Mark.

The club’s 10th festival & the 5th that I’ve attended.  Everyone of those five has been remarkable; new breweries, new beers plus some old favourites like the Ascot stouts.  The friendly atmosphere makes this festival my favourite.  Many thanks to everyone at the club involved in the organisation.

See you all again in April 2012.

John

First time I’ve been to Egham, top beer festival. Certainly something I’ll add to the diary for next year
Loads of new beers and breweries plus a good location. Backed by local staff and
volunteers, which is great for the community.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/chris-owen/egham-bf-summer-2011-day-1-beer-reviews-tasting-notes/235872906457258

http://chrisobeer.blogspot.com/2011/08/and-now-for-something-completely.html

Sent: Friday, August 19, 2011 7:54 AM
Subject: [scoopgen] EBF9 – Egham Beer Festival update Day 2
Mr Binman sir, just got home what can i say , MENTAL ! two days,  i was asked on thurs were this festival ranked i said top 3 i was very wrong its TOP 1 i think, thanks again egham rocks. up at 5.30 to go to scotland to watch airdrie v cowdenbeath thanks again Sir Binman. cheers para ( man with duelling banana)

Then
came the Egham Beer Festival, and boy do those dudes know what they are doing.
£1.35 a half for the some of the most unusual, exciting, beautifully crafted
beers around. I go to a lot of festivals and I drink a lot of beer. I often
struggle at festivals of this size to find anything new to drink. I struggled to
find something I’d heard of, it was that well sourced a range. So good, that the
brewers themselves turn up to see how their beers are going down!  I’d read about Egham fest but never made it
before. If similarly, you’ve never quite made it I urge you to go. They make it
easy by having three fests a year. And I promise you I am not on any sucking up
mission or on any commission, just p***ed off it took me so long to go.

Sourced from the Real Ale Girl Blog – http://realalegirl.blogspot.com/

I’d just like to add my thanks and appreciation for what was definitely the best Egham Beer Festival yet! Biggest thanks go to Richard and Bob for their untiring hard work and enthusiasm throughout the whole event. Then there are all the club staff and volunteers who make the whole thing run smoothly with friendly and knowledgeable service throughout.

……..there were some excellent beers there, most from quite recent breweries, proving that the art of good brewing is far from dead yet.

Once again, big thanks to all involved and a look forward to the next one.

Can I just echo what Sheila and others have said about this fest – it’s well worth going to. Bob has it right; it’s a real Pandora’s Box of excellent quality, interesting beers and people. And another 5 new breweries for me to boot, never mind the chance to try some rare and very unusual beers.

Let’s not forget Richard, Bob and all the team who all put it together – they look to every little detail you can think of – they even arranged for some spots of rain very briefly on Thursday afternoon to make me feel at home (I’m from Manchester)!

It was great to put a few more faces to “scoopgeneers” too. And glad to see that the mystery of who “the Chair” is was solved for those who were there on Friday – alas I will have to remain in the dark about this for now!

Dates for the next one are already inked in the diary and the travel visa for “darn sarf” already applied for.

Egham EUSC Team – You all did very well!

We have just returned from three great days at Egham. There was a great selection of rare beers from micro-breweries which were changed as soon as one ran out, and we managed to get almost all we needed over the three days.

It was nice to meet up with the ‘Chair’ at last and also the other many friends we have made who are on Scoopgen. There was plenty of seating, both in the sun for the sun- worshippers like Gill and inside for those of us who wished to stay cool. Despite the hot weather the beers were kept very cool and served in tip-top condition, by the very friendly staff and volunteers.

There was also an excellent selection of food including sandwiches, pies and a barbecue.

We would again like to thank Richard, Bob, and the rest of the team for all the work they put into providing such an excellent festival, and for the great hospitality shown to us. We certainly hope to make the next festival on 18th August 2011.

I would like to add to the ever growing list of people thanking Bob,Richard and all the volunteers for another excellent Egham festival.

Bob`s early morning update of the beers available each day was particularly useful as one can print this off before leaving home.

The club was once again runner up in the CAMRA club of the year – what more does this magnificent club have to do to win it???

After 3 glorious days, I too can only echo what everyone has said.

Big enough to give plenty of good beers to keep everyone happy and small enough
for folk to chat and get to know each other, putting faces to names.

Certainly one to come back to, and so glad a made it for this one.

Well done all.

Steve, will echo your sentiments, beer was great, place was great, yeah and you did talk
too much. Cheers Irishman and Cookie. Xxx

I agree, yet another excellent festival. Great place!

Just to echo the other comments on Egham, an excellent small fest, very friendly and well run. Trev and me got our 7 new breweries and a shed load of new beers, and watched some IPL Cricket. Missed our early train due to talking too much! Just goes to show what a little bit of thought and effort and imagination with the beer list can produce a great festival

Great festival guys! Special thanks must go to those working outside in that heat and every beer still arrived in great condition and at perfect temperature. Will definitely be back for more in August.

Must say this is a must do festival. Excellent beers, good quality …..  plenty of new beers.

The Panther Pink Bottle Conditioned Ale went down well on the way home on the train …worth a day off work to do it on Thursday. Well done to bob and co for another top festival

Our first visit but I am sure not our last. What a superb fest, with a very friendly welcome, cracking list and whilst a couple of Ales were not quite ready, overall beer quality was spot on. Many thanks to Bob and Richard for their efforts in providing these options. Wonderful high summer weather was just the icing on the cake. Very nice to meet fellow scoopgen members, Gill and Ray Smith, Sheila T, Andy from Posh, Dave from Oxford amongst others, who helped while away the time.

Spent a cracking afternoon at this fest, as ever. Got there 5 minutes after opening and
was able to pick up my new breweries and a few other beers before leaving early
afternoon. Many thanks to all who worked hard in putting on this great show but
special thanks to Bob the Binman’s update this morning saying what was on and
what was likely to go quiet quickly today. It made life a lot easier when
selecting which beers to have first.

My first visit to the Egham USC fest has been
great, brilliant in fact! I loved the beers and everything about the way the
fest is organised. So many new breweries and all in good nick.

Well done folks, see you all tomorrow

Thanks once again for all the positive comments many of you have posted on scoopgen over the past few days. Without so many scoopers making the big effort to travel half way across the country to our little real ale oasis in North Surrey these festivals would not be the great success they have become.

From the speed the beers have been crossed off our famous blackboard I think I can safely say that EBF8 will break all previous EBF records. Suffice to say that after all the hard work put in by Richard Griffin & myself over the past few months sourcing the beers plus all the help from our trusty band of volunteers and club members who have all gone above and beyond the call of dut since Wednesday, it has been more than worth it when I think of all the fun these past few days have been.

Finally many, many thanks for your generosity when it came to donating cash, unused beer vouchers and £2 glass return deposits into our ‘Ale4Forces’ charity box. I’ve no idea what the figure stands at this morning but after the first 2 days we already had £390+ so that really is very much appreciated.

Hi Bob and Richard

As usual a brilliant festival. The sheer quality of the scoops available plus
the excellent conditioning of the beers plus the opportunity of meeting so many
scoopers (bumped into Gill Smith and Steve and Sue Robinson from Manchester
(part of my Commie Phil from Stockport scoopers group) whom I first met on
Saturday).

Don’t think you’ve even got a picture of me nodding off this year – although I
did make up for it on the train home (after 38 scoops in 2 days)! Glad to get a
couple of days detox after all the battering but have another one coming up
this weekend with Reading, Bexley and Brodies in consecutive days (Thur-Sat).
Hope my liver survives till August!

Once again well done.

Pete

excellent news  binman great fest cant wait till august cheers

Just a final word of thanks to each and every one of you for making this weekend’s festival our best ever. The team here all had a great weekend and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did.

We still have around a dozen beers available outside plus 4 or 5 on the inside  bar – all available at £2.40 if you fancy coming down this afternoon to help us clear the decks!!

And now, from my perspective the most important part of this weekend’s fun, we raised a staggering £1012 for our armed forces abroad which deserves a big big thank you to one and all!!!

Many thanks and we look forward to doing it all over again in August!!

I’m off for a long lie down in a darkened room to recover!!!
Bob the Binman

My first visit to the Egham USC fest has been great, brilliant in fact.

I loved the beers and everything about the way the fest is organised.  So
many new breweries and all in good nick.

Well done folks, see you all tomorrow.

Gill

Had a great time yesterday. As always the best & friendliest festival I go to. Beer choice is fantastic. Unfortunately at the age of 70+ I can’t get through the amount I used to, but in any case quality makes up for quantity. Many thanks to all involved in the organisation of the event.
See you all again in August
Adrian Stevenson