Cambridge Beer Festival

Today I had another day out - this time to Cambridge for the Cambridge Beer Festival.

It was a good day to go. The weather stayed fine so a lot of people sat outside leaving lots of room inside, all the beers were on as it was the first full day and the festival didn't close at 3pm for 2 hours, is it will tomorrow, Thursday and Friday.

Here are a few photos.

I arrived about 12:20 to avoid the queue for opening at 12pm. There was no queue to get in as entry was free for all, but there was a queue for the beer glasses.

I got a seat at a table OK. As you can see I'd brought some crosswords along with me, although I'd finished all of The Times ones on the train on the way. This was my first beer - a Church End Gravesdiggers Mild. Very tasty.

The programme is colour coded to indicate the type of beer. I tried to have a variety and only had 1/3 pint at a time which let me sample more different beers.

The food inside the marquee was pub ploughman's lunch-like - with bread, cheese, pork pies, scotch eggs, ham and pickles.

Look how empty the place is!

I had a seat on the far side of these tables.

Outside it stayed dry and was even quite sunny - we had none of the showers that were forecast.

There were plenty of food stalls too. I was tempted to get a kebab, but resisted it.

My favourite of the day was a Brass Castle Quench Pale Ale. I think that's it in my glass there. Brass Castle Brewery is, of course, in Malton, where Sarah and Ethan live. They will be pleased to here a beer from their local brewery was my favourite.

I stayed until about 4:30pm before heading back to the station. A great day out with excellent beers. Her are some brief notes on what I tried.

• Baker's Dozen Little BIPA  IPA (2.5%) - Surprisingly dark and quite refreshing but I thought the flavour was a little thin.
• Blue Monkey Infinity IPA  Golden (4.6%) - Described in the programme as "infinitely satisfying. I liked the hoppiness. 
• Brass Castle Quench Pale Ale (3.8%) - "Wow" is what I wrote on my programme - bursting with flavour. My favourite.
• Brentwood Chockwork Orange Old Ale (6.5%) - I'd had this before at the Colchester Beer Festival. I found it rather bitter.
• Church End Grave Diggers Mild (3.8%) - My first one. Very tasty.
• Green Jack Orange Wheat Fruit Beer (4.2%) - Only 50% wheat and I didn't think it worked.
• Harvey's Old Ale Old Ale (4.3%) - I just had to have some of this having visited the brewery tap in Lewes last year. Harvey's was the beer of our choice on our walking holiday based in Eastbourne. This soft, full-bodied and fruity. Lovely!
• Lacons Bloom Specialty Ale (4.0%) - A Spring ale. Crisp and floral and you can taste the honey that is added.
• Opa Hay's Samuel Engel Meister Pils Lager (4.8%) - Pilsner-style. I didn't like it much.
• Shortts Hunky Dory Golden Ale (4.1%) - My second one. Hoppy and refreshing.
• Tindall Galaxy Dream Golden Ale (4.0%) - My third one. A bit dry.