Teddington Beer Festival Review (and Passport diary)

I attended the Festival on the evening of Friday 6 November.  List of beers consumed is as follows:

Wight Gold, Island

Golden Gruit, Perivale

Copper Leaf red ale, Wimbledon

Cold Porter, Pillars

Vintage Ale, FullersG

ilbert’s Wass-Ale Wee Heavy, Gilbert White

Dance Commander Cider, Ascension

Vita Brevis Stout, Bearwood

Zig Zag Strong Ale, Gilbert White

The first thing I need to say is… yes, I know, that’s a lot of beer to have in one night and some of it was pretty strong.  I suffered the morning after, but in a proportionate sort of way, and have accepted my suffering philosophically as entirely self-inflicted.

I have been to the Teddington Festival (I used to live in Teddington) a few times now, and it is a good one.  This time I managed to corral a group of friends to accompany me and this made it a better experience in terms of our trying different things and being able to swap recommendations.

It takes place in the Landmark Centre, which is a massive space that used to be a church and is now a general arts space.  Beautiful and atmospheric building.  My only gripes are a) they could have put in more seating and b) they could have dispensed with the live music, which nobody seemed particularly interested in (and maybe it could have saved a bit of money off the ticket price?).  You buy £3 tokens (no discount for multiple purchases) and each one gets you a half pint.  This was a commendably simple system and it works in your favour if you like the stronger stuff - some festivals have a rule of “two tokens if it’s over 6% ABV”, but not this time.  And you should drink in halves - you get to try twice as many beers, which is the whole point, and the “halves” at a festival can often be rather generous.

It is always worth checking out in the beer list in advance for an event like this and formulating a plan of campaign - which ones do you absolutely want to drink and in which order.  My usual approach is to start with the gentle cask pale ales and bitters, working up through the stronger stuff (bringing in a cider at one point in homage to my Herefordshire family origins) and ending with the strongly hopped IPAs at the keg bar that would otherwise overwhelm everything else.

In the event, the keg bar didn’t detain me for as long as it normally does.  There was some good stuff there from local favourites Jawbone - their Goggles west coast IPA is excellent - but I can go to Jawbone whenever I want (ditto Big Smoke, ditto Mondo).  So I majored on the excellent selection on the cask side of the room, including the strong stuff.  The one keg beer I had was the Vita Brevis.  One of my friends - a Guinness man - tried it early and was full of praise for the richly flavoured stout, so I also tried it and shared his assessment.  Bearwood is now on my list for further exploration.  They are from Wokingham, so another feather in the cap for the “just east of Reading area” (alongside the mighty Finchampstead duo of Siren and Elusive).

I remembered Wight Gold from a previous visit to the Isle of Wight - an award-winning classic cask pale which was an excellent start.  I was always going to try something from Perivale as they are one of my Beer Passport favourites, and the chance to try something made with gruit (the way ale was made before hops became a thing) was irresistible.  It was a different and interesting taste: pleasant but ultimately I can see why hops took over.  The Cold Porter and the Vintage Ale are both big favourites of mine that I can generally only get in a bottle and they both tasted - if anything - even better out of a cask.  The red ale was pleasant if not especially memorable.  I opted for Ascension Cider because of their practice of using apples that would otherwise be thrown away, and it was a lovely refreshing palate cleansing interlude.  

Alongside Bearwood, Gilbert White’s Brewery was my discovery of the evening.  I had been to Gilbert White’s House in Hampshire once before.  It is a really interesting day out, telling the story of Gilbert White, author and naturalist.  Just off the A3 in Selbourne.  I had not clocked the brew house (I think I was trying to manage some difficult small children at the time).  Both the Wass-Ale and the Zig Zag were excellent. 

In conclusion, I would definitely put the Teddington Beer Festival in your diary if you live reasonably close by and fancy tasting lots of different beers.  It is worth the entry fee because you are likely to enjoy a great variety and end up discovering something new.

In other news - Passport diary

I continue to make good opportunistic use of my Beer Passport.  My tally for the year is now up to 32.  Recent visits are:

The Goodness, N22.  This is one that was definitely a three star “vaut le voyage” experience.  I say “was” because the taproom has now closed - I just about made it in time.  I had a selection of halves of their greatest hits, of which the highlight was the “Wood Green Hopping City” fresh hop cask ESB.  Fortunately it is just the taproom that has closed - not the brewery - so do check out their website.  One of the very best in London, and I don’t say that lightly.

Titsey TN16.  This one wins the prize for the most evocative setting - high up on the North Downs with a path opposite the taproom leading onto the North Downs Way.  (You kind of have to get there by car - Google Maps described to me an alternative odyssey of trains and buses that did not attract- so you need to plan for either limiting your consumption or having a designated driver).  The cask ales are great, with the Leveson Buck my definite favourite.  A staple of the Long Room Bar at the Oval, it really packs a punch in terms of flavour (hops added later in the process) despite being only 3.7% ABV.

Bohem “Nicholas Nickleby” N4.  I happened to be visiting my daughter’s new flat in Finsbury Park and scanned the Passport for options.  It’s a nice pub interior, and you know what you are getting with Bohem.  Great Czech style lagers - the “Nicholas” black lager is sublime - and an exceptionally strong roster of guest beers from the likes of Saint Monday and Gravity Well.  (And I claimed my free "Snyt" - see below)

Tap East E20.  Well worth popping in if you are in Westfield Stratford and are weary of shopping.  The shopping centre setting is not the most atmospheric, but it is a proper brewpub and the beer is way better than you might expect from a Westfield bar.  I enjoyed the “Disco Disco” NEIPA.  Amazing bottle selection as well.

Plus one favourite passport venue without my Passport - I enjoyed a 2-4-1 deal on the basic range at Bianca Road SE16 with a new app called Happy Tap - do look them up.

In other news - Glasgow (and back)

I always used to enjoy, when in Glasgow the night before a meeting, grabbing a quick beer in Innis and Gunn.  Sadly, they are no more.  Arriving late at my hotel I happened to walk past the Crystal Palace (prop JD Wetherspoon) and decided that I could do a lot worse.  And so it proved.  Thornbridge Jaipur on cask at £3.69 a pint (!) and an excellent range of Scottish guest beers, featuring the likes of Stewart and Fierce.  Lovely pub interior as well.  If I was nit picking then maybe not quite as fresh as you would get at a taproom, but still pretty good.

My journey home was long and tedious as my train was cancelled - I had to jump on an earlier train at Glasgow and then wait for a connection in Preston.  I consoled myself with the Aviva West Coast staple that is the Tilting Ale from Redwillow Brewery.  Which is not just OK but positively nice, and put me in a much better frame of mind.  The “Beer House” at Preston Station was disappointing - the bog-standard Heineken staples on tap - but I settled contentedly for a bottle of Black Sheep Amber Ale (remembering my pleasant chat with Jo Theakston of the “Black Sheep” branch of that family at a dinner a couple of years ago). Moral of the story - good beer does always make situations better.