And so to the highlight of the year. See my previous blog for an introduction to the concept of "Dads and Lads" (https://www.londonbiermeister.co.uk/blog/the-art-of-a-dads-and-lads-beer-tasting)
A group of us retreated to a field in East Sussex with our sons (for the 12th time, albeit in different locations) and spent the weekend enjoying the simple pleasures of being in the open air. It was simple in many ways. None of the affected accoutrements of luxury camping like plumbing of any kind . A tap, some recycling bins, a highly characterful composting toilet. Plenty of space to ourselves and a massive fire pit. So as darkness fell, the fire danced and the lads played their guitars under the starry sky.
But it was not all simple. Once again one of our number brought his restaurant standard outdoor cooking gear and his Michelin-starred restaurant standard meat, including some beef fillet that brought tears to the eyes. Washed down with some very decent wine.
Nor was the beer simple. Once again, I had been labouring throughout the year to rustle up 12 beers for the competition - i.e. the beers were competing; all we had to do was taste them. The lads are now full participants, so the quantities consumed have doubled. But there was no compromise on quality. We finished our Saturday evening feast and then gathered round the fire with cups in hand.
I brought along a number of beers from the annual Beer Hawk "Breweries to Watch" selection. The standard was high, but none of them quite cut through. The Pales and IPAs were good but not great. There were also a couple of very "interesting" ones - a low alcohol black lager and an orange sour - which went the way of many of my more "interesting" choices over the years. I.e. to the bottom of the pile.
By contrast, one of our local breweries - the Park Brewery in Kingston upon Thames - scored strongly. The "Small Riot" vanilla and almond pale came 4th. The "Pink Dawn" brut IPA made the podium in 3rd. I explained to the guys the concept of a brut IPA - basically achieved through careful dry hopping i.e. adding the right aromatic hops for flavouring after the brew process. We discussed the growing popularity of dry hopping and agreed that the former fashion of an excess of hops in the brew was nothing to shout home about.
In the silver medal position was the champion beer from the "Brew Masters" TV show. You may recall my review of the show (https://www.londonbiermeister.co.uk/blog/tv-review-beer-masters-contains-spoilers). I was duly inspired to buy a few bottles of the winner - a 9% barleywine with rum and figs called "Bless the Barley". This was devised by two Belgian lads called Sven and Nicholas who called themselves the Hallelujah Brewery. And brewed at Camden. Barleywine with rum and figs sounds luxuriant, and this one definitely was.
It lost out to a beer that gave a belated triumph to the mighty Thornbridge of Derbyshire. This was a collaboration with the Cerveceria Macaria of Mexico - a stout with cocoa and chilli called "Carlotta". Gloriously subtle flavours.
The judging was hard-fought, with strong advocates for all of the top three, but ultimately good humoured.
As a new development this year, I experimented with palate cleansing between beers. Encouraging people to drink water and nibble a plain (not heavily salted) cracker might seem obvious. Less obvious was the tip I read online about the benefit of sniffing ground coffee in between beers - it removed the aroma of the previous beer and made space for the next. One of the group came up to me afterwards to say that they expected me to confess at the end that this was just a joke, but no - genuine beer lore.