Beer On Broadway XV

Published on 17 May 2004 in , , , ,

In case anyone is wondering why there has been no follow up to last years wonderfully successful Eurovision 2003 post (unlikely I know, but I did have a lovely email from Colin Berry after writing that), then I should state that Saturday night was spent at Beer on Broadway – also known as the Ealing Beer Festival.

I admit I’m a bit slow on posting this partially due to the large headache I had yesterday morning, and watching a recorded copy of Eurovision in the evening – sorry, but it’s not the same.

The 15th Beer on the Broadway ran from last Thursday to Saturday at Ealing Town Hall – it’s the first one since November 2001. We were there on a special CAMRA members preview night on Wednesday and again on Saturday night. Over 60 beers were on over the festival and some bloomin’ fine ones were had – and of course, a good time was had by all. Well me anyway.

Couple of beers did stand out. Belhaven 60/- was divine as was Rowley Mild (they had around 11 milds on for which I’m truly thankful!).

Sadly I missed out on a rare brewing of Youngs Double Chocolate Stout in cask form, and sadly had to decline the 9% Fullers Golden Price (also rare in cask form) and completely missed Fullers Pride Export’s first ever cask brewing. For shame.

But the surprises of the weekend were to find out that a) there is a cider maker a couple of miles away, and b) that there is a very good brewery a couple of miles away.

I’d never come across the Grand Union Brewery before, but they’re up the road in Hayes. Their mild was rather nice, their stout also. But I tried their Honey Porter. Oh wow! This was the good stuff. A lovely dark beer – slightly smoky but with a sweet taste.

And then there was an even better surprise. Grand Union Old. This stuff was just so fantastic that I wrote down three words. Wow. Wow. Wow. It was for me, the beer of the festival.

The even better thing was that neither Honey Porter nor Grand Union were supposed to be on but were extra beers added at the last minute. And boy am I glad they were.

So top marks to West Middlesex CAMRA branch for a fantastic festival – and thanks to the Grand Union Brewery for some superb ales. I hope I come across them again.