LCBF

I attended the London Craft Beer Festival (LBCF) last Friday. I managed managed to wangle things in order to get over to Wapping (East London) for the afternoon session, and most excellent it was too! Queues weren't too bad and I only had a slight wait to gain entry to the venue (the queues at these events are legendary) Once in I had a quick walk around to get my barings and then quaffed a tasty lager from Bristol's Lost and Grounded, I needed something cold as the temperature outside was pushing 35 degrees! Anyway, thirst quenched I grabed a bite to eat as it was midday and then worked my way around a few of the more well known brewers stations mainly sampling beers that I hadn't tried before, I mostly went for IPA's but mixed it up a little with a couple of dark beers. The tasting glass that you got when entering the building was a sensible size, roughly 150ml not too small so that you got a decent taster but not too big either as I can imagine that the temptation to overdo things would be strong with many as the ticket price included as much beer as you wanted!

It was an interesting venue, mostly indoor with the lower floor comprising a series of vaulted cellars (providing shelter from the heat outside!) and the upper floors large open spaces and separate rooms, ideal for a festival like this as many of the brewers converted individual cellars or rooms into their own "pub" like spaces and the general feeling was buzzy but not overly crowded, I shot a little video from the lower floor (see below) to try to capture the sense of the place.

Most of the big names of the British craft scene were there with a few notable exceptions, I was looking forward to trying a Beak (Sussex) brew or two but although they advertised as attending they weren't there (or I couldn't find them!) I also missed Burning Sky, Elusive and Vibrant Forest all of whom produce some great beer from  the South East of England, still, I can't complain there were more producers there than I could possibly get round in the four hours available so I had to be quite selective! 

Best beer of the show for me was the first barrel aged stout by Double Barrelled (a Reading based firm) called "Reach" a deliciously boozy engine oil of a beer (see picture below)! The most outrageous drink of the day was a pastry stout by Amundsen called "Black Forest Glaze with Toasted Coconut Swirl", the name says it all really, and the best IPA was by far the Citra-Mosaic Time Hops beer from Siren so flavoursome and aromatic, a real treat. 

Anyway, we hit the road at around 3:30pm and headed back to Waterloo via Tower Bridge and the Jubilee line making it home just in time to meet my Wife and Daughter in town for a quick Thai Yellow Curry and rice to bookend a long (and very warm!) day of interesting taste experiences!

All in all a good day out, lot's of walking (around 10k!) but an enjoyable event, well organised and featuring some great producers, can't wait for next year now!