None of the Herefordshire Beers lit up my life, but I did experience good beers at all of the other festivals, as well as the odd good bottled beer and beers from other pub trips.
Rugby Festival saw me enjoy Bushys Old Bushy Tail, a beer which had great fruits and bready malts. Cambridge Beer Festival brought me Kilderkin Double, a great attempt at an Abbey Double from a fairly new English micro; Vierzehnheiligen Nothelfer Silberbock Hell, a Heller Bock from Brauerei Trunk in Germany; and a good perry and cider from Seidr Dai and Gwynt y Ddraig respectively; two good small producers from Wales. Day one of Northampton didn't bring me beers as good as the following two days, but they were in June.
Good beers I scored in pubs were the two hoppy beers from Atomic which were Reactor and the stronger Bomb; A nice suprise was Elgoods Double Swan which was also pleasantly hoppy especially for Elgoods. I also enjoyed Buntingford Highwayman IPA. This was another beer with good hops.
The best bottled beers I had were Alcazar Bombay Castle IPA, Samuel Smiths Organic Cherry Fruit Beer, Williams Brothers Joker 5, and, a total surprise, Ruddles County which of course is now brewed by Greene King.
On the Ratebeer scale the highest scoring beer was Bushys Old Bushy Tail. This gets second place and best non-English beer.
However, I have to award my Beer Of The Month and Beer Of The Month from a new brewery to Kilderkin Double. Not only did I enjoy this beer but I was happy to see an English brewer attempting this style of beer.
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