A fine, sunny Saturday afternoon. A gentle breeze wafted through the streets as the children played and birds chirped in the skies. There are several activities that can be chose to be done on such an afternoon! Me, however - I went to the local beer festival.

Camra, the Campaign For Real Ale hold beer festivals all over the country all year round. For the most part, however, they occur during the summer months, starting around the end of April and culminating around the end of September. They vary in size, too, from a small town one - having anywhere from a firkin¹ each of 20 to 40 different beers - all the way up to a large city one having literally hundreds of beers in quantities of numerous kilderkins².

Banbury beer festival is now in its second year. Held in the Town Hall with a firkin each of 40 different beers, it's quite a small one. Small maybe, but busy. From the moment it opened on Friday the small hall seemed to be constantly packed with people enjoying their libation. And enjoying it was easy, the atmosphere was genial and the beer quality was superb which I have to admit surprised me as there was no evident cooling. But seeing how quickly everyone was drinking the beer there wasn't much worry about the beer going off.

If there was anything to moan about with this festival it was the steep initial entry price. Now, some Camra run festivals give free entry to Camra members, some offer a reduced entry price. This one though gave you a free pint. Entry itself was £3 and there was a £2 refundable deposit on the glass. The beer itself was bought on a token system, a system which I don't particularly like, and the tokens were sold in sheets of £5 a time. Again, though, the sheets were refundable for any unused tokens. So between entry, glass and token sheet you were looking at £10 each before you'd even got any drinking in. Another annoying thing was that the token sheets were sold at the door, and the beer festival was in the upstairs hall, so each time your sheet ran out you had to go downstairs to get a new one. But then the toilets were downstairs as well so you could time the two to meet if you were feeling lazy.

So, onto the beer...

The first beer of the session was Beartown Kodiak Gold at 4.0%. A light golden dry, aromatic beer with a delicate balanced hoppy taste leading to hints of sulphur. This really is a very pleasant beer that can be supped pint after pint without losing any appeal. The finish is more dominantly hoppy with a slight citrus under taste.

Second was Golden Grale from the Beckett's brewery. Up in strength to 4.5% it was definitely sweeter both in the aroma and initial taste but this gave way as the hops came through. Given the initial sweetness of this light, amber-coloured pint it came as a bit of a surprise that it wasn't too cloying although I got the impression that after a few it could get a bit much.

For a spot of lunch I moved on to the Broadstone Stonebridge Mild. Dark brown with rich spicy flavours and aromas. As with most milds this was a little milder. Sounds like a stupid way to describe a beer but the flavours are generally tamed down to provide a drink that can be drunk easily. At 4% it's no weak brew and this example was superb. The flavours may have been delicate but they were also dominant. You could tell they were there but they weren't overpowering.

Fourth we come to Bullmastiff Gold. At 3.8% and very light golden. A dominantly chalky aroma that tames down in the taste to be mingled with hoppy flavours. Delicately spicy and slightly sweet towards the end. Now, this isn't one of my favourite beers, but the quality was superb and it was very drinkable.

Butcombe Bitter comes in fifth at 4% with a slightly spicy and malty aroma that seems to lose it's spiciness in the flavour giving way to gentle sweetness in the body. Way too drinkable for anyone's good as this one went down before I knew it.

The sixth beer is Cottage Champflower Ale. Dark red in colour and weighing at 4.2% this beer nicely balances malty undertones with a delicate flowery sweetness that comes through with a lovely bitterness in the finish.

Seventh is Landlords Wit from the Dark Star brewery. Light golden at 4.1% this wheat beer has an unusual smoothness to it. Slightly sweet in flavour with a gentle spice on the aroma.

Eighth beer of the session we move onto Enville White. Another wheat beer at the slightly stronger 4.2% this is very similar to the Landlords Wit but the flavours are more predominant. The spiciness comes through wonderfully in the lingering smooth aftertaste.

Moving on next to the RCH Pitchfork at 4.3%. A lightly floral aroma that gives way to a flowery, hoppy body that again is very drinkable.

That's when the beer ran out and probably for the best. Not for the best, though; we moved on to the pub down the road³.

Pastey

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¹9 gallons or 72 pints.²18 gallons or 144 pints.³Pastey, you drunkard!!! ... ed