Scottish Real Ale Festival 2011 Lineup
We’re well into beer festival season at the moment, and next week all attention north of the border will turn to the big one – the Scottish Real Ale Festival, held every year in Edinburgh. This year it will be held at Adam House on Chambers Street between the 16th and the 18th of June. As you can imagine, being our local festival the BeerCast will have it covered from every angle – check back daily for our reports on the beers, follow our live tastings on twitter (@thebeercast), and keep an eye out on Thursday for the Champion Beer of Scotland (CBoS) announcement, as once again we’ll be on the judging panel.
The beer list has already been released, revealing which breweries have submitted their ales for the festival. If ever proof were needed that Scottish brewing is on the rise, then this beer list is it. Although six who were present at the 2010 SRAF will not be at this year’s festival, the overall number of entrants has risen from 32 to 37, giving us the chance to welcome twelve newcomers. Beer festivals are all about trying new things, so relative newcomers such as Tempest and the Scottish Borders Brewery are really welcome.
It’s encouraging to see small microbrewers are well-represented, such as Devon Ales (based behind the Mansfield Arms in Sauchie), and Robert Knops – a.k.a. the Mikkeller of Morningside. Both will be bringing the three beers they each produce. Elsewhere, although we didn’t get on with Barney’s Beet Red Beer, I’m really keen to try his 5.4% IPA. Other newcomers include Luckie Ales from Fife, Moulin from Perthshire, and Demon – the new guise of the Prestoungrange Gothenburg, following the tragic death of Fowler’s Roddy Beveridge last year.
Absentees from this year’s SRAF include a number of small Northern producers who have dropped off the list – Hebridean, An Teallach, Cuillin, and Valhalla breweries all miss out – the cost of transporting to Edinburgh maybe proving too great. Glasgow’s WEST brewpub were represented last year, but are not listed for 2011 – which is something of a shame given their recent resurgence (albeit with kegged beer, so I may have just answered my own question). One other change is the merging of Sinclair Atlas and Sinclair Orkney – only Nimbus from the former is added to the lineup of the latter.
So what do I have my beery eye on? Strong ale specialists Traquair House have a cask coming, which will be really interesting. Multiple champions Highland have two new beers along – Island Hopping (3.9%) and Sneaky Wee Stout (4.2%). Can they win their fourth CBoS award in five years? Other beers to try are Burnside’s Wild Rhino Blonde (4.5%), the outstanding Fyne Ales Jarl (3.8%), Kelburn’s newest porter Cart Noir (4.8%), and the always excellent Deeside Talorcan (4.5%).
As good as the old classics such as Cairngorm Trade Winds and Harviestoun Bitter & Twisted are, as I said before these events are all about new things. I’ve never tried any of the beers from the Tinpot Brewery – Blueberry Lager anyone? Scottish Borders 3.8% Foxy Blonde sounds like the perfect festival opener, and the Tempest beers have been getting great reviews from what I’ve seen, the Elemental Porter (5.1%) in particular. Finally, local producers Stewart Brewing are releasing an American-style red ale at the festival, as a 40th Birthday present to CAMRA – another beer which will go very quickly, so get there early…
The Scottish Real Ale Festival is this year being held at Adam House, Chambers Street, Edinburgh from Thursday 16th June to Saturday 18th June. Opening hours are 12pm-11pm Thursday and Friday, and 12pm-9pm on Saturday.
Entry is £3 for CAMRA members, £5 for non-members, but keep hold of the glass given out and you can get free re-admission over the other days. As this is a preview, breweries and beers submitted may change – visit the official website to keep up with any amendments.
For more on what to expect at this year’s Scottish Real Ale Festival, our reports on the previous SRAF years are here – 2010, 2009, 2008 and 2007.
