Heriot-Watt Beer Festival 2012
That pen is not mine, incidentally
Having never been to the Heriot-Watt Beer Festival before, I was told the sun always arrives for a scheduled appearance (making it the exact opposite of the Highland Show). Sure enough, the weather was glorious in Edinburgh yesterday, just in time for the 27th HWFest. They take their beer seriously out at Riccarton – the International Centre for Brewing and Distilling has sparked (or sparged) the careers of dozens of the UK’s best brewers (and, presumably, distillers). Each spring the Heriot-Watt Brewing Society hosts a charity beer festival, encouraging the students – and guests – to drink decent beer.
If you want an example of the way the beer scene is changing, then you only needed to have stumbled off the 25 bus yesterday afternoon. There must have been over a hundred students sitting (or sprawling) on the grass in the sunshine, enjoying the beer on offer. Every so often, they would go back inside for a refill, like a line of ants heading back to the cool nest. This was great to see, as was the enthusiasm of the volunteers helping out – although most of the punters seemed to know exactly what was on offer, and what they wanted.
In my day, the University I went to had a ‘real ale society’ that met in the ‘alehouse’ bar – i.e. the bar that only postgraduates used. Every Friday night, all of the other students would file past it without looking, on their way to the joys of the main bar downstairs. With hindsight, queuing three-deep for warm pints of McEwans 70/- (albeit at £1.20) wasn’t the way to go – although for all I know the ‘alehouse’ served exactly the same thing. I do remember venturing in there once and drinking Mickey’s lager, so that answers that question.
Fast-forward a couple of years, and the eager students at HW get to pick from a range supplied by forty breweries. Standing in line to have your hand stamped to prove you’re over 18 (a line which featured RateBeer king Craig Garvie – who looks like Frankie Boyle’s older brother) was a surreal experience, and one that also took me back (although at least now the ink from the stamps washes off – don’t try and be clever and get them to stamp your forehead – take it from me).
Once the tokens were acquired – in the shape of a red piece of card with tickable boxes for halves of beer – it was into the bar to see what was on offer. First up, Loch Lomond Kessog (4.5%), which had a fair bit of blackcurrant at first – followed by a vaguely sour aftertaste. Tempest Unforgiven (5.4%) was next, and once again proved another belter from Gavin in his borders dairy. We keep banging on about Tempest, and will carry on until someone listens. Are they the best brewery in Scotland at the moment?
Unforgiven contains Tempest’s signature NZ hop backbone, but true to form also involves a whole lot more – in this case, oak chips and dried juniper berries. How they get such a balance of flavour with ingredients such as that is beyond me, but they do it with everything they produce. Firstly, there was touch of berry fruit, before the smoke arrived – but not to huge Bamburg level, it was pitched just right – before the finish flicked into sloe gin-esque juniper dryness. Great stuff.
After that, it was on to the best beer from one of the best new producers in Britain – Summer Wine Teleporter. Our recent SW BeerCast also featured this one (their ten-malt porter), but I hadn’t had it on cask before. As expected, it was every bit as good as the bottled version. If a beer can be soothing, then this is just that – it’s like drinking alcoholic cocoa. Summer Wine have blazed a hop trail over Yorkshire, but for my money their non-hoppy beers are even better – with Teleporter the absolute pick.
Finally, I ended up with the festival special – Heriot-Watt Demon Dark Ale (6.6%). Produced by members of the HW Brewing Society, it was brewed at the Prestoungrange Gothenburg in conjunction with Dave Whyte of DemonBrew (read about the brew day here). We’ll be featuring Dave next week on the BeerCast (along with other local Edinburgh-area brewers), but it was great that the festival organisers got to head out and make their own beer – and for Dave too, as presumably he got to drink more cups of tea with his feet up.
It was the perfect way to round off the HWFest, dark and highly drinkable. Quite a heavy hit of molasses sweetness was well balanced by a touch of citrus from the Pacific Gem hop. There was chocolate in there as well, and the whole thing finished very nicely. Dave brought three casks of it along, and I’m guessing that it went pretty quickly (although I believe Tempest Citra was the first to go). After that, it was back for the bus and home to scrub off the fact that my right hand was informing the world I am actually over 18.
The 27th Annual Heriot-Watt Beer and Cider Festival continues today (Friday 23rd March) from 12pm to 11pm, at the Heriot-Watt Student’s Union, Riccarton Campus. Check here for more information. Many thanks to Stewart and the team at the Society for the invite.
