During the first week of August, the UK's beer industry and thirsty ale drinkers from across the globe will again converge on London's Earls Court for the Great British Beer Festival GBBF to sample over 500 cask ales, including the winner of the Champion Beer of Britain Award 2010.
With the growing popularity of cask ales, GBBF organiser CAMRA will be hoping it can better its 2009 record of serving 125 pints per minute during the five days of the festival. Certainly the beers on offer should make this possible.
Although CAMRA is unable to disclose any trends that might indicate the likely winner of this year's Champion Beer award, to follow 2009 champion Ruby Mild from Rudgate Brewery in York, there are many interesting and unusual potential winners as shown by the beers we have highlighted on the following pages.
Among the key changes this year is a re-organisation of the layout of the festival with the 12 regional bars replaced by counties in alphabetical order, which should help drinkers' better navigate their way around Earls Court. Each of the bars will be named after military heroes - including Harris, Nelson, Dobbs and Mountbatten - to reflect this year's designated charity, the Royal British Legion.
As well as announcing the Champion Beer of Britain Award, CAMRA will also be revealing its latest research on real ale consumption, undertaken by TNS, which will have a specific focus on consumers' views on how cask ale is marketed.
And to keep up with social networking trends CAMRA will be hosting a Twitter tasting involving the sampling of a number of nationally available beers. Following the success of its Twitter tasting during National Cask Ale Week which attracted 500 followers, CAMRA is hoping that thousands will take part in the GBBF version and involve not only drinkers at the festival but also in pubs around the country.
What beers are on offer?
1. Start-up breweries new to the festival:
• Barlow
• Liverpool Organic
• Ha'penny
• Ilkley
• Prescott
• Tintagel
Tintagel Brewery
Formed just over a year ago in a converted milking parlour located 850 feet above sea-level the Tintagel Brewery is sending its first beer to GBBF this August.
Gull Rock (4.2 per cent ABV) is not the best-selling of its beers, as brewer John Heard says his Harbour Special and Castle Gold (3.8 per cent ABV) both outsell Gull Rock in the pubs he supplies in the North Cornwall area.
"It's not the most popular of our beers but we do send a pallet a week to London. It's an acquired taste with lots of flavour that real ale fanatics drink. It's unusual, which is probably why CAMRA likes it," he says.
Heard suggests Gull Rock has a lot more flavour than many other better-known beers produced in Cornwall, with its dark malty characteristics.
"It's full-bodied, with a refreshing and clean taste. There's a good balance between the malt and the hops," he says. It also benefits from being produced with the brewery's own pure spring water.
2. Unusual beers available at the festival:
• Arbor - Oyster Stout (made with real oysters)
• Wadworth - Swordfish (contains rum)
• St Peter's - Grapefruit
• Titanic - Chocolate & Vanilla Stout
• Williams Bros - Fraoch (heather).
Saltaire Brewery - Triple Chocoholic
The first thing to note about Saltaire's Triple Chocoholic (4.8 per cent ABV) is that as the current Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) Supreme Champion Beer it deserves its place more than any other on the SIBA Champions Bar at GBBF. It came through to win the overall title having scooped the Speciality Beer category award and will be sitting alongside another SIBA winner, its sister beer Cascade Pale Ale (4.8 per cent ABV).
Tony Gartland, head brewer at Saltaire Brewery, says the inspiration for the unusual brew was Young's Double Chocolate Stout.
"We thought we could do it more chocolatey and on draught rather than in bottles. To get the balance right is difficult - as it could be too sickly - so we use Fuggles hops to balance the sweetness and syrups," he says.
To give it its unique balanced taste Gartland experimented to find the best combination and the end result involves putting cocoa in the boil, chocolate syrup in the fermenting vessels, and chocolate essence in the casks to give it a chocolate nose.
Having been conceived only last year he says it has quickly become a popular beer and a "great seller" with the next run already pre-sold.
Such is its popularity that Gartland says it is now also being bottled and is available through MyBreweryTap.com. Further listings are currently being sought by the brewery.
3. Notable beers available at the festival:
• Adnams - Extra
• Spectrum - Old Stoatwobbler (vegan)
• Hambleton - Gluten Free
• Fuller's - Brewers Reserve No.2 (very rarely available in cask, it will be served in third-pint measures).
Uley Brewery - Old Ric
For the last 15 years Old Ric (4.5 per cent ABV) has been brewed by Uley Brewery exclusively for the Old Spot Inn in Dursley, Gloucestershire. But for the first time it is being made available beyond the pub and will be on tap at the GBBF.
Chas Wright, owner of Uley Brewery, says the beer was brewed for his friend Eric Sainty, the owner of the Old Spot Inn - an establishment which he transformed from a rough pub called the Fox & Hounds to one heralded for its beers. It recently won a major CAMRA Pub of the Year award.
Uley Brewery has been associated with the Old Spot from the time Sainty put hand-pumps in the pub 15 years ago. But sadly he died last year on July 16, aged 74, while travelling with Wright to a food festival in France, so he was never able to savour the beer outside its natural home.
Despite the loss of his friend, Wright says he is "absolutely delighted" that CAMRA has selected Old Ric for the GBBF and describes the beer as a copper-coloured, full-flavoured hoppy bitter with some fruitiness that's smooth and balanced.
4. Beers with unusual names:
• Milk Street - Funky Monkey
• Oakleaf - Some Are Drinking
• Old Bear - Goldilocks
• Pitstop - Penelope
Twickenham Fine Ales - Naked Ladies
Twickenham Fine Ales will be sending plenty of Naked Ladies (4.4 per cent ABV) to the GBBF this year. As one of its regular year-round beers, Tom Madeiros, head brewer at Twickenham, says it is a popular beer that acquired its unusual name from an old mansion, York House, near the brewery.
"Down by the river Thames is a mansion that has a bunch of Italian water nymph statues in the gardens. The locals refer to them as the naked ladies," he explains.
Such a local name is fitting as the majority of its beers are sold within five to 10 miles of the brewery in the nearby pubs.
Naked Ladies is described succinctly by Madeiros as a hoppy golden ale - made with Pioneer and Styrian Goldings hops - and will be joined at the GBBF by the brewery's seasonal ale Summer Gold (4.1 per cent ABV).
What about foreign beers?
For those visitors to the GBBF looking for something different to the massive array of UK cask ales, ciders and perries then the foreign beer bar (also known as Bières Sans Frontières) will yet again be offering drinkers an impressive selection of bottled and cask beers from around the globe.
Growing popularity of US craft beers
This year one of the focuses will be on beers from the US craft brewers whose ales proved extremely popular last year and sold out very quickly. The order for this year has sensibly been significantly increased.
There will be a selection of both cask conditioned beers and bottled varieties. The former includes beer