5th Annual Cornish Beer Festival 2008

Last Thursday (17/7/08) marked the start of Bath's Star Inn annual 4 day Cornish Beer Festival.
The obvious question is; why a Cornish beer festival at one of Bath's premier real ale pubs owned by Abbey Ales (our local brewery), and famed for its great Bass served in jugs from stillage behind the bar. The answer is that Paul the landlord hails from Hayle? No? - Penzance. He and his brother run pubs for Abbey Ales in Bath. Thus we have Cornish Beer Festivals at The Star Inn. Incidentally there is also a Cornish Ale celebration each spring on St Piran's Day.
As in previous years Paul the landlord managed to source some familiar and some not so familiar ales for us to quaff until our pockets ran dry. There were fresh pastys from the local branch of The Cornish Bakehouse (not my personal favorite) to soak up some of the ale and on Friday Star Gazy Pies appeared.
Now to the important part; the ales. Of the 13 Cornish ales listed on the programme I managed to try 7.
Spingo Special - What a treat - normally the only place to find this finest of strong ales (6.5%) is in and around the Blue Anchor in Helston, where it's brewed behind the Inn. A darker ale fully flavoured, rich in fruit and malt and hops. Delicious, and it went down well with the pasty.
Skinner's Heligan Honey - Gently flavoured with honey from the famous Lost Gardens of Heligan, this pale amber ale from Skinner's Brewery at 4.0%, has a fresh character leading on to the light malty, honied palate and finishing with a crisp hoppyness.
St Austell IPA - As a straight forward thirst quencher, this 3.4% pale ale from St Austell Brewery has a character beyond its strength. The copper colour hints at the slightly richer malt flavour leading to a delicious flowery late hopping, which I suspect is the Willamette hop. At the finish this ale just begs to be drawn again.
By the time I'd reached this end of the row of pumps the Spingo had finished although I did persuade the barman to squeeze the last couple of gulps out for me.
Next on was Sharp's Will's Resolve - At this point my taste buds were becoming a little blurred; however I was surprised by this ale which reminded me very much of Doom Bar from a few years back before Sharp's Brewery upsized the operation. Very pleasant sweet maltyness with a lovely hoppy finish - still with that flowery hint so familiar in many of the Cornish ales.
Unfortunately or not (after 4½ pints) I had to call it a day.
On Saturday afternoon Zena and I made it all the way up Walcot Street and round to the Paragon to see what was left. The tone of the place was slightly subdued, but judging by the absence of all but one of the pump clips arrayed above the stillage, a good time had been had by all; however there were 3 brews still on tap.
Blackawton Brewery's Original Bitter and their Exhibition Ale were on, alongside Keltek's Magik. As I waited to be served the Original finished so that was off the list, but the good news was that the last remaining ale to go on was Skinner's Ginger Tosser.
Keltek Magik - This fine 4.0% quaffing brew has a clean bitterness on the nose and the slightly darker colour gives a hint of the malty richness to follow. It is not over hopped on the finish leaving a sweetness on the palate. Keltek Brewery is on a trading estate in Redruth which perhaps isn't The Cornish Idyll but does produce some good beer.
Next up - Skinner' Ginger Tosser 3.8% - All you'd expect from a Skinner's brew. A golden ale with light hopping and the sweetness of honey washed through to the ginger finish. Delicious.
I finished with a half of Blackawtons Exhibition Ale at 4.7%. Brewed at the Blackawton Brewery in Saltash, probably the most easterly brewery in Cornwall. A rich fruity ale with a broad hoppiness deserving of a little time to fully appreciate the depth of flavour within.
All in all I have to say that this was a great couple of days of drinking and look forward to the next one.
Thanks Paul.