Zooming in under the radar

Food & Drink Festivals are very much in vogue at the moment. Tonbridge’s event took place at the beginning of September, to be followed, three weeks later, by a similar event in Tunbridge Wells. In between, the Canterbury Food & Drink Festival was held, and had it not been for the combination of poor weather and disruption on the railways, this for me would have been the go-to event.

I’ve been to quite a few, the last one being in 2019, as one of the main attraction of Canterbury’s festival, is the launch of the Kent Green Hop Festival. I’ve written so much about Green Hop Ales (GHA's) in the past on this blog, that I’m not going to repeat myself here, but whilst the festival prides itself on having as many Kentish Green Hop beers available, as possible, there are several schools of thought whose opinion is this event is too soon to be serving these beers.

These opinions have more than a gain of truth, seeing as the hop harvest will only have taken place around three weeks previously. According to the pundits, this leaves insufficient time for the flavours and aromas of the freshly picked hops to develop properly and come to the fore. Instead, the event with largest selection of GHA’ s, and one of the best places to drink them at, is the Spa Valley Railway Beer Festival which took place last weekend, but if you want somewhere to enjoy a few of these GHA’s, then the Spa Valley bash is the one to aim for, although you will have to wait until next year now.

On Thursday evening, I caught up with friends from West Kent CAMRA, for the tasting of the Green Hop beer brewed by a local member. As mentioned in my previous post, keen home-brewer Keith produced the beer from hops grown in fellow member, Simon’s garden. The end result was a very quaffable pale ale, with a pleasant hop aroma and taste, from the hops, that were picked less than 24 hours prior to brewing. The actual hop variety is unknown, as Simon acquired the plants from a garden centre, several years ago.

As well as enjoying this unique beer, which was shared with the full permission of the pub’s landlord, my CAMRA friends reported that the SVR Beer Festival was still a hugely successful event, in spite of the organisers having to scale back the beer order, because of the national rail strike that affected train services on the Saturday. I didn’t discover which Green Hop Ale came top in the judging, and I also failed in my quest to sample some GHA’s for myself, as there was only one on tap at the Nelson that evening, and the 6.0% Green Giant IPA, from Kent Brewery didn’t really take my fancy.

What I did enjoy though, on top of the home-brewed GHA, were three of the other beers on sale that evening. Starting off with the excellent Collusion, a 5.2% IPA from Surrey Hills Brewery, I then moved on to a rarely seen seasonal ale from Harvey’s, in the form of the 5.5% Star of Eastbourne. Like Collusion, Star of Eastbourne is another well-hopped IPA. Star of the evening, if you’ll excuse the “stellar” pun, was Larkin’s Porter, one of the best porters around, and a personal favourite.

I must confess to my surprise at seeing this rich, dark 5.2% ale on sale so early in the season, as the brewery’s normal practice was to hold back the release of this beer until Bonfire Night. Now, according to some of those present that evening, Larkin’s are making the beer much more widely available, and there was even talk of it being on sale all year round. Personally, I can’t see much of this beer being sold during the summer months, as whilst it is undoubtedly good, it really is a brew that is far more suited to late autumn and winter drinking. Perhaps there has been a change at Larkin’s, seeing as founder and owner Bob Dockerty is now in his 80’s.

Returning to the start of this article, and the Tonbridge Food & Drink Festival, whilst there, back at the start of September, I sampled a few beers, and bought a couple of bottles from a stall operated by The Godstone Brewers. Founded by old university friends, Anne Jackson & Steve Taylor, The Godstone Brewers operate from a barn at Flower Farm, near Godstone. The pair were keen brewers during their student days, and after bumping into each other again in 2014, discovered they both still had a passion for brewing. They decided to ditch their respective careers and set up a brewery together.

Since starting out they have developed scores of different beer recipes, attended hundreds of beer festivals, and braved the rain and cold in countless farmers markets, so it was nice to make their acquaintance at the Tonbridge Food & Drink Festival.  I enjoyed the two beers I bought that day - Forever 4.3%, a zesty, hoppy, citrus pale ale and Bitter Entropy 5.3%, a full bodied, and rather malty, fashion in the likeness of an ESB. Despite this I have never come across the couple’s beers on journeys through the Kent-Surrey border country, and neither have I seen any of the brightly decorated bottles on sale in local shops. It's surprising in this day and age to find breweries, such as Godstone, operating virtually under the radar, so I may need to visit the brewery Taproom, attached to the brewery at Flower Farm, particularly if I wish to sample one or two of the company’s cask beers. 

The Taproom is only open on Friday evenings 5-8pm, for what is described as a social pint or two including take-aways. It does prove though, that there’s a number of brewers out there keeping a rather low profile, either through choice, or due to straightened financial circumstances, but whatever the reason, you have to admire their dedication. Together, the pair form another example of the multi-faceted world of brewing in the UK today, and this is what makes the life of a beer enthusiast, so interesting.