Latest List for their March 2011 festival is here.
The list for the next Wetherspoon Real Ale Festival ( 27 Oct to 14 Nov 2010) has been announced and some great beers this year – looking forward to
- Sam Adams Brewery Blonde Ambition brewed at Shepherd Neame Brewery.
- Chocoholic from JW Lees
- Edinburgh Strong Ale from Caledonian
- Lumford from Thornbridge
- New York Wheat Porter from Titanic
- Wild hop ipa from Harviestoun
They also have a special new website for the occasion with interviews & blogs from brewers involved including Kelly Ryan from Thornbridge Brewery and James Watt from Brewdog.
Anyway here is the beer list if you are interested
Aurora Weissbier
5 | speciality
This new, naturally cloudy wheat beer has been brewed exclusively for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. It is created using pale Pilsener malts and wheat, with hops exclusively from the Savinja Valley, producing a continental-style beer with a floral nose and herbal, spicy undertones.
Autumn Dawn
4.2 | best bitter
This light golden, seasonal ale is fairly lightly hopped, yet has a distinctive citric aroma and full-bodied flavour, leading to pronounced fruity hop notes.
Black Squirrel
3.9 | bitter
This rich, dark beer was last brewed in 1998 and makes its return especially for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. It has a medium-bodied character, with hints of blackcurrant and chocolate in the flavour, leading through to a smooth, fruity finish.
Blonde Ambition
5.5 | strong bitter
Bert Boyce and Dan Melideo, from Sam Adams Brewery, have travelled to Shepherd Neame Brewery, in Kent, to create this beer especially for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. This very pale beer incorporates American intensity and English balance, showcasing East Kent-grown American Cascade hops – picked fresh from the field and in the brewery in a matter of hours. The result is an intense (yet soft) hop impression, moderate bitterness and fruity, complex character.
Bretwalda
4.1 | best bitter
This beer has previously been available only in bottles and makes its cask début exclusively at this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. It is deep red in colour, with a distinctive aroma and a flavour which is full of spicy and fruity characteristics.
Castagnale
4.4 | speciality
Leonardo di Vincenzo has travelled from Birra Del Borgo brewery to Everards brewery in Leicestershire to re-create this beer especially for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. It is deep amber in colour, with an aroma combining spicy malt with caramel and ripe-fruit notes, leading to a flavour of smooth malt, soft chestnuts and delicate honey hints, plus a long aftertaste of roasted chestnuts.
Chocoholic
3.6 | speciality
This new beer makes its début at this Wetherspoon real-ale festival and is a rich, dark brew, made with chocolate and a fine blend of malt and hops, to create a flavour which is definitely addictive.
Cinque Ale
4.1 | best bitter
This new beer’s name celebrates the historic Cinque Port Confederation, which dates from Norman times, and has been brewed especially for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. It is deep chestnut in colour and has been hopped, appropriately, five times throughout the brewing process, resulting in a distinctly hoppy nose and fruity palate throughout.
Coppernob
4.5 | best bitter
This beer has been brewed only twice before, solely for the brewery’s own pubs, so makes its national début at this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. It is a rich copper-coloured brew and has a floral, spicy aroma, with a smooth, fruity character (balanced with malty notes) and a long, dry, satisfying finish.
Coriander 1879
4.9 | speciality
This new, mid brown beer is a modern take on an old recipe, brewed using coriander seeds to create an orange-like flavour, with a citrus aroma and bitter finish combining to create the ideal overall balance.
Coxswain’s Special
4 | best bitter
This occasionally brewed, mid-coloured and robust ale has a solid keel of Maris Otter malt and is fitted out with a sweet and toasty, lightly roasted grain flavour, before the powerful hop flavours take command to deliver the decisive action on the taste buds.
Dark
4.2 | best bitter
This beer, last brewed in 1990, is making its return especially for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. It is a well-balanced dark beer with an enticing, spicy aroma and malty, slightly sweet, biscuity flavour, leading to a fruity aftertaste.
Double Espresso Wild Oat Stout
4.8 | speciality/stout
This stunning wild-oat stout is brewed with double-strength coffee beans, delivering the buzz of coffee and a toasted oatmeal flavour, while light hopping helps to balance and complement the smooth, silky character.
Dragon Boat
4.5 | best bitter
This new, amber-coloured beer has been brewed exclusively for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. The floral aroma, with hints of fruit and caramel, leads to a delicate palate, with a subtle balance of refreshment and body, plus loads of hop character throughout.
Easy Weasel
4.5 | best bitter
This new beer has been brewed exclusively for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. It is a golden-brown bitter, with a fruity, refreshing hop aroma and flavour, plus a refreshing, crisp character.
Edge
3.2 | mild
This rarely brewed, chestnut-brown mild has a beautiful plum fruit aroma which gives way to a wave of cascading malt, enveloping the palate throughout, with only the slightest hop background haze emerging late in the finish.
Edinburgh Strong Ale
6.4 | strong bitter
This beer was last available in cask in 1995 and has been brewed again exclusively for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. It is a deep-amber-coloured Scotch ale, with a smooth, rounded body and delicious, deep malty and fruity flavours, leading to hints of liquorice toffee in the finish.
Ettaler Cask Lager
4.8 | speciality
Ettaler Monastery was founded in Bavaria over 400 years ago and produces several ales and lagers, including this beer – now brewed under licence by Cotleigh Brewery. Using Ettaler yeast, this is a Bavarian-style lager, tawny in colour, with a typical haze to the appearance, with hints of lemon on the nose, a sweet, hoppy taste on the palate and a smooth, creamy character.
Ghost Ship
4.5 | golden ale
This new beer is a very light, pale ale with a spicy aroma, imparting hints of lime and a slightly nutty sweetness in the flavour, leading to a pleasing, citrus finish.
Ginger Hare
3.9 | speciality
This new, speciality beer has been brewed exclusively for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. It is created using traditionally fermented root ginger, with the malt and hops mingling to provide a full-bodied flavour and lingering spiciness.
Hairway To Steaven
5 | strong bitter
This is the 2010 remix of this brewery’s classic ‘Stairway To Heaven’, brewed especially for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. The hops used are evident in both the aroma and flavour, combining with top-quality malts to give an intense drinking experience which will change musical preferences.
Junibier
4.3 | speciality
Henk has over thirty years’ experience in brewing lager and working on research and innovation at the Heineken Brewery. He’s returned to the Caledonian Brewery, in Edinburgh, after his first visit in spring 2009, to brew this beer especially for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. This golden ale is an interpretation of a rustic, Finnish style, brewed since the Middle Ages and containing the traditional spice of fresh juniper berries. An enticing herbal aroma, with hints of pine, leads to a malty flavour, with the tanginess of the juniper balanced by a delicate bitterness and smooth, spicy finish.
King Goblin
6 | strong bitter
This new beer has previously been available in bottles only, so makes its cask début exclusively at this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. Allegedly only ever brewed under a full moon, this deep-brown-coloured beer has a full, rich (yet smooth) flavour and a long, satisfying finish.
Liberation Ale
4 | golden ale
This award-winning golden ale is brewed using a unique blend of English and Continental hops, giving a pronounced citrus character, balanced by the Maris Otter and crystal malt flavours, resulting in a well-balanced and easy-drinking character.
Lumford
3.9 | golden ale
This beer takes its name from Lumford Mill, an historic mill built, by the famous Richard Arkwright, on the site on which the brewery now stands. Described as a ‘New World pale ale’, this golden beer is brewed using a wealth of New World hops, giving aromas packed with tropical fruits and berries, a clean and crisp flavour, with a subtle malt character, and a smooth, dry finish.
New York Wheat Porter
4.2 | porter/speciality
This new, deep-ruby-coloured beer has been brewed exclusively for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. The use of dark chocolate and black malts creates a powerful, dark flavour, while the generous quantities of wheat malt give a smooth, biscuity note. A gentle hop bitterness completes the rich, opulent character.
Once Bittern
4.1 | best bitter
This copper-coloured ale has a distinctive aroma of rich spice and citrus fruits, along with a palate which blends sweet malt, fruit and warm spice flavours, before developing into a pleasing, dry finish.
Pendlewitches Brew
5.1 | strong bitter
This beer featured in the first Wetherspoon real-ale festival back in October 1990, so we thought it a good idea to have it back to mark this 20th anniversary. This light golden, award-winning beer has a full, malty flavour which is soft and crisp, leading to a sweet, fruity aftertaste and soft, citrus nose.
Phoenix Rising
4.5 | golden ale
This new beer has been brewed exclusively for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival, with the help of Kay Masson, manager of The Job Bulman, in Gosforth, who helped to both formulate the recipe and brew the beer. It is a full-flavoured, golden ale with a light, floral aroma, easy-drinking character and slightly sweet aftertaste.
Pixley Black
6 | speciality/stout
This exciting, special brew is based on an original 1900 Wadworth double-stout recipe. It is a rich, dark beer, with a big chocolate aroma and flavour ‘up front’. The addition of pure blackcurrant juice, from the Pixley Black variety, imparts an intriguing fruit finish.
Purple Haze
4.4 | best bitter
This beer is named to celebrate the autumnal shade of the heather moorlands local to the brewery. Having last been brewed in 2002, it’s been brewed again especially for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. It is light amber in colour with an inviting floral aroma and a crisp, bitter finish.
Ram Rod
5 | strong bitter
This beer was last brewed in 2006 at the now-closed Young’s brewery and has been re-created exclusively for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. It is a light-brown-coloured beer, packed full of fruity, vinous and hoppy flavours, with a full-bodied character which strikes an excellent balance between malt and hops.
Red Kite
4.3 | best bitter
This new, chestnut-red beer has a blackcurrant hedgerow aroma and a rich malt flavour, balanced by a bitter, hoppy undertone and pleasing, bitter finish.
Regency Best Bitter
4 | bitter
This new beer has been brewed exclusively for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. It is a golden-coloured ale, created using Maris Otter and crystal malts, with the late addition of the whole-leaf Chinook hops making for a subtle grapefruit nose.
Ribble Rouser
4.2 | best bitter
This new beer has been brewed exclusively for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. It is an amber-coloured beer and uses a fine blend of English hops to create a hoppy aroma and character, complemented by a bitter, malty flavour, leading to a lasting, crisp, fruity aftertaste.
Rye Humour
4.5 | best bitter
This amber-coloured beer has been brewed only once before (in January 2009), so is making its return especially for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. It is brewed using a blend of American and English hops, with malted rye, to create a flavour which is predominantly dry, balanced by biscuity notes and an impressive spicy finish.
Scullion’s Single X Plain Porter
4.2 | porter
This deep black porter has an initial, full, dry flavour from the roasted barley used, complemented by a judicious blend of hops emerging to add depth and character to the flavour.
Signal Box Brown Ale
4.1 | best bitter
This beer, brewed earlier this year for the first time, has been brought back especially for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. It has been brewed as a traditional brown ale and so has a full flavour which is predominantly malty in character, with a full body and sweeter palate, balanced by a very gentle bitterness and late hop aroma.
Snivelllers Corner
4.7 | strong bitter
This new beer has been brewed exclusively for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival and takes its unusual name from the area of a burial chamber. It is dark amber in colour, with spicy hop aromas and a growing bitterness, creating an ideal balance with the malt flavours and biscuity overtones.
Steenhuffel Blond
4.6 | best bitter
This new beer (just called ‘4.6’, on the continent) is a brew out of the norm for this celebrated brewery, not only at a lower-than-usual strength, but also using hops from New Zealand. It is light in colour, with sauvignon grape, grapefruit and pineapple notes in the aroma, plus a clean, dry bitterness in the flavour, completed with an exotic fruit aftertaste and the delicate notes of the palm
Stout
5 | stout
Chandraratne Talpe Liyanage has travelled from Lion Brewery to Marston’s, in Staffordshire, to re-create a lower-strength version of this world-famous beer, now usually called ‘Dark’. This very dark beer has a complex aroma of chocolate, coffee and liquorice, leading to a smooth, rich palate and full flavour, with hints of chocolate, coffee and roast malt, resulting in a silky character and long finish.
Straight Flush
4 | golden ale
This new beer has been brewed exclusively for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. It is a pale beer with hints of citrus on the nose and a delicate fruit flavour, leading to a lingering, tangerine hop finish.
Strawberry Line
5 | speciality
This beer is named after the famous Strawberry Line railway which used to pass close by this brewery’s location. It is a golden bitter, with a hint of real Cheddar strawberries, complementing the fruity blackcurrant flavour from the English hops used.
Ucb
5.3 | strong bitter
This beer is enjoying its first return in cask form, having originally been brewed for the 1998 Beauty of Hops Awards, where it was voted the best beer to accompany a curry, hence the ‘ultimate curry beer’ acronym. The exotic blend of hop varieties delivers a rich, full-flavoured beer, with a delicious, clean, bitter finish to cut through and cleanse the palate.
Vanilla Orchid
4.8 | speciality
This new beer has been brewed exclusively for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. It is a mid-coloured beer with a strong vanilla aroma and smooth character, while the hops used balance the sweetness of the vanilla, leaving a rich, woody, creamy finish.
Voyager
4.4 | best bitter
This light brown ale has been brewed again especially for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival, having been available only once before, in summer 2009. It has citrus and floral aromas and a strong flavour, with a delicate finish, creating a superb, easy-drinking ale.
Wether’s Original
4.8 | strong bitter
This beer makes its national début at this festival, having previously been a special brew available only to those Wetherspoon pubs local to the brewery. It is golden amber in colour, with an initial hoppiness in the aroma, leading to a light, sweet maltiness, with a long, bitter finish.
Wheat Dreams
4.6 | speciality
This new clear wheat beer has been brewed exclusively for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. It is golden in colour with a floral aroma, refreshing flavour and a pleasing lemon and grapefruit bitterness on the palate.
Wild Hop Ipa
4.9 | golden ale
This new beer has been brewed exclusively for this Wetherspoon real-ale festival. It is an extremely well-hopped golden-coloured brew, creating a beer which has an enticing floral aroma which leads to a clean, refreshing character and a lingering, pleasingly dry aftertaste.
Winter Glory
4.3 | best bitter
This is a new seasonal brew for this year and is mid brown in colour, with an inviting aroma and distinctive and full-bodied, yet quaffable, flavour, leading to a lasting finish.