Westow House Ale Festival

Given how much I bang on about how great my local is, the current Ale Festival at Westow House seemed like as good an excuse as any for me to finally give it the attention that it deserves. I was in to photograph the GM Justin Hutton recently for our local mag The Transmitter, but I thought this would be a good occasion to properly highlight the Westow as (in my slightly biased opinion) one of capital's premier modern beer establishments. Plus I got to taste a shed load of really quite sumptuous beers!

The Friday night was heaving, one of the pub's busiest ever (full of Palace fans mourning a trouncing by Birmingham), so photos weren't really an option, although tasting the beer most definitely was. The focus was on London beers, with local, south of the river breweries featuring strongly - Late Knights, Clarence and Fredericks and By The Horns amongst many others.

The Hop Sonnet, a collab between Justin Hutton, Chris (his AM) and the By The Horns team, is a 14 hop barrage - a palette wrecker that almost completely overpowered my next 3rd. Similar to Arbor's Yakima Valley IPA and the Tap East Galaxy IPA, I liked this beer alot but shouldn't have had it first!

Despite drinking almost immediately after that hop beast, I could tell that the Shamblemoose US Brown Ale was a much subtler affair, ever so slightly sweet, a gentle fruit hop and the merest hint of coffee I think? This is fruity hops + brown ale done well (compared to some of the more boisterous versions perhaps).

Brodie's London Fields Pale Ale - ashamedly, this is my first time trying this. Utterly blown away, possibly the best session beer I've ever tasted. Nuff said.

Some nincompoop switched the pump clips so instead of a Clarence and Frederick's IPA, I ended up with a 3rd of Moncanda Ruby Rye. Very malty, almost a porter.

I went out to take some photographs and returned to an even busier pub for a night cap - my nose had been blasted from taking long exposures in sub zero temperatures, so I couldn't really get any aromas off my Late Knights Hairy Dog. Not a typical 'modern BIPA' as such, it's very bitter, you can't taste the abv and the malts and coffee come though after a gentle intro. I'd be keen to taste this from a keg or bottle conditioned.

Next day I arrived early enough to have the room to take some photos (thanks Justin). Weird Beard Co Mariana Trench - on a par with the Brodie's? A good tip from Justin this one. Available in bottle too I think. Citrusy, slightly hazy, fresh and drinkable for a 5% abv. Exactly my type of beer.

London Fields Triangle IPA - I couldn't get behind this I'm afraid. Something didn't add up. My only kegged beer of the festival so far - it lacked oomph and might have even been slightly watery. (That said, the last kegged thing I had at the Westow was a Stone Ruination, so my current keg benchmark is probably a little bit skewiff at the moment...) Plus it was a good 50% more expensive for my half so I couldn't help but wish I paid less for something that I would've enjoyed more. Oh well.

I had a chance to taste some of Head in a Hat's Bee Keeper beer - a very sweet honey beer. This reminded me of drinking Horlicks and honey before bed as a child. If you like this sort of thing then it's definitely for you - a fine and well put together example of how honey in beer ought to taste. If you don't, it's not.

I'll try and get back to the pub before the festival ends on Monday night. Bunny Basher is also on up in Leyton where all the big hitters are, but the Westow is doing it so well at the moment, I can see this becoming much bigger in the future. Get down now so you can say you you've been before the Hackney Mafia start invading next year.