Prince of Wales, Shippon: 30th Sep – 2nd Oct

Next weekend (Fri 30th September to Sunday 2nd October) the Prince of Wales in Shippon is holding a beer and music festival. This will feature over 20 real ales, 7 ciders and a pig roast on Saturday. This pub is within easy walking or cycling distance from Abingdon. Last year this pub was on the verge of closure with planning permission to convert it into housing, but was saved from closure and a lot of money and effort has been put into improvements over the last year. There are normally 6 real ales available including local beers from Shotover and Loose Cannon. Regular live music events, and is a favourite pub for several local morris dancing sides.

Brewery Tap: 7th-9th October

It’s been 20yrs since Mr Warrick’s Arms shut. Keith and Marilyn Heritage were the licensees and soon after opened The Brewery Tap, but the pub will be remembered more for the ‘Duchess of Ock Street’, Mrs Heavens, who had run the pub for close to sixty years!

To celebrate the anniversary and to commemorate British beer week, The Brewery Tap is holding a big old beer, cider & sausage festival, with their biggest range yet. The festival will in a double top hat marque adjacent to the pub in the pub car park. Live music will include Big Boys Blues Band and Flexamuscle on the Saturday evening and Nevada plus guests on the Sunday afternoon.

When the beer list and tasting notes are available, I’ll add them here.

The Brewery Tap is in the latest 2012 edition of The Good Beer Guide which was published by The Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA) last week. They offer a discount on real ale and cider for CAMRA members and have been recognised by CAMRA as a real cider pub.

Broad Face: 18th-20th November

Following the success of the Broad Face’s first beer festival earlier this year in April, they are holding their 2nd beer festival in November. I don’t have many details, but I expect it will be similar to the April one with around 12 real ales and live music. More details will be added when I get them.

The Broad Face normally has a selection of 4 real ales, and offers a discount on real ales to CAMRA members.

The list of beers will include:

• White Horse – Black Horse Porter
• West Berkshire – Whimble
• Oxfordshire Ales – Happy Hooker
• Loddon – In Yer Face American IPA
• Loddon – Russet
• Exmoor – Exmoor Gold
• Castle Rock – Harvest Pale
• Greene King – Bonkers Conkers
• Greene King – Olde Trip
• Wolf – RAF Battle of Britain
• Everards – Tiger
• Wentworth – Vanilla

The latest beer list can be downloaded Here

I am particularly looking forward to trying the Loddon American IPA. Loddon is a local brewery based in a converted barn between Reading and Henley, but we don’t get to try much of their cask ales in Abingdon’s pubs, although some is available in bottles from supermarkets

Live music each night, starting with BLIND DOG BLUES on Friday night, RAMI & THE TALC DAEMONS on Saturday night and finishing up with ADAM MATTHEWS early Sunday evening.

The Cross Keys is now also using YourRound so you can see what beers are currently being served and in the cellar.

You can also follow them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/crosskeysabingdon

Hook Norton Dray (Picture borrowed from Kings Head and Bell facebook page)

There is a good range of 20 real ales outside (and 4 more at the bar). Many of them are from local breweries including:

• Loose Cannon, Abingdon: Pale Ale and Abingdon Bridge
• Hook Norton: Hooky Dark, Hooky Gold, Old Hooky, Hooky Double Stout, Haymaker, Flagship
• Appleford: Power Station
• White Horse: Saracen IP
• Vale: Grumpling
• West Berkshire: Dr. Hexter’s Healer
• Oxfordshire Ales: Pride of Oxfordshire
• Butts: Barbus Barbus

From further afield are:

• Andwell, Hampshire: Gold Muddle
• Box Steam Brewery, Wiltshire: Tunnel Vision and Funnel Blower
• Cottage Brewery, Somerset: Licence to Chew
• Rebellion, Marlow: Mutiny
• Red Squirrel, Hertfordshire: Summer Ale
• Sadlers, Stourbridge: Stumbling Badger
• Adnams: Broadside
• Wadworth 6X

There are also 5 real ciders.

I haven’t tried everything yet, but probably the Hooky Flagship is my favourite so far.

You can also see more pictures of the horses on The Abingdon Blog

List of beers and ciders, with tasting notes

The Tap’s beer festival features 16 real ales including Abingdon Bridge from Abingdon’s own Loose Cannon Brewery and 8 real ciders, and as with the previous Tap festivals this year…. specialist sausages and live music.

There will be live music on Saturday afternoon (4pm) from The Three Musty Steers and on Sunday afternoon (4pm) from George Haslam’s 18 piece Big Time Swing Band.

Saturday also coincides with the annual Runner Bean Day on Saturday, which offers prizes for things such as the longest runner bean.

If you want to travel outside of Abingdon there are a few other beer festivals going on including The Cricketer’s Arms in Littleworth which is holding its Autumn Beer and Sausage Festival featuring 12 locally brewed beers, and Far From the Madding Crowd in Oxford which is holding its Autumn Beer festival.

Kings Head and Bell - Stillage, the day before

The full list of breweries is Hook Norton, White Horse, Abingdon’s own Loose Cannon, Oxfordshire Ales, Appleford, Box Steam Brewery, West Berkshire, Wadworth, Festival Brewery from Cheltenham and Vale Brewery.

The festival was officially opened at midday on Saturday by Beth Fleming, chairman of the Vale and Alastair Fear, deputy mayor of Abingdon.

Also this afternoon, members from the Oxford branch of CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) members will be giving a tutured tasting demonstration and will be on hand to answer questions about real ale and what CAMRA does.

Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers will be performing on Sunday afternoon starting around 2:30pm and will be followed by a folk music jam session.

The Freedom brewery had a stand on Saturday where you could sample their Hand crafted English Lagers, which if you are only used to the bland mass produced lager brands will surprise you with their aroma, taste and body. The King’s Head and Bell regularly serve Freedom Four

There are other things going on as well including a BBQ serving local farm produce. The banner outside also refers to a local craft market and face painting.

The Brewery Tap in Ock Street, Abingdon is holding a Cider festival this weekend (Friday 25th June – Sunday 27th June).

It will feature 21 different ciders, including a rare breed of ciders from local sources and CAMRA award winners.

The full list of ciders and perrys along with tasting notes can be downloaded here

There will also be a selection of world beers, and a selection of interestingly flavoured sausages that have been very popular at the previous beer festivals.

Sunday afternoon should be good, watching England beat Germany whilst drinking some traditionally made real English ciders.

They expect to be offering a range of approximately 30 ales and ciders.

You can get more info from their facebook page or main website at www.crownandthistle.com

The Stocks Bar is at the Crown & Thistle Hotel, 18 Bridge Street, Abingdon, OX14 3HS

In recent months following changes of bar management the Stocks Bar has been up and down regarding its beer range, but recently it seems back on track again with a good range of beers including local beers from Witney based Brakspear, Wychwood and Grove based Pitstop, as well as guest beers from further afield such as Jennings. So let’s hope that this beer festival goes well and is a sign of good things to come.

The List of beers is:

• Snecklifter 5.1%
• Cockerhoop 4.6%
• Mans Bitter 3.9%
• Old Empire 5.7%
• Fortyniner 4.9%
• Old Thumper 5.6%
• Marstons EPA 3.6%
• Hobgoblin 4.5%
• Oxford Blue 4.0%
• Brakspear Bitter 3.4%
• Dragon Tale 4.5%
• Boondoggle 4.2%
• Oxford Gold 4.0%
• Stickle Pike 3.8%
• Normans Conquest 7%
• Golden Arrow 4.5%
• Grumpling 4.6%
• SaracenIPA 4.5%
• Dragon Hill 4.2%
• Bitumen 10%
• IPA Indianapolis 7%
• Star 3.8%
• Jumping Jack Flash 3.9%
• Dr Hectors Healer 5.0%
• Mags Mild 3.8%
• Gravitas 4.8%
• Old Father Thames 3.4%
• Tom Fool 4.0%

There are 30 different real ales, 8 ciders and 20 different types of sausage, including Steak & Marmite and other interesting flavours.

There will be live music on Sunday afternoon. Additionally on Sunday, anyone showing a CAMRA membership card will be offered a discount on beer prices

The beer list has a good range, including many local beers from breweries such as Pitstop, Vale, West Berkshire, White Horse as well some from further afield. I particularly recommend you try some of the Pitstop beers as they are unlike anything else you will have ever tried (Try the Sump in half pints as it is very strong… and on Friday was amongst the most popular). The complete beer and cider list is reproduced below:

A new craft micro brewery called the Shotover Brewing Company is due to
open soon in converted stables in Horspath just outside Oxford. The
owner and head brewer Ed Murray has been craft brewing for over twenty years
and has made the decision to turn his interest into a commercial venture.
It is anticipated that beer will be on sale by the end of November.

There are photos of stables being converted into the brewery on their facebook group and their main web site is at www.shotoverbrewing.com.

I am hoping that one of the Shotover beers will be at the Brewery Tap‘s Winter ‘Beer, Cider & Sausage’ festival on Friday 4th December – Sunday 6th December. This festival promises 30 different cask ales, 5 real ciders. The Big Boys Blues Band will be playing live on the Sunday from 4pm.

Note to any publicans reading this… I don’t intend to only mention the Brewery Tap and the Stocks. There are many other good pubs in Abingdon including Nags Head, Spread Eagle, White Horse, Cross Keys, Punchbowl, Plough, Broad Face. If you have any news, information on guest beers, festivals, etc, then please let me know and I’ll post it here.

There will be around 140 different ales and 20 real ciders and perry’s available. This is a good opportunity to try out beers that may not be available locally, try beers from local breweries and to meet other people who appreciate good beer.

You can find more information including an up to date beer list at the Oxford Camra web site.

A new industry report published this week about Cask Ale says:

…over the last few years, cask beer has seen a remarkable turnaround. It’s now outperforming every other beer style, benefitting from the increasing demand for products with local provenance, natural ingredients and interesting flavours.