The 12th Annual Poole Beer Festival took place at St Aldhelms Centre in Branksome, a nice venue with easy public transport links being on major bus routes and close to Branksome Train Station.

I attended both the Saturday sessions and thoroughly enjoyed both sessions. My only disappointment is that the one beer I would have loved to try had been consumed by the Saturday lunch-time.

It would seem that I’m not the only fan of the Brewdog brewery. They have only been in production since 2007 but have made huge waves around the real ale scene.

I did try their Hardcore IPA (9.9%), which was available from the bottle bar and I was not disappointed. An really strong IPA with a powerful taste. Couldn’t drink more than about a half a pint of it though in one session. But as an end of session beer, lovely.

I was glad to try XXXX – Porter from the Ringwood Brewery. Matured for 12 months, it is a classic porter with a dry finish.

Other local brews that I think were well received are both the brews from the Small Paul’s Brewery in Gillingahm. Again I am a fan of this breweries output. I say brewery but Paul is really a very enthusiastic home-brewer.

Gillingham Pale (4.5% ABV) is a pale bitter and like the Ringwood Porter has a dry finish. Challenger 2 (4.3% ABV) is a citrus flavoured ale made from Challenger 2 hops. Both were highly drinkable.

One beer I didn’t like though was Raspberry Wheat (5.2% ABV) from the Whitstable Brewery. I’ve tried Raspberry beers and liked them, same with Wheat beers. There are many very nice Wheat beers around but this combination of raspberry and wheat didn’t do it for me.

One suggestion for the organisers for next year. How about selling drink in thirds of a pint?

I attended the Norwich Beer Festival last week and they allowed people to buy a third of a pint, by having an extra line on the beer glass.

A great innovation for those of us who like to try as many beers as possible. It also means if everyone only drank a third of a pint of each beer, there would be more of each type of beer to go round.

Well, that is my view of the festival. Did you attend? What were your favourites ales? Do you agree or not with my comments? Let me know what you thoughts please.

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