The Dorchester Beerex is next Friday and Saturday at the Corn Exchange in Dorchester, and if you plan to attend then you must rush to get your tickets. At the time of writing there were only tickets left for Friday with both Saturday sessions being sold out.

So head over to www.camrawdorset.org.uk for ticket details. You will also find the list of beers, and what a list it is!

Now before I begin, I must point out something, They say that they currently expect all the beers on the list to be at the festival, but things happen. Some beers might not make it to the festival and not all beers will be available all the time. However, one look at the extensive list of top beers means that I’m really looking forward to this festival and I’m sure I’m not alone.

The first thing that struck me with the list is the number from Dorset Piddle Brewery.

Seven beers from this brewery are listed; all five of their year-round range plus two of their seasonal beers. From their normal range I tasted Silent Slasher (5.1 ABV) this week as it was on tap at the ‘Moon in the Square’ in Bournemouth – a blonde beer whose colour was as clear as any beer I have ever seen, deceivingly light but with a strong flavour; well worth checking out - in fact all their beers are.

The two seasonal beers due to be at the show are Leg Warmer (4.3% ABV) which they describe as a ‘proper ginger beer’ and Thunder Box Porter (4.5% ABV) which the brewery describes as ‘Perfectly pucker winter drinking’.

Another local brewery represented is the Dorset Brewing Company. Ammonite (3.8% ABV) is an amber coloured fruit styled beer with ‘hints of chocolate, undercut with grapefruit’ and Jurassic (4.2% ABV) is an award winning medium bodied clean tasting beer.

One of Dorset’s newest breweries is Art Brew, which started in 2008 in North Chideock in Dorset. Two of its’ beers are hoped to be available, Art Nouveau (3.9%) and Monkey IPA (6.4% ABV). Unfortunately I don’t know anything about them, so it will be great to meet their acquaintance at this festival.

Finally one of Dorset’s smaller breweries will also be represented. Small Paul, described as being an enthusiastic home brewer in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide, will have two beers on offer Gylla’s Gold (3.8% ABV) and Wyvern (4.4% ABV) should be interesting to try.