To the St Albans CAMRA Beer and Cider Festival, where I tried various different brews. The star of the show for me was Malvern Magic's Kingston Black Cider. 'Kingston Black' is a 'vintage' cider-apple variety, which makes excellent cider on its own, without having to be mixed with other varieties. Its reputation precedes it, but I'd never tried a KB single-varietal cider until today. It is FANTASTIC! I wrote in my beer and cider notebook "Rich amber. Clear, still. Medium dry. Some sweetness. Rich, complex. Marked hint of apple ["Well, duh", I hear you say. However, though made from apples, cider doesn't usually taste of apple, any more than wine tastes of grapes.] Astringent finish. Excellent ++. Outstanding. [My top description is usually "excellent", but occasionally, I will describe a really outstanding beer or cider as "excellent+", or even, very rarely,"++".]
Here are the bottles I bought home. The first five (from the left) are British, the others foreign. The next four are Trappist ales, made by Trappist monks in the Netherlands (La Trappe), the USA (Spencer), and Belgium. The next three are Geuze, Lambic, and Geuze. Lambics and Geuzes are a Belgian speciality. Lambics are wild-fermented from airborne yeasts (like sourdough bread), and Geuzes are aged blends of Lambics. They are markedly sour.
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