Harrogate Beer Festival 2020

Harrogate Charity Beer festival is one of the biggest events of the calendar year at Daleside. Organised and run by Harrogate Round Table, the 30th Harrogate Beer festival featured live music, food and breweries from across the region at the town's Crown Hotel.

Sponsored by both Daleside and Theakstons both breweries were well represented. Keg beers were also available from Cold Bath Brewing, Theakstons and Daleside separate to the cask bar. My initial venture into the trade session involved much exploration. Memories of Harrogate Beer Festival from 2010 were a little sketchy. Everything was easy to find but my initial question was where was Emily? I know she got in late in the game and was nearly forgotten. Eventually she was spotted with her makeshift pumpclip...

One of the two casks in existence of Emily 

Gravity fed from cask and conditioned nicely. Emily was very drinkable for the 5.5% abv. Fleshy fruit and tropical flavours dominate. Underneath there's some banana, apple and spice underpinning the dry finish. Emily is approachable but complicated and arguably better aged a bit longer.

Moving on it was good to try Daleside Stout again. I don't manage to try every seasonal we brew from on trade. Turning Point Disco king was a very pleasant IPA with lots of perfumed sweet citrus and pine from the use of Mosaic and Chinook hops. An all round quality West Coast style IPA. 

Rudgate Brew 28 Cry Wolf was also citrus, hop forward with lemongrass late on whereas Roosters Little Changes came across savory and quite traditional tasting for a new English hop variety beer. Theakstons Old Peculiar is a classic as always that's rarely encountered on cask. 

Another to mention was Theakstons Peculier IPA. An all round good beer that doesn't really tick the boxes of contemporary keg IPA. It's more of an ESB. On the whole I didn't manage to try everything on the list and given  I was getting served a few accidental pints instead of halves managed to get through a fair volume of beer. The all round impression was of a classy, well presented beer festival and a great night.