The very first White Hart Beer Festival will commence on Thursday the 10th December 2009 and run until Sunday 13th December 2009. It will be the first and last for 2009.
Below are the details for our Inaugural Beer Festival. This page will be continually updated as we get more details.
Details updated as of 1 November 2009
- Tapping will begin at noon. As this is the first ever festival at the White Hart, we expect this to be a bit of an occasion. Make sure you're here for 12 or you'll miss it!
- Our kitchen will open at 11am serving our full menu.
- Number of firkins will be 15+.
- With 15+ firkins, we should have cask ale on tap until at least Sunday afternoon. Time permitting one of us will be updating the news page and tweeting throughout the festival with cask status.
- 10 firkins will be pouring at any time (except when we get down to less than 10), tapping a new one as one kicks.
Downloads
Tasting Notes
The Pintpicker Tasting Notes instructions
Tasting Cards
Current Cask List
(likely to change, with possibly some surprise additions):
watch this space!
Some changes to the cask list below: (in italics)
- Box Steam Brewery - Tunnel Vision - ABV 4.2%
- Bushy's Brewery I.O.M - Ruby Mild - ABV 3.5%
- Castle Rock Brewery - Hemlock - ABV 4.0%
- Phoenix Brewery - Last Leaf - ABV 4.5%
- Crouch Vale Brewery - Brewers Gold - ABV 4.0%
- Crouch Vale Brewery - Fine Pale Ale (FPA) - ABV 5.9%
- Dark Star Brewery - Hophead ABV - 3.8%
- Great Oakley Brewery - Wagtail - ABV 3.9%
- Green Jack Brewery - Orange Wheat beer - ABV 4.2%
- Mersey Island Brewery - Oyster Stout - ABV 4.5%
- Oakham Brewery - Jeffrey Hudson Bitter (JHB) - ABV 3.8%
- Skinners Brewery - Cornish Blonde - ABV 5.0%
- Titanic Brewery (Goes down well!) - Anchor - ABV 4.1%
- Tring Brewery - Jack O'Legs - ABV 4.2%
- Unit 'B' Brewery - Mistral Bitter - ABV 4.4%
- Unit 'B' Brewery - Brewers Droop - ABV 7.0%
- Thatchers Cider - Traditional - ABV 6.0%
- Millwhites Cider - Kingston Black - ABV 7.0%
Entertainment:
Gunrunner have been confirmed for the Friday night. Starting around 8:30 or 9:00 PM. Check 'em out here Gunrunner. Some blinding music for those who have taste.
Secret have now been confirmed for the Saturday night. 9:00 PM till 11:30 PM
Just James has been booked for an extra date on Sunday from 4:00 PM till 7:00 PM
Commemoratives Glasses
23oz oversized commemorative glasses with third, half and full pint marks will be available at the Festival Bar for a deposit of £3. You can either keep the glass or return it to us for a refund of your deposit. As we are providing glasses with a third pint measure, we will not be offering tasters of any of the beers. The third and half pint measures means you can safely try several of these great beers and still remain standing!
The Festival Bar is separate from the main bars at the White Hart and will only serve beers in the official Festival commemorative glass. All unclaimed deposits will go to the Essex Air Ambulance.
Travel to and From Mersea
BEWARE THE TIDES!!
There is a regular bus service to and from Mersea Island running from Colchester. The bus stop you need is the High Street. The bus actually terminates here for the driver to rest. The White Hart is about a hundred and fifty yards south of the bus stop. The official bus timetable can be found here:
Bus Timetable Colchester-Mersea-Colchester
In a nutshell the last bus from Mersea leaves the High Street Bus Layby at the following times.
Thursday/Friday/Saturday - 22:54
Sunday - 23:00
**We will be providing a Mini-Bus for pick up and drop off between the Festival and anywhere on the Island at £1 per person per trip**
Beer Festival FAQ:
What's cask conditioned ale and why should I care?
Additional hops and sugars or wort are added to cask conditioned ales when they are barreled resulting in a secondary fermentation in the barrel. These ales tend to have very pleasing natural carbonation and are served at a higher temperature than regular draft beer. Due to the oxygen that enters the cask once it is opened, the shelf life is only a few days. This is beer at its freshest.
Cask conditioned ales are dispensed using gravity or a hand pump. Regular draft beer is dispensed using either CO2, nitrogen or a combination of the two. Since the barrels will be sitting on stillage, we will be using gravity. We've plenty of extra gravity for our first festival; we don't want to run out.
What's a pin? What's a firkin?
Firkins and pins are two sizes of casks. A firkin is 40.8 liters (9 gallons). A pin is 20.4 liters (5 gallons). A typical Keg is 11 gallons. 9 Gallons is Firkin ideal for a cask ale!
What's an oversize glass?
Our glasses are 23oz glasses whereas the normal pub glass is 20oz. This is to ensure you receive a full measure and still leave room for a head on top. It's a pity that more pubs don't use them. The third of a pint is an old British measure that had fallen out of favour until CAMRA revived it a few years ago. It allows festival goers to try a greater range of the Real Ales that are available, than would otherwise be desirable. |
