Cornwall

Campaign for Real Ale

Campaign for Real Ale

Cornwall tasting Panel meeting at Driftwood Spars

Saturday 13 August 2016

Cornwall Tasting Panel met at the Driftwood Spars, Trevaunance Cove on Saturday 13 August as guests of Driftwood Brewer Pete Martin. Guest tasters Kevin Travers (Hampshire Tasting Panel Chair and Regional TP Coordinator for London & SE England) and Val Helliwell (Hampshire TP member) joined the panel. We tasted a range of Driftwood cask and bottled beers, giving CAMRA information for tasting notes for the Good Beer Guide and for nominations for the Champion Beer of Britain and Winter Beer of Britain competitions. We worked our way through malty session bitters to the powerful Alfie’s Revenge at 6.5%ABV. Pete’s new best bitter, Sundrift was a challenge for the panel as we had no preconceived ideas about the beer. It has flavours of malts, grassy hops, a range of fruits and spicy notes – very yummy! Finally, we tasted Pete’s speciality gluten-free bottled beer Unexpected, which is a light and refreshing hoppy brew with no barley-malt flavour, but with bitter hops and spicy citrus fruits.

Photo shows us enjoying the lunch break courtesy of Driftwood Spars, and some lovely beer of course! Clockwise in the photo are Lin Dopson, Pete Dopson (both Cornwall TP members), Val, Kevin, and Pete Martin (Brewer) at the back. Then Vince Curtis, Jan Barrett, Bob Bunce, Sonia Bunce, Rosemary Barber and Euan McPhee (all Cornwall TP members). Behind the camera was Steve Barber, Cornwall TP Chair and Regional TP Coordinator for SW England (South).

The panel meets several times a year for tastings and also takes advantage of other Cornwall Branch events to taste the wonderful beers from Cornish breweries. We are very active and currently have the most beers with tasting notes in the Good Beer Guide.

Sonia Bunce, Press Officer, CAMRA Kernow.