The Hamsters, Great British Beer Festival, Earl’s Court, London, August 6th 2010

Friday evening at the Great British Beer Festival is a sight to behold. Hundreds of beers and hundreds of people drinking them. Silly hats seem to be de rigueur, as do amusing t-shirts and three or four drunk friends. The Suit, Al the Manc, Nice One (thanks for the photo below), the Piper’s Son and I rose above all that nonsense and concentrated on our beer-tasting duties. I’m pleased to say we performed admirably and had some delicious brews.

The Great British Beer Festival includes live music and tonight’s entertainment was provided by veteran pub-rockers The Hamsters, who specialise in Hendrix and ZZ Top covers, alongside general boogieness in a pub sort of way. I was never going to be in a situation to give a full review – after all, the beer was the priority – so here are my notes in their entirety:

Hamsters, tush, gimme all yr loving, purple haze, all along watchtower, lots of bog standard blues. Silly guitar

Well, if only I could describe every gig in just 18 words, but it’s a fine summary. And my favourite beer? That would be the overall champion, Nottingham’s Castle Rock’s Harvest Pale, a hoppy beer which has a refreshing bite and enough malt to make it interesting – I love hops, but too many modern summer ales have insufficient malt and are very thin. Harvest Pale received an honourable mention from me back in June at the Big Session Festival, so I’m glad the experts agree with me. Cheers!