First I must declare this is a live blog which means I’ve had a couple of beers although am not incapable!

Dorchester Beerex is awesome – a v.friendly event with lots of great, well kept, beer and plenty of chatty punters.

Special mention for the Mayor of Bridport, Dave Rickard; founder of Town Mill Brewery Allan Swannell (and his friend from Chorley Wood whose name I didn’t get); Rich Gabe who helped organise the festival and does brewery liaison for CAMRA, and Alan Hall (I *really* thought we’d met before!).

I managed to try all on my hit list (see previous post) but was chatting too much to taste any others except for a glorious half of Sixpenny IPA! Of these I’d say it was a tie between Yeovil’s Stout Hearted and Art Brew’s Monkey IPA as to which I preferred. DBC’s Yachtsman was nice but didn’t set my world on fire.

Monkey IPA (6.4%) started mellow but then a wonderful bitterness
came through giving it a good bite. The Stout Hearted (4.3%) had a prominent roasted, ‘burnt’, flavour at first sip leading to a much more chocolatey flavour – perect for this time of year.

I wish I coul have stayed to try more, but have had a fantastic afternoon and will be putting this beer festival in my diary for next year!