Lawrence Way, Camberley, GU15 3DL

Sunday 30 August 2020

Drinking in the Alfred the previous Sunday, Mark the landlord mentioned Jo was going to ‘Ascot Brewing Socially Distanced Beer Festival’ the following Sunday and that he was driving him and his friend Jim to it and that there was a spare seat in the car. PV needed no further invitation and MV booked the ticket there and then.

The brewery had moved in November 2019 from the old cramped site at Compton Place to a much larger industrial unit a few hundred yards away. The brewing equipment occupied the right hand side of the unit with storage on the left above which was a mezzanine floor hosting the brewery tap. For the festival the forecourt had been turned into a seating area.

After taking our temperatures and handing over the prepaid beer tokens (£20 ticket bought entrance and £18 worth of tokens) we headed to our socially distanced table on the mezzanine. The beer list was displayed on boards and available to download from the QR code displayed on the table. It was waiter service only (you waved your wooden spoon for attention) and prices were £4 a pint for the lower gravity beers and £6 a pint for something stronger/more exotic. Further tokens were available by following the one-way system down the side stairs past the toilets, out to the forecourt, back in by the token stall (card only – no cash) and back up the main stairs.

The menu offered some 20 cask beers (racked downstairs) and 18 keg (dispensed from the tap room bar). Full details of the beers was on the download which PV had failed to master on their first order to Mia, resulting in the purchase of an 8.8% to start (this was left to finish on). Although the emphasise was, not surprisingly, on Ascot beers, there were plenty of other brewery’s beers to try and PV had a very enjoyable session before leaving Jo and Jim to it and getting his ride home from MV.

Attended by:-

PV, Jo & Jim