What a weekend we had at Aber Beer Festival at the end of August. MASHED Community Brewery managed to brew over 180L of beer, and sold out! With the help of our amazing guest amateur brewers, many of whom had zero brewing experience, we created 6 epic beers. Four of these were casked (our first time) and all were created using our Brew Tank and UniTank.

Taking part alone in the beer festival was a huge achievement for our small team. It took almost 6 months of paperwork, learning about legislation, sitting exams, and more paperwork. We were open for 3 days and served over 150 people, serving over 400 glasses of beer. an accomplishment considering we can only seat 8 people at a time!

So what was my takeaway from the weekend? Well, there’s definitely room for improving/tweaking the beers. In general, this is always the case for most recipes, a little more crystal malt, change the yeast, loads more hops, the list is endless. But this is why I love brewing beer - it’s the pursuit of happiness. 

My main reflection from the weekend was what a diverse world we live in. With over 300 votes and feedback on all our beers, the opinions were incredibly varied. But to sum up: sours are definitely the Marmite of the beer world, and you can’t go wrong with an APA. Stouts are steady, but brown ales are not loved so much, which is a shame as this is my favourite brew. And strong beer is always a talking point. And make sure you give your beer a funny name - it helps you stand out. Hats off to the brewery that produced “Hairy Bastards”, which was served in one of my favourite pubs in Aber.

So what’s next? Well, I learned a lot and I can see now why breweries push the limits of beer-making. It has definitely inspired me to be more adventurous with beers, flavours, and styles. Of course, there is always time for a classic beer, but leave this for the pubs and classic breweries. I’m going to let go of my previous prejudices and beliefs and officially come out and be proud to say, I now like sours! 

THE RESULTS

Keen to discover what people thought of our beers, we handed out voting forms with the brews we served (mainly as flights of 3 x 1/3 pints). There were 300+ votes handed in over the weekend. And what a variety of tastes everyone has! Here are the final results:>OVERALL WINNER 

Thunderstruck APA by Nigel 

First to sell out 

Moka Pot Stout by Tony

Most 5 out of 5 scores

 PuckaUp Sour by Gareth

Most ordered beer

Dragon’s Blood Sour Cherry Ale by Tristan.

A huge congratulations to all our guest brewers! â–