Vegan Beer Review: Nottingham Beer Festival

We got half way through the 14 vegan beers on offer at the Nottingham beer festival before running out of drinking time. 14 vegan beers is almost a vegan beer festival in itself and it's great to see so many of them actually labelled as vegan on the barrels. If you're at the Nottingham Beer Festival tonight or tomorrow night, the vegan options are: 025, 053, 054, 055, 316, 347, 485, 527, 531, 808, 812, 1008, 1009, 1029. Here's what we thought of the 7 beers we tried:

Two Towers: Jewellery Porter. A fairly mild tasting porter, thin rather than frothy, not as strong tasting as the label suggests (5%). One of the easier to drink porters.

Rock & Roll Brewhouse: Interhedgerow Overdrive. A fantastic name and one of the beers carrying the vegan label on the barrel. Not too strong (3.8%), light, smooth, not too bitter and holds a good head.

Rock & Roll Brewhouse: Black Rose Port Stout. A really strong and liquoricey vegan-labelled stout, powerful and pungent tangy flavour. A real mouthful for stout lovers. Medium strong (4.5%)

Hoggleys: Solstice Stout. Another full flavoured stout, but this time fruity and smokey as well as tangy. A strong brew (5%) that we'd say is an acquired taste.

Funfair: Teacups. The star of the show, this is a fantastic vegan-labelled cloudy ginger ale. Really easy to drink, sweet but not overly so, with a gentle ginger burn on the throat. Medium strong (4%).

Springhead: Drop of the Black Jack Stuff. Another liquorice flavoured stout but this time with aniseed as the overriding taste. An acquired taste for more than a quick half. Medium strong (4%).

Brass Castle: Q-Queenie. A pleasant easy drinking ale produced for the Jubilee year. Tangy but mild and holds a nice head. Labelled as vegan-friendly on the barrel. Medium Strong (4%).

We found an overwhelming tendency towards stouts and porters in the vegan selection at the Nottingham Beer Festival..and a definite lack of blond and pale ales. We guess this is because stouts are more forgiving if they are still a little cloudy without the benefit of those non-vegan finings. 

Let's hope next year we can see an even wider range of vegan beers and maybe some perrys and ciders too.

Thanks to @VeganNottingham and @NCCLols for the vegan list

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