If you’ve ever heard the words ‘steak platter’ mentioned around Oxford you’ll know about The Chester. Over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend, The Chester hosted a beer and cider festival to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. They boasted over 40 beers and ciders along with top-notch BBQ food.
The festival kicked off on Thursday evening and ended on Monday evening, giving plenty of opportunity to get down and sample some beer. I arrived just after opening on Saturday hoping to get a good spot. The Chester’s beer garden is great little suntrap with plenty of seating and shade – ideal for the warm weather over the weekend.
The outdoor bar hosted a range of ciders, 2 keg beers and food, while the temporary gazebo was the home of ten cask ales that were rotated over the weekend. A good mix of beer from pale ales to porters were part of the line-up, with similar style replacements as each one ran out to keep a good variety over the weekend.
To start, I opted for the XT15 (4.5%), an English IPA from XT Brewing Co in Long Crendon. This was golden in colour with a slightly sweet initial taste that gave way to a bitter, hoppy finish. A good all-round beer to start with and I always have time for XT, as they produce some cracking beers! I then turned to the London Porter (5%) from Mad Squirrel. This was a beer I kept going back to as I really enjoyed it. Very dark brown in colour with a slightly malty, biscuit aroma. The taste is slightly smoky with a rich choco coffee sweet flavour – far too easy drinking for a 5% beer! Next, onto a keg beer and the Jute Session IPA from Salt Beer Factory. Pale gold in colour with a strong hoppy, pine-like aroma. It packs a happy, fruity punch, with a strong lingering aftertaste. Quite refreshing after the other two beers and great for a sunny day.
Some other good beers sampled were Shawshank Fermentation by Loose Cannon – a dark and malty beer, Budding by Stroud Brewery – a very drinkable Pale Ale, and Red Kite by Vale Brewery – a chestnut coloured hoppy bitter. One that didn’t really hit the mark was Stable #2 by White Horse Brewery, which tasted more like good homebrew than a commercial beer.
I was really keen to try the Astryd Juicy Pale from Thornbridge and Stay Puft Marshmallow Porter by Tiny Rebel – another favourite of mine – but both were not quite ready.
The food served looked fantastic, including a pork shoulder bap with that all-important crackling, and deliciously smoky baba ganoush with flatbread and BBQ veg. Chilli and garlic mackerel were a good size and smelled great on the BBQ. Collagin also had a pop-up stall the garden providing samples of their original and rose gins.
Overall, the beer, the food and the weather came together for a brilliant beer festival. I would have happily gone back for more than one afternoon if I could have. If we get more sun I’ll be back in their beer garden soon!
The Chester
19 Chester St, Oxford OX4 1SN
01865 790438
Martin Powell says
Nice review James, glad you enjoyed it and thanks for supporting the Cystic Fibrosis Trust