GBBF - Great British Beer Fest - Help with beer choice!

[Sparge Pervert]

I am currently sat in an office in sunny London, counting down the hours until beer festival time.... Im heading there this evening then will be there all day thursday and friday.

Theres an international bar, with loads of cask ales from US breweries. I need a bit of help trying to decide which ones to go for. Heres the list of beers:
http://gbbf.camra.org.uk/foreignbeers

Are there any standout beers which I cant afford to miss??

Cheers networks.

I'll be representing tomorrow with my lunchmeet t-shirt







:::EDIT:::

Rock&Roll. I've wasted the last hour or so reading the list. I've discovered that theres a 2 year old Cantillon on. Going to have to give that a whirl.

I've had another look down the US beers list & I recognise GreenFlash - love thier West Coast IPA.
There's a lot of US breweries on that list that I don't know & a few that I've heard of through the BN.

Its roasting hot here so I think when I get there I'll kick off with a wheatbeer or maybe a nice german lager.

Just over an hour of work left then its 2days of drinkin

[Rictanica]

good on ya bloke! get down there and drink yer arse off!

[Sparge Pervert]

Well, I had an awesome time. I spent most of the time drinking germen beers - wheat beers, dunkels, helles, all great stuff.
I also had a very nice mellow Cantillon 2year old lambic.
The number of US beers was a bit disapointing, they all got drunk really quickly & they were slow to put new beers on. However I still got a decent number of awesome US beers down.
A favourite being Hoptecutioner (I cant remember where it was from), which was amazingly hoppy and well balanced without being over the top hoppy, or too sweet and cloying.

Thursday at the festival is Hatday, so here is me in my tophat representing the meet:

[scotchpine]

Well, I had an awesome time. I spent most of the time drinking germen beers - wheat beers, dunkels, helles, all great stuff.
I also had a very nice mellow Cantillon 2year old lambic.
The number of US beers was a bit disapointing, they all got drunk really quickly & they were slow to put new beers on. However I still got a decent number of awesome US beers down.
A favourite being Hoptecutioner (I cant remember where it was from), which was amazingly hoppy and well balanced without being over the top hoppy, or too sweet and cloying.

Thursday at the festival is Hatday, so here is me in my tophat representing the meet:


That would be Hopsecutioner from Terrapin Brewing Co. in Athens Georga. One of my favorites too! Try their Big Hoppy Monster if you ever see it.

[Sparge Pervert]

oh sad times, the picture F'ed up!!

Why would that happen? I think I'd just linked to the google+ album.

::EDIT ::

Fixed that mutha!

[highoctane]

Well, I had an awesome time. I spent most of the time drinking germen beers - wheat beers, dunkels, helles, all great stuff.
I also had a very nice mellow Cantillon 2year old lambic.
The number of US beers was a bit disapointing, they all got drunk really quickly & they were slow to put new beers on. However I still got a decent number of awesome US beers down.
A favourite being Hoptecutioner (I cant remember where it was from), which was amazingly hoppy and well balanced without being over the top hoppy, or too sweet and cloying.

Thursday at the festival is Hatday, so here is me in my tophat representing the meet:

Wow, we had nearly the exact same drink schedule. Unfortunately, Saturday was the only day I could make it and they ran out of all US beer except for a Smoked something or other from Rogue. Not cool considering that was the whole reason I went. We stuck by the German section but had to escape because of the bathrooms back there. The smell coming from those things was horrid.

[Swazi]

I was there on the wednesday and being a bit of a sour beer fan I too went for the Cantillon. The stand out for me though was an Italian beer, Revelation Cat's 3yr old Lambic style beer, aged in Marsala Barrels. I went back for more 3 times. There were a lot of other good beers, but that was the beer of the evening for me. I promised myself that this year I'd drink sensibly (after last years total loss of control, phone and wallet) but still found myself looking at the bushes on the side of the road while walking home and thinking "just a short nap, it's warm out and nobody will notice me"

[Sparge Pervert]

Haha, sounds like you had a good time Swazi!!
I didn't manage to get any of the RevCat Lambic, are they a good brewery? I've seen their beers around but never had them. I hadnt realised they were italian. I think it must have run out when I finally made it back to that bar. I was pleasantly surprised by the Italian beers - don't think I've had any before. I had an amazing IPA from White Dog (I think).

Did you try the imperial russian stout that had been aged in JD barrels? I can't remember the name of the brewery but it was on the same bar as the italian beers. I only got a taster of it. It was so so good, but there was no way I could drink anymore than a small taster!!

Highoctane - I really got into German beers over those few days at GBBF. Loved all the wheat beers and dunkels and tasty lagers. I was a bit disappointed by the Czech bar because the beer listing had loads and loads of interesting sounding dark lagers and ales but hardly any of them were actually on.

What did you guys think of the british ales? I didn't have very many as they were mostly very average beers. The stand out British beers for me came from the Thornbridge bar - their Chiron, an english take on an APA was niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice, as was Raven their dark IPA.

Anyone know why Meantime brewery wasn't their?