Senior service as Titanic hero Harry’s ale wins Doncaster Beer Festival!
By: JimOldfield
April 15th, 2012
Drinkers at Doncaster Beer Festival gave two cheers for local Titanic survivor Harry Senior, by commissioning a brew in his name… then judging it as champion Best Bitter of the festival!
The reddish-golden 4.5 per center brewed specially for the event by the Titanic Brewery won the category on merit – in a blind taste test judged by CAMRA members and the local media, including the Hand-Pumped team.
The Champion Beer of the Festival went to Sheffield’s White Rose Brewery for Ballymoss – a 4 per cent hoppy blonde ale.
It also won Best LocAle Beer and Best Golden Ale. Meanwhile, a new North Yorkshire micro-brewery won the top Bitter prize – for its last ever brew.
The Rough Draft Brewery from Northallerton announced its closure online earlier this month, after owner and spare-time brewer Jon Scandrett lost his full-time job when his employers’ business went into liquidation.
His Junction 51 – a 3.8 per cent brown bitter made with Cascade and Willamette hops – was a winner with the judges.
The best porter or stout was also claimed by a part-time brewery company. Steel City Brewing triumphed for the second time in Doncaster where judges loved the well-hopped Shakti Clag – a Jamaican stout with “masses” of muscovado sugar in the brew and coffee added to the cask.
Steel City’s first ever festival win had also come in Doncaster when D-Generation XX triumphed as the Beer of the Festival in 2010. Historic London brewers Fullers won the best strong or special ale category for their 5.5 per cent ESP – a three-time Champion Beer of Britain.
The victory for “Harry Senior” was particularly poignant as it came almost exactly 100 years to the day from the Doncaster man’s heroics on board the stricken cruise-liner. Harry, a Titanic crew member, helped scores of passengers to lifeboats before dragging himself from the icy water onto an up-turned lifeboat.
He eventually made it to safety in a rowing boat. To mark the centenary anniversary of the disaster on April 14, and the beer, Harry’s descendents attended the Doncaster event as VIP guests and sampled his tribute ale. Some 2,500 people attended the three-day festival.
PICTURED (Top to bottom): 1 – Real ale lovers get stuck into the scores of beers at the Doncaster Beer Festival.
2 – The judges begin the arduous task of tasting dozens of ales!
3 – Doncaster Civic Mayor, Coun Eva Hughes, with Doncaster CAMRA branch chairman Bob Kiddle (centre) and her consort, Derek Hughes.
