It’s been a while, and, well, you know, the “C” word held things up a bit, but that’s all over now. This year, on May 28th, 2022, the SHED brewers Festival returned to The Victoria Inn, Noth Station Road, Colchester.
The SHED festival has a long history. It’s a chance for local homebrewers to showcase their skills and for local pub goers to sample the beers that dedicated amateurs can produce.
ACB are lucky and have many competition award-winning brewers to present the best beers possible. We also have a very clever software developer who can make electronic scoring systems. Tony Tilbury created a web-based app especially for the 2022 Shed Brewer event.
NOTE: A screenshot of the final results is below, or you can click this link to see the feedback and scoring via the App. (click the 
icon to see the feedback.)
The Shed festival consists of mainly cask beer, with some keg beer thrown in the mix. There is also a tutored tasting event, which always goes down well. From what we were hearing at the bar, it was well worth the time to get an education in one of the three sessions, kindly held by expert beer judge and ex-brewer, Nigel Sadler (Twitter handle: @NigelSommelier)
This year, there were 15, Essex-based brewers, each producing a beer for the festival. The styles ranged from a +6% West Coast IPA to a sub 4% Belgian session ale, with many styles in between (see below). There was something for everyone, and the feedback was superb.
The bar was well manned throughout the day, with a rotation of brewers serving their beers to the crowds of ticket holders. The whole day went smoothly, and the brewers rotated well to keep the thirsty crowd serviced.
The event started 12pm with the doors flung open. There was a steady flow of people throughout the day and the bar was still going strong, right up to the finish at 8pm. There were many moments to remember, but a few to pick out had to be the ticket holder that didn’t like hops. And Greg Ward doing his best Peggy Mitchell impression. Never has anyone looked more natural behind a bar.
This is a ticketed event that was held to help raise money for Prostate Cancer UK.
2022 Shed Festival Beer List
The beers on offer were:
- Vienna Lager
- West Coast IPA
- Black IPA
- Belgian Session
- Mild
- Elderflower Bitter
- Hoppy Golden Ale
- Camomile Pale Ale
- Blonde Ale
- American Pale Ale
- Extra Special Bitter
- Amber Beer
- Smoked Porter
- Altbier
- Vanilla Oatmeal Stout
During the day the ticket holders were asked to score the beers and give their feedback. Many used the mobile phone app (where the screenshot below is from) that was designed specially for the Shed Brewers event. Having the feedback available in electronic form saved an awful lot of admin work.
Many of the beers proved popular, with the lighter, pale beers proving popular during the sunny periods of the afternoon. Then as the sun went down, people switched to the darker styles, which brought about rave reviews for one beer in particular.
Once the scores and reviews were totted up, there was no surprise to see Simon Baker’s Vanilla Oatmeal Stout “Madilla Stout” come out on top. The early popularity of Gerard’s Colchester Gold (Golden Ale) saw him take second place. And Dom’s delectable Amber Ale (Copper Beach) took third place in the popularity stakes.
Thanks To Everyone That Made The 2022 Shed Festival A Success
We’d like to thank the local brewers who brewed a beer, the volunteers who turned up and helped on the day, Nigel Sadler, who put on the tutored beer tastings. The organisers that put their heart and soul into the event. The people that created the artwork to advertise the event (Tony). And to Andy, Sheena, and Rich and his staff that helped to make the day such a great event for everyone to enjoy.
Final Thoughts & Results
Overall the standard of all the beers was very high with all scoring above average. The below screenshot (from the Shed Festival App) shows the median scores from all the feedback. This is collated from the App, with the paper form feedback included too.
Well done Simon for getting the most positive feedback – Madilla Stout was a delightful Oatmeal Stout, a real crowd pleaser.
