August 3, 1999 -- "Specialty Beers," they said to me as I arrived at the Olympia for my second consecutive year of judging at the grand old man of all beer fests, the Great British Beer Festival. A broad grin appeared upon my face; "This," I thought, "should be interesting."

Last year I had judged the Standard Bitter category, and in fact, had judged the eventual Champion Beer of Britain, the Coniston Bluebird Bitter. And a most enjoyable and most interesting endeavour it was. But to judge Specialty Beers---which is to say, beers of almost any style---in a land and at a fest where cask ale rules supreme and some beer drinkers feel that even a bitter brewed with American-grown hops is unworthy of being in the Standard Bitter category, well, that was something else.

As it turned out, my enthusiasm was perhaps a tad overstated. The seven beers presented to our panel of six were hardly of the stock that would stand them out in a similar tasting in North America or, heaven forbid, Belgium. Spice was well in evidence, particularly so in the cloudy copper, intensely gingery brew we later learned was Freeminer Shakemantle, a beer with which I ran a love-hate relationship throughout the course of the tasting, and the more roundly spicy ale that was later revealed to be Dark Star Zingibier. But out of the lot, there was only one beer that did for me what I think a specialty beer should do, namely, set me back on my heels.

That beer, the eventual winner, was Harviestoun Schiehallion. My notes describe it as a light gold, citrusy beer with a very well structured, refreshing character and an excellent, nutty finish. The citric notes made me think that perhaps there was wheat or maybe even American hops involved, but I was later told that this was not the case.

According to Ian Brocklebank, the brewery liaison officer for Harviestoun, the Schiehallion is brewed with lager malt and lager hops (hersbrucker) and fermented with a lager yeast, but is treated in every other way as a cask ale, save for a week or two of cool conditioning prior to release. It's a great summer beer, and as I stepped out of the Olympia hall into the muggy London heat, I couldn't help but think how appropriate it was that this particular beer won its category on today of all days.

Tomorrow: GBBF tasting notes and the Champion Beer of Britain.

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