;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
Food Menu
Poster
Buckland Shag (entertainment -
Traditional Morris)
Café Racers
(Rhythm and Blues band)
Steve Winchester
(one man, one voice, two guitars......)
Frog Island Jazz Band (entertainment -
Classic New Orleans Jazz)
May Bank Holiday Beer Festival 2008 - 23rd May to 26th May
St. George's Day Celebration Meal - 23rd April, 2008
St Patrick's Night Comedy Quiz - 17th March, 2008
Mother's Day Sunday Lunch - 2nd March, 2008
Community Pubs Week - Fun Time - 18th February, 2008
St Valentines Day Supper - 14th February, 2008
Burns Night Supper - 25th January, 2008
Christmas at The Surrey Oaks - Menu 2007
November Winter Beer Festival 2007
Halloween Night Supper - 31st October, 2007
August Bank Holiday Beer Festival 2007
Bastille Day Boule Competition - 15th July 2007
May Bank Holiday Beer Festival 2007
St George's Day Evening Quiz - 23rd April, 2007
Mothering Sunday Lunch - 18th March, 2007
St Patrick's Day - Evening Meal - 17th March, 2007
St. Valentines Meal - Wednesday 14th Feb, 2007
Quiz Night - Monday 19th Feb, 2007
Burns Night 2007 & Caption Competition - Winner!
Christmas Carols at The Surrey Oaks - 2006
Christmas at The Surrey Oaks - Menu 2006
August Bank Holiday Beer Festival 2006
May Bank Holiday Beer Festival 2006
St. George's Day Celebration Meal - 21st April, 2006
Mothering Sunday Lunch - 26th March, 2006
St Patrick's Day Meal - 17 th March, 2006
Beer Tasting - Monday 20th Feb, 2006
Quiz Night - Monday 6th Feb, 2006
Burns Night at The Surrey Oaks 2006
Christmas at The Surrey Oaks - Menu 2005
Beaujolais Nouveau Meal - 2005
August Bank Holiday Beer Festival 2005
May Bank Holiday Beer Festival 2005
May 2005 was Mild Month at The Surrey Oaks
St. George's Day Celebration Meal - 2005
Burns Night at The Surrey Oaks
August Bank Holiday Beer Festival (2004)
May Bank Holiday Beer Festival (2004)
August Bank Holiday Beer Festival (2003)
August Bank Holiday Beer Festival.... We're almost there.... Don't panic!
There will be real ale (probably over 40 different beers), cider and perry. There will also be entertainment and a special food menu. All the relevant information is shown below, the only thing we are still waiting on is the Official Beer List. As soon as this is available, we will post it here, a little nearer the festival.
Incidentally, if you look in our Real Ales section, you will see the list of beers we are expecting. This information has probably been posted a little early as now you will not know what real ales will be on in the pub this weekend!
The Beer Festival Opening Hours are as follows:
Confirmed Entertainment
Click on the images below for the Official Poster (cleverly designed by Dan Proctor), the Buckland Shag poster and the Frog Island Jazz Band Poster.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Beer Festival - Food Menu |
Beer Festival - Poster |
Beer Festival - Buckland Shag (entertainment - Traditional Morris) |
Beer Festival - Café Racers (Rhythm and Blues band) |
Beer Festival - Steve Winchester (one man, one voice, two guitars......) |
Beer Festival - Frog Island Jazz Band (entertainment - Classic New Orleans Jazz) |
| (Click Image) | (Click Image) | (Click Image) | (Click Image) | (Click Image) | (Click Image) |
If you are interested in seeing what our other Bank Holiday beer festivals have been like, just click on the links below:
May (2008), August (2007), May (2007), August (2006), May (2006), August (2005), May (2005), August (2004), May (2004), August (2003).
Do also check our Real Ales section on this website. We always have a great choice of real ales, three of which change with every barrel.
Overall, you'll have to agree that the weather was quite kind to us in the end. Initially we were really only looking at a dry Friday, but Saturday and Sunday also turned out to be great days and we were very busy. The only bad day (weather wise) was Monday when it rained (quite a bit!)
All the entertainment was performed in the dry [just] (even if the Café Racers narrowly avoided electrocution and Phoenix Dixieland Jazz Band had to use the tent on Monday!).
Our final beer list weighed in at an impressive 41 beers and from that we had to choose a Beer of the Festival. Voting was close and in the end there were joint firsts, seconds and thirds. So here are the results.....
| POSITION | BREWERY | BEER | FROM | ABV (%) | RATINGS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joint 1st | Surrey Hills | Hammer Mild | Shere, Surrey | 3.8% | 6 "A's" |
| Joint 1st | Surrey Hills | Shere Drop | Shere, Surrey | 4.2% | 6 "A's" |
| Joint 2nd | Bowland | Scary Crow | Clitheroe, Lancs | 4.0% | 5 "A's" |
| Joint 2nd | Bowman | Elderado | Droxford, Hampshire | 3.5% | 5 "A's" |
| Joint 3rd | Hogs Back | TEA | Tongham, Surrey | 4.2% | 4 "A's" |
| Joint 3rd | Weston | Country Perry | Much Marcle, Herefs | 4.5% | 4 "A's" |
Thank you to everyone who took time to mark the beers and as you know there was a prize of two bottles of wine for one lucky person who handed in their marked up beer list. The winner, drawn out of the hat, was.... Diane Honey. Congratulations!
BEER LIST CHANGES
Final Printed Version (should have been Revision A)
As usual we have a few pictures of the festival. Just click on the Thumbnail to see a larger version.
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
| The Garden (Early Friday) |
Morris Men (Big Sticks) |
R 'n' B 'n rain! (in the Garden) |
Ummm... Beer! (With a smile) |
Monday Jazz (in a dry tent!) |
Click on the images below for the final version of the Beer List (also available as a PDF file), the Official Poster, the Food Menu, the Buckland Shag poster, the Café Racers poster and the Morris & Bennett poster.
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
| Beer Festival - Beer List |
Beer Festival - Food Menu |
Beer Festival - Poster |
Beer Festival - Buckland Shag (entertainment - Traditional Morris) |
Beer Festival - Café Racers (entertainment - Rhythm and Blues) |
Beer Festival - Morris & Bennett (entertainment - Folk Pop) |
| Click here for the better PDF version |
(Click Image) | (Click Image) | (Click Image) | (Click Image) | (Click Image) |
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader for the PDF version and if you've not already got it, you can download it here.
If you are interested in seeing what our other Bank Holiday beer festivals have been like, just click on the links below:
August (2007), May (2007), August (2006), May (2006), August (2005), May (2005), August (2004), May (2004), August (2003).
Do also check our Real Ales section on this website. We always have a great choice of real ales, three of which change with every barrel.
The one person who is glad this is all over is Ken the Landlord. Unfortunately for him, he's got less than three months before it all has to happen again for the August Bank Holiday Beer Festival! Without Ken's hard work and organisation none of this would happen, so there's just one more thing to say... Thanks Ken!
On Wednesday 23rd April, 2008, The Surrey Oaks hosted a special St. George's Day Celebration Meal.
The evening was well attended and Ken The Landlord entertained his guests with lots of lesser known facts about St. George.
The menu was well received and is shown below (click on the image or the PDF link) and includes the ever popular, Hot S'Oaks Smokie.
| St. George's Day Celebration Meal Menu 2008 |
Click Image OR
;)
|
| Click here for the PDF version |
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader for the PDF version and if you've not already got it, you can download it here.
On Monday 17th March 2008, The Surrey Oaks hosted a St Patrick's Night Comedy Quiz.
This was a fun evening and all the questions (devised by Dan) did, unsurprisingly, have a comedy theme.
Everyone seemed to have a great time but if you missed it, you can always try the question below:
What place in Ireland is a comedy poem? [click for answer]
So were they all like that one? Only those who came along will ever know!
The official poster is shown below, click the image below to see it.
St Patrick's Night Comedy Quiz - March 2008
;)
On Sunday 2nd March 2008, The Surrey Oaks provided a special Mother's Day Sunday Lunch. There were two sittings, one at 12 Noon and the other at 2.00 pm and needless to say, we were rather tired by the end of it all! Both sittings were sell-outs, days before Mother's day.
We hope you were able to come along and that your Mum enjoyed a great day. You can still see our special menu by clicking on the image below.
Mother's Day Sunday Lunch - 2008
;)
On Monday 18th February 2008, The Surrey Oaks held a special event in support of CAMRA's initiative for Community Pubs Week. It is a sad reality that around 56 pubs are closing in Britain every month. It's CAMRA's hope that more pubs can become a part of the community and encourage people to get out and use their local pub. You may be surprised at what you find. More often than not the locals are very friendly and are only too happy to have a chat with you and maybe even buy you a drink. You may be amazed at just how much social life takes place at your local and it's very easy to get involved.... just turn up, have a drink and a chat.
So what did The Surrey Oaks do? Well, we held a music quiz, but not like any other you've been to before! The entire quiz was in the form of short musical introductions to various songs, TV programs, films and even animal sounds turned into short intros! Crazy but true and more to the point, a lot of fun.
There was a prize of six bottles of beer to the winners and this went to Bruce and Marion's team.
If you want to see our poster, just click on the image below.
Community Pubs Week - 18th Feb, 2008 - Poster
;)
On Tuesday 14th February 2008, The Surrey Oaks held a very popular St. Valentines Day Supper.
There were lots of confetti hearts all over the place (landlord Ken may have got carried away here) and everyone seemed to have a great time (even the table of 6!).
If you would like to see the menu, just click on the image below.
St. Valentines Day Supper - 14th Feb, 2008 - Menu
;)
On Friday 25th January 2008, The Surrey Oaks held Burns Night Supper.
Several people dressed up for this evening (well done!) and there was even some memorabilia with a very genuine Robbie Burns link.
Once again the wee haggis suffered Ken's version of the famous Robbie Burns recital, but this time the haggis could take no more and topped itself!
We hope everyone who came along had a really great night, we certainly did.
If you did not make it this year and would like to see the menu, just click the image below.
Burns Night Supper - Menu 2008
;)
The cold dark nights have arrived and that can only mean one thing... yes, it's time to book your Christmas 2007 Meal at The Surrey Oaks!
There's a choice of two courses for £18 or three courses for £22 (both include coffee).
The Christmas menu will be available from Saturday 1st December through to Sunday 23rd December 2007 (Please note that these are the correct dates, the PDF version below does not show the correct dates).
Lunchtimes (12pm to 2.30pm) and evenings (7pm to 10pm) can be booked and we will also be serving the menu on Monday's (we normally do not serve food on Monday's, the Christmas menu is the exception!).
BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL
Please click on the image below for the menu/poster or click on the PDF link below for the full menu.
;)
|
| 2007 Christmas Menu |
| Click here for the better PDF version |
Note: The PDF version is the full menu, not just the poster, but it is also 830Kb in size!
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader for the PDF version and if you've not already got it, you can download it here.
Please phone The Surrey Oaks on 01306 631200 to book your meal. We will require a deposit to be paid at least seven days before your meal in order to secure the booking. Back to Index
FREEZING and WET!
Well, that's one to be ticked off and put in the 'never again' category.
Friday evening started off with temperatures plummeting to below freezing and then on Saturday, just as it became a little bit warmer, yes, you've guessed it, it started raining. Sunday was not much better, a bright(ish) start followed by more rain.
On the plus side, there were some really great dark warming porters and stouts, and a couple of excellent milds. The beer choice was based on "Ken's Favourite Beers" and we all had to agree the beers were really excellent (if a little cold on Friday when some of the lighter beers really did have a 'chilled haze').
The final beer list, revised after the festival finished, can be seen by clicking on the image below. It's a shame that the Acorn - Gorlovka Stout (6.0% ABV) did not want to leave the warmth of its cellar, but at least Sarah Hughes [Dark Ruby Mild (6.5% ABV)] wasn't so choosy and boy was she worth waiting for!
That brings us nicely to Beer of the Festival and guess what? It's a beer that also won back in August 2007. If you've never tried it before, you really should make an effort to seek it out.
| POSITION | BREWERY | BEER | FROM | ABV (%) | RATINGS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Dark Star | Hop Head | Ansty, West Sussex | 3.8% | 7 "A's" |
| 2nd | Surrey Hills | Ranmore Ale | Shere, Surrey | 3.8% | 6 "A's" |
| 3rd | Hepworth | Old Ale | Horsham, West Sussex | 5.0% | 5 "A's" |
Thank you to everyone who filled in beer scores. There was of course a prize of two bottles of wine for one lucky person who handed in their beer scoring sheet. The winner, drawn out of the hat, was.... Emma Milne. Congratulations!
We can't finish without saying a quick
There are a couple of photos of the beer and the tent (being warmed with radiators and a small jet engine!), just click the images as usual.
;) |
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
| Beer Festival Beer List Revision B |
Beer Festival Poster |
Beer Festival Beer Warming |
Beer Festival Tent Warming |
| Click here for the better PDF version |
(Click Image) | (Click Image) | (Click Image) |
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader for the PDF version and if you've not already got it, you can download it here.
Previous Beer Festivals at The Surrey Oaks have always been a lot of fun. If you're interested to see what they've been like, click on the following links: August 2007, May 2007, August 2006, May 2006, August 2005, May 2005, August 2004, May 2004 and August 2003. Back to Index
On Wednesday 31st October 2007, The Surrey Oaks hosted a Halloween Night Supper.
This was a fun evening with several people dressing up and the landlord Ken even had some gruesome headwear! We also had some interesting entertainment(?) in the form of a bran tub and apple bobbing. As for the meal, it really was very good, all the plates were wiped clean so well done to the chef Chris. There were also a couple of excellent guest ales to compliment the meal, a spooky ale, Osett - Spellbound (4.3% ABV), a light and refreshing ale and Dark Star - Golden Gate (4.5% ABV), a truly flavoursome ale.
If you did not come along, you can still see the clever menu by clicking on the image below (you might even recognise the person stirring the cauldron!).
Halloween Night Supper - Menu 2007
;)
On Monday 8th October, 2007, the Surrey Oaks played host to an interesting event, Gardener's Question Time. The event was organised by the Newdigate Horticultural Society and the questions started rolling in at 8pm.
The experienced panel included:
Wow! We forecast that one correctly, the 'weather WAS fantastic' and there 'WERE lots of interesting beers to try'. In fact there were even a few extra beers added to our list as clearly the fab weather brought out a few more people than we had anticipated and we were getting close to running out of beer. A special thanks to Sara and Clive from The Royal Oak in Rusper who helped out with a few extra barrels of beer!
As for the entertainment, it was enjoyable with the Buckland Shag Morris Men performing on Friday evening, the Cafe Racers (a Rhythm and Blues band) doing a great set on Saturday evening and the Frog Island Jazz Band playing in the great sunshine of Monday afternoon.
Lots of great food was also served with an excellent Steak, Ale & Mushroom pie being my favourite!
So what were the best beers of the festival? There were of course 42 to choose from and the winner (together with FOUR joint seconds) was...
| POSITION | BREWERY | BEER | FROM | ABV (%) | RATINGS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Dark Star | Hop Head | Ansty, West Sussex | 3.8% | 6 "A's" |
| Joint 2nd | Bowman | Swift One | Droxford, Hants | 3.8% | 5 "A's" |
| Joint 2nd | Harvey's | Sussex Best | Lewes, East Sussex | 4.0% | 5 "A's" |
| Joint 2nd | Surrey Hills | Shere Drop | Shere, Surrey | 4.2% | 5 "A's" |
| Joint 2nd | Thornbridge Hall | Jaipur IPA | Bakewell, Derbys | 5.9% | 5 "A's" |
Thank you to everyone who took time to mark the beers, we would not have a 'Beer of the Festival' without your efforts. And of course, everyone who did mark the beers was entered into a prize draw for two bottles of wine. And the lucky winner is.... Martyn Mance. Well done!
A big thank must go to everyone who worked so hard collecting glasses, selling beer, serving in the bar and preparing food. Without your help, Beer Festivals like this quite simply would not be possible.
Once again we have a few pictures of the festival. Just click on the Thumbnail to see a larger version.
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
| A Purple Moose (GBBF Winner) |
Cafe Racers (R & B Band) |
Alvis is alive! (or the car is..) |
Sunny Garden (Happy People) |
Frog Island Jazz Band (Frog Horn) |
You can also click on the images below for the final beer/cider list (Revision C), the Food Menu and the Official Poster.
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
| Beer Festival - Beer List Revision C |
Beer Festival - Food Menu |
Beer Festival - Poster |
| Click here for the better PDF version |
(Click Image) | (Click Image) |
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader for the PDF version and if you've not already got it, you can download it here.
BEER LIST CHANGES
Revision A
If you are interested in seeing what our pevious beer festivals have been like, just click on the links below:
So that's it for another nine months... the only person grateful for the break will be Ken who once again made this great Beer Festival happen..... Thanks Ken!
OK, we're a little late with this, but better late than never.....
On Sunday 15th July, The Surrey Oaks Petanque Club had a club barbecue and boule competition. Amazingly it stopped raining and it even reached 26 Deg C (although the boule was not so hot!).
Anyway, if anyone is interested, here are the results.
TEAMS
| TEAM | PLAYER 1 | PLAYER 2 | PLAYER 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sandra C | Jan S | Christine F |
| 2 | Rod H, | Dominic F | Paul K |
| 3 | Colin C | Brian | Ruth S |
| 4 | Charlie F | Pat L | David J |
| 5 | David C | Jan H | Derek S |
| 6 | Ken P | Mike S | Louise |
| 7 | Roy G | Marcus | Chris F |
| 8 | Jim (the B) | Dan P | Andy |
COMPETITION RESULTS
| First Round | Semi-Final | FINAL |
|---|---|---|
| TEAM 1 'v' TEAM 6 0 - 5 |
TEAM 7 'v' TEAM 6 5 - 4 |
TEAM 7 'v' TEAM 8 1 - 5 |
| TEAM 2 'v' TEAM 7 2 - 5 |
||
| TEAM 3 'v' TEAM 5 5 - 3 |
TEAM 3 'v' TEAM 8 0 - 5 |
|
| TEAM 4 'v' TEAM 8 4 - 5 |
Pretend Semi Final (for the loosers who just wanted to play an extra game!)
| TEAM 2 'v' TEAM 1 0 - 5 |
TEAM 5 'v' TEAM 4 1 - 5 |
So Team 8 [Jim (the B), Dan P, Andy] are the greatest (what? I hear you disagree...) and the worst team (and we're only labouring the point because Paul K was in this team...) was Team 2 (Rod H, Dominic F, Paul K).
As ever, thanks for all the food (but why is there always so much of it?).
A great day was had by all.
Well, what more can you say? That has to go down as one of the wettest and coldest May Bank Holiday Beer Festivals we've ever had at the Surrey Oaks. Friday started warm and overcast and the Buckland Shag Morris Men were able to entertain us outside. Then Saturday arrived and it got colder and overcast and a little wet. It was inside the tent for the Old Hat Irish Band. More inside entertainment on Sunday from All Shook Up (50's/60's/70's Rock Band) and then on the coldest and wettest Monday for a very long time, the Phoenix Dixieland Jazz Band also had to play the tent!
So did the weather dampen the Beer Festival? Well not really. Amazingly there were 36 Beers available over the weekend and almost all of this was drunk. What was even more impressive was that we had a good return of beer lists, all marked with your favourite beers (Thank You). With this information, we are now able to announce the Beer of the Festival. Here goes:
| POSITION | BREWERY | BEER | FROM | ABV (%) | RATINGS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Acorn | Gorlovka Stout | Barnsley, South Yorks | 6.0% | 7 "A's" |
| 2nd | Taylors | Landlord | Keighley, West Yorks | 4.3% | 4 "A's" |
| Joint 3rd | O'Hanlons | Yellowhammer | Whimple, Devon | 4.2% | 3 "A's" |
| Joint 3rd | Grand Union | English Wheat | Hayes, Middlesex | 4.4% | 3 "A's" |
Two beers just missing out on the top three were Dark Star - Sunburst (4.8%) and George Wright - Golden Daze (3.9%) which got 2 A's and 1 A respectively. You should also note that it's not just the A's that matter; all scores are taken into account which leads us on to the most bizarrely marked beer, Triple fff - Dazed & Confused (4.6%). Clearly most of you were 'Dazed & Confused' when drinking/marking this beer as it got the full range of marks, A through E!
The Ciders and Perry's were not marked by many people, but with the marks we did receive, the best Cider was Hecks - Kingston Black (7.0%).
And now on to the winner of the two bottles of wine (everyone who returned a beer list was entered into the free draw). The winner was drawn by a member of the Choral Society (a non beer drinker from Wales) and the winner is...... someone called....... 'Colin C'. Sounds like a really dodgy bloke.... does anyone know him?!!!!!!
A big thank you to everyone who came along to the Beer Festival, the weather was hardly inspiring! A big thank you also goes to everyone who worked so hard selling beer, collecting glasses serving in the bar and preparing food. Beer Festivals like this quite simply would not be possible without your help.
There are a few pictures from the festival below. Click on the thumbnail to see a larger version.
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
| In the garden BEFORE the rain! |
Where's the band? |
Here's the Band They're inside! |
The many colours of beer! |
Where is everybody? We're inside! |
You can also click on the images below for the final beer/cider list (Revision B), the Food Menu and the Official Poster.
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
| Beer Festival - Beer List Revision B |
Beer Festival - Food Menu |
Beer Festival - Poster |
| Click here for the better PDF version |
(Click Image) | (Click Image) |
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader for the PDF version and if you've not already got it, you can download it here.
If you would like to see what Beer Festivals can look like when the weather is better, just click on the links below:
Don't forget that most days at the Surrey Oaks are 'mini' (micro?) Beer Festivals. We always have five real ales available, three of which change with every barrel. To see what's coming next, visit the Real Ales section of our website.
And finally.... once again, please raise your pint glasses to our landlord Ken, without whom these wonderful Beer Festivals would not be possible. Cheers Ken!
On Monday 23rd April, 2007, the Surrey Oaks hosted a St. George's Day Evening Quiz.
There were several teams, some seemed to have more than the maximum of 6 members(!), but as everyone had to pay £2 to enter with proceeds going to charity, we suppose that's just about OK!
The questions (some rather devious) all had an English theme to them and after a long hard battle, the eventual winners were a team called The Euro's, how typically English!
To keep us alert, snacks/nibbles were provided and the mini scotch eggs proved to be very popular. They also went very will with the fabulous beer, Grand Union - One Hop Warrior.
On Sunday 18th March 2007, The Surrey Oaks hosted a special Mothering Sunday Lunch. There were two sittings, one at 12 Noon and the other at 2.00 pm. This was another very popular meal.
If you would like to see the menu we provided, click the image below.
Mothering Sunday Lunch - 2007
;)
On Saturday 17th March 2007, The Surrey Oaks held a St Patrick's Day evening celebration meal. This proved to be very popular once again.
If you would like to see the menu we provided, click the image below.
St Patrick's Day Meal - 2007
;)
On Wednesday 14th February 2007, The Surrey Oaks held a St. Valentines Day Meal.
We hope you enjoyed the meal in our cosy restaurant and made someone in your life feel just that little bit more special.
If you didn't get along to the meal, you can always click on the image below to see what you missed.
St. Valentines Meal - 14th Feb, 2007 - Menu
;)
On Monday night, 19th Feb, 2007, The Surrey Oaks held a Quiz Night. The quiz was for charity, (Kidney Research) but was also held in support of CAMRA's Community Pubs Week initiative which ran from 17th Feb to 24th Feb. It's a sad fact that over 25 pubs per month close, so if you do not support your local..........
Anyway, you'll be pleased to know that lots of people did come to the quiz and supported their local. Thank you.
Question of the night? What beer does Homer Simpson drink? DOOOHHH! (Enough said). We hope you enjoyed this event.
On Thursday 25th January 2007, The Surrey Oaks held a Burns Night Supper. This was a really great evening and the food (compliments to Chris the chef) and beer were of a very high standard. On a personal note, the haggis was one of the best that I have ever tasted!
Anyway, as these pages needed something different, we decided to hold a caption competition. A great photo of Ken was taken while he was nearing the end of his Robbie Burns recital and the cuddly little haggis was about to meet its gruesome end. There were several amusing entries, but after careful consideration, Pete Spooner provided the winning caption. The next time he's in the Surrey Oaks, he gets TWO free pints of real ale (of his choice). Well done Pete. To see the winning caption, click on the image below:
Burns Night Supper - 2007 - Caption Competition - Winner!
;)
If you did not manage to get along to the Burns Night supper, the menu is shown below, click the image to see it.
Burns Night Supper - Menu 2007
;)
On Tuesday 19th December 2006 at 8:00 pm, The Surrey Oaks played host to the Beare Green and Newdigate Choral Society. Around 35 members turned up and they sang superbly. Their versions of the Christmas Carols were considerably better than out attempts the night after! This was a great evening, thanks to everyone who came along. No doubt you also sipped a pint of Surrey's (and Sussex's) best Real Ale and had some Christmas nibbles provided by Ken. So did it finally get you into the Christmas spirit? We hope so. Back to Index
Another great Christmas at The Surrey Oaks for 2006. Great food and a great atmosphere. Click on the image below for the full menu
;)
|
| 2006 Christmas Menu |
Can you believe it? Another Beer Festival has finished! Friday (opening day) only seems like yesterday!
Despite the gloomy weather forecasts, we seemed to do quite well in the end, pleasantly warm (not like July!) with the only rain coming on Saturday around 1pm and even then it was over very soon.
So what happened to the forty different beers we had for the festival? Well, virtually all of them were drunk by Monday evening, so the quantities were just about right. In the end there were just a couple of changes to the final beer list below and these were:
| BREWERY | BEER | ABV (%) | What Happened? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Derventio | Aquilifer | 3.8 | On in the Bar |
| Hampshire | Bohemian Rhapsody | 5.0 | Ullaged (thrown away) |
As for the best beer? This year we had lots of beer marking going on. Maybe this had something to do with the TWO bottles of wine that are to be awarded to one lucky person who handed in their beer scores! Anyway here goes..... and amazingly it was a tie for first place!
| POSITION | BREWERY | BEER | FROM | ABV (%) | AVERAGE SCORE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joint 1st | Surrey Hills | Shere Drop | Shere, Surrey | 4.2% | 8 "A's" (4.538) |
| Joint 1st | Pictish | Columbus | Rochdale, Lancs | 4.2% | 8 "A's" (4.538) |
| 3rd | Sarah Hughes | Dark Ruby Mild | Sedgley, West Midlands | 6.0% | 7 "A's" (4.5) |
There are a few pictures of the festival below. Click on the thumbnail to see a larger version.
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
| A Pink Beer Stains The Tent! |
When you see the sign Park NOW! |
Beer Garden Filling Up |
That Mild's mine! |
Frog Island Jazz Band |
The entertainment was provided on Friday Evening by the Cafe Racers (Rhythm and Blues band) and a brief appearance by the Buckland Shag (Morris Men). On Sunday we were 'rocked' by All Shook Up (50's/60's/70's Rock Band) and for Monday lunchtime we were treated to some great jazz from the Frog Island Jazz Band.
As for the food highlight, a superb Spit Roasted lamb was served on Sunday lunchtime (prepared by Sara). This is something else the editor of this site missed!
Click the images below to see the Amazing Beer List (the PDF version is better quality), the Food Menu and the Official Poster.
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
| Beer Festival - Beer List |
Beer Festival - Food Menu |
Beer Festival - Poster |
| Click here for the better PDF version |
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader for the PDF version and if you've not already got it, you can download it here.
Still wondering if you would like a Beer Festival? You can always see what our previous Beer Festivals have been like by clicking on the links below:
The final word should probably come from Ken, the landlord. When asked how he felt on the Tuesday evening, he responded with one word... 'knackered'! We really do take it for granted, but the effort that goes into organising a Beer Festival can not be overstated. All we can say is that we really do appreciate it and here's a big thank you to Ken and all his staff.
CAMRA always promotes Mild throughout May and this year's campaign was called 'Wild about Mild'. The Surrey Oaks supported this promotion by having a mild available every day throughout May.
So what's a mild? In CAMRA's own words:
Mild is a beer style that is full-flavoured and refreshing. It is
less hopped and usually of a lower alcohol content than many other
styles. It gets much of its flavour from malts or roasted barley and
is both distinctive and tasty. Mild is one of the most traditional
beer styles which is enjoying a revival in today's real ale market.
This is the third year in secession that The Surrey Oaks managed to sell a mild throughout May and we hope you managed to try some of these superb beers. Back to Index
Well that was hardly the warmest May Bank Holiday weekend ever was it?
It certainly didn't seem to keep anyone away though with Friday, Saturday and Sunday all being very well attended. The only low point was Monday lunchtime when we had amazing thunder, lightning and hail (loads of it, see picture below!).
Anyway enough of the weather, what about the beer? Well we actually ended up with 39 beers, instead of the 35 shown on the official downloadable list below. The additional four beers were:
| BREWERY | BEER | ABV (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Bushy's | 1874 Ruby Mild | 3.5 |
| Kings | Mild | 3.5 |
| Oakleaf | I Can't Believe it's not Bitter | 4.9 |
| Hop Back | Summer Lightning | 5.0 |
So which beer was the best? To be fair there really were some great beers throughout the four days and it's just a shame that they all couldn't be winners! Anyway, here are the official results...
| POSITION | BREWERY | BEER | FROM | ABV (%) | AVERAGE SCORE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | York | Decade | York | 4.1% | 5.0 |
| 2 | Saltaire | Fuggles | Shipley, West Yorks | 3.8% | 4.6 |
| 3 | Pictish | Black Diamond (Mild) | Rochdale, Gtr. Manchester | 3.5% | 4.5 |
As always, here are some pictures of the festival. A fab weekend, if a little cool!
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
| A Busy Green Garden |
Happy People |
A Jazzy Beer Holder! |
The BEER! | The HAIL! |
The entertainment was provided on Friday Evening by the Buckland Shag (Morris Men) who together with their beer drinking horse (!) kept everyone happy till late. On Saturday All Shook Up (50's/60's/70's Rock Band) played a great set (as always) and we finished off with some relaxing jazz on Monday lunchtime.
Click the images below to see the Amazing Beer List - Revision A (the PDF version is better quality) and the Official Poster and the Food Menu.
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
| Beer Festival - Beer List Revision A |
Beer Festival - Poster |
Beer Festival - Food Menu |
| Click here for the PDF version |
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader for the PDF version and if you've not already got it, you can download it here.
If you would like to see what our previous Beer Festivals have been like, please click on the links below:
These Beer Festivals certainly seem to fly by, but for one person I suspect they just seem to go on forever! That person.... the landlord. It goes without saying that a lot of organisation goes into an event like this so it's only fair to end with a big thankyou to Ken and his staff.
On Friday 21st April 2006, The Surrey Oaks held a St. George's Day Celebration Meal.
If you didn't come along, you can always click on the image below to see what you missed. The food was excellent with the Hot S'Oaks Smokie being a very tasty dish.
St. George's Day Celebration Meal - Menu 2006
;)
On Sunday 26th March 2006, The Surrey Oaks held a special Mothering Sunday Lunch. Despite there being TWO sittings, we were fully booked TWO days before!
If you're interested, you can click the image below to see the menu and prices.
Mothering Sunday Lunch - 2006
;)
On Friday 17th March 2006, The Surrey Oaks held a St Patrick's Day celebration meal. This was a very popular event with some really fantastic food (the Crab Cakes were exceptional!).
If you didn't come along, you can click the image below to see what you missed.
St Patrick's Day Meal - 2006
;)
On Monday evening, 20th Feb, 2006, The Surrey Oaks held a Beer Tasting Evening in support of CAMRA's National Pubs Week (18thto 25th Feb, 2006) a promotion aimed at getting people back into pubs during what is traditionally a quiet time for pub trade.
The cost was £10 per head and a total of 10 beers were tasted.
Lots of bottled beers were sampled, with the majority coming from Belgium. There were also great beers from France and Germany.
This was a real eye opener and with each beer sampled, there was an interesting description (with tasting notes) read out by Ken, usually from one of Roger Protz's Beer Guides.
Not everyone agreed with Roger (or Ken!), but there was no doubting that very few of these beers had been tasted before.
This proved to be a popular event and is something we would like to do again. Back to Index
On Monday night, 6th Feb, 2006, The Surrey Oaks held a successful Quiz Night in aid of Kidney Research. The cost was £2 per person, which raised lots of money for a worthy cause.
Quality cases of beer and wine were given away as prizes to the winners and runners up. This proved to be a very popular event, the restaurant (closed on a Monday) was full of quiz teams and the main bar had to be used as an overflow area!
A good night was had by all. Back to Index
On Wednesday 25th January 2005, The Surrey Oaks held a Burns Night Supper.
This was a great night out with some really fantastic food and a cross-dressed landlord
'addressing the haggis' with knobbly knees! Yep, it was Oooower Keeen!
Click on a knee
to see the picture.
;)
The main bar was full of dining tables and looked really great and the small middle bar remained open for drinks. This was a very popular evening, with just over 60 people, all enjoying themselves. The menu is shown below, click the image to see what you missed!
Burns Night Supper - Menu 2006
;)
The Surrey Oaks provided a great Christmas Menu for 2005.
Click the images below to see full menu.
Alternatively, you can download the full PDF version (153Kb) by clicking here.
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
| Menu - Times |
Menu - Starters/Mains |
Menu - Sweets/Prices |
Menu - Booking Form |
On Thursday 17th AND Friday 18th November 2005, The Surrey Oaks provided a special Beaujolais Nouveau Meal.
The food was fantastic and we all sampled some Beaujolais.
If you want to see the menu, click the image below or click here for the larger, but better quality, PDF version (371Kb).
Beaujolais Nouveau Meal - Menu 2005
;)
This was our TENTH August Bank Holiday Beer Festival!
The Festival ran for four days from Friday (evening) 26th August 2005 through to Monday 29th August 2005.
The weather was great, getting sunnier and warmer as the festival progressed. Monday was a fabulous day, temperatures were up in the high 20's, lots of people attended and all enjoyed the superb Real Ale, the Jazz and the Lamb Roast (prepared by Sarah).
The Official list of Beers (it's an amazing list!) and Dan's Poster can be seen by clicking on the images below.
;)
|
;)
|
| Beer Festival - Beer List |
Beer Festival - Dan's Poster |
We had a massive 39 beers on the beer list this year, but one blew the keystone out (very rare) on Thursday so was only tasted by the grass! It was a shame as the beer was a very interesting one called Leekenbrau a 5% ABV cask conditioned lager(!), brewed by Leek. However, the actual number of beers was an impressive 41 because we gained an extra three! Added to the list were Peakstones Rock's Oblivion a 5.5% ABV beer, Exe Valley's Barron's Dark (but it wasn't!) at 4.1% ABV and Black Sheep's Best Bitter at 3.8% ABV.
So now to the interesting bit.... What was our Beer of the Festival? It was close and here are the official results:
| POS. | BREWERY | BEER | ABV | SCORE | Other Info. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1) | Bank Top | Port o'Call | 5.0% | 40 | 5 x A's |
| 1) | Grainstore | Rutland Panther | 3.4% | 40 | 3 x A's |
| 2) | 1648 | Lammas Honey Wheat | 4.2% | 39 | 3 x A's |
| 3) | Dark Star | English Ale | 4.4% | 37 | 4 x A's |
A joint first? Well almost... because Bank Top's Port o'Call got 5 A's, it deserves to be declared the winner (just). What is amazing about the top two beers is that they are both dark beers (a porter and a mild) and there were probably only three dark beers on the entire list!
Now for some pictures of the festival, and we think you'll agree, it was a fab weekend!
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
;)
|
| Spit Roast Lamb - Thank's Sarah! |
Happy (warm!) People |
More Happy People |
Alley Cats Dixieland Jazz Band |
A Beer looking like Ken! |
Great live music was provided on Friday, Saturday and Monday as follows:
To see what our previous Beer Festivals have been like, please click on the links below:
So yet another Beer Festival has passed and it's fair to say that it was one of the best. A big thankyou must go to everyone who worked so hard to make this festival so successful. Once again there's someone who works tirelessly to make this such a great Bank Holiday weekend and that is of course the Landlord. All that's left to say is...
Thanks Ken!
We certainly had every type of weather for this festival, 31 Deg C on Friday, cooler and overcast on Saturday/Sunday and then thunder and lightning on Monday, followed by sun for afternoon Boule!
The weather did not seem to deter anyone and the turnout was as large as usual.
Of the 34 beers advertised, there were NO no shows. We even had one extra beer in the form of Pilgrim's Crusader (4.9%).
As for the star of the show.... well a few beers caught the eye and the tastebuds.
Errr... it appears that the editor of this site was a little too eager to declare the results of best beer of the festival. After careful deliberation, here are the official results:
| POS. | BREWERY | BEER | ABV | SCORE | Other Info. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1) | Surrey Hills | Ranmore | 3.8% | 32 | 5 x A's |
| 2) | Grand Union | One Hop Fuggles | 4.5% | 27 | NO A's |
| 3) | Oakleaf | Southwyk Skew Sunshine Ale | 4.6% | 23 | 2 x A's |
| 4) | Surrey Hills | Shere Drop | 4.2% | 22 | 3 x A's |
| 4) | Castle Rock | Harvest Pale | 3.8% | 22 | 3 x A's |
Our Congratulations have go to Surrey Hills! You have to remember that they have only been brewing for about a month! Both of their beers were very tasty and very popular, but the better of the two was just (about) Ranmore (3.8%).
The Official List of Beers can be seen by clicking on the image below:
;)
The musical entertainment was provided on Friday Evening by D'arcy Spice an excellent Irish Band (who did well to play most of their set in the dark!) and on Monday Lunchtime we were entertained by the Frog Island Jazz Band (who had to play their first set in the Beer Tent because of the rain!).
A few of pictures are provided below of the Frog Island Jazz Band (after the thunderstorm), the garden filling up, and the other star of the show, (well ome of them) Surrey Hills, Shere Drop.
;)
;)
;)
If you missed our May Bank Holiday Beer Festival, then do not despair as it all happens again in just three months!
To see what our previous Beer Festivals have been like, please click on the links below:
Well that's about it from another Great Surrey Oaks Beer Festival. As ever, this festival would not be possible without the hard work and organisation from Ken. About half an hour before opening on the first night, Ken was probably wishing he'd never decided to have a May Beer Festival this year, but that's another story! Everything worked out OK in the end so once again....
Thanks Ken!
CAMRA declared May a Mild month! No that's not the weather, it's a type of ale, usually low in alcohol and dark(ish) in colour. This style of beer is becoming very difficult to find with many breweries' dropping it altogether. To buck the trend, The Surrey Oaks managed to sell a mild every day in May, a feat we also managed last year.
On Tuesday 12th May, the East & Mid Surrey Branch of CAMRA organised a Mild Social at The Surrey Oaks. Slightly surprisingly, there were two CAMRA Branches there and we broke our record for selling a 'nine' (72 pts) of beer! Yes, one 'nine' of mild was sold in less than two hours! Back to Index
On Saturday 23rd April 2005, The Surrey Oaks held a St. George's Day Celebration Meal.
This was a great night out with some very good food with a very English theme (apart from the 'Noisettes'!). There was of course be some fine real ale to accompany your meals from this CAMRA branch pub of the year 2005 and the Dorking Advertiser Pub Restaurant of the year 2005.
If you did not get to The Surrey Oaks for this event, we hope you will come along to future events (watch this space!).
Click the image below to see the menu, in case you missed out this year.
St. George's Day Celebration Meal - Menu 2005
;)
The 2005 Boule Season kicked off with an informal season opener on the afternoon of Easter Monday 28th March 2005.
The Surrey Oaks Boule pitch is certainly one of the better ones around and you can see a picture of it by clicking the image below.
;)
National Pubs Week ran from the 19th to the 26th February 2005. It is a CAMRA promotion aimed at getting people back into pubs, during what is traditionally a quiet time for pub trade.
Tuesday was a very cold night with frequent snow showers, so numbers were down slightly on last years event. There were however, more than enough people to enable four teams (of between 4 and 6 people) to enter the quiz.
Two different Guest Ales (as always) were available on this night, Woodland's, Village Green, a light beer (4.0%), and Hepworth, Old Ale, a dark beer (4.8%). Back to Index
The Burns Night Supper was held on Tuesday 25th January 2005.
The food was excellent and so was the atmosphere. A very appropriate beer
was available to accompany your meal if you wished:
Harviestoun's Haggis Hunters,
a light coloured ale, full of flavour with an ABV of 4.1%.
Speaking of Haggis Hunters, we had a very tasty haggis; caught, killed and 'addressed' by the smiling chap below!
Click the images below for the original menu and a real life 'Haggis Hunter'.
Burns Night Supper - The Menu & The Hunter!'
;)
;)
The turnout was large, despite the somewhat indifferent weather. Can't recall seeing any unhappy faces!
A great surprise was provided by Ken in the form of professional cask coolers and racking stands. We think you'll agree that the display of beers looks really stunning!
Click an image below and believe you're still there!
;)