Tuesday 19 April 2011

Beer Festival Fortnight

Is there anywhere which isn’t having a beer festival in the next two weeks?! (Just look at this list on Ale Talk) Our livers are likely to be pickled come the end of the British bank holiday bonanza that’s between Easter and May...

My favourite beer festival (outside of GBBF, obviously) is Planet Thanet and that always starts on Good Friday. It’s got that great mix of good venue and atmosphere and an excellent selection of beers, including stuff from most Kent breweries. It’s an unmissable festival, I think, and a direct train from London will get you to the seaside in two hours.

Some others which have caught my eye are: The White Horse, Parsons Green, are holding an Over the Hop festival (a festival of IPAs and hoppy beers!); the Thatchers Arms are holding a 12-day-long festival with a London focus; Egham Beer Festival has a good list – it’s also where I went to university and they only started the festivals after I left; a little further around the M25 is the Reading Beer Festival which always looks great. And these are just the ones that aren’t miles away from me; there are so many others, some in pubs, some big CAMRA fests.

What beer festivals have you got pencilled in for the next few weeks?

6 comments:

  1. Just missed the AGM but making sure i get to the rail ale fesitval in yorkshire as im on the staff list and my first GBBF woo!

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  2. We've got beers at three of those festivals! Don't know which ones I'll managed to get to as a punter though.

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  3. Making the pilgrimage from Huddersfield to Planet Thanet, shall be there on Friday night and Saturday I believe, after a first visit to the Euston Tap. Hopefully bump into you at some point!

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  4. Great news..........Hope we can have more fun there.I cant wait to go there.

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  5. Brian - see you there! Get down as early as possible as it's the sort of festival where the beer gets drunk pretty quickly! I'd suggest (if it's not too late with tickets) to go to Euston Tap on Saturday after the festival and get to Thanet early.

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  6. Hoping to meet some friends in the Tap on the Friday lunchtime, but will try keep the visit down to a couple of hours (yeah, right). Shall be at Eddie Gadd's Boutique Fest on the Saturday night, not missing that line up! See you Friday.

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