A Guide to Beer Festivals

A GUIDE TO BEER FESTIVALS

 Beer festivals and Beer Exhibitions (Beer-Ex’s) are almost as old as beer brewing. They are an excuse to draw together dozens, and in some cases, hundreds of ails for breweries and bars to show off their products.

The biggest and most famous beer festival is the Munich Oktoberfest, which lasts up to 18 days and which have run through nearly every peacetime autumn since 1810. 

In Britain, the Campaign For Real Ale runs many beer festivals, with discounts on attendance fees and prices for members of CAMRA. Many such events raise money for charity rather than for corporate profit. Venues can vary from a marquis tent to a hired concert hall or football stadium. They are often staffed by volunteers, rather than paid professional bar staff. Most take place in summer but Manchester runs an increasingly popular annual ‘Winter Ales’ festival too. Cider & Perry festivals are becoming popular now, as are Belgian Beer festivals, promoting Belgian beer in the UK.

A few pubs run what they call a beer festival, with a selection of changing beers promoted over a month or two, but they lack the scale of a true beer festival.

Here is a quick guide to beer festivals and what to do and expect.  First of all, you won’t find much drunken loutish behaviour as beer enthusiasts generally treat beer with respect. 

You can find lists of beer festivals in your country with simple online search under ‘beer festivals’. Many run at weekends, in daytime and evening sessions, often with live bands in performance too.

Payment is usually at he entrance, though advance payments may be welcome. Upon arriving you should get a wristband, hand stamp or ticket to use if you need to leave and return to the venue without repaying. You will get a programme listing beers on offer, usually listed alphabetically, with the brewery named first, then the beer, and its specific gravity. There may be a brief description of the taste too.

You will also get to hire or buy the festival beer glasses. Usually you have a choice of pint glass or a half-pint glass. You will see that many seasoned drinkers who have a ‘pint’ in the pub, go for the half pint option. This is best as you get to try more different drinks.  It’s highly unlikely you’ll get to drink every beer on offer at a fully staged beer festival, but you do want to try as many as possible. Half-pint glasses make this easier.