Sample Some Ales At The Great British Beer Festival

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Britain's biggest beer festival will be at Earls Court

More than 700 real ales, cider and foreign beer will be on offer at the Great British Beer Festival, which takes place at Earls Court from August 3-7.  

It's the biggest beer festival in Britain, and there's plenty going on - including traditional pub games, live music, traditional pub snacks and tutored beer tastings.

The main attraction is the vast choice of real ale, and there are more than 520 beers to browse through on the festival's online beer list, which you can use to create your own advance 'tick-list'.

Not all beers are available at once, as organisers have to ensure there is plenty left to offer a range throughout the festival's five days.

But with 12 available CAMRA bars there will be plenty to chose from. These bars contain beer from alphabetically-sorted Good Beer Guide regions (starting with Aberdeen & Grampian in the first and ending with Worcestershire in the last).

There is also a Young and Upcoming Breweries bar which will offer ale from some of Britain's newest breweries, and the Real Ale in a Bottle Bar, offering a large number of the 1,300 bottle conditioned beers currently available to buy in the UK.

For lovers of real cider and perry a visit to the Cider Bar offers up to 100 ciders and perries all dispensed by gravity directly from the cask.

In addition to the CAMRA bars a number of breweries from around the country will be well represented at the Festival with their own bar, including Chiswick-based, Fuller's.

The Bières Sans Frontières (BSF) Bars will also provide a showcase for the best beers from around the world, including beers from Germany, Belgium, Italy, USA, Czech Republic and The Netherlands.

Other activities include 'Girls' Guide tours of the Festival', with leading beer expert Melissa Cole taking women on a tour of the festival on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings at 6.30pm. She will discuss different beer styles with them and take up the challenge of finding every woman on the tour a beer they will like.

The festival is open on Tuesday August 3, from 5pm-10.30pm; Wednesday - Friday August 4-6, from 12noon-10.30pm; Saturday August 7, from 11am to 7pm. It costs £8 in advance for non-CAMRA members (£6 for CAMRA members) and £10 on the door for non-CAMRA members (£8 for CAMRA members).

July 29, 2010