CAMRA's big ale fest rings the changes with beer for all in both casks and kegs
Added: Monday, July 22nd 2019
It’s all change at the Great British Beer Festival this year. Now in its 42nd year, the CAMRA event – one of the world’s major beer bonanzas – will reach out to a wider audience by offering craft keg beer alongside traditional cask ale.
Tiny Rebel, Magic Rock, Wild Beer Co and Siren Craft will take over part of the national hall at London Olympia next month to bring beers served from recyclable keykeg containers.
The keg lines will be found alongside the festival’s international hall that showcases 400 beers from breweries around the world, including the United States, Czech Republic, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain.
And a new Learning & Discovery zone will give visitors the opportunity to compare beer dispensed from casks and kegs. One session will be presented by Harvey’s heads brewer Miles Jenner, who will have samples of his beers in both formats, including Wharfe IPA and Tin Lizzie barley wine.
GBBF organiser Catherine Tonry says: “We look forward to rolling out the new keykeg take over. People coming to the festival like beer in all its forms. We want everyone to feel welcome and have the best festival experience CAMRA can offer.”
Brad Cummings of Tiny Rebel Brewery adds: “We’ve been working behind the scenes with CAMRA to lead the change to promote some of the best craft breweries that love keg and cask.
“This will be the first time consumers can drink at a dedicated UK craft keg bar, giving them a much greater choice of beers in both styles.”
And Wild Beer co-founder Andrew Cooper says: “We are excited to be pouring our range of wild kegged beer alongside so many talented breweries at GBBF. This has offered us and our friends the opportunity to showcase some of our more diverse brews that it wouldn’t have been possible to bring before.
“The festival is about celebrating great British beer, whatever the style of format.”
The festival will kick off on Tuesday 6 August will the final rounds of the Champion Beer of Britain competition. The winners, including the overall champion beer, will be announced that afternoon as the culmination of the trade session. The competition is fiercely contested as the winners can expect to gain extra national sales for their beers.
Roger Protz will lead three tastings of the winners at the festival: 6pm, 6 August and 1.30 and 6pm on Wednesday 7th (limited tickets left). During the course of the week there will be a series of tutored beer talks from leading experts while beer writers will sell and sign copies of their books in the onsite bookshop.
As always, the main thrust of the festival will be more than 1,000 cask beers from brewers throughout Britain, with styles ranging from mild ale through bitter and IPA to strong ales, porters and stouts. There will also be a wide range of ciders available.
The beer will be backed by a brilliant food offer from scores of stands serving street food and traditional fare such as Cornish pasties. And there will be live music lunchtimes and evenings to help the ale go down.
There will also be a wine and gin bar for those with more eclectic tastes.
Ticket prices range from £9 to £11, with season tickets costing £29. For full information about the beer range, events and tickets go to: www.gbbf.org.uk
The festival will be open:
Tues 12-5pm (trade session), then 5-10.30pm
Wed/Thur/Fri 12 noon-10.30pm
Sat 11am-7pm
•Great British Beer Festival, London Olympia, opposite Kensington Olympia station.
See also: https://protzonbeer.co.uk/news/2019/07/08/cask-vs-keg-challenge-at-top-beer-fest
