News and views
Four (now five!) great craft beer events coming up
One of the most welcome aspects of the craft beer movement is a new wave of beer events that involve learning about and trying different beers rather just than knocking them back in quantity (well, that too but it’s not the main focus . . . ). And they involve food - proper food (hallelujah!)
London Beer Festival (with cheese) June 5th-9th
Next week there’s a five day beer and cheese festival at the Strongroom Bar and Kitchen in Curtain Road in Shoreditch involving 30 London breweries who will be pouring over 60 different beers. There will also be cheese stalls and masterclasses on beer and cheese matching which you can book here. And the festival organisers will unveil a beer brewed to go with cheese called (groan) Camembeer. Right up my street!
Liverpool Craft Beer Expo June 14th-16th
Liverpool’s first craft beer festival takes place mid-June at Camp and Furnace following a similar format to Manchester’s Indy Man Beer Con (see below). Over 80 keg and 50 cask beers are promised along with a ‘dirty food’ menu of burgers, dogs and savoury doughnuts from the Camp & Furnace kitchen and live music from the ‘Beer Barrel Musical Bunker’.
There will also be live brewing demos with participating breweries creating unique beers on site. More details on the festival website. (note the Saturday evening session is already sold out). Follow them on Twitter @LivCraftBeerExp
European Beer Bloggers Conference, Edinburgh July 12th-13th
If you’re a beer blogger - or have aspirations to be one - Edinburgh is the place to be the second weekend in July when it hosts the European Beer Bloggers conference. The same weekend, according to one of my Guardian readers, the CAMRA-organised Scottish Real Ale Festival (from the 11th) and an Edinburgh Independent beer festival (@EIBF) also takes place in the city.
Garrett Oliver is the keynote speaker at the EBBC, there’s a Friday night party and feast at Stewart Brewing and a pre-festival pub crawl on the evening of the 11th organised by the ...er...Department of Awesome.
For more on the Edinburgh beer scene follow local Edinburgh beer blog The Beer Cast
Indy Man Beer Con October 10th-13th
Looking ahead to October there’s the second Indy Man Beer Con in Manchester which this year will stretch over four days from October 10th to the 13th. Same formula as last year - the best of British craft brewers - plus some Italian ones this year - and a slection of food stalls, co-ordinated by Guerilla Eats and a beer and food dinner. I went last year (see my report in the Guardian) and it was a blast. Follow @indymanbeercon on Twitter for updates.
For other UK-based beer events check out Perfect Pint's list of beer festivals. They also have a downloadable free app which shows which beers are being served in a pub near you.
Since I posted this I've heard of another good event:
Birmingham Beer Bash July 26th-27th
Similar formula (nothing wrong with that) - top craft beers, street food, two beer dinners with local restaurants and a 'fringe'. More info on the BBB website.
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