Beer and Cider Festival Now In Store

Written on May 14th, 2013

Booths and beer go together like a pie and a pint. This month we’re throwing our very first Beer and Cider Festival. With tasting events, guest ales and even our very own specially-brewed beer, the Festival will celebrate the excellent brewing being done in our four counties, as well as fine beers and cider from further afield.

Running from April 24th to May 21st , the Festival will allow our customers the opportunity to discover more beers than ever before. During Festival month we’re welcoming 15 guest ales and ciders to our extensive existing range. We’re also hosting tasting sessions with local brewers every Friday and Saturday, so that you can try samples of their carefully-made bitter, golden ale, mild or stout, and find out more about how and where they brew.

Whether you shop with us in Lancashire, Cumbria, Yorkshire or Cheshire, you’ll see beers from your area highlighted in store. The wealth of breweries in the North, from high-quality regional beer hubs like the Lancaster Brewery to Cheshire’s comparatively tiny Tatton Brewery, means that we’re never short of a local pint.

Craft ciders and Continental beers are also well represented; our buyer John Gill has chosen these carefully, bringing old-fashioned West Country ciders and crisp, complex wheat beers to the Festival. Detailed tasting notes will help you to find a new favourite, and we’ve thought about food matching, too: look out for ideas for pairing different styles of beer and cider with the perfect meat, fish or cheese from our specialist counters.

As well as celebrating the many beers that are already being brewed, we thought we’d try our hand at making a new one. Our Festival Ale, made for us at Hawkshead Brewery, is a limited edition brew of only 6,400 bottles, each individually numbered. Made with a blend of modern American and traditional English hops, it’s a refreshing 4% ABV pale ale with a tropical fruit aroma, grapefruit, lemon zest and orange flavours and a pithy, bitter finish. It’ll only be available for a limited time, so try it while you can – and we hope it won’t be the only new drink you discover during our Beer and Cider Festival.

X