Beer at last year’s prices – three cheers for Dewsbury ale fest!
By: JimOldfield
May 17th, 2012
It will be a home and away festival when Yorkshire’s Heavy Woollen District CAMRA branch opens its third Dewsbury and Heavy Woollen Beer and Cider Festival next Thursday (May 24)… with its prices pegged to last year’s levels!
The event, inside Dewsbury Town Hall, will major on the best beers that Yorkshire has to offer – with over half of the ales on offer from the county, and some very local favourite beers to hand.
But there will also be a Spotters’ Bar for “away-day” ales – offering 20 ales from across Britain, that are not normally seen in West Yorkshire.
Additionally, a Nautical Bar is also planned – with a further 20 beers celebrating our seafaring traditions, after the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) was named as the festival’s chosen charity.
In total, some 80 real ales, 15 ciders and perries and a worldwide range of bottled beers will be on sale – with the branch holding down beer and cider prices to 2011 festival rates, offering great value to the expected influx of up to 5,000 visitors.
There will be a variety of food on offer and three popular local bands have been booked to provide entertainment.
The Kirklees Youth Jazz Orchestra will open on the Thursday evening, followed by Dewsbury Music Centre Swing Band on Friday and Mirfield’s Northern Gold on the Saturday.
The festival runs from the Thursday (with a 4-6pm opening for CAMRA members and 6-10.30pm for the general public) to Saturday, May 26. Friday and Saturday’s opening times are noon-10.30pm.
Ticket prices range from a modest £2-4 – with reductions and free sessions for CAMRA members.
The area’s newest brewer, Pennine Brewery of Batley – which only opened its doors in January this year but has already attracted masses of local support – will have a full range of ales on offer, with its brand new beer, Good Health, joining rapidly-establishing brews Real Blonde, Midnight Rose and Street Party.
Real Blonde is proving so popular that it entirely sold out within THREE HOURS of hours of going on sale at one local pub, Heavy Woollen District CAMRA secretary Paul Dixey revealed to Hand-Pumped!
At a Pennine tasting session, he tried Midnight Rose and Good Health and declared them excellent session beers, adding: “They are both good examples of the brewer’s art, well-balanced and easy to drink, with lots of flavour considering they are below 4 per cent.
“The brewery is producing some excellent session ales, which is something a lot of new brewers don’t do these days.”
And another local success story – Dewsbury’s Partners Brewery – will host a meet-the-brewer session on Friday afternoon, when co-owner Paul Horne – who runs the Spotted Cow real ale pub in Drighlington – will be on hand to talk about all things brewing.
Partners only began trading on June 1 last year, but it has already undergone TWO expansion programmes!
A cider and world beers tasting session will be helped along by more local experts Pure North Cider Press, of Holmfirth and Huddersfield’s nano Sportsman Brewing Company, and the somewhat larger Ossett Brewery is another major sponsor.
Batley’s newest real ale and live music pub, the Tap Room – which opens its doors tonight – is also sponsoring the event.
For more details, visit the links below.
Hand-Pumped links:
www.dewsburybeerfestival.co.uk
www.pennine-brewery.co.uk
www.partnersbrewery.co.uk
www.purenorthciderpress.com
www.ossett-brewery.co.uk
www.facebook.com/SportsmanBrewingCompany
