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Americans invade Great British Beer Festival

By: JimOldfield

August 5th, 2012

Britain’s biggest pub opens its doors on Tuesday, when Olympia welcomes back CAMRA’s Great British Beer Festival.

And with organisers in a race against time to get on board the promised EIGHT HUNDRED different ales, this year sees a veritable Yank ale invasion.

The first incarnation of the beer list was made public last week – and it revealed that more than ONE in EIGHT of the ales being showcased come from across the Pond.

gbbf050812Some 133 beers, from 67 different brewers, have made the trip across the Atlantic – a verification of Hand-Pumped’s recent warning that UK brewers face an onslaught from the American Craft Beer brigade (to read it, click HERE).

Adding a totally international flavour to the Olympics year beer fest, 18 German brewers are supplying 51 beers, with 31 coming from 22 Belgian brewers and 26 from 11 Netherlands producers.

In total, 133 foreign breweries were supplying 270 beers on the early list – which early last week numbered 552 beers and 88 ciders and perries – the latter all coming from a total of 64 UK producers.

The organisers were adding the final 160 drinks to the list as we went to press

On the home front, 111 English breweries accounted for 253 ales; with 14 from seven Welsh brewers; 11 from 11 in Scotland; two from two in Northern Ireland and one ale each coming from the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.

Best represented English counties in the early list appeared to be the West Midlands, with four breweries supplying 13 ales.

Just behind was Staffordshire with 12 ales from seven brewers; West Yorkshire with 11 from 11; then Lancashire and Bedfordshire – each with 10 ales from five and three breweries respectively.

Interesting omissions from the early list included no apparent offering from the Driftwood Spars hotel/brewery in Cornwall, crowned champion of the CAMRA Winter Beer Festival and no ales from Derbyshire’s iconic Thornbridge Brewery.

Likewise, there was no sign of any ales from Adnams, nor from top Sheffield brewers Abbeydale or the Kelham Island Brewery.

But there are still some hours to go! So to keep up with the ever-growing list – plus all the other highlights – visit the link below.

Among the non-liquid attractions this year will be an auction for a “Brewer for a Day” experience at Thornbridge Brewery, as part of the annual GBBF auctions.

This year’s Hat Day – in which ale lovers are persuaded to show off their cutting-edge, home-made hat creations, will be on Thursday (August 9).

Seven top acts – from strings to brass bands, with American Roots music in between – are lined up to provide live entertainment each day.

And a cornucopia for food stalls, from Cornish Pasties to Thai curries, will be on hand for the feeding of the 55,000.

The CAMRA shop, in the main hall, will have memorabilia – ranging from T-shirts to books – on sale, and Thwaites’ famous shire horses will join the double-decker beer buses in the hall.

*Finally, Hand-Pumped will be reporting live from the festival on Tuesday, to bring you up-to-the-minute coverage of which ale snatches the crown of Champion Beer of Britain.

Hand-Pumped link:
http://gbbf.org.uk