How to Organise a Beer Festival

[Andy Ven]

Sorry, that should be a question.

I know a committee member of a local club. They are interested in organising a beer festival offering 30+ different real ales from a range of breweries.

The question is, if they want to offer a more diverse choice than what the big brewers have to offer, how do they source the beer without the expense etc of getting deliveries from a multitude of individual micro brewers?

Some of you must have been involved in organising a beer festival (CAMRA or otherwise) how is it done?

[Oggwyn Trench]

Wholesalers , even small local ones can usually supply a small range of cask ales . The larger Wholesalers like Waverleys http://www.waverleytbs.co.uk/ do a reasonable range and there are specialist cask ale wholesalers , this might help http://siba.co.uk/wholesalers-and-distributors/ .
Get a decent selection delivered from one of these and pick up a couple of barrels from local micros in the boot of a car and you got a beer festival

[Andy Ven]

Thanks. I notice Waverley's are doing a Davenports for August and September, brewed by Highgate of Walsall. Where ever that's being brewed it certainly ain't at the Highgate Brewery.

http://www.thebrewerswholesale.co.uk/ is handy because they are based in Stourbridge.

I have sometimes wondered how the Wellington in Birmingham gets such a vast range over the course of a year. I have seen the Purity van around that part of town and Purity (and Black Country Ales) are regular local ales there but I was curious what they did for the more obscure beers from around the country that appear only once.

[Soup Dragon]

By asking 'how to do a beer festival', Andy, are you admitting you couldn't organise a p*ss up in a brewery?

[Andy Ven]

I have accomplished that feat before. In this case it is a p*** up but no brewery

[Eddie86]

Another good wholesaler is LWC - http://www.lwc-drinks.co.uk/ - They have depots across the country and so can source beers from all over the UK. As an example their ales for September include Tim Taylors, Skinners, Dartmoor, Fyne Ales (Scotland), Brewsters, Woods, Cotleigh, Wyre Piddle, Vale Brewery, Breconshire, Acorn, Marstons, Hook Norton, Bays, Abbeydale and Greene King.

Worth getting a few beers from a local brewery and asking if they would sponsor the cooling system - it may only be cask covers or it may be the full water cooling system, but it's better than nothing and a damn site cheaper than hiring it yourself.

Also ask local pubs if they'd like to get involved - putting up adverts and perhaps sponsoring a beer or two...

And ask a local CAMRA branch to borrow their stillage. Hereford for example only use theirs for the Beer on the Wye and so it sits there the rest of the time waiting for next year.

Hope some of that helps!

[Andy Ven]

Cheers Eddie, useful info