Three Beer Festival Leicester

Over the weekend of April 17 - 20th 2008 there were three beer festivals in Leicester offering a choice of over 70 different beers and all accessible by public transport.

I spent the Friday visiting all three festivals to show my support and also take a few pictures for this article and the Leicester Drinker.

First port of call was The Queen Victoria, Southampton St holding its first beer festival with 20 beers racked up in a back room all cooled within a sealed environment and 8 through the bar. The beer list featured three Ales of the Unexpected specials from Glastonbury along with an interesting selection of other beers including a couple from one of my top breweries; Kinver. Also supported was the new Bees Brewery from Queniborough. All festival beers were £1 a half which is very respectable these days.

Left Queen Vic Stillage + Owner Tony Frances and Manager Lee Bale. Right Black Horse stillage and Landlord Phillip Jones. Below Daksha Patel, Landlady at Out of the Vaults.

Second was Out of the Vaults, King St  with 24 beers. 12 in the chilled window area similar to the Queen Vic and 12 through the bar. This festival was dominated by Yorkshire beers particularly Salamander but it was good to see two beers from Bees Brewery also featured here.

Lastly a trip on the No 85 Arriva bus to Aylestone and the Black Horse on Narrow Lane. Set up in the skittle alley were 16 beers cooled with the Everards cooling probes plus the normal selection in the pub. Again a Bees beer featured here along with a selection of beers from far and wide, particularly a couple of Arundal Brewery beers.

It is great to see festivals like this in Leicester with good quality beers and well supported by real ale drinkers. There is no reason why pubs could not get together and co-ordinate similar events in the future for the benefit of both local real ale drinkers and people prepared to travel.

Andy Sales

20 April 2008

This page last updated: June 3, 2008

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