'Tickers' queue up for return of Shrewsbury beer festival

The Shrewsbury and West Shropshire CAMRA’s Beer and Cider Festival has arranged for the town's historic St Mary’s Church to be transformed into the biggest bar in town with more than 111 beers, 12 ciders and perries, and 12 craft gins.

"It's going really well," said Norrie Porter, convener of the festival working party. "Wednesday is our specialist ale drinkers day - we call them 'tickers' and the come to tick off the beers one by one."

There were some 250 people in the venue on Wednesday afternoon to mark the first beer festival in the town since 2019. It's the 30th festival in the last 33 years following the loss of two to covid and one when a venue was lost at the last moment.

"They were about 40 people in the queue to get in before we opened at 11am," said Norrie. "The volunteers are all eager and keen to be back and the punters are too - they are four deep at the bar. I think it's a really good beer list."

Tasters from far and wide have also named Clun Brewery the winner of the Shropshire Brewers Challenge with its 4.3 per cent alcohol session beer Solar leading the way. Judges on the tasting panel included BBC Radio Shropshire breakfast show presenter Adam Green.

The festival's main sponsor is RAD beer with Oswestry pub The Bailey Head and Shrewsbury local The Admiral Benbow sponsoring publicity leaflets.

Inevitably this year there have been price increases for the organisers, with the cost of festival glasses rising by 33 per cent. Beers have also risen in price by some 15 to 20 per cent since the festival was last held in 2019.

This year the festival is using a system of tokens to speed up service at the bar. People buy tokens with card or cash, and up to five unused tokens, along with the cost of the glasses, can be refunded.

By the time the last day of the festival on Saturday organisers think 2,500 people will have attended with about half that number coming from outside Shrewsbury. The church remains open to non-drinking visitors from 10-4 each day.

It will be open to the public from 11am to 11pm Wednesday to Friday, September 9 and 11am to 9.30pm on Saturday, September 10.

Entry is £12 for non-Members (£9 for CAMRA members) which includes a glass (refundable) and three half-pints of beer or cider, or equivalent in other drinks.

Shrewsbury and West Shropshire CAMRA is a branch of the national Campaign for Real Ale.

CAMRA is a not-for-profit organisation which campaigns to support traditional brewers and pubs.

CAMRA beer festivals, which are organised and staffed exclusively by volunteers, encourage people to sample in smaller measures a wider range of beers than are normally available in pubs. The surplus made at the festival is used to support campaigning.