20+ notable ales, ciders and perries on offer at Shrewsbury Beer Festival
Visitors to this year's Shrewsbury CAMRA Beer Festival will be able to choose from more than 100 different real ales, ciders and perries.
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That's not to mention the craft gins and country wines on offer as the historic medieval St Mary's Church in Shrewsbury once again becomes the county's biggest pub for four days, starting today.
Top of the list of those to try will be Rainbow Pride, a very special brew created by Shrewsbury and West Shropshire Campaign for Real Ale, Shrewsbury Pride and event sponsor and local beer gurus Salopian Brewery.
Shrewsbury Pride weekend coincides with the beer festival this year with thousands of people expected to hit the streets.
Rainbow Pride will also be available in a selected few real ale focused pubs in the town and in Oswestry. They are the The Prince of Wales, The Admiral Benbow, Cromwell’s Tap House; The Three Fishes; The Bailey Head in Oswestry.
Some of the 4.5 per cent brew is also being reserved for the Shropshire Oktoberfest on the first weekend in October.
As usual the festival will also feature a host of Shropshire and regional brews as well as from across the region and the UK.
Here's a short list of those brews on the beer festival lists this year. The full list is on the event website.
Ales
Bang The Elephant brewery's Dark & Stormy, a 7.6 abv Ginger, Lime & Rum Stout
Black Iris brewery's Better The Devil You Know 5.5 abv
Bragdy Tanat brewery's Sgwarnog, a 5 per cent pale from Llanrhaeadr Ym Mochnant, near Oswestry
The appropriately named Church End brewery will be serving up Gravediggers Mild at 3.8 abv
Clun brewery's Solar, at 4.3 abv is set to be on tap.
Dwy Afon / Two Rivers brewery's Cabon SH Citra a 4.1 abv Session IPA
Hobsons brewery's Mild is set to be on offer at 3.2 abv
Ludlow Brewery's Silent Knight 4.5 abv
Only With Love brewery's Buster is a 4.7 abv Black Beer
Pig & Porter brewery's Apparition is a 3.4 abv brew
Roosters Thornbridge brewery's Chin Chin comes in at 3.2 abv
Shropshire brewer Rowton will be on the scene with one of its beers Aurora at 4 per cent being among those showcased
Swansea Brewing Co's Bishopswood Bitter is at 4.7 abv
Titanic brewery will be hoping that customers sink a few of its White Star, which tips in at 4.5 abv
One of this reporter's favourite ales, Three Tuns brewery's Cleric's Cure comes in at 5 per cent abv
Vocation and Neon Raptor's jointly created Imperial Stout comes in at a meaty 10.8 per cent abv and you may want to take it easy with that one!
Another popular local brew is Wye Valley's Butty Bach, which is at 4.5 per cent
Ciders
Among the ciders on offer are the Cider Chiefs creations, the cheekily named Ow'd Slapper at 6 per cent.
And they also have the cleverly named Edward Cider Hands ready to delight at 6 per cent.
Perry
There is a small selection of perries on offer including Gwatkins Perry, at 6 per cent.
For non-beer drinkers, they promise a good selection of craft gins and country wines.
Soft drinks
If you are a not going to be drinking anything alcoholic because you are driving other drinkers home afterwards, you can get a special coloured wristband on entry which shows that you are a “designated driver”. This will enable you to get free soft drinks from the Drivers’ Bar.
Food
You'll need something to soak it all up.
Indian street food and rolls with various fillings will be available to purchase at the festival.
You can take your own sandwiches or finger food into the festival but they have no cutlery.
They don't want food brought in that generates a lot of waste such as pizzas, or picnic hampers that take up a lot of room.
Others like to leave the festival and go into Shrewsbury town centre to get a meal or a snack.
You just need to show your festival wristband to get back in to the festival afterwards. You can come and go as often as you like during the day that you’ve paid for. Beer glasses can be stored for you at reception, so you can pick them up again when coming back in.
The doors will open at 11am tomorrow, Wednesday, 11-10.30 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Entry is £9 for CAMRA Members, £12 for non-members, including a programme, your glass (£3, £2.50 refund) and 9 tokens worth £6.30 (1 1/2 pints of beer or cider) total value £9.10
The Churches Conservation Trust is the charity which runs St Mary’s.
Money will go to refurbishing the wonderful stained glass and in particular repairing vandalism to a window in the south wall.
The total donation to the Churches Conservation Trust, to date is £5,327.72 with more to come.
Other charities set to benefit are The Poppy Appeal, Team Cleo a local feeder charity for The Brain Tumour Charity.
Team Cleo was set up by a couple of Shrewsbury and West Shropshire CAMRA members following the death of their daughter and raises funds in her name for research and support.
The CAMRA branch also runs a tombola every festival, and this year they are donating 50 per cent of the takings to the Severn Hospice.
