Wetherspoon’s autumn Real Ale Festival is back, with 30 beers for ale fans to sample.
The international festival, which runs until Sunday October 23, is taking place at JD Wetherspoon bars across the country, showcasing 25 UK brewers and five international breweries.
Supporting CAMRA and British hop farmers, all of the ales featured have been brewed with British hops.
Speciality beers include Hoptober (3.8%), brewed by Cheshire’s Coach House Brewery. The seasonal beer has a light, lemony floral hop aroma and spicy orange finish.
There’s also Hip Hop Hooray from Cotligh Brewery in Somerset (3.9%), which uses three British hop varieties, and Arundel’s Coffee Milk Stout (5%), brewed in West Sussex especially for the Wetherspoon festival.
The international brewers include Terrapin Beer Co. from Georgia in the US, Bentspoke Brewing Co. from Canberra, Australia, Ninkasi Brewing Company from Oregon, US, the Afro-Caribbean Brewing Company, Cape Town, South Africa, and Birrificio Foglie D’Erba, from Forni Di Sopra, Italy.
The festival began on Wednesday and has been praised by the British Hop Association (BHA).
Ali Capper, BHA board member and hop farmer said: “Wetherspoon continues to support British hop-growers – and every opportunity to showcase our 28 commercial British hop varieties, as well as hundreds of trial varieties, is most welcome.
“Local provenance is of great importance and, as a minor player in the world market (behind the US and Germany), the support for British hops through this festival is brilliant… really great news.”
Huddersfield has two Wetherspoon’s pubs — The Cherry Tree in John William Street, open 7am-11pm daily, and the Lord Wilson in King Street, open 8am-11pm seven days a week.
There’s also the Richard Oastler pub in Bethel Street, Brighouse, open 8am-11pm daily.
