Norwich and Norfolk CAMRA members have started preparing for the city’s annual beer festival, which will take place in St Andrews and Blackfriars halls from October 22 to 27.

With real ales, bottled beers, ciders, perries and wines, the event will this year feature a new bar showcasing more than 40 beers which have never been presented at a beer festival before.

Festival organiser, Craig Harmer, said: “We appeal to the ale lover, but also offer something for everyone. It
doesn’t stop at cask ales — we have a world beer bar and craft KeyKeg beers, a bar dedicated to perries and ciders, with over 80 to choose from, and several wines, too, plus hot food, snacks and live music.”

He considers Saturday to be a good day to visit the festival as it is open all day from noon, with last entrance at 9pm, and is also not busy, so visitors can usually just walk straight in at any time.

There are a limited number of advance tickets, to guarantee entrance, which are on sale now from the Norwich and Norfolk CAMRA website. This also has much more information about the festival.

Over four decades, the festival has evolved from around 20 beers served on small tables in Blackfrairs Halls in 1977, when organisers visited breweries one by one requesting to buy beer for an unknown local festival. Now there are more than 220 cask-conditioned real ales on sale and the organisers have reached capacity.

This year, there will also be 80 varieties of real ciders and perries, while the festival charity will be Headway, Norfolk and Waveney’s brain injury charity.

Norwich beer festival