July and August have truly been festival season for the members of Wolverhampton CAMRA. Of course, there are many amazing festivals this time of year, music, beer and otherwise. But we’re specifically talking about the Wolverhampton’s Summer Festival of Beer & Cider 2025 and the Great British Beer Festival 2025.
So – where do we start? Well firstly, we hope you made both, if not at least one of these local festivals. Our 48th festival was held at the Wolverhampton Arts Centre, the new name for the Newhampton Arts Centre where we’ve held festivals since 2016. As mentioned elsewhere, if it wasn’t for losing 2021 and 2022 to the pandemic, we’d be in our 50th festival year, but it wasn’t to be.
Still, this was our 8th beer and cider festival at the Wolverhampton Arts Centre following the move from the Wulfrun Hall, and like last year, it was a good one!
Of the many ales and ciders available (not to forget the gin bar), we were lucky enough to have a few specials available. These included the final Banks’s Brewery special brewed at Chapel Ash’s Park Brewery – a sad moment, but a great choice of beer to finish things off. Banks’s brewed “Sesquicentennial” as a thank you to the city as its final beer in what is also it’s 150th year at Park Brewery. An American style pale ale, Sesquicentennial sold out on Thursday night – the quickest seller we’ve had in recent memory.
Another special came from Kinver Brewery in the form of “And the Beat goes On” – a beer brewed in memory of the late Andy Beaton, a CAMRA powerhouse over the years both on the National Executive and within the Wolverhampton branch, where he held many roles, not least chairman, magazine editor and most recently, as a leading member of the beer festival committee. Andy is very much missed by those who knew and worked with him and the ale was a fitting tribute to the man.
The festival, like the year before, was all but a sell-out. Come closing on Saturday evening, there was some of one box of cider and a few pints of some of the competition milds left. Feedback was practically all positive, with selection and the entertainment (five bands over Friday and Saturday) as well as the work of the volunteers highlighted as high points.
Beer of the festival was Ickle Brewery’s “Trident“, beating Sarah Hughes’s Ruby Mild and Froth Blowers’ Riverside Stout to the win. Cider of the festival was voted by attendees as Bearded Brewery – “Storm Damage“.
Great British Beer Festival
This year’s Great British Beer Festival, as covered in BEERWOLF magazine, moved from it’s usual location at the London Olympia, to Birmingham’s NEC – an ideal central location, particularly for West Midlands based CAMRA members!
Several Wolverhampton branch members volunteered at GBBF this year, and members of the branch visited between Tues 5 August and its final day on Saturday 9 August, with a branch trip booked in for the Friday. As expected, there was a huge selection of beer and cider across two rooms, as well as mechandise, games, tasting sessions and live music.
Of the various bars, a particular highlight was the American cask ale bar, giving British drinkers the chance to try some of the best American ales on local soil. Cask ale is quite a delicacy over in the USA, where the average beer is keg. The bar did not disappoint.
Champion Beer of Britain 2025 was named as Penzance Brewery – “Mild“, which several branch members were lucky enough to try before it inevitably sold out. Runners up were local beers, Sarah Hughes’s Ruby Mild and Church End’s Fallen Angel.
