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31st Cambridge Beer Festival Programme : Next section

by Michael Jackson


Look around you today, in this city of great British discoveries, and witness one of our proudest creations. What you see is a real beer festival. It is not only the beer that is real; it's the festival, too. The chance to taste more than 125 beers from around 75 breweries should make anyone feel festive. It is something to celebrate, not just for the numbers, but also for the variety.

Each of those breweries has its own house character, undumbed by the denominators of marketing men. Each also has its own range of styles. You might fancy a soothing Mild, a sociable more-ish Bitter; an appetising India Pale Ale; a sustaining Scotch Ale; a mellow Old Ale. You prefer a Stout? Oatmeal or Chocolate? Or Whisky-Aged? If the weather is warm, you might wish to refresh yourself with a Wheat Beer (Raspberry or Plain?).

Local beers from Cambridgeshire... brews from Cornwall to Scotland. Take a look at some of the brews produced these days in the area where I did my first beer-hunting: Yorkshire breweries making Kellerbier and Kölschbier. This is a festival for people who love to taste beer. This style of festival was invented by the Campaign for Real Ale and has been copied from Denver to Denmark. We should be proud of such a joyous creation.

What were beer festivals like before? They were all oompah and not much beer. Consider the Oktoberfest: it has only two styles of beer, from half a dozen companies, with four breweries, in one city - but you can link arms and sway from side to side...


Michael Jackson, who devised and presented the Channel 4 TV series "The Beer Hunter" is the leading writer internationally on the brews of the world. He is author of The Great Beer Guide, and his Malt Whisky Companion has just been published in its 5th edition, by Dorling Kindersley, London, at £14.99. His website is at www.beerhunter.com


31st Cambridge Beer Festival Programme : Next section
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