Discover more at the Great British Beer Festival

The Great British Beer Festival returns today (1 August) at Olympia London and brings with it an extensive programme of informal brewer and cider maker led tastings throughout the week of the festival.

The Discovery Bar offers tastings to help visitors learn more about the ingredients, techniques and people behind the greatest beers and ciders Britain has to offer. Visitors will be able to get up close and personal with hops, malts and home brew equipment supplied by The Malt Miller, who will be on hand all week to answer questions and give insight into brewing on a small scale.

Tastings begin on Trade Day (Tuesday 1 August) with Anspach & Hobday’s head-to-head triple tasting featuring its special one-off cask version and a unique carbonated edition of their London Black. The Bermondsey brewers are also showcasing their Ordinary Bitter on cask and nitro. Visitors can also taste the evolution of Oakham Ales, featuring a tipple from the birth of the brewery and their 30th anniversary year. Those arriving for the evening session of the festival can compare perries from two UK cider producers: Little Pomona Orchard and Cidery from Herefordshire and Nightingale Cider Company from Kent. The brewers and producers of each of the drinks will be on hand to take tasters through the sessions.

Throughout the rest of the week (2-5 August), the Discovery Bar boasts sessions from Iron Pier Beer, Ross on Wye Cider & Perry, Vocation Brewery, 99 Pines – led by leading British perry writer Adam Wells – plus, Mash Gang low and no-alcohol beers, and Ascension Cider.

The last day of the festival will see a live brewing demonstration with Mash Paddle Brewery, with ingredients chosen by CAMRA social media followers. Twitter users were asked to choose the style, malt and hops they’d like to see brewed at the festival, and chose a Stout brewed with Maris Otter and Chocolate malt, and Citra and Amarillo hops.

GBBF 2023 will also see the debut of a new ‘Introduction to beer styles’ tasting on the discovery bar. This new informal tasting aims to empower festival goers to find more beer they love at GBBF and beyond. For just £5 festival goers will be guided by expert CAMRA volunteers through four tasters of traditional and contemporary beer styles available at the festival bars.

Learning and Discovery Manager Alex Metcalfe said: “This year, the Discovery Bar offering is bigger and better than ever. We hope that the informal and interactive style of tasting appeals to those who have been drinking these tipples for forty minutes or forty years. It wouldn’t be possible without the hard work of CAMRA volunteers, alongside the insight and expertise of all the breweries and producers attending, as well as the equipment and ingredients they supply.”

To find out more about the Discovery Bar and a full schedule of all the sessions, go to the Great British Beer Festival website: https://gbbf.org.uk/discovery-bar.

For press enquiries during the festival, please contact gbbfpublicityteam@camra.org.uk.

Ends

Ticket prices:

General Admission (includes entry and a non-refundable glass)

Member: £14 (£16 on the door)

Non-Member: £16 (£18 on the door)

VIP: £42 (includes entry, a non-refundable glass, guaranteed seat and £10 of beer tokens)

Group Ticket: £64 – 5 entries for the price of 4 (includes 5 entries & 5 non-refundable glasses)

Season Ticket: £48 (includes entry on every day of the festival and 1 non-refundable glass)