London Beer Festival Roundup: September 2015

Dave Haste
By Dave Haste Last edited 102 months ago
London Beer Festival Roundup: September 2015

Another month, another host of opportunities for drinking good beer. We’ve collected a handful of the more interesting beer festivals taking place in London in September — as always let us know in the comments if we’ve missed anything notable.

4-5 September: Beer By The River

The vaguely family-friendly Beer By The River festival returns to Morden Hall Park this Friday and Saturday, serving up more than 50 beers from 22 well-chosen brewers, including the full range of standard ales (and a couple of ‘special’ brews) from co-organiser Sambrook’s Brewery. Food, music, beery talks and ‘children’s amusements’ (on the Saturday afternoon) are also set to feature. The event runs from 3pm until 11pm on Friday and midday until 11pm on Saturday; tickets for each day cost £8 in advance or £10 on the door. Special ‘VIP Experience’ tickets are also available for £35, seemingly tailored especially to people with more money than sense.

10-13 September: Green Man Presents ‘Courtyard’

There’s nothing unusual about a Welsh music festival orchestrating a large beery gathering in King’s Cross, right? An impressive selection of more than 100 beers and ciders from independent Welsh breweries will be served at Lewis Cubitt Square (just around the corner from Granary Square) for four days from Thursday 10 September, accompanied by a variety of music and other ‘weird and wonderful’ performances. There’s no entry charge, but you’ll need to pay £2 for a cup to drink from, and the organisers advise purchasing ‘beer deals’ in advance in order to save money and avoid queues. Advance prices for the ‘beer deals’ seem to work out at £5 per pint, which is apparently ‘significantly cheaper’ than paying on the day. Hmmm.

17-19 September: Eden Park Beer & Cider Festival

The Eden Park Beer & Cider Festival (PDF), organised by the Bromley branch of CAMRA, returns for its second year for a few days in the middle of the month. The beer list (PDF) indicates 60 cask-conditioned ales from more than 35 British brewers. Entrance costs £5 (or £4 for CAMRA members), and as a CAMRA event you can probably expect the beer prices to be quite reasonable for the area.

Also...

A few London pubs are also holding smaller-scale, but still decent-looking, beer festivals in September:

  • Hop Back Brewery’s only London pub, the Sultan in South Wimbledon, will be holding its beer and cider festival from 10-13 September. Information is scarce, but we’ve heard that they'll be celebrating the official launch of their new onsite microbrewery on the evening of the festival’s first day.
  • The Antelope in Kingston will be holding its first ever ale and cider festival from 11-13 September, promising more than 60 beers and ciders (including the full range of beers from its own brewery, the Big Smoke) as well as barbecued food and live music.
  • From 18-20 September, the Telegraph on Putney Heath will be marking the start of the Rugby World Cup with a beer festival. Expect ales from eight brewers (all based in south west London or the neighbouring counties, it seems), and the now-apparently-mandatory promise of live music and barbecued food.

If you’re a lover of beer or pubs, check out our ever-expanding database of the best pubs in London.

Last Updated 01 September 2015