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Editors notes: This is a guest post from Peter Hanley.
Beer festivals are by far one of the best reasons to travel anywhere. Just make sure that that anywhere is in Europe, because the number and range of beer festivals is unparalleled. Being so spoiled for choice makes it hard to decide which festival you’ll be attending. To help you decide we’ve thought long and hard and have come up with the top 3 beer festivals in Europe. Each one offering a unique experience, so be sure to cross them off your list.
3. Great British Beer Festival – London
Dreamy London Eye | By JohnGoode | Flickr Creative Commons
The Great British Beer Festival began in the late 70s and runs in the first full week of August, from Tuesday to Saturday. The festival is run by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and hosts the Champion Beer of Britain awards which nominates and judges top British beers for the title.
Over 400 local British beers are on offer as well as around 200 foreign beers and traditional cider and perry are also sold. The GBBF aims to reproduce a pub-like atmosphere and offers live music, pub games, and food stalls. The festival is significantly smaller than its famous German counterparts but is growing rapidly year on year and has recently moved to a larger venue to accommodate this.
2. Belgian Beer Weekend – Brussels
Orval, The Beer | By Kr. B | Flickr Creative Commons
The Belgian Beer Weekend takes place during the first weekend of September in Brussels and offers another unique experience. The diversity of authentic regional beers available is truly impressive. Belgium is renowned for its vast number of small specialist breweries including the famed Trappist monastery breweries.
You can also taste the Lambic beers, which are the only beers in the world which are produced by “spontaneous fermentation”. This means that instead of using cultivated brewer’s yeasts, the beer is simply exposed to wild yeasts and bacteria of the area. This gives the beers a very unique flavour.
1. Oktoberfest – Munich
Oktoberfest is the most well known beer festival in the world, and officially the world’s largest fair. It is so popular that it has inspired thousands of similar festivals worldwide. In 2010 alone, over 7 million litres of beer were drunk. Only beer that has been brewed within Munich is allowed to be served at Oktoberfest and many of these are special Oktoberfest beers prepared especially for the occasion.
Visitors can expect to enjoy the variety of local beers, würstl and other traditional foods while being entertained by a range of different musical styles. Dressing up in the traditional German lederhosen or dirndl is encouraged and adds to the fun.
If you fall ill or have any other sort of emergency there is a service centre that has been built solely to cater for the festival directly behind the tents. It’s highly recommended that you take out Backpacker’s Travel Insurance for Europe or another suitable policy before you traverse Europe in search of the best beer fests. Make sure that you drink responsibly and that you don’t become one of the “Bierleichen” (German for “beer corpses”)!
Peter Henley writes for EssentialTravel.co.uk, providers of travel extras, travel information and travel news.”
*Please remember all photos on this website, unless otherwise noted, are copyrighted and property of Beers and Beans Travel Website, Nariko’ s Nest Weddings & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you do want to use one of them please contact me first because I do love to share and I would be flattered. Thanks!
7 comments
I live in Munich, so maybe branching out to go to the other two sound fun! 🙂 Plus I am a huge fan of cider!
Oktoberfest is not only a beer festival is a life experience…glad to learn about the other 2 in London and Brussels.
I can vouch for the Great British Beer Festival. Not only great beers but a chance to meet the brewers. They’re all there. I think next year it is moving back to Olympia which is a much better venue
Must…attend…all of these festivals before I die.
Love the way the lens you’ve chosen makes the Thames look like it’s made from beer. I wish!
Europe is definitely the place to go when it comes to beer festival! they have the way to do these things… culture is all about I think and each country has its own beer. no way an English beer is going to taste like a German one or another from Belgium. That’s what I love about Europe… they really have a diversified population
I love good beer, and we just had Craft Beer Week here in Sydney. I’m hoping that I won’t have to wait another year to see another beer festival!!
Good choices!
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