UK crafters head to Deal for beer fest
Boutilliers Brewing to host craft beer festival “Generation Craft”
Boutilliers Brewing of Faversham, Kent, are hosting their first beer festival and the first beer festival of its type in Kent. The venue is The Astor Community Theatre in Deal.
Organised by Drew Harris of Boutilliers, the festival seeks to achieve two goals; shine a light on the newest talent in the burgeoning craft beer market; and to bring said talent to a place in Kent where the desire for these breweries is high but the availability of the smaller, newer, breweries is low.
The festival will be a market style where breweries will set up a stall and, in many cases, have brewers and owners present and pouring their wares. The full lineup of breweries is as follows:
Boutilliers (Faversham), Ridgeside (Leeds), Black Iris (Nottingham), Vibrant Forest (Lymington), Unity (Southampton), Neon Raptor (Nottingham), Glasshouse (Birmingham), Elusive (Reading), Lost Industry (Sheffield), Torrside (New Mills), Blackjack (Manchester), Ampersand (Bungay), Iron Pier (Gravesend), Seven Sisters (London), Leviathan (Birmingham), Heist (Clowne), Yonder (Wells). Food will be provided by Canterbury based start up Sammies.
The whole festival came about after various visits to national craft beer festivals mixed with various collaborations between Boutilliers and other breweries throughout the country. Harris would wax lyrical to his new friends about how beautiful Deal was and how they should all come down to visit.
He decided to create a festival where craft creators and fans could taste beer previously unavailable in the region as well as experience the picturesque, Kentish coastal town.
“All I want to do is support the new blood, the up and comers, the unsung heroes. I want to shine a light on those within the craft beer scene who are destined for greatness,” says Drew Harris of Boutilliers Brewing.