Summer's Best Beer Fests - Amex Essentials

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Summer’s Best Beer Fests
intro
There seems to be no end to the proliferation of craft breweries all over the world. The only downside to this golden age of beers we seem to be living in? Tasting them all seems is an impossible feat – but beer festivals at least give you a fair chance of trying, and we’ve selected a wide range of events that will give you a head start. Some offer the opportunity to sample a wide range of beers from many different countries and breweries, others are a chance to deepen your knowledge of one particular style, and a few offer insights on local tradition. They’ll all add a tipsy taste to your summer.

By Fiona Brutscher

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Events
Summer’s Best Beer Fests.
poblenou
5-7 July, Barcelona, Spain. La Fira del Poblenou – Barcelona is home to two of Spain’s most popular large breweries, but craft beer is also on the rise. The city’s most important craft beer festival is simply called “fair of Poblenou”, a reference to the beachside quarter it takes place in. In addition to over 200 national and international beers, food trucks, talks and tastings, the street festival also offers live music and a laid-back summer atmosphere.

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Events
Summer’s Best Beer Fests.
mIndful
20 July, London, England. Mindful Drinking Festival – The phrases “alcohol-free” and “beer” may seem somewhat contradictory, but it’s worth mentioning a rather unique festival that offers a beer-tasting experience for anyone who, for whatever reason, doesn’t want to drink alcohol. The Mindful Drinking Summer Festival at Spitalfields Market showcases zero to 0.5% ABV beers, wines, ciders, cocktails, ‘spirits’ and adult soft drinks. [Photo: Club Soda Guide]

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Events
Summer’s Best Beer Fests.
Oregon Brewers
24-27 July, Portland, Oregon. Oregon Brewers Festival – The Pacific Northwest is teeming with craft breweries large and small, and the region also has its fair share of beer festivals. Portland, Oregon is considered by some to be the ultimate US destination for beer lovers – not to be confused with Portland, Maine, which is also a contender for the same title. But back to Oregon: Portland alone has over 70 craft breweries – and a festival dedicated to them alone earlier in the month (4-7 July). The Oregon Brewers Festival has a slightly wider scope, hosting craft brewers and cider makers from across the state.

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Events
Summer’s Best Beer Fests.
GBBF
6-10 August, London, England. Great British Beer Festival (GBBF) – Further evidence that alcohol-free beer is on the rise – the GBBF, one of the largest beer events in the world, featured an alcohol-free beer for the first time last year. However, it remains an event largely dedicated to boozy brews, so it offers something for everyone. It’s billed as “the live beer experience”, which seems like a pretty small claim, especially in a city filled with great pubs. The actual event line-up goes way beyond that, with expert-guided tastings, boozy games and live music.

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Events
Summer’s Best Beer Fests.
Camra
Throughout summer, across Great Britain. Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) festivals – The CAMRA, which is behind the GBBF in London, also runs over 180 smaller beer festivals across Great Britain, including several Real Ale festivals, Magic Mild festivals and other events dedicated to specific brews or local specialties, often teamed with music.

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Events
Summer’s Best Beer Fests.
Beervana
9-10 August, Wellington, New Zealand. Beervana – Pour one out for beer lovers Down Under, who currently have to get through a long Southern Hemisphere winter with nary a beer festival to sustain them. Kiwis are significantly better served, with New Zealand’s largest beer festival taking place in the capital in the midst of winter.

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Events
Summer’s Best Beer Fests.
Burning Can
9-10 August, North Carolina, USA. Burning Can – Tired: Burning Man. Wired: Burning Can! While the once-countercultural desert trip devolves further into a late-capitalist parody of itself, this festival takes it back to the essentials – good beer, in a can, enjoyed in the great outdoors. While the joy of actually drinking beer out of a can is at best debatable, the environmental and flavour-preserving advantages of beer cans (as compared to single-use glass) are increasingly being recognised in craft beer circles. This festival leans all the way in to the trend.

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Events
Summer’s Best Beer Fests.
Gauböden
9-19 August, Straubing, Germany. Gäubodenfest – Why jostle for beer tent space with millions of tourists who flock to Munich’s famous Oktoberfest every year, when you could “Prost” with the locals at an equally impressive Bavarian beer fest frequented mainly by locals? Every August, the Gäubodenfest offers the same large steins, giant tents, oompa bands and Dirndl/Lederhosen-clad revellers, all in a more relaxed atmosphere. The quaint Bavarian town that hosts the traditional festival is only two hours from Munich, so you can easily combine it with a visit to the Bavarian capital.

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Events
Summer’s Best Beer Fests.
SFBVE
August (date TBA), San Francisco, California. SF Brewfest n’ Vegan Eats Invitational (SFBVE) – The SFBVE‘s full name is a bit of a mouthful, but the main takeaway is in the letter V – all food and drinks at the event are vegan. However, that doesn’t mean the event won’t have lots to offer the beer-drinking omnivore. In addition to $4 food options and free unlimited craft beer pours, you’ll also get a chance to sample locally brewed kombucha beer, a speciality you’re unlikely to come across at other beer festivals.

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Events
Summer’s Best Beer Fests.
Brussels
6-8 September, Brussels, Belgium. Belgian Beer Weekend – Belgium is a highlight on any beer lover’s tour of Europe. Whether you love or loathe the overwhelmingly heavy and flavoursome brews the country is known for, it’s worth a visit for the breadth of styles and variety of small breweries to discover alone. Catch them all in one place during the Belgian Beer Weekend that takes over the Market Place in Brussels in September. [Photo: © Belgian Brewers – Lander Loeckx]

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Events
Summer’s Best Beer Fests.
one more beer
20-21 September, Krakow, Poland. One More Beer Festival – Fresh design, pretty excellent name, solid selection of local and international breweries: One More Beer Festival got a lot of things right on its first try in 2017. Things can, presumably, only keep getting better, with more breweries invited year on year. Poland being a country of beer drinkers with plenty of excellent local breweries, the international invitees will really have to pull out all the stops to impress the crowd! [Photo: © Jacek Labaj/Kazzi]

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Events
Summer’s Best Beer Fests.
Borefts
27–28 September, Bodegraven, Netherlands. Borefts Beer Festival – This annual festival – or, as the organisers put it, “have-good-beer-with-good-friends-party” – is hosted by Brouwerij de Molen brewery, about an hour outside Amsterdam. The 11th edition promises more of what has made the event a success in the past: excellent beer from hand-picked craft breweries, special brews dedicated to a yet-to-be-announced theme, and a very Dutch view of the windmill that lends the host brewery its name. Pro tip: Saturday tickets always sell out quickly, so go on the Friday for a more relaxed experience.

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Events
Summer’s Best Beer Fests.
Braukultur
30 September, across Austria. Brausilvester – Happy New Beer! Not strictly a festival, but a unique local tradition. If you should find yourself in the south of Germany or Austria at the end of September, keep an eye out for local breweries celebrating “brewers’ new year”. Traditionally, brewers in these regions celebrate the end of a successful production year and drink to the start of a new one on this date, often accompanied by live music and a sampling of the latest brews. Alternatively, check out the festival at Vienna’s Ottakringer brewery a few weeks earlier. [Photo: Ottakringer Braukultur-Wochen]

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Summer’s Best Beer Fests

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Events