Festival-goers quaff record Quantities of ale and cider
HUNDREDS of people supped, sampled and slipped down thousands of pints of beer and cider at the town’s sixth annual beer and cider festival.
The event, run by volunteers from the Ashbourne branch of the Campaign for Real Ale, started on Thursday at Ashbourne Town Hall and drew to a close on Sunday afternoon.
Over the four days, a record 2,372 pints of beer and cider, hand-picked from around the Midlands and beyond were washed down and visitors also enjoyed a return of the festival’s gin bar, as well as its new mead bar. Highlights among the 40 beers being showcased at the event were two relatively new local microbreweries – Aldwark Artisan Ales and Dovedale Brewing Company.
Through the festival’s official beer supplier, former Ashbourne brewery Leatherbritches, the two local breweries each supplied two beers, with Dovedale Brewing Company’s stout among the first barrels to dry up, followed shortly afer by its blond beer.
Many of the festival’s 747 attendees voted on their favourite tipple and a majority hailed their beer of the festival as “Plummeth the Hour”, a plum porter from Old Sawley Brewery in Nottingham.
The most-loved cider of the festival was a new launch for Kniveton-based producer Kniveton Cider Company called Four in a Corner. The two-person team behind Kniveton Cider Company also supplied 10 ciders for the festival, including two of their own, which proved as popular as ever.
This year the festival chose to pass on donations from its customers to Aquabox, a Cromford-based charity that supplies water filters and emergency supplies around the world.
Festival-goers donated a record £449.05 throughout the four days, which will pay for three complete Family Aquaboxes, each packed with more than 70 humanitarian aid items and a water filter.
The filters are used in disaster situations to give families a kick-start to begin to get their lives back in order, at the same time as generating clean drinking water from a normally undrinkable supply.
A spokesman for the festival said: “We had another amazingly successful festival this year, which so many people turned up to be a part of.
“The atmosphere was wonderful throughout, the music was excellent, and it was great to see so many of our beers being finished off, some of which ran dry long before the festival closed.
“It speaks volumes for Ashbourne’s growing appreciation of craft beer and cider, and illustrates a growing demand for other artisan products, such as the gin, mead and the locally produced food we were thrilled to be offering alongside our core products.
“We’re also delighted to be able to hand such a huge sum over to this year’s chosen charity, Aquabox.
“It’s a fantastic cause and we were fortunate to have representatives from the charity joining us throughout the festival, explaining what the kind donations would be used for. “We owe a big thank you to all the organising team, and to the volunteers and sponsors, and most importantly to all the festival-goers for making the 2018 beer and cider festival another great success.
“We’re already looking forward to next year’s event.”