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Find out all you need to know to spice up your drinks offer - from beer festivals to cocktails. And have fun!Organising a beer festival for your pub...

Find out all you need to know to spice up your drinks offer - from beer festivals to cocktails. And have fun!

Organising a beer festival for your pub is a great way of attracting new customers and lifting your status among beer-lovers - but how do you go about it? A live beer festival at Pub & Bar will not only give you the chance to taste some unusual brews but demonstrate how it's done, combining the experience of being at a real festival with all the information and advice you'll need to run one, including:

Cooling and dispense
The equipment you'll need - how to set it up and how to store and serve the beer
Choosing the beers for your festival
Tips on selecting the best and most profitable range.

Filton Brewery Products, the only company in the UK to manufacture a complete beer festival package and offer it for purchase or hire, is creating the Pub & Bar Beer Festival at Olympia.

Come along and talk to them, inspect the cask cooling probes, check out the insulating jackets and then watch a video which shows you from start to finish how to put on a beer festival in your pub including hints and tips from publicans who have been there and done it already.

Cask beer wholesaler Waverley TBS is helping with the technical side of the festival and will be handing out detailed advice on beer festivals you can take back and put into practice in your business plus tasting notes for all the ales on show.

A host of cask beers will be available to sample and you will get the chance to see the working cellar and pick up tips on cellar management. The World of Beers bar next door will provide more sampling opportunities among a range of exotic bottled beers.

The Drinks Experience Theatre

Cocktails are more fashionable than ever, and not just in the style bar sector. But how can mainstream publicans take advantage of the trend? Top mixologists will be demonstrating their art each lunchtime in Pub & Bar's World Cup Theatre, tailoring their techniques to the demands and restrictions of a busy bar.

12 noon - 12.40pm

Barry Chalmers of LA Bartenders will present Luxardo cocktail demonstrations. At the cutting edge of the London bar scene for the past nine years, he is experienced in training and has worked as head bartender for Match, Lonsdale and the Player. Luxardo is best known for its market leading sambuca but the range now comprises 10 classic and new liqueurs designed to both expand the shot-drinking repertoire and offer fresh inspiration to the new wave of creative mixology, bringing natural flavours, vibrant colour and an unmistakable Italian style.

1pm - 1.40pm

Steve Dingley from Behind Bars will be demonstrating cocktail ideas to serve in their pubs including his special "10-second cocktail" using Finest Cool, the non-alcoholic mixer from the US.

The Entertainment Zone

Pub entertainment is growing more varied and sophisticated as licensees find new ways to attract and keep customers on the premises. Pub & Bar's Entertainment Zone is the place where they can not only track down those fresh ideas but try them out for themselves.

Have fun testing out products from traditional pub games to the latest electronic distractions, from darts and quizzes to karaoke and games machines. You can even win prizes thanks to key sponsors Mediatheme, Compendium and INTATV, which will each give daily demonstrations and have all have their experts on hand to give you advice on the profit making opportunities from entertainment.

Entertainer Pro

The Mediatheme team will be making sure no-one gets bored with demonstrations of its Entertainer Pro instant entertainment system with games such as Racing, HiLo Cards and Take Your Pick. And who knows, you might win a prize!

Compendium

A fully interactive, screen-based entertainment system, Compendium offers a range of quizzes and pub games, linking several players at once through easy-to-use handsets. Games include traditional pub quizzes, race nights, Cards You Play Right and bingo, plus a music and video jukebox, and there are opportunities for licensees to gain revenue from advertising and sponsorship.

INTATV

Come and see INTATV's exciting new system which can do everything from being your video jukebox and screening local advertising with texting to screen and even mobile downloads, offering countless ways for your pub to earn money.

The World Cup Theatre The Publican's World Cup Roadshow, which is taking workshops to licensees that will help them make the most of this summer's World Cup, will culminate at Pub & Bar, giving visitors the chance to attend this key session each afternoon.

They will hear our World Cup Champions presenting expert advice on everything from boosting beer sales and marketing to choosing a big screen and serving the right kind of snacks.

World Cup workshops will be staged in the World Cup Theatre from 2pm to 4pm each day.

Timetable for demonstrations

10.45am-11.15am: Compendium
11.25am-12.05pm: Mediatheme
12.15pm-12.35pm: Compendium
12.45pm-1.05pm: Compendium
1.15pm-1.55pm: Mediatheme
2.05pm-2.25pm: Compendium
2.35pm-3.15pm: Mediatheme
3.25pm-3.55pm: Compendium
4.05pm-4.25pm: Compendium
4.30pm-4.50pm: Mediatheme

(No last session on Thursday)

Supporting the Beer Festival

The Beer Festival is supported by Filton Brewery Products with involvement from Waverley TBS plus expert advice from Cask Marque, the Beer Academy and the Campaign for Real Ale.

Representatives from each will be on hand in the Experts Corner for you to talk to and you can ask them questions on everything from running a beer festival to looking after your cellar.

Beer talking

The Beer Garden will host a series of talks and tastings each day of the show. Experts from Cask Marque, the Beer Academy, Waverley TBS and Filton Brewery Products will aim to enlighten visitors about the business opportunities that running a good beer operation can open up. Here's when you can hear them:

Beer Festival Cooling and Dispense (Filton)
Tuesday 12 noon, Wednesday 2pm, Thursday 12 noon
Choosing Beer for your Festival (Waverley TBS)
Tuesday 1pm, Wednesday 3pm, Thursday 1pm
Improve your Profit from your Cellar (Cask Marque)
Top 10 tips from cask to glass
Tuesday 2pm, Wednesday 1pm, Thursday 2pm
How to Promote Beer with Food (Beer Academy)
Practical beer tasting with various foods
Tuesday 3pm, Wednesday 12 noon, Thursday 3pm

And here are just some of the ales on offer at the Beer Festival: