Stolen GBBF beer replaced in time for festival start
The Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA) has told beer fans not to worry after a lorry of 15,000 pints destined for the Great British Beer Festival was stolen from a hauliers yard in Lincoln at the weekend.
The lorry contained real ale from sixteen small breweries, which was intended for the festival at Earls Court.
Luckily, organisers CAMRA, those at the Small Beer Agency and several brewers have managed to source replacement beer from all but three breweries.
Marc Holmes, organiser of the Festival said, "We knew it was going to be popular, but we've never had the beer stolen before. 15,000 pints is a lot of beer, but no one will be disappointed as we have another 335,000 pints already here."
The real ale organisers have replaced is from: Castle Rock of Nottingham; Caythorpe and Maypole from Nottinghamshire; Nottingham Brewery; Batemans; Elgoods; Springhead; DarkTribe in Lincolnshire; Highwood; Abbeydale of Sheffield; Brown Cow of Selby; Oldershaw of Grantham; and Palmers from Dorset.
However, beer from Reepham in Norfolk; Newby Wyke in Lincolnshire and Tunnel Brewery in Nuneaton, Warwickshire has not been replaced.
Tony Eastwood, managing director of Small Beer said, "Crisis averted, we're pulling out all the stops to get the beer to London. I'd like to thank Dave Scott and Glyn Williams at Small Beer for working so hard today to find replacement beer, to the brewers for rising to the challenge and to Tom Wood of Highwood for letting us borrow a truck and driver to replace our stolen vehicle."
