For me, this event – now in its 24th year – isn’t just about beer, it’s about community, creativity and keeping Britain’s brewing heritage alive.
Beer festivals are the beating heart of our industry. They bring people together – locals, visitors, brewers – all united by a shared love of great beer.
Each November, our cavernous cellars beneath our historic brewery are transformed into a bustling festival site, with a different beer style to try at every corner and complete with a brilliant live music line-up.
But beer festivals are also vital for innovation. At St Austell Brewery, the Celtic Beer Festival gives our entire team the freedom to experiment, to push boundaries and to showcase how versatile our national drink – cask ale – really is.
Cask takes up 80%
This year, we had more than 100 beers on offer and about 80% of them were cask. Cask is part of our identity, and festivals like ours showcase cask and keep it front and centre.
The creativity on display was incredible. Take Give Me Strength, a warming Weizenbock balancing banana and clove esters was brewed by Jerry Tooby, Dylan Hunt and Jack Trayes – a collaboration between our packaging and engineering teams.
Our current longest-serving brewer, Mark Heamen, is known as the stout king. He created Moren Dhu, a delectable blackberry oatmeal stout using blackberries from his own garden.
And who could forget Smugglers: an old strong ale with a recipe dating back to 1948, revived by Barry Cornelius, whose tenure at St Austell Brewery stretches 45 years. He was our former production manager, and did retire, but has since returned to the brewery as a tour guide.
But the beer that blew me away was ‘X marks the spot’, created by recently graduated brewing apprentice Seb Powell. It was a pirate-inspired beer that tasted like rum and cola that he made cleverly with just malt, hops and a few spices.
It’s about people
Beyond the beer, the Celtic Beer Festival is about giving back. It’s completely charitable, relying on the goodwill of brewers and suppliers nationwide who donate beer for the event so that every penny raised from tickets goes to St Austell Brewery’s Charitable Trust, which has been running since 2003.
The trust supports local charities, community projects and individuals in need across the south-west and has donated more than £1m to local causes and individuals since its inception.
That’s why these festivals matter. They’re about more than pints… they’re about people. The people who come to join us at the festival and those the festival goes on to support through our trust.
Beer festivals up and down the country create memories, foster connections and keep our brewing culture vibrant. We’re all aware of the mounting financial pressures on hospitality, brewing and pubs, and how each Government Budget continues to exacerbate this. But we are a resilient bunch. Long may the delight of beer festivals – and our brilliant pubs – continue.
