Returning for it’s fourth year, Craft Beer Rising is the the UK’s biggest craft beer festival, and for two days it will be setting up home in the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane from 26th-27th February 2016 to serve you delicious pints! (Or thirds, or two-thirds, or schooners or whatever it is you crazy kids like to drink out of these days).
Over 150 UK and international breweries will be there, including some of our favourites: Adnams, Beavertown, Five Points and Roosters. (Check our our ‘top 12 beers to look out for’ below.)
There’ll also be a new room dedicated entirely to cider drinkers, called Lost in Cyder Space, showcasing some of the best ciders available from the UK. As well as a solid range of gluten-free beers, honey beers and sub 5% session ales.
In total there’ll be more than 600 different beers and ciders available for you to taste and take home. You’d better pace yourself gang, we can’t carry ALL of you home.
Oh and CBR are also partnering with one of our favourite whiskey distilleries, Auchentoshan, who will be bringing their own unique beer infused serves from their own bars.
You won’t go hungry either, as there’ll be a full-range of independent street food vendors from around London to help line your stomach, including Moons Green Charcuterie, Prairie Fire BBQ, Square Pie and The Mac Shac.
And if all the beer and bonhomie wasn’t enough, there’ll also be a pretty damn impressive line-up of DJs, featuring UNKLE’s James Lavelle, the lovely Rob da Bank, Coldcut’s Jon Moore, Portishead’s Andy Smith, the legendary Don Letts and one of our music-journo heroes, Pete Paphides.
That only leaves one more thing to talk about…
The 12 beers we can’t wait to drink at CBR
Adnams – ‘Triple Knot’
Tripel (ABV 10.0%)
Triple Knot has been inspired by the super-strong Belgium Tripel ales, although Adnams’ take adds a “few botanicals and six months of maturation” allowing the beer to pick up a slight sparkling wine character. Here’s a rare chance to try it straight from the cask, but bottles will be available too.
#Adnams Triple Knot Tripel 10% abv Est arrive! pic.twitter.com/sEkxVHHbc2
— Adnams Store (@cksouthwold) December 9, 2015
Amber Ales – ‘Chocolate Orange Stout’
Speciality Stout (ABV 4.0%)
Winner of CAMRA’s Champion Beer of Britain 2010 (speciality category) and unlike Alan Partridge’s Chocolate Orange gifts there will be no “superficial damage to the box.”
Brand Hacker-Pschorr – ‘Kellerbier’
Unfiltered Hell lager (ABV 5.5%)
The new specialty of Hacker-Pschorr is the Munich Keller Bier Anno 1417 in an endlessly satisfying swing top bottle. It’s untreated, unfiltered beer with all the yeast left in and is described as a “great lunchtime drink, light floral and faintly yeasty.”
Bronx Brewery – ‘Rye Pale Ale’
Rye Pale Ale (ABV 6.3%)
Malted and flaked rye make up nearly a quarter of the grain bill for this Rye Pale Ale, offering a “unique and intense spicy rye flavor and golden-orange hue.”
1 year ago today we brewed our first batch in the 136th street brew house #flashbackfriday #RyePaleAle pic.twitter.com/BXR51VlzMF
— The Bronx Brewery (@TheBronxBrewery) September 25, 2015
By The Horns Brewing Co. – ‘Samba King’
Rye Blonde Ale (ABV 5.1%)
We’re big fans of By the Horns and this beer is jam-packed full of exotic and bold flavours… “Brewed with Maris Otter Pale, Caragold, Munich, Rye & Torrified Wheat malt and hopped with Sorachi Ace, Galaxy & Citra hops. This beer has been conditioned with fresh Brazilian lime & lemongrass.” There’s an awful lot of good stuff going on with this one.
Harviestoun Brewery – ‘Chilli infused Engine Oil’
Style Black Ale (ABV 6%)
Following on from the success of its Raspberry infused porter, Harviestown has been experimenting with chillis and… well… I’ll let the brewery do the talking here… “suffice to say after many a refrigerated loo roll we are finally ready to release some of this amazing beer.” Tread carefully.
Islay Ales – ‘Kilchoman Dark Style’
Smokey Peat Stout
ABV 5.0%
We’ve never tried a Smokey Peat Stout before, but this beast from the Kilchoman distillery sounds frigging rad.
Mondo – ‘May the Schwarz Be With You’
Schwarz bier (ABV 5.2%)
Mondo’s take on this German classic has “very mild, bittersweet, notes of chocolate, coffee, and vanilla, with a malty middle, crisp finish and long-lasting creamy head.” And who can resist a Spaceballs themed beer?
Now on at the Tap House, May The Schwarz Be With You, a 5.2% Schwarzbier. pic.twitter.com/22IRfZEaro
— Mondo Brewing Co (@mondobrewing) February 12, 2016
Rat Brewery – ‘Murder She Rat’
Green Tea IPA (ABV 4.4%)
A brand new all day IPA brewed from Pale and Cara malts and hopped with five separate additions of Chinook and then delicately infused with green tea. We’ve been really getting into our green tea IPAs lately, so this will be a treat.
Rooster’s Brewing Co. – ‘Roots. Rock. Reggae.’
Pineapple & Grapefruit IPA (ABV 6.4%)
A limited edition IPA, brewed with the addition of fresh pineapple and grapefruit. As far as we’re concerned this North Yorkshire brewery can do no wrong.
It’s not been packaged yet, but this beauty has already sold out in keg, with all but 20 firkins spoken for too! pic.twitter.com/nCxDqyPnQW
— Rooster’s Tom (@RoostersTom) February 13, 2016
Saugatuck Brewing – ‘Neapolitan Milk Stout Style’
Flavoured Milk Stout (ABV 6%)
From the Michigan based brewery, this is a unique blend with the flavours of… wait for it… Neapolitan Ice Cream – Rich strawberry, vanilla and chocolate flavours all in one beer. This won National Grand Champion for Stout at the 2014 US Beer Tasting Championships. And with this Neapolitan you can’t just eat all the strawberry first.
Williams Bros. Brewing Co. – ‘Redact’
Hoppy Red Lager (ABV 4.4%)
Redact is a red lager with a “crisp and delicate mouthfeel”, balanced with red malts, giving notes of sweet toffee and molasses, as well as an aromatic punch of Citra & Calypso hops. This sounds fricking delicious.
Right, that’s probably enough to get started with. *rubs hands in glee*
Tickets are from £10 and you can buy them here.
