If you haven’t sat on the grass with a plastic glass of beer in your hand yet this summer – well, there’s still time. Plenty of great festivals are coming up over the next month with some cracking beer offerings.
Hagstravaganza kicks off this weekend in Sligo with the White Hag brewery celebrating its third birthday. There’s an international focus to this event with 10 breweries from 10 countries – including 40FT from the UK and BRLO from Germany, Brewfist from Italy and more – while there’ll also be a select number of Irish breweries, including Yellowbelly and Black Donkey, pouring speciality beers on the day.
White Hag and Brewtonic have made a collaborative Elderflower Sour which will be served up at Beatyard, a seaside festival of fun which takes place over the August bank holiday weekend. Brewtonic will also premiere their new (and aptly named) Nautical Boogie IPA at the Dún Laoghaire event.
There were some great beers at the Big Grill festival last year so I’m looking forward to heading along to Herbert Park, Ballsbridge on August 17th-20th. As festival experiences go, this is very much on the easy-going side, with some seriously good food while Irish breweries include Kinnegar, Rascals, Trouble Brewing, Hope and more.
The Hilden Beer and Music Festival celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. Located on the leafy site of the Hilden Brewery in Lisburn, the festival is one of Ireland’s longest-running, and takes place on August 25th-27th.
Also that weekend is Cork’s Great Irish Beer Festival, which features plenty of local breweries including Cotton Ball, 8 Degrees, West Cork Brewing and Rising Sons and a rake of others from around the country.
And then we’re into September, with the ABV17 Fest in Belfast and the Irish Craft Beer Festival at the RDS (8th-10th), one of the largest beer festivals in the country.
But that’s enough planning for now.
@ITbeerista beerista@irishtimes.com
