National Winter Ales Festival

The 2008 National Winter Ales Festival at New Century Hall, Manchester
The 2011 National Winter Ales Festival at The Venue, Manchester

The CAMRA National Winter Ales Festival (often shortened to NWAF) is a yearly event organised by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA). From 2018 it was marketed and known as Great British Beer Festival Winter. The purpose of the event is to showcase the best real ales available in the UK in the winter months (for example stouts and porters). It was first held in 1997 to give more exposure to these styles of beer as they are often not available during the summer when its sister festival, the larger Great British Beer Festival, is held. Great British Beer Festival Winter is also home to the Champion Winter Beer of Britain awards.

Host city and date

The festival is generally held in January or February of each year; however there were two festivals in 1997, one at each end of the year. The first one gave the awards for 1996/7 and the second for 1997/8; there was no festival in 1998.

While the summer event has been exclusive to London since 1991, the Great British Beer Festival Winter moves between host cities, allocated on 3-year cycle. Branches of CAMRA around the United Kingdom bid for the event. Derby was the host city for 2014 to 2016 where the event was held at the Roundhouse. The final Derby festival drew 13,832 attendees, the largest in the event's history.[1] They drank a combined 57,000 pints of the 470 beers on offer.[1]

Rob Whitmore, Branch Secretary for Norwich and Norfolk CAMRA, led the successful bid from Norwich which would see the city host this national event from February 2017 and for years 2018 and 2019. The 2017 event was held at The Halls, a medieval halls complex in Norwich consisting of St Andrew's Hall and Blackfriars' Hall. The 2018 festival will be held on 20-24 February in The Halls once more.

Venues

References

  1. 1 2 "National Winter Ales Festival: Visitor record broken and 57,000 pints drunk as festival leaves Derby on a high". Derby Telegraph. 2016-02-21.
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