Raise a glass for the Eathorpe Beer Festival

As last year, all the beers on sale have been chosen by a travelling tasting panel, which visited eight breweries in a two-day trip in January.

“It wasn’t easy to choose but the most difficult thing was to avoid drinking too much”, said Sue Burt, who was on the tasting panel.

“When you taste good beer the temptation is to drink deeply, but we had to force ourselves just to sip a little. At all costs you must still be standing at the end of the day.”

The 15 beers this time will all come from Worcestershire and Herefordshire.

Two of the breweries with beers at the festival are mainly run by women.

“It’s long past the time when real beer was the preserve of men,” said Maggy Smith, who is also on the panel.

“I’ve been a beer drinker all my adult life and it is good now to see women taking the lead in brewing and even carting the barrels.”

Families are welcome at the festival and as well as beer, there will be at least two real ciders, perry, wine, soft drinks and food available. There will also be live music - Coventry Mummers on Friday evening, with “lively rock and roll” on Saturday night, although there will be a more relaxed atmosphere during the afternoon and earlier in the evening, say organisers.

The festival will provide the opportunity to present cheques to two charities – Circles, of Rugby, which provides family support, and the Spinal Muscular Atrophy UK, from Stratford. Each cheque will be for just over £1,000 and comes from money raised at Eathorpe’s Christmas Lights. Overall donations totalled £2,620.

The festival will run from 5.30-11pm on Friday February 26 and 1-11pm on Saturday February 27. Entry is free.

David French, chair of the village hall committee, said: “Things can be pretty miserable at the end of February. The beer festival provides an enjoyable weekend and helps us look forward to spring.”