FOLLOWING hot on the heels of the inaugural beer week, Leeds International Beer Festival (8-11 Sept) is no new kid on the block. Now in its fifth year, the organisers have continually grown the event, adding more beer, more music and more great food each time.
With hundreds of different beers on offer from all corners of the planet, ordering can be daunting
Staged in the grand surroundings of Leeds Town Hall, there can't be many better settings for a huge celebration of the finest booze of them all. With hundreds of different beers on offer from all corners of the planet it can be a bit daunting when deciding what to choose, so below you'll find a few recommendations from the list as announced so far.
From sessionable pale ales to barrel aged imperial stouts and sharp, sour Berliner Weisse, there's a wide range of styles on this list, so be adventurous - and feel free to ask for a taster from the bar staff.
Oh and tickets (£6-£8.50) available here.
Burning Sky Brewery
One of the first stalls you should be heading for is Burning Sky, who use traditional techniques to age and blend beers slowly and with great attention to detail - such as Saison Anniversaire, lightly spiced farmhouse ale, aged in oak Chardonnay barrels for a dry, sharp, vinous quality.
Also look out for Gaston - a Belgian-style pale with coriander and caraway, and big aromas of orange and mango. If you fancy something hoppier, try Easy Answers - understated bitterness but seriously dry-hopped for that dank, resinous, lupulin slap.
'Big aromas of orange and mango' - Burning Sky Belgian-style Gaston
Buxton Brewery
Buxton have been kicking out such a huge amount of quality beers over the last few years that spring water is now the town's second most important liquid export. Unless you've been ardently avoiding good beer, you'll probably have come across Axe Edge, Wild Boar or SPA, but some of Buxton's more recent creations have really been pushing the boundaries.
Try their ice cream-inspired collaborations with Omnipollo from Sweden. Lemon Meringue Ice Cream Pie is on Buxton's tap list for the festival, delivering a lemon curd sharpness that will delight some and make others wonder if they're actually drinking beer. Another highlight of the list is the Guatemalan Coffee Extra Porter brewed with rich bourbon El Limon beans and cacao nibs - velvety smooth, loads of vanilla and a sweetroastiness that should help perk you up mid-session.
Buxton & Omnipollo's ice cream-inspired Collaborations
Fourpure
The most common trend across UK craft beer this summer has been to produce IPAs and Pale Ales with generous additions of fruit, and Fourpure Brewing have taken the concept, cranked it, and filled kegs and cans full of a truly smashable citric beast called Juicebox. Not that it overshadows their other beers, Shapeshifter - an IPA full of west coast US hop kicks, and a new Chocolate Chilli Stout whose kick comes courtesy of habanerochillis rather than hops.
'Smashable citric beast' - Fourpure Juicebox
Lervig Aktiebryggeri
Brewing in the Norwegian wilds, Lervig are bringing a huge list of collaborations, rare beers and regulars to Leeds International Beer Festival.
The range of ingredients being used is dizzying and the collaborators are some of the most highly regarded breweries across the world. Our top pick though is an old favourite Farmhouse IPA, first brewed with Magic Rock a couple of years ago - funky but refined, the use of Brettanomyces yeast strains creates a unique but hard to pin down flavour that is crazily moreish.
'Funky but refined' - Lervig & Magic Rock Farmhouse IPA
Mad Hatter
One drawback of trying lots of different styles of beer is that sometimes usually distinct flavours can become a bit muddied as the contents of your glass switch from dark to light, malty to sour. Giving your glass a slosh out with some water will help that, but also its good to have a palate cleanser in beer form too.
Mad Hatter's Tzatziki Sour is a reliable tongue resetter. Unsurprisingly, this apes the characteristics of the sauce - gently acidic and mildly lactic, with crisp, fresh cucumber aroma and a hint of mint. This is one of the best examples of how smaller breweries turn esoteric ideas about what beer should be into pure deliciousness. Even if you hate cucumber.
'Esoteric' - Mad Hatter Tzatziki Sour
