The East Anglian Beer and Cider Festival 2022

Yesterday saw the start of the 30th East Anglian Beer and Cider Festival - the biggest ever, with over 250 beers and 40 ciders. After last year's success, it is again being held in St. Edmundsbury Cathedral and is on daily until this Sunday, the 19th June.

Yesterday's session was for CAMRA members only, so I took advantage of that to be there about half an hour after the opening at 4pm and in time for the official opening by the Dean. It was very pleasant without the crowds.

I went again this afternoon to sample a few more of the beers and  ***Spoiler alert!*** ...

... to complete my aim of having each of the beers and beer styles in my forthcoming Weekend Quick Cryptic crossword, entitled "More beer, please". Look out for that on the blog soon. [Update: The crossword is now available here.]

Meanwhile here are a few of my photos...

My first beer was a Fat Cat Tropical Tomcat. Very refreshing.

I had a table to myself in the marquee and settled down to follow the Test Match on my phone while I sipped the beer.

But before I had finished my second 1/2 pint, England had knocked off the last 160 runs in 16 overs. I did enjoy watching highlights at home later.

Meanwhile, in the cathedral, the "Pearl Bar" was the one to go to, featuring each of the "Best of the Festival" beers from the previous 29 festivals.

Outside the sky was blue.

But then the Dean came out and invited us to come into the nave for the "official opening". Here he is giving his speech explaining why having the festival at the cathedral is such a good thing. Nobody disagreed!

The entertainment was provided by the Honington Military Wives Choir.

One beer I just had to have, was Cabin Brewery's Jubilee Platinum Gold, as I am the brewery's CAMRA Brewery Liaison Officer (see my visit to the brewery last year here)

Well done Chris. That was delicious... and ticked off "Golden" from my Beer Types.

The trickiest to find, though, was a wheat beer and I ended up going to the bottle bar to find one...

Despite the name, the De Vossen Oranje Wit is brewed in Bury St. Edmunds!

That was my lot for today, and I returned home in good time to cook the evening meal. More beer on Friday afternoon and Sunday, I think and then that will be it for another year.

More anon!