East Anglian Beer and Cider Festival 2025

It's that time of year again and I was able to make several visits to the East Anglian Beer and Cider Festival in Bury St. Edmunds cathedral.

I was there for the opening on the Wednesday and got there on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons too. There were over 250 beers, over 50 ciders, food and live music over 6 days.

Here are a few of my photos.

The early session on the Wednesday was for CAMRA and trade members only, so it was very quiet.

This year the beers were (mostly) by brewery in alphabetical order rather than by beer type.

I rather liked the "Ecclesiastical Bar" in the nave where  the names of all the beers had an ecclesiastical flavour.

No need forthe umbrellas this year.

The Friday afternjoon was rather busier and arriving at about 2pm I struggled to find a seat. Saturday was my annual meet-up with Time, Keith and Mark.

As has become a tradition, I took along a couple of my Weekend Quick Cryptic crosswords for them to try and solve. This year it was No 133 See-saw to Arkansas and No 136 - Chocomania.

Most eye-catching beer of the festival - Three Blind Mice's Pucker Up Mango and Sea Buckthorn.

A lady passing our table asked, "Where did you ge the juice?" Lol.

On the Sunday we had William and Laura and Laurence staying. William invited us to join him at the Beer Festival.

The entertainment included the Bury St. Edmunds Male Voice Choir.

...and the Haverhill Silver Band.

Here they were playing the Irish tune Carrickfergus, rather familiar to me from our St. Michael's Singers lunchtime concert in Southwell Minster a few weeks ago as part of our period of being the choir in residence. (see here).

Home for dinner afterwards and some yummy kebabs.

As for the beers, here is a selection of some that I liked.

• Artefact The Verger's Reward (4%) A blonde ale brewed for the cathedral.
• Brewshed American Blonde (5.5%) An American style IPA with citra hops.
• Fat Cat Marmalade (5.5%). A full-bodied bitter. Orange and malt pervade both aroma and taste. An old favourite.
• George's Checkpoint Charlie (4%). Another fullbodied bitter with a blend of Enflish and American hops.
• Hop Monster Banshee Porter (4.4%). A lightly smoked German style porter.
• Lord Conrad's Hedgerow Hop (3.7%). A simple amber ale with a light malt base.
• Old Cannon Canon's Cassock (4.4%). My first one. A fruity and slightly hazy pale ale.
• Siren Lumina (4.2%). An IPA glowing with juicy tripcal notes. Amazingly pale and possibly my favourite of the festival.
• Three Blind Mice Pucker Up Mango & Sea Buckthorn (5.5%). Sour fruited with mango and an amazing mango colour.
• Wolf Valencian Orange (3.5%). A refreshing light golden ale.

Thank-you to the organisers, all the volunteers and performers. I'm looking forward to next year's already.