THE BREWSPAPER / GREAT AMERICAN & BRITISH BEER FESTS

Beer volunteer Gigi shown at last year's Great American Beer Festival in Denver delivered the goods.

The world is getting to be one big beer festival.  Witness the fact two of the world’s greatest beer drinking nations are having their respective world series of beer only one week apart.

Let’s start with the one that’s upcoming.

GABF at Colorado Convention Center last year.

The Great American Beer Festival is the largest most talked about U.S. beer festival and competition.  Denver is the site of the 2016 (35^th annual) beer extravaganza, October 6-8 at the Colorado Convention Center, 700 14^th Street.

Each year, GABF represents the biggest collection of U.S. beer ever served, in a public tasting event plus a private competition. GABF brings together the brewers and diverse beers that make the U.S. the world’s greatest brewing nation.

GABF was founded in 1982, and has been growing and evolving along with the American craft brewing industry ever since.

Tickets to the public are available August 3 @ 10 am (MT) via TicketMaster.com

INFO: https://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com

San Diego was well represented by Societe Brewing Company

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Brit Venue: Olympia London

Across the pond, the Great British Beer Festival is organised by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and offers visitors over 900 real ales, ciders, perries and international beers as well as fantastic entertainment, food, seating areas, and traditional pub games to enjoy all under one roof in the heart of London.

Festival runs between August 9 -13.

This summer the Great British Beer Festival (GBBF) will once again return to London’s magnificent Olympia exhibition centre.

Prince Harry at the GBBF, Olympia Hall

Ideally placed in the centre of London, and easily accessible by public transport, it is the perfect setting for the UK’s biggest beer festival. During the festival's duration Olympia will host over 55,000 thirsty drinkers across two halls; the larger, and aptly named, ‘Olympia Grand’ - and the slightly smaller, but equally impressive, ‘Olympia National’.

Each hall will have a number of bars serving real ale from hundreds of breweries of all shapes and sizes across the UK, as well as brewery bars where you can try both well-known brews and limited edition beers from some of the UK’s biggest and best real ale brewers.

As well as that there’ll be some fantastic international draught and bottled beers from the likes of Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic, and the always hugely popular American Cask bar.

Olympia London

Hammersmith Road,

Kensington,

London W14 8UX

INFO: http://gbbf.org.uk/home