WHEN: The event runs from Thursday, November 3; Friday, November 4 (5pm to midnight) and Saturday, November 5 (from 1pm until visitors drink us dry)

WHERE: Stonehaven Town Hall

WHO: Organised by local real ale fans.

Contact is organiser Robert Lindsay on07840 678243 or at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

WHAT: The hugely popular Stonehaven Real Ale Festival returns for its third outing

WHEN: Thursday, November 3; Friday, November 4 (5pm to midnight) andSaturday, November 5 (from 1pm until visitors drink us dry)

WHERE: Stonehaven Town Hall

WHO: Organised by local real ale fans.
Contact is organiser Robert Lindsay on07840 678243 or at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

REAL ale fans are being invited to take a tour of every brewery in Scotland ... without leaving Stonehaven Town Hall. The hugely popular Stonehaven Real Ale Festival is back for a third year and offering visitors the unique chance to sample an ale from every working brewery in the country under one roof.

Organiser Robert Lindsay said: "This really will be a celebration of the best in Scottish real ale and we plan to create a special atmosphere in the Town Hall over the three days of the festival. "We will bring in the finest brews from the Highlands, the east coast, the west coast, central Scotland and the Borders. "We are even creating a special bar upstairs for island breweries ... our own ‘Road To The Isles' if you like, although some might think of it as a stairway to heaven, given the sheer quality of the beer on offer." "In all, there will be almost 70 ales on offer, giving people the chance to take a world tour of Scotland's breweries without setting foot outside Stonehaven Town Hall."

The Stonehaven festival has carved itself a reputation for more than just beer in its previous two outings and Robert is determined visitors will once again come away having had one of the best nights out of the year, confirming it as a highlight on the North-east calendar. "We have great music, with our own entertainment director Iain "Skirlie" McFadden - well known in the North-east as a leading light in The Trybe - working hard to sign up the finest local musical talent to make sure the festival hits the high notes. "The popular big screen, showing vintage Scottish films and programmes, will make a return, and we've looked out the stovies recipe that proved so popular last year," added Robert. "But what really makes this festival such a success is the people who come along. You couldn't ask for better craic and friendlier banter. "And they do come from far and wide. As well as folk from right across the North-east, we have had English, Irish and even Scandinavian visitors making the trip to enjoy our festival."

Last year, the event attracted 2,000 people over three days and Robert is hoping to repeat that success again - for a good reason. "The organisers are just a bunch of local real ale fans and we do this for fun, not for profit. The money we make will go to local charities. Last year, we raised £5,000 for MRI and we hope to give our community a similar boost this year."

The festival also has a new main sponsor this year, the award-winning Houston Brewery. Robert said: "It's a real coup for us to have Houston on board as their Peter's Well has just been named Champion Best Bitter of Great Britain for 2011 in the national CAMRA awards. "They will be helping us brew our special festival ale this year, so it should be a winner, too."

Each year, the festival creates its own ale for the event, reflecting the town's heritage. The first, Memorial, recreated a beer from the town's own long-gone brewery, while last year's Spirit of Glenury paid tribute to Stonehaven's defunct distillery. Details of this year's ale are being kept under wraps, but Robert said it would once again pay tribute to Stonehaven's tradition and history. Robert said: "We are into the final planning stages now, to make sure we put on the best real ale festival we can. "All we need now is for people to turn up and have a great night ... so put it in your diary."

The festival is this year sponsored by Houston Brewery (www.houston-brewing.co.uk), Harviestoun Brewery (www.harviestoun.com) and The Bay Fish and Chips, Stonehaven (www.thebayfishandchips.co.uk)

• Caption shows Stonehaven Real Ale Festival organisers Robert Lindsay and Joanne MacRae getting ahead with planning this year's event that will feature a beer from every Scottish brewery.

All hands to the pumps …

There's one thing and one thing only that makes the Stonehaven Real Ale Festival and that's our fantastic volunteers.

Without folk willing to give up a bit of their time to help out, the festival simply wouldn't happen.Those who have worked the bar, manned the door, helped to set up and tidy up or helped with all the countless other jobs  have all found the same thing: It is great fun in a brilliant atmosphere. They also appreciate the free festival T-shirt,  free festival glass, free entry (including beer vouchers)  that every volunteer is given as a huge thank you. So if you want to enjoy the fabulous fun of the festival  from both sides of the bar, then email us here or call Robert Lindsay on  07840678243

The website is now being updated, more information will be available soon.

Dates of 2011 Festival

Thursday 3rd November 5pm - midnight

Friday 4th November 5pm - midnight

Saturday 5th November 1pm - midnight (or until the beer is gone)

The beer list and further information will be available shortly.

Original article from the Guardian here: 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/may/22/real-ale-having-revival?INTCMP=SRCH

British Beer festivals are increasingly popular. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

This time last year, the UK was in the midst of election fever, and my sleepy north Yorkshire village of Tockwith was hosting a beer festival. The organisers mocked up some publicity photos of themselves as politicians in a polling station. "We campaigned under the banner Vote for Real Ale," chuckles organiser Adrian Ray. The people voted with their feet – 36 gallons of beer had run out by 10pm, with the last to sell out a really strong one. "So anyone left at the end got rather sozzled." This year's follow-up event at the weekend expanded to a field, with six marquees, live bands – and much more beer. Tockwith is typical of an explosion in beer festivals around the UK. Once, they were fairly rare, large-scale events populated by serious older drinkers. Now countless towns and villages have one, reflecting a boom in small-scale brewing and real-ale drinking. August's annual Great British Beer Festival at Earls Court is the biggie (in 2010, a record 67,000 drinkers sank 200,000 pints), but festivals are held everywhere from Battersea to the Scottish fishing town of Stonehaven. "People are bored of drinking heavily advertised, mass-produced brands," explains Jon Howard of the Campaign for Real Ale, which organises 150 festivals a year. "There's a fashion aspect to it," admits Craig Lee of Rudgate Brewery, whose Ruby Mild was Camra's Champion Beer of 2009. "Real ale is becoming trendy." Younger ale drinkers favour beers with funny names, and with most pubs tied to major brewers, a beer festival is the best place to sup a Brewers Droop or Ginger Tosser.

The beer is ordered, the bands are booked and we’re almost ready to say slainte to the Fourth Stonehaven Real Ale Festival.

Once again we will have the finest ales on offer from every one of Scotland’s breweries, around 70 in all.

Not content with scouring Scotland – we go and collect a lot of this stuff, so you don’t have to – we’ve also hopped over to the continent to bag some fine Belgian beers.

The end result will be our unique Belgian beer bar offering a range of fine ales on bottle and draught that you won’t find in one place anywhere else in Scotland.

All of this, plus great music, cracking entertainment and friendly craic.

The only thing we need to add into the mix is you ... See you on Thursday, November 1, Friday, November 2, and Saturday, November 3.