The North West’s acclaimed Moorhouse’s Brewery is set to spotlight the feminine side of British brewing with a Royal Ladies Beer Festival.
The event is dedicated to showcasing cask ales from the UK’s female brewing talent – brewsters – in the Burnley brewer’s new £4.2m complex on Friday July 27 from 6pm to 11pm and on Saturday 28 from 12noon until 11pm.
Brewsters – as female brewers were known historically* – are a still small but rapidly growing phenomena on the nation’s brewing scene. During the festival there will be about 25 ales available from 20 brewsters alongside five ciders and Moorhouse’s core ‘Famous Five’ range.
Adding fun to the event will be a contest for the best ‘Royal Ascot style’ hat or fascinator for female festival goers with a prize of a case of beer of their choice for winners on Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Saturday night. The bar and hospitality rooms will be named The Pavilion and The Royal Enclosure to reflect the horse racing theme. Funds will also be raised for the Christie’s breast cancer charity.
The festival includes a special free tasting session on Friday for female drinkers, when ‘Taking the Beard Out of Beer’ beer writer Melissa Cole (www.girlsguidetobeer.blogspot.com) will ‘unravel the mystery of cask ale’ for both novice and veteran enthusiasts.
Melissa said: “Moorhouses celebrating brewsters is more than just a gimmick, it’s an acknowledgement of the reinvigoration of female involvement in brewing and a vital redressing of the balance of big beer’s marketing, which has been almost exclusively aimed at men over the past 30 years.”
The indusrty’s Cask Report 2011-12 (www.caskreport.co.uk) said that women are increasingly turning to cask ale as their drink of choice with the number of female cask drinkers doubling since 2008.
On Saturday there will also be tasting sessions and tours of the new ‘tower style’ brew house will be held throughout the festival. Entry is £5.00 per session (Camra members £3.00) and advance tickets are available from the brewery – telephone 01282 422864. It is the second of three festivals to celebrate the first year of Moorhouse’s new development that includes a bistro-bar and spacious hospitality suite for both private and public events.
Managing director David Grant said: ““Our business is going from strength to strength and this year we are holding beer festivals in our new visitor centre to celebrate our success and underscore the major commitment we have made to the future of the cask ale industry
“Our second festival will showcase the great ales that brewsters are contributing to the thriving cask market – the only part of the UK beer industry that is growing market share, with many young people and females now enjoying the wonderful variety and delights of cask ales.”
The launch of the new brewing complex has trebled the former production capacity at the North West’s leading dedicated cask brewer to more than 1000 barrels a week – 15 million pints a year – and has seen Moor house’s sales grow almost forty-per-cent over the past year. In October a beer festival will mark the Halloween season when Moorhouse’s will announce the final amount of support for an e-petition to pardon the legendary Pendle Witches in the 400th anniversary of their trial and execution – see www.moorhouses.co.uk
Ends/MHPR- Brewsters festival
Notes to editors:
> Moorhouse’s has won more awards than any comparable brewer, including Black Cat voted Camra Supreme Champion Beer of Britain 2000. Last year Black Cat also took gold in the Standard Strength Cask-Conditioned Ale category of the Brewing Industry International Awards (BIIA). Moorhouses’s brands pay tribute to the legend of the infamous witches of imposing landmark Pendle Hill, near Burnley.
Founder William Moorhouse established his drinks manufacturing business in Accrington Road, Burnley, and Lancashire in 1865. Originally it produced mineral waters and then low strength hop bitters for Temperance Movement bars. Moorhouse’s began full strength brewing in the 1970s. Now, Moorhouse’s directly supplies several hundred pubs throughout the region and in Yorkshire, while distributing nationally via leading wholesalers and major pub chains.Moorhouse’s ‘Famous Five’ award winning core brews are: Premier Bitter (3.7%abv), Pride of Pendle (4.1%abv), Blond Witch (4.5%abv), Black Cat (3.4%abv) and the powerful Pendle Witches Brew (5.1%abv).
For further information contact: Steve Hobman, Rhino Public Relations: 01829 250502/ 07751 578605. email: shobman@rhinopr.freeserve.co.uk