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7th November 2012

SIBA launches consumer website for BeerX Festival of Beer

BeerX screengrab.jpg

The Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) has today launched a new website to promote its BeerX Festival of Beer, taking place in Sheffield next March.

The Festival of Beer will be a key part of BeerX, SIBA’s new celebration of British beer for its members, the wider industry and beer drinkers, which is being held for the first time in 2013.  The new website is part of a major BeerX marketing campaign by SIBA which also includes advertising in regional press, CAMRA magazines and on bus shelters, and beer mats going into hundreds of pubs in and around Sheffield.

The website – www.beerx.org – is the first from SIBA to target consumers directly, and has been designed to create awareness and excitement around BeerX. In particular, it promotes the diversity of beers which will be available for consumers to try at the festival: all of SIBA’s brewers have been invited to send a beer to Sheffield, resulting in a range of styles wider than the offer at most beer festivals. Keg and bottled beers will be sold alongside cask ales and all draft beers will be sold in either a half-pint or third-pint, branded BeerX glass.

SIBA chief executive Julian Grocock said, “The BeerX Festival of Beer is a departure for SIBA, as the first event where we will have brought beers from all our brewers around the country together under one roof. For it to be a success, we of course need to market it effectively to our target consumers, and the launch of the BeerX website is an important first stage in that campaign.

“The growing consumer interest in craft beers and enthusiasm to try new styles, regardless of whether they are in cask, keg or bottle, provides a ready market for this style of beer event and we look forward to welcoming seasoned festival visitors as well as novice drinkers to BeerX next March.”

In another ‘first’, SIBA is opening up the presentation to its National Brewing Competition winners to consumers. All who attend the first Festival of Beer session will learn which beers have won SIBA’s top awards – and will be able to taste them immediately.

 

 

Other elements of the BeerX Festival of Beer include performances from bands within Yorkshire’s vibrant music scene, which will be added to the site as the programme develops. SIBA is pre-selling tickets – priced at £5, with concessions for students, CAMRA members and members of the Armed Forces – through the website. It is expecting in excess of 5,000 consumers over the three days of the festival.

BeerX will bring together SIBA’s Annual Brewing Conference, the final judging and presentations for the National Brewing Competition,  the Business Awards and Associate Members’ Forum. The entire event is being held at Ponds Forge Conference Centre, in Sheffield city centre.

SIBA members and other industry guests wanting to find out more about BeerX should visit the dedicated section on the SIBA website: www.siba.co.uk/beerx

 

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Issued on behalf of:                Society of Independent Brewers

By:                                           ShielPorter Communications

For information:                      Ros Shiel

07841 694137 / 01403 267971

ros@shielporter.com