Charles Wells Banana Bread Beer is fem-ale Festival favourite
- Total number of visitors - 43,400
- Trade session attendance - 3,200
- Number of volunteers - 1,200
- Over 1,000 new CAMRA members signed up
Mike Benner, Head of Campaigns and Communications said, "Despite the high temperatures outside, the hall remained cool and the beer was kept at the right temperature. This made people stay longer than last year, which led to an increase in beer sales. We're particularly pleased to see such a significant increase in the trade only session."
"This is increasingly seen as a 'must attend' event in the industry's calendar. We also had far more volunteer workers than last year, and saw an increase of over 200 in the number of new CAMRA members signed up. Although the total attendance was down this year by a few hundred, I think this is because we stayed open all day on Wednesday for the first time and therefore we weren't counting repeat visitors on this day."
Wells Banana Bread Beer is 'Fem-ale of the Festival'
Over 300 people entered the competition to decide which was their favourite beer for women at the Great British Beer Festival. 'Banana Bread Beer' from Charles Wells of Bedford stole the show with 26% of the votes, followed by Fullers Summer Ale with 9% of votes.
Banana Bread Beer, brewed using real fair trade bananas, was a real hit with women as well as men at the Festival.
Other favourites include Scottish Courage Imperial Russian Stout (6%), Taylor Landlord (5%), Woodforde's Wherry (4.3%) and Oakham White Dwarf (3.6%).
Mike Benner said, "The competition is obviously a bit of fun, rather than a serious tasting competition, but we're very pleased that so many women took part. I doubt that many women tried all of the top ten beers for female beer virgins, but the fact that so many chose to try Banana Bread Beer shows that women visitors were attracted to something so tasty and different."
Next year's Great British Beer Festival runs from Tuesday 3rd - 7th August at London Olympia.
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