Launched by the same team behind London Cocktail Week, now in its sixth year, and London Wine Week, in its second year, the festival took place from February 16 – 22 in partnership with Craft Beer Rising – and attracted 8,500 attendees last week.
100+ venues
More than 100 venues were officially part of the London Beer Week Beer Tours, each serving a speciality beer for just £3 or a boilermaker for £5 to those wearing a wristband.
Initial figures show that more than £50,000 pounds in revenue was generated for London’s bars through this aspect of the festival alone, with more than 16,000 £3 signature beers served.
London Beer Week (LBW) partnered with Carnaby for its central hub. Here, attendees collected their wristbands and enjoyed 25 different beers at the pop-up beer bar run by the team from Craft Beer Rising. In the same area, a pop-up by Hobo Beer, the Czech Lager from beer expert Ben McFarland, hosted events and played live blues music each evening
East London saw Sharp’s Brewery bring a bit of Cornwall to London, a first for the brand, with its beach-themed Secret Bar, offering VIP food and beer pairing sessions inside its exclusive ‘crate’.
Covering the rest of the city was the Guinness Roaming Wristband Collection van, which popped up at different locations throughout the week, including Box Park, Broadgate Market, Kingly Court and Bankside.
70+ events
More than 70 events took place as part of LBW, kicking off with London’s first Beer Run. 100 beer-lovers ran 5k for charity, finishing at the central London Hub, where they were rewarded with an ice-cold beer from Two Fingers Brewing. Other brands such as Affligem, Meantime, Fuller’s, Innis and Gunn, Camden Brewery, Beavertown and Orbit Brewery also put on events, as well as the launch of London’s first open brewery, Ubrew.
On social media, LBW reached over 10,000,000 users on Twitter and created over 21,000,000 impressions over the course of the campaign.
Fantastic response
Festival founder Hannah Sharman-Cox says “We can’t believe the fantastic response London Beer Week has received in its first year. The support from the beer industry has been huge – both from the larger companies, and also the small independent brewers, who we are committed to supporting. On top of that, the feedback from consumers so far has been incredibly positive! We’re thrilled to have launched such an exciting addition to London’s beer calendar so successfully”
London Beer Week is just one of three festivals under the Drink Up London umbrella, which is headed up by London Cocktail Week founder Hannah Sharman-Cox. The next festival from the team will be the second London Wine Week, taking place Monday 18 – Sunday 24 May.
Dates for the Diary:
London Wine Week – Monday 18 – Sunday 24 May 2015
London Wine Fair – Monday 18 May – Wednesday 20 May 2015
London Cocktail Week – Monday 5 October – Sunday 11 October 2015
London Beer Week and Craft Beer Rising will return in February 2016
For more information click here