What’s happening during Cask Ale Week
Cask Ale Week is now underway and runs until 28 September. During the celebrations, around 10,000 British pubs and numerous breweries will be showcasing cask ale. Want to learn more about what’s on? Look no further.
There’s lots to do during 2025′ Cask Ale Week. But first of all, you’ll want to take a look at what is available in your area. The best way to start is to make sure you’re connected to the CaskFinder ale trail, that way you can see what is happening nearby as well as consider where you might like to travel for a bit of a beer tour with friends. See below for most of what’s on.
Follow the CaskFinder Ale Trail
First of all, download the Caskfinder app, buy a pint of cask ale in 12 pubs and claim a limited edition Cask Ale Week t-shirt.
Seek out some free tasters to get started
Between them, the 10,000 pubs taking part in Cask Ale Week are offering one million free ‘try before you buy’ tasters of cask to help people find out what a cask ale tastes like before committing to a whole pint.
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Take part in a few pub quizzes
Hundreds of pubs across the country will be running the Cask Ale Week Pub Quiz. So if you know your hops from your barley, and can match UK brewers to their flagship ales, why not try your hand?
Take advantage of pub promotions
A number of pub operators are encouraging customers to try cask ale. These are listed below:
- Arkell’s hour: if you can slip to the pub mid-afternoon, Arkell’s managed pubs are selling cask ale at £3 per pint between 3-4pm from Monday-Friday.
- In Fuller’s pubs, anyone on their database who brings a friend along can claim a free pint of cask ale for them.
- Ember Inns’ Cask Ale Club offers pints of cask ale for £3.50 every Monday and Thursday.
- Craft Union Pubs: customers who buy five pints of cask can claim their sixth free.
- Nicholson’s 80 pubs are running a Cask Card loyalty scheme; buy four pints, get the fifth free. In addition, during September, 5p from every pint of Nicholson’s Pale Ale – which is brewed by St Austell Brewery – will be donated to Social Bite, a charity and social business working to end homelessness.
Try some new beers
- Genevieve: a collaboration brew between Greene King and Thornbridge breweries is a 4.5% ABV West Coast IPA that is a clean, crisp ale with citrus and pineapple notes. The beer will be available in most Greene King pubs.
- Lancaster Gluten-Free Session Pale Ale: a gluten-free version of the brewer’s popular 3.4% ABV ale, a brew that is full of hops to deliver a delicate fruit flavour and a crisp aftertaste.
- Welsh brewer Brains has created a beer named the Rev James Reserve which is a limited edition, 5.5% ABV beer that has been designed to be a more robust version of its flagship Reverend James Ale which it has been brewing for 140 years.
- Loch Leven Brewery in Kinross is launching Rob Roy, a 4.5% ABV warming, jet black, smooth stout which has been brewed with chocolate malt.
- Wiltshire brewer Wadworths celebrates its 150th birthday on 27 September and to mark this event it has created a special edition 4.8% ABV classic bitter called 150 which will be available in all Wadworths pubs.
- Arkells has created a new 3.8% ABV ale using a heritage barley from malt supplier French & Jupps. The beer has been brewed in its Victorian brewhouse in Swindon and has been aptly named Ancestry.
Join in with beer festivals and ale trails
Want to know which breweries are hosting festivals and ale trails? The main ones are listed below.
- The first ever Indie Beer Cymru festival arrives in Haverfordwest in Wales from 19-20 September and is a chance to sample more than 100 beers from Welsh brewers.
- York Beer Festival has already started and runs until 20 September in the city’s St Lawrence Parish Church, offering more than 200 beers to try.
- The debut Borderlands Beer Festival runs from 19-20 September and will be hosted at Tempest Brewery in Tweedbank, Galashiels.
- Palmers Brewery Beer Festival will begin on 27 September and takes place in the brewery’s historic cellar which is based in Bridport, Dorset.
- Taste the Terroir at the Cotswold Lion Brewery will be hosted in Cheltenham from 20-21 September and celebrates brewing tradition with a spotlight on the brewer’s Terroir Series using ingredients sourced from the Cotswolds.
- Hook Norton Brewery in Oxfordshire celebrates its 175th anniversary this year and to asist with this it is hosting an ale trail that will be running on the CaskFinder app until 28 September.
Climb aboard the ale express
- The Forth Valley Dark Trail by Rail runs from 26-28 September, departing from Linlithgow and stopping at various trackside pubs where you can enjoy dark beers. The Trail by Rail service ends in Dunblane.
- In Sussex, the Bluebell Railway Beer Festival will be hosted from 19-21 September and offers cask ales, food and live music as well as travel on vintage steam trains between four stations.
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