Derby Heritage Beer Festival is now open at the Museum of Making

Images: Derby Heritage Beer Festival 2024 © Derby Museums/Pictoria Pictures.

The Derby Heritage Beer Festival opens its doors today (6pm, Wednesday 3 September) at the Museum of Making, kicking off four days of beer, cider, live music and food.

Now in its second year, the festival is a unique partnership between Derby CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale) and Derby Museums – the only collaboration of its kind in the UK – celebrating the city’s rich brewing heritage. Visitors can enjoy more than 150 real ales from over 60 breweries, plus 30 ciders and perries, 25+ world bottled beers, 15+ craft keg choices, and a selection of spirits and wines.

A new highlight in the city’s calendar, the 2024 festival marked the return of a CAMRA beer festival to Derby after a four-year hiatus. Taking place within the historic surroundings of the Museum of Making, housed on the site of the world’s first modern factory, the 2025 edition of the festival runs from today, Wednesday 3 September, until Saturday 6 September, offering a unique atmosphere to enjoy ales from some of the best breweries around the UK.

Visitors to the festival will be able to sample from an extensive cask ale selection, featuring beers from across the UK – Yorkshire to Sussex, Lancashire to Kent. The local scene is also well represented, with lots of first-time breweries at the festival; local highlights include:

• Urban Chicken – based in Ilkeston – has a cult-like following locally. Produced in a brewery at the owner’s house, their beers are only seen in Derby at the Smithfield. The festival features a west coast style American IPA and a milk stout with coffee from local roasters 47 Degrees Coffee.
• Hilton-based Dungeon Brewing has brewed a mild for the festival, aptly named ‘Mildly Evil Tom’. There’s only 36 pints of this one available, and with chocolate and coffee notes, it’s sure to be popular.
• Local favourites Bang the Elephant have been taking the brewery scene by storm over the last few years, with UK-wide tap takeovers and international exports. For their first time at the festival, they’ve provided a ginger and caramel stout and two pales, including the intriguingly titled ‘Gandalf’s Flip Flop’.
• Another local brewery featured is Birch Cottage, based in Long Eaton, whose brews are normally only found in Sawley Junction micropub. A pale named ‘Benchdonkees’ celebrates the life of staff member and friend Andy Taylor.

Craft beer fans will want to check out the keg bar, with six taps rotating throughout the festival, sure to have something to suit most tastes. Keg Bar Manager Malc confesses to sourcing some “ludicrous stuff”, such as two of Nottingham-based Neon Raptor’s in-demand ninth birthday celebratory beers: an 11% ‘Biscoff, Hazelnut and Coffee Imperial Stout’, and a fruity ‘Victoria Sponge Pastry Sour’. Amongst this array of exceptional keg beers, attendees across the festival will find an imperial blonde from Torrside, a double NEIPA from Swedish brewery Elmeleven, a watermelon sour from Somerset brewery Yonder, and lagers from Thornbridge and Mikkeller. Craft beer lovers will also want to check out the world beer bar, which is stocked with exclusive one-off batches of a range of weird and wonderful beers from the likes of Brewski and Funky Fluid.

Despite the name, it isn’t all about the beer, with a fully stocked cider bar run by Derbyshire cider makers, it’s also the perfect chance to try a new cider or two. The legendary Black Dragon by Gwynt y Ddraig will be joined by dry, medium, sweet and fruited ciders, with flavours including raspberry, blackcurrant and salted caramel.

The world beer bar has doubled its stock after a sellout year in 2024, with traditional favourites back alongside new offerings. Belgian beers are firm favourites of CAMRA festival-goers, who will find some new offerings from much-loved breweries. Westmalle Brewery has a new addition to their range of Trappist beers (with a lower ABV but the same renowned flavour), and De Halve Maan – of Brugse Zot fame – have a new fruity addition ‘Rosé De Bruges’. Tynt Meadow from the UK’s only official Trappist brewery Mount St Bernard is also a welcome addition. For those looking to kick off their Oktoberfest celebrations, bottles from Augustiner Bräu, Brauhaus Tegernsee, Erdinger and Hofbräu are in the fridges – lederhosen encouraged! A selection of wine, gin, vodka and no/low alcohol options are also available.

Live music will be heard across the festival – with bands located underneath the Trent 1000 in the Museum’s triple-height Civic Hall – from rock and pop covers band Crossroads, classic indie and Britpop tribute The Indie Division, and rock covers group Unforgiven. The event is on the ground floor of the Museum of Making, with seating available in the main Museum and a marquee installed for the occasion. A changing hot and cold food menu (including burgers, pork pies, loaded nachos and more) is available from the Museum’s River Kitchen.

Heather Knibbs, Publicity Officer for Derby CAMRA’s Beer Festival Committee, said: “We were delighted with the extremely positive feedback we received at last year’s Derby Heritage Beer Festival. So many told us how glad they were to have a real ale festival back, how much they loved the venue and what a great time they had. We’re excited to build on that success and continue making an unmissable event that celebrates our incredible city and its brewing heritage.”

Dr Alex Rock, Director of Commercial and Operations at Derby Museums, said: “The Museum of Making celebrates the making heritage of Derby and Derbyshire, and beer is an important part of that heritage. We were delighted with the success of last year’s Derby Heritage Beer Festival, with many sessions sold out in advance and thousands in attendance – it’s a brilliant, fun way to engage with heritage over a few pints!

I am happy that this year we have managed to move the event to early September, hopefully bringing a little bit of summer to the beer festival. I don’t think much is going to beat sitting by the River Derwent in the early evening sun with a pint and some food – I am certainly hoping for good weather!”

Tickets for the Derby Heritage Beer Festival are available to book online. Walk-ins are available at all sessions, subject to capacity. Tickets are priced at £10 and include a refundable glass worth £3 and a pint for CAMRA members. CAMRA members will be admitted for free on Wednesday evening (pint offer not included).

For more information, please visit https://derbymuseums.org/event/derby-heritage-beer-festival.