Top Brewers come to Brighton for the South Coast’s biggest Craft Beer Festival

City to become centre of the craft beer world for the three day festival

Some of the world’s greatest craft brewers are descending on the South Coast for the second annual Brighton Tap Takeover, 31 March to 2nd April.

The festival, which sees 14 pubs in the city centre dedicated to craft beer for the whole weekend will be welcoming breweries from as far afield as Barcelona (Edge Brewing), Croatia (Garden Brewery) and Ireland (The Boundary Group). Brewers are also coming from across the UK, with Fierce Brewery travelling down from Scotland, Wylam from Newcastle and Moor from Bristol. London is represented by Fourpure, Five Points and Gypsy Hill.

The best of Sussex will also be taking on all-comers with local favourites Two Tribes, Laine Brew Co and Burning Sky all showing their beers. Brighton’s North Laine Brewhouse, the cities leading brewpub, will act as the hub of the festival.

Run as a collaboration between leading Brighton-based operator, The Laine Pub Company, and beer distributor, The Beer Collective, more than 100 different craft beers will be available on tap over the weekend, with many available in Brighton for the first time. More than 2,000 beer lovers attended last year with the number of visitors expected to further increase in 2017.

Each of the brewers takes over the taps of their partnered pubs to create the world’s greatest pub crawl, with each of the city centre pubs within a 10 minute walk. As well as great beer, the pubs are gearing up for a weekend of fun, food, beer education and great music.

A number of the pubs (such as the Hope & Ruin, North Laine Brewhouse, Mesmerist, Black Lion and Fiddlers Elbow) have booked live music for the weekend, while other key events include Top Of The Hops at vinyl music bar, Dead Wax Social. Each of the brewers has been asked to bring their favourite tracks on vinyl and will be “sticking it on” from 11am to 3am on the Friday night.

The educational events include the “Original Gravity Beer School’ at the Mash Tun pub, ‘Craft Beer for Beginners’ at the North Laine Brewhouse and ‘A journey through punk music and beer’, by leading journalist Adrian Tiernay Jones, at the East Street Tap.

As well as a number of beer launches exclusive to the festival, two of the Sussex-based brewers Laine Brew Co. and Two Tribes have collaborated to brew the “Brighton in a beer glass”. Named ‘Dirty Weekend’ it includes melted sticks of Brighton rock in the recipe, plus seaweed and sea salt collected from Brighton beach. The colour is said to be “reminiscent of a sunset over the West Pier.” The beer will be available across the city in the week leading up to the festival.

Attendees are urged to visit www.taptakeover.co.uk for the full listings.

Gavin George, CEO of Laine Pub Company commented: “It’s shaping up to be an incredible weekend. Wherever our guests turn there will be something exciting going on, be it music, live art, food and of course, great beer. This is what our festival is all about: taking craft beer out of the usual festival venue – the conference centre, town hall and church – and putting it in the environment where it can be enjoyed best – the pub.”

Niki Deighton, Director of the Beer Collective, added: “It’s so exciting to have all of these amazing brewers in our city for the whole weekend. As well as great beer, each of the brewers will be bringing their own personalities to the party and provide music, food and frivolities all weekend long.”

Wristbands for the event - which come pre-loaded with four beers, swag bag and priority entry are available now for £15 from www.taptakeover.co.uk