Over 600 beers and ciders will feature at next month’s Craft Beer Rising festival at The Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane.
This year will see the largest and most diverse mix so far, featuring established UK breweries such as Beavertown, Thornbridge, and Harviestoun, to international talent from Little Bichos, Lagunitas, Mikkheller, and Bronx Brewery. A selection of newcomers will also make their debut with Bad Seed and Mondo both making an appearance.
But it’s not just about the beer. Brand new for 2016 is a dedicated cider zone called ‘Lost In Cyder Space’ will run. The room has been included to reflect the growing cider market, which looks set to follow a similar pattern to the craft movement.
A whisky and rum partnership with Auchentoshan and Don Papa respectively will be bringing their own unique beer infused serves from their own bars. Mead will also be present, another emerging bed fellow to beer, whilst those of a non beer or cider persuasion are catered for by the likes of Hawkes ginger beer and Harry Brompton’s Ice Tea. A wine bar will also be present for those who prefer the grape to the grain.
James Lavelle (responsible for the genre defining Mo Wax record label and UNKLE project) and Rob da Bank (THE man behind ‘Bestival’ and Sunday Best Records) are the Friday and Saturday night music headliners respectively. Coldcut’s Jon Moore, Portishead sample digger Andy Smith and Boca 45 will also be bringing their 45 Live show to London for the first time.
This year’s industry talks will cover a range of topics including revered beer writer Des De Moor who will be talking about his new book ‘London’s Best Pubs’ and fellow authors the Two Thirsty Gardeners who will be in attendance with Melissa Cole and Williams Bros head honcho, Scott Williams delivering a workshop on home brewing and garden produce.
Founder and director of CBR London 2016 Daniel Rowntree said: “With the beer industry evolving at such a fast pace, we felt this year we would up our game too. We have maximised the space within the Truman brewery and extended the stand allocation to 150 producers including 30 cider stands.
“We could have sold these stands twice over without any extra effort, so it shows just how far the industry has come from our 45 stands in 2013. We are also increasing the marketing spend, up rating the production and fitting more consumers into less sessions (2000, across three sessions), as well as welcoming James Lavelle and Rob da Bank as headliners. CBR16 will be amazing.”
