Beer Tourism

Take your pick of beer tourism in Britain - there is a plethora of beer tasting pub tours, brewery tours, beer weeks, beer festivals, ale trails, rail ale, museums with beer artefacts, and countless ancient pubs and taverns to explore.

  • Historic London Pub Tour and Beer Tasting

Jane Peyton’s private tour of Historic London Pubs & Beer Tasting has won numerous awards, including Top Global experience from Trip Adviser’s Viator agency.  

  • Brewery Tours

UK Brewery Tours offer craft brewery tours and other beer related activities for individual and group bookings in Britain’s major cities.

Heritage breweries such as Fuller’s in London, Shepherd Neame in Faversham, Greene King in Bury St Edmunds, Harvey’s in Lewes run popular brewery tours. Many others around the country do too.

  • Museums

Many heritage breweries have their own museums.  Take a look at the Family Brewers’ of Britain’s website.

London’s British Museum has few peers in the diversity of its collections. Beer lovers have a choice of ancient artefacts to discover including a Mesopotamian clay tablet from 3100-3000 BCE displaying some of humanity’s earliest writing. It described daily beer rations for workers.

Take a look at Édouard Manet’s Impressionist painting ‘A Bar At The Folies Bergère’ and spot the bottles of Bass Pale Ale with the unmistakable red triangles on the labels. This painting can be seen in real life at London’s Courthauld Institute of Art.

  • Ale Trails

Self-guided and organised ale trails happen around the country.   These include:

  • Local branches of the Campaign for Real Ale organise regular ale trails. Contact the organisation to join.
  • The Real Ale Trail company runs a chauffeured bus service between rural pubs in North Wales and NW England giving customers a chance to explore some hidden gems for a whole day.
  • Rail Ale Trail

Self-guided rail ale trails happen in different parts of the country including:

  • Beer Weeks

Around 15 British cities now host Beer Weeks to celebrate the best of local brewing. The Beer Cities website lists them all.

  • Beer Festivals

There are numerous beer festivals around the country organised by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).

Other popular festivals (not run by CAMRA) include:

Celebrate UK and international beer in September at Leeds International Beer Festival

Manchester’s Indy Man Beer Con takes place annually in October