Cheers! Drinkers' delight at Great British Beer Festival

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

LONDON (AFP) — The first of some 250,000 pints of beer, from as far afield as Japan, South Africa and Australia, were served to curious drinkers Tuesday as the Great British Beer Festival kicked off in London.

In terms of the range of weird and wonderful beers sold, no beer festival in the world comes close to the annual five-day knees-up at the cavernous Earls Court exhibition centre in west London.

More than 750 different brews, including more than 450 British real ales, were on offer at the festival that raises a glass to finely-crafted, fresh beer and rejects what purists say is gassed-up, bland, factory-produced lager.

Among the exotically-named British beers being served were Black Mass, Alligator Ale, Gorge Best, Henry's Heady Daze, A Fist Full of...