How Tunbridge Wells' Biggest Beer Festival Actually Panned Out

Back in August we flagged Spa Valley Railway's beer festival as one of five autumn food and drink events worth a weekend - a rough estimate of 200 real ales and 70 ciders, travelling between venues by steam train. The 16th Real Ale & Cider Festival ran Thursday 15 to Sunday 18 October, and the final tally came in well past that: 230 real ales, 34 Kent Green Hop beers, 14 keg beers and 80 ciders, spread across the railway's three stations in Tunbridge Wells, Groombridge and Eridge.

Entry to all three festival sites was free throughout, with Thursday evening the odd one out - no trains ran that day, but Tunbridge Wells West stayed open for beer sales from 6pm to 10pm to let the festival get going a day early. From Friday, the full programme kicked in: heritage trains link the three venues, with a rover ticket (£22 for an adult day pass) buying unlimited travel between them. It's the thing that sets this festival apart from a standard beer tent - getting from the Shed Stage in Tunbridge Wells to the Local & Live Stage in Eridge means a ride behind a steam or heritage diesel locomotive, not a car park.

Three separate live music stages ran across the weekend: full bands on the Shed Stage at Tunbridge Wells West, acoustic duos and solo artists on the Folk In The Oak Stage at Groombridge, and smaller bands on the Local & Live Stage at Eridge. The festival's own locomotive line-up for the weekend included Bulleid Pacific 34053 'Sir Keith Park', Caledonian Railway 812 Class 828 and BR Standard 4MT 80078 - a genuine spread of preserved steam power rather than a single engine shuttling back and forth.

The Eridge end of the line was sponsored again this year by Larkins Brewery, the Chiddingstone-based family brewer whose beers also turn up in 40 to 50 Kent pubs and restaurants. Their red van at Eridge poured 30 cask ales and 10 ciders, five of them Larkins' own - Green Hop, Traditional, Porter, Best and Pale Ale - brewed using whole hop cones and the brewery's own closely guarded yeast strain, in use since 1993.

The festival was supported this year with a grant from the Tunbridge Wells Together Business Improvement District, and the railway describes it as one of the largest and most distinctive beer and cider festivals in the South East - not an unreasonable claim for an event that spans five miles of heritage line and three separate stations. Source: Spa Valley Railway