CROWDS from near and far poured in hundreds to quench their thirst with the high quality beers, ciders and perries of the 28th annual Ulverston Beer Festival.

Held at the Coronation Hall, the festival offered 86 different beers, 15 different ciders and four perries and was attended by more than 1,800 people across three days.

The breweries featured in the festivals included such Cumbrian companies as Coniston, Cumbrian Legendary Ales and Bowness Bay.

The title of the best festival beer also went to a local as Racau, by South Lakes Brewing Company, described as ‘hoppy and bitter’ as it was voted as the best by the festival goers.

Dave Stubbins, the chairman of CAMRA Furness branch, said: “I was happy with the quality of beers that our Cumbrian breweries had produced this year. It’s been tremendous to see not just the number of new breweries but the quality of the beer they are producing.”

“The idea behind the festival was to try push more and more people to drink real ale. 28 years ago there were only two breweries in Cumbria and now there are more than 60.“

Preparations for this year’s festival begun four days previously with volunteers making sure the ale had time to settle and remained at optimum temperature.

Mr Stubbins, who has acted as the chairman for the past seven years, said: “The festival has grown in size every year. We started seven years ago with 50 beers and it has grown to 80 as the festival has grown more popular. We have people coming from all over, including Lancashire, Liverpool and Manchester and the feedback has been good.”

Running across three mostly wet days, this year’s festival changed the tradition in terms of entertainment and removed live music on the Friday but on Saturday the crowds were entertained by The Bluegrass Project band.

Preparations are already in place for the next year’s festival, with the Coronation Hall already booked between August 31 and September 2.

Mr Stubbins said: “I would like to thank all the volunteers of the Furness branch for making the festival such a success, and our festival organiser Stephen Lewis in particular.”