Ale fans looking forward to the return of Hucknall Beer Festival

The event will be back at its usual home of the John Godber Centre on Ogle Street from Thursday-Sunday, February 9-12.

Last year saw huge disappointment for the town as the festival was cancelled at the 11th hour, due to concerns over maintaining the quality of the beer.

That was partly due to the fact organiser Nottingham CAMRA was attempting to stage the festival in July, rather than its usual February slot, which fell foul of another Covid lockdown.

However, with the logistics and temperatures not providing conducive to the July date, organisers decided the best thing for everyone was to scrap the 2022 event and come back bigger and better this year.

Andrew Ludlow, Nottinghamshire CAMRA branch secretary, who is from Hucknall, said: “We missed everyone last year and this year everything should be set for people to come along and have a really good weekend.”

The festival begins with a special advance ticket preview evening on February 9, from 5-10pm.

The event then officially opens on February 10, running from 11am-11pm, before continuing on February 11 from noon-11pm and finishing on February 12, stock permitting, from noon-3pm.

More than 90 beers and ciders will be available to taste and there will also be live music from Blurred Monday on the evening of Saturday, February 11.

This year will also see the Spyke Golding Challenge Shield to find the best new beer brewed for – and judged at – the festival by a Nottinghamshire brewery.

Andrew said: “The idea is we have invited 10 breweries to submit a brand new beer.

“They’re going to give us the tasting notes so we know what it should be like but at the festival they will be anonymised and the public will then sample them and give them each a score in various categories, while at the same time providing constructive feedback for the brewer too.

"The one with the highest score will be the winner and it will have been chosen by the public.

"The best bit about it though is we will have 10 unique beers brewed especially for the festival and that really adds something to it.”