Midlands Craft Beer Festival to take place for last time later this month
The Midlands Craft Beer Festival, organised by local beer specialist Simon Broderick, has been a staple of the summertime calendar in Moate for the last ten years.
However, it was recently announced that this year's festival, in Don's Bar on Saturday, August 31, will be the last one.
“It's a celebration,” Simon explained. “I'm happy enough. I've done it for ten years now. I think it makes sense to finish while it's still good, rather than to keep it going for the sake of keeping it going. It's time to call it a day.
“There are some other festivals happening locally. So it's more like I'm passing on the baton. There's still stuff happening.”
Simon is a Moate-based Athlone native who runs the long-established craft beer blog, Simon Says... You Really Should Drink This!. He believes that the peak of craft beer culture and interest in Ireland was around the years of 2013 and 2014.
“The Irish craft beer market is changing now. Some of the brewers from when I started the festival are gone. There's around 20 or 30 fewer than there were. Thankfully, in Athlone, there's still Dead Centre.”
So, how does someone get into the rather niche craft beer specialist industry?
“I started trying cask ale in Birmingham when I was 19, then some Belgian beer in Brussels,” Simon replied.
“That turned me onto trying all sorts of beers, not just what was available in Ireland at the time. In Athlone back then you had no choice but to drink the big names. I started writing about beer in 2013, and ran the beer club in Athlone for a while.”
Simon currently works as a sales manager for Fourcorners, a craft beer importing and distribution company, having also previously worked for the Rye River brewery in Kildare and Galway Bay Brewery.
The tenth and final Midlands Craft Beer Festival will be held on Saturday, August 31, at Don's Bar in Moate from 3pm until late, with free admission.
In addition to the select offerings from a variety of craft breweries, there will be live music from Midlands-based blues band Blind Dog, alternative folk band The Willows, DJ Keith Marshall, and new electronic act Keepeye.