Drew Brammer previews the August Bank Holiday Beer Festival at The Chester

All for the love of beer! Imagine… basking on an ‘alternative’ summer’s day in the British Isles, quaffing a cleansing ale, with fine and fresh, locally sourced food under a tree with more rings than our ‘last orders’ bell.

Here at The Chester, off Iffley Road, in East Oxford, we are one of only a handful of pubs boasting gardens in our fair green city.

What more could you ask for? How about a summer beer festival? Having held our first one over the May Bank Holiday weekend, we want to end the summer in a similar way. So this Bank Holiday weekend we are hosting a four- day celebration of craft ales and ciders, delicious food, talks from those that brew the stuff, and home-brew demos – whatever the weather.

With friends and foes welcome to come and sample, we expect all visitors and quaffers to be seduced by beer in all its forms.

Which is why we’ve chosen 12 cleansing ales, all local, all delicious and served up by enthusiastic ale hounds.

We opened last year, after battling hard with builders and planners to convert a run-down pub, into a truly local pub for the people of OX4. That meant local beer, local food, and supporting our local community, not driven solely by profits, more driven by creating a truly ‘public house’.

We saw the building as not simply a pub, but more of a hub, a place where people can come together, meet, talk, work, eat and maybe even fall in love – like how pubs used to be.

It’s a team effort with Beccy Webb and Hamzah Taynaz, who managed and cooked at the Port Mahon for four years and Oxford’s Marc West.

Our first beer festival was a great example of what we were trying to do, and born for one simple reason, because we love beer! We didn’t have a chance to try all the beers we wanted to, so we thought we’d put them all on at once, and invite everyone to come and sample them with us.

So much great beer is made on our doorstep, and sometimes it doesn’t get the recognition it deserves, The London hop-sters often steal the limelight, quite wrongly, from our skilled local brewers.

With 12 different ales to sample, all from Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, which are home to some of this country’s finest breweries, we have included Siren, XT, Rebellion, Lovibonds and Loose Cannon.

We also aim to teach you to brew at home and become a master brewer – well nearly.

As with all the events we put on at The Chester, this festival seeks to echo the true ethos of a public house, one of a local, community hub set against a backdrop of contemporary hospitality.

Entry is free, but to fully appreciate the tipples we recommend getting our beer ticket which for £12 includes a wonderful vessel and three pints (or six halves) to christen her. Tickets can be bought on the day or over the bar at The Chester.

So whatever the weather our August Bank Holiday Beer Festival will prove to be lively with carnival atmosphere and lots of mingling.

Ad tavernum!

The Chester, 19 Chester Street, Oxford OX4 1SN Friday 5pm to 10pm; Saturday to Monday noon to 10pm