St Austell Brewery Celtic Beer Festival 2006

Six live bands and more than 100 great beers

Get your tastebuds ready - St Austell Brewery's award-winning brewing team are busy creating a selection of unique beers to wow real ale lovers at the 8th annual St Austell Brewery Celtic Beer Festival.

The hugely popular event takes place this year on Saturday December 2, when the unique surroundings of the old wine cellars and vaults beneath the Victorian brewery will play host to hundreds of revellers, a fantastic line-up of six live bands and of course a selection of more than 100 great beers.

As well as featuring real ales from across the country, the festival is traditionally an opportunity for Director of Brewing Roger Ryman and his team to showcase their skills by coming up with tasty special ales and unusual brews

For 2006 they have surpassed themselves by creating more than two dozen special ales, which they have been perfecting for months and which will take the total number of St Austell Brewery real ales available at the festival to 26.

Ales on offer will include Tribute Extra at 5.2%ABV, Red Mist at 4.6%ABV and the impressively named Black Out Stout, which weighs in at 6.4%ABV. One of the most unusal beers will be Café Crème  - Coffee Porter, created by Colombian Paola Leather, who joined the brewing team last year.

Roger Ryman said: "The Celtic Beer Festival allows us to try out new ideas, which is a lot of fun, and it can also prove to be a testing ground that launches news beers such as Proper Job IPA, which had an amazing reaction from festival-goers last year.

"The brewing team works hard all year to maintain our hard-won reputation for consistently high quality across our range of award winning ales. In addition to that there is a lot of creativity going on and the festival is our chance to let rip with some great new beers and then get the satisfaction of seeing people enjoying our work."

The Celtic Beer Festival has become an unmissable date in the county's social calendar and a key milestone in the run-up to Christmas in Cornwall. As is always a chance for people meet old friends, try out new beers and dance to some great music.

Food will be provided by a team led by St Austell Brewery's award-winning Catering Development Manager, Paul Drye - all using fresh Cornish produce.

Last year more than 2,000 people from across the South West gathered at the Brewery to party throughout the day and evening - and in the process raised a new record for the event of £5,000 for charity.

The festival is organised and staffed by volunteers from the Brewery, together with suppliers, with all money raised going to local charities in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset through the St Austell Brewery charitable Trust.

The St Austell Brewery Celtic Beer Festival takes place on Saturday December 2 from 11am to 11pm in the vaults below St Austell Brewery.

Tickets are £5.00 per person - includes free commemorative glass and programme.