Wetherspoons Beer Festival Spring 2024

After a few years of rather dull Wetherspoons Beer Festivals, it looks like the Spring Festival is picking up in terms of new beers, even if the Breweries are pretty much the same old suspects, but there aren’t that many with the capacity to cope and the willingness to cut costs.

There is a link on here to get to the list of beers.

Go to the Festival News link.

I have added all the new beers to here.

I was considering giving it a @harrisoni type blast, probably in that there London but open to suggestions, as I need 22 beers on the list. Are there any Spoons that put on all the beers in one go any more?

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I lost interest in the wetherfests when they abandoned the 50 beer format with 10 collabs … must have last seen that around 2016 time?

From memory there were 2 that attempted to put the lot on … dont know names but one was in Nottingham, the other in Wimbledon.

Id also check out the main spoons in derby.

Whether putting them all on is a thing anymore tho?

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Oh … the one in the city near to Fenchurch street, Crosse Keys. That always had at least half of the 50 on if not more.

All musings from a bygone era but may help a quest.

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I still have very fond memories of that excellent Shepherd Neame/Stone California DIPA about 15 years ago. I drank it constantly at the time, unlikely to be repeated at Spoons.

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I think the Standing Order in Derby used to put them all on. Also the Trent Bridge Inn, Nottingham. I’m doing Derby this Friday though, not up for 2 trips.

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Sounds familiar

Deffo one in Wimbledon

“During Wetherspoon’s Beer Festivals they often do something remarkable. The West End bar is extended and firkins of every single beer in the festival is put on sale. So about 50 different real ales all at once. A bewildering case of cellar management! Bravo!”

from a 2017 post here … so who knows if still a thing …

Wibbas Down Inn, Wimbledon, London, SW19 1QT - pub details # beerintheevening.com

At least the unwashed of Wimbledon tend to be a good sort of unwashed!

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Standing Order in Derby always has all 30 beers

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Thanks for this, as you say it seems a slight improvement this year after many years of dross.

The fest is much earlier than normal isn’t it? Wasn’t expecting it until late March.

Thanks whoever added all the beers to RB, saves me a job!

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Will you give us a @harrisoni style live commentary too? :grinning:

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The Standing Order in Edinburgh also.

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No problems. I think the Festival is earlier because of the early Easter this year.

I could attempt it I suppose but I don’t think it will have the same feeling of jeopardy that Ian used to generate. He would do the tour by bicycle once he got to London and with each pub visit the chances of him making the next one became that much more unlikely. I shall use Public transport and walking, a lot less exciting for the reader.
I must dig out one of his threads on here for a re-read.

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Hmmm. Went digging but I think that the threads must be before the changes on Forums and I have lost the ability to work my way through the legacy Forums.

I did 28 of 30 from the Spring Wetherspoons Beer festival 2023 from around London.

Was staying at my mums in Streatham at the time and there is quite a few spoons close by and was out and about catching up with friends/family (and carrying out some shopping duties) In between also ticking some non spoons RB venues off with no intention of doing the Spoons fest but it was like I started with a few and just carried on :smiley:

Using the alefinder app (screenshot from it below), you can see what spoons have which beers. Travelling between Norbury/Streatham/Wimbledon/Croydon/Clapham Junction/Victoria is very quick/easy so was not that much effort, but sadly could not find all 30 (the other 2 only really seemed to appear just out of London). One of them was at Gatwick Airport spoons but went off the day before I flew home from there - lol

@Theydon_Bois - sadly Wimbledon spoons is not what it used to be, remember going allot 10-15 years ago and reliably all 50 would be on. They had about 8 of them on at my 2023 visit, and Cross Keys had about 5 on if I remember rightly at that stage.

Good luck to any trying all 30 this year :slight_smile:

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I like to try and give it a go, ticking off as many as I can over the course of the festival, never manage it of course - won’t this year either as it coincides with a business trip to Germany, might manage to snaffle one or two either side of my travels, just hope they’re not the crappy ones (of which there are usually more than a handful). Good luck y’all, happy ticking

I’ve come up with a possible route from Marylebone Station.

  1. Metropolitan Bar, Marylebone.
  2. Montagu Pyke, Soho
  3. Moon Under Water, Leicester Square
  4. Shakespeare’s Head, Holborn
  5. Penderel’s Oak, High Holborn
  6. Sir John Oldcastle, Faringdon
  7. Masque Haunt, Old Street

That’s probably my limit, I can also pop into a couple of old favourites along the route to break the monotony maybe. Should all be walkable then get a bus from Old Street to Marylebone Station. Only ever done 2 of these before as I tend to avoid Spoons when there is much better around. From the write ups on these perhaps the Moon Under Water is the least likely to stock the Festival Ales so could possibly avoid, any others maybe not worth while?

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Haven’t done much in the way of London Spoons since the old 50 beer fests pre 2018/19 time.

I would likely skip the Moon. John Oldcastle was an average spoons back in the day, ditto Montagu P.

Met bar is one I do still get to from time to time and would class as an okay spoons for guests.

Penderel is usually okay, as was the Masque.

Not sure I’ve ever set foot in the Shakespeares?

Worth downloading the app if you don’t have it … usually carries a fairly up to date list of whats on.

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Yes, just been checking the App and the Montague Pyke and Moon Under Water don’t have very much on. So if I knock them out I could get a bus round to the Crosse Keys in Bank and also add the Hamilton Hall and work backwards

I’ll toss you in another one worth considering, my most recent London Spoons visit last month, and on your line of route … although you’ll need to hop and and off the 205 or extend your walk somewhat.

The Barrel Vaults at St Pancras. Popped in there before I took the Eurostar to Brussels 3 weeks ago.

6 guest beers, which was just the norm pre covid but I consider that decent now. Seemed the landlord picked on local (ish) stuff also as opposed the the national SIBA stuff you get in many spoons.

Mad Squirrel, East London, Anspach & Hobday, Southwark and Cellarhead (Kent) made up the 6 and bagged me 3 new ticks.

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Yes, I had forgotten how good this one was. Fits in to the outward journey pretty well too.
With currently 22 beers to bag, but hoping to reduce that a little in Banbury from Wednesday, it will be interesting to see how many I can pick up. Hope they don’t do the same as in Oxford where they stick the same beers on at the same time.

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