My Review of the 2026 CAMRA Liverpool Beer Festival – The Atmospheric Celebration of All Things Beer

Tucked away in the Lutyens crypt of Liverpool’s own grand and eye-catching Metropolitan Cathedral, was the location of the 45th Liverpool CAMRA Beer Festival. The crypt was near to bursting with people, with the bustling and lively environment providing the perfect atmosphere for a celebration of all things beer.

Walking in initially, the event almost felt at odds with the venue, but it quickly became apparent that the cathedral was an apt choice of event space. The architecture of the crypt gave an authentic, historical backdrop to the proceedings, emphasised by the them for the 2026 festival; heritage. Celebrating many different local drinks from Liverpool and beyond was clearly of utmost importance to the festival organisers, and deciding how to spend my “Crypt-o-Currency” tokens (the festival’s in-event currency system) was very difficult.

The festival had a range of over 250 different ciders, ales and lagers from a host of different independent brewers, but armed with the festival’s decorative half-pint glass I sampled a good range of drinks.
From the cider bar, I had the Blackberry and Apple, and Elderflower and Blackberry ciders. Both had a good fruity flavour, going down very smoothly as if it had no alcohol at all. They were very sweet, like a typical fruit juice might be and as a result weren’t my favourite of the evening.

With the beers, I tried to start light and go progressively darker as the festival went on, starting with ‘Butterley’ from Yorkshire which was rather bitter but was still very good. Next up was ‘Sitting On The Docks’ which coaxed me with its description of tasting chocolatey, but it was a good lesson on not being tunnel visioned by descriptions as it wasn’t to my taste particularly. Perhaps mild beers aren’t my thing, but I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to try it without this festival, but the next one definitely made up for it – ‘The Slow Descent Into Madness’. This brown ale was so good that I could barely put it down, and I do mean that literally – by this point in the evening there were so many people that I had to stand as my seat had been stolen! The final drink of the evening I had to split with one of the people I attended with because it cost so many tokens!

The ‘XXXK Vintage Ale’ which sat at a whopping 12.7% ABV – according to the bartender it was the most he had ever seen at a festival! My group had been eyeing it up in the programme for the whole evening and it was incredible. I immediately noted that it tasted like Christmas pudding, and I’m sure it would go down a treat in the festive period.

My thoughts on the alcohol aside, the event was really brilliant, acting as a crash course for me into the craft beer scene of Liverpool, a guide to the independent pubs here, and greatly expanding my perspective of a great diversity of different beers.

While I won’t always have the time (or budget) to seek out the “real ale” from the independent local pubs that the event prioritised so heavily, it will always be a worthwhile venture. While I’ve always known the importance of trying new and interesting things when it comes to food and drink, this festival has really cemented that concept for me in regards to beers. My only disappointment with this event was that I couldn’t try even more, but I can say for certain that I will be returning next year.

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