Craft Brew Festival, Liverpool… five hours of bottomless beer

We booked and paid for these tickets ourselves. Nothing here was gifted or hosted.

If you like bottomless brunch, you’ll love Craft Brew Festival! You know what’s better than 90 minutes of bottomless drinks, 5 hours of bottomless drinks! With more than 50 craft drinks, from 15+ breweries, cideries and wineries there really is nowhere we’ve been that comes close.

What we paid, and is VIP worth it?

We got in on the early bird at £45 each plus £3.52 in fees. General release went to £50 (+£3.84) and the final release landed at £70 (+£5.14). VIP was £60 (+£4.49), and got you through the door at 12:30 rather than 1pm.

Top tip: the seats go quickly, so if you want a good spot, particularly if you’re in a big group, arrive early (at least 20 minutes to be near the front of the queue).

There is an option to pay extra (£15 extra per person if you compare to the early bird tickets) to arrive 30 minutes early, skip the queue & get the best pick of the seats. There’s no other real benefits to VIP (a different colour lanyard & bags that were abandoned everywhere by the end of the event), so we’d give it a miss unless you’re booking later and the regular tickets aren’t any cheaper.

Which is exactly what happens if you leave it late. By the final release a standard ticket was £70 and VIP was still £60, so the early entry stops being an upgrade and starts being the cheaper option. Buy early and skip VIP, buy late and buy VIP.

So, what do you get?

What do you want? They claim over 50 different drinks & 15 breweries on their website, I didn’t count but it felt about right. The different brands all have different stands, so other than a couple of really popular ones the queues were generally quite reasonable.

The festival’s own advertising. The 50+ drinks and 15+ breweries is their number, not our count.

When you arrive you’re given a lanyard to wear around your neck with a list of the beers (they call it a festival programme) broken down by brewery and a reusable plastic half pint glass.

Send scouts, don’t queue

We went in, claimed a spot & excitedly sent a couple of people out from our group to fill up all of the glasses. This is the best way to make sure you don’t lose your seat or spend the whole day in queues, half pints really don’t last that long..

It turns into the best part of the day, honestly. Two of you head off with a fistful of empty glasses and a vague brief to ‘bring back something good’, the rest of the table sits there waiting to see what turns up, then everyone compares notes on it loudly and sends the next pair out. Five hours goes very quickly like that.

I won a hat, and I did nothing to earn it

One of the breweries was running higher or lower over six cards. I was awful at it. What saved me was a random man who kept shouting ‘luck of the Irish’ and then the answer, and he was spookily always right. I have no idea who he was. I have the hat.

Won on someone else’s ability to count cards.

The beer list is a running order, not a menu

The first few attempts were unsuccessful as after spending 10 minutes picking our top 3 beers to try first, what else are you going to do stuck in a queue, we learnt the list is the beers they’ll serve throughout the day, not what’s available at all times. All 3 of my picks weren’t going on until later, and I think I ended up missing most of them. They don’t give you anything to check off or review the beers either so the beer guide was a bit useless and quickly abandoned.

Two things they could fix

If I was going to suggest a couple of improvements, the glasses didn’t ever get more than a quick rinse out which was more about getting rid of the end of the last beer than actually cleaning anything, and there was no way to get water AND beer at the same time, which meant not many people were prioritising hydration.

Right, that’s the moaning done

Anyway, that’s all of the moaning done, we were drinking for 5 hours there’s really not much to moan about! There was a great selection of beers to choose from, we had a blast all day sending scouts out from the group to ‘bring back something good’ and comparing thoughts on how we found it.

If you’re not a big beer drinker there’s a few ciders to choose from, there’s also one red, one white & one prosecco on tap. Look it’s a beer festival, I won’t lie and say it’s a great event for wine drinkers, but I wouldn’t skip it if you’ve got friends going. The wine was all drinkable it just wasn’t something to rush back for.

The food is outside, and it’s good

There’s a few great food stalls outside, we had the Double Pepperoni & the Spicy Beast from Smoke + Ash and really enjoyed it.

Not included in your ticket: £14 for a margherita, £15 for the double pepperoni, £16 for the Spicy Beast.

Worth knowing before you go so it doesn’t catch you out, none of the food is part of the ticket. Budget another £15 or so a head on top if you’re planning to eat there, which you should be, because five hours is a long time on an empty stomach.

Liverpool is tight, and that’s mostly a good thing

Different venues will have different amounts of space, Liverpool is quite tight which made for a great atmosphere but you couldn’t get up, dance and still have a seat, I’ve heard Manchester was much bigger, but the vibe wasn’t as good because everyone was so spaced out.

We’ve done Liverpool twice now, and both times the weather has been on our side, which matters more than you’d think when the good bit is the sunshine outside the doors.

Where to stay if you’re making a night of it

Five hours of bottomless drinks and you’re not driving anywhere afterwards, so if you’re travelling in for this one, book something you can walk back to rather than clock watching for the last train home. Liverpool city centre hotels is where we’d start looking, it drops you near enough to the bars to carry on if you’ve somehow still got legs at 6pm.

Final verdict

5 hours of drinking alone is absolutely worth it, throw in the atmosphere and you’re onto a winner. The live music was way too loud for sitting around, drinking beer & chatting but it gave us a good excuse to get out into the sun. It’s been brilliant weather both times we’ve gone but I imagine it would get uncomfortably full if they get a wet year.

4/5, does beer just turn me into a bit of a moaning old man? I’ve recommended this to so many people, I loved it, not sure it sounds like I did, but I really did!

Craft Brew Festival FAQs

How much is a Craft Brew Festival ticket? We paid £45 each on the early bird plus £3.52 in fees. General release was £50 (+£3.84) and the final release was £70 (+£5.14). VIP was £60 (+£4.49). Every tier had sold out by the time the event came round, so book early rather than hoping.

Is the VIP ticket worth it? Only if you’re booking late. It gets you in at 12:30 instead of 1pm, which means first pick of the seats, plus a different colour lanyard and a bag. That’s £15 more than an early bird ticket for a queue jump, so we’d skip it. Once the final release is out at £70 though, VIP at £60 is the cheaper ticket and you may as well have the early entry.

How long does it last? Five hours of bottomless drinks, with standard entry from 1pm.

Is food included? No. There are food stalls outside and they’re good, we had the Double Pepperoni and the Spicy Beast from Smoke + Ash, at £15 and £16. Budget for it separately.

What do you drink out of? A reusable plastic half pint glass they give you at the door, along with a lanyard listing the beers by brewery. Fair warning, the glass only ever gets a quick rinse between beers.

Is it any good if you don’t drink beer? There are a few ciders, and one red, one white and one prosecco on tap. It’s a beer festival though, so go for the day out and the company rather than the wine list.

What’s the one thing to know before you go? The beer list is the running order for the whole day, not what’s pouring right now. Don’t do what we did and pick your top three in the queue, because they might not be on for hours.

Should I go to the Liverpool one or the Manchester one? We’ve done Liverpool twice and loved the atmosphere, but it’s tight, so you can’t get up and dance and keep your seat. Manchester is bigger, and what we’ve heard from friends is that the extra space took the edge off the vibe.

Prices are what we paid in July 2026. Things move, so check before you book.