For 2024 we are graced that Gentleman George takes over the prestigious mantle of the Bent and Bongs Beer Svengali. Gentleman George has been studying the beers to find you a selection of some of, nay the, best beers of the festival.
If you want to try the ultimate in tasty beer, this is the place to be.
Note that some of these beers are strong ones. Think of them as the Arnie Schwarzenegger of beers. Drink them too quickly and you will be back. Flat on your back. Being carried out on a stretcher is not a good look so treat the stronger beers with respect. Sip them slowly and enjoy every bit.
For 2024 Gentleman George recommends …
Cask Beers (Cask Bar)
Wigan Brewhouse – Mad Monk (7.1%)
A dark and serious Russian Imperial Stout. Lots of liquorice and oak flavours with some smoke. Won’t last long.
Frothblowers – Hornswoggle (5%)
Extra pale, malt in large enough quantities to induce an alcoholic euphoria are combined with floral hops to produce a deceptively easily drinkable 5 percenter.
Strange Times – Mad King Sweeney (4.6%)
Inspired by the turbulent life of Buile Suibhne, this Irish Red Ale brewed with Rye and Oats. It is smooth and balanced enough to calm the Mad King himself.
Stewarts – Cauld Reekie (6.2%)
A full-bodied strong stout with an abundance of roasted malt flavours, liquorice and molasses and a hint of sweetness.
Mallinsons – Blanc Jester (3.8%)
A new beer from Mallinsons, dual hopped, late hopping with Jester gives aromas of grape and soft fruits. Hallertau hops gives great bitterness with notes of tart gooseberries.
Rivington – Beach House (3.8%)
A deliciously hazy pale ale, brewed with a killer hop combo of Motueka, Mosaic and Simco, Delicious.
Craft Beers (Craft Corner)
Hammerton – City of Cake (5.5%)
A deep and rich milk stout, balancing roast coffee and chocolate notes with sweetness and caramel aromas. This is fudge brownie in a glass.
Runaway – Winter Saison (6.3%)
Classic Belgian style Saison with a seasonal UK twist. Dry and fruity, yeast and malt led, with a hint of citrus and hedgerow fruits from the classic British hops. Vegan friendly.
Belgium and Foreign Beers (Foreign Bar)
Straffe Hendrik Xmas Blend (11%)
Possibly one of the finest beers in the world. This beer starts out life as the Straffe Hendrik Quad, a beer that has graced this very beer festival more than once. The master brewers at the De Halve Maan brewery hold back a little bit of this quad which is then gentle aged in barrels stored in the brewery’s medieval cellars.
The brewers then finish the job by selecting the perfect blend of barrel aged quads. The result is something very special. Deep, dark, and luxurious.
Sold in halves only because of the strength. Sip it slowly and enjoy every last taste.
Cherry Chouffe Rouge (8%)
A lot of incredible beers come out of the doors of Moortgat and this is no exception.
This is a cherry flavoured beer, but not in the way of a typical fruit beer. Most fruit beers start their lives as a lambic or a wit to give them that typical zingy taste. Cherry Chouffe is different. It starts out as an ever so slightly sour strong Belgian ale. To this the brewers add heaps of natural cherry juice and the result is quite delicious. The background deep flavours of a strong Belgium ale with the sweet and sour notes of the cherries. If you enjoyed the original Liefmans Kriek (the 6% one) it’s likely you’ll like this.
The bad news. It contains cherries but sadly you can’t count it as part of your five-a-day.
Lervig Hoppy Holiday Haze (4.7%)
Another fantastic beer coming out of Stavanger. Brewed only at Christmas this is a hazy New England style pale ale that is packed full of flavour. This year Lervig are using Loral Cryo and Sabro hops for maximum citrus with a tropical punch. Very drinkable and totally refreshing.
Have a Great Night
These are some of the best beers in the whole beer festival. Some of them are also the strongest. We said it to begin with and we’ll say it again to end. Treat these stronger beers with respect. Drink them slowly. Enjoy the taste. And enjoy a great night out.
For 2024, and for a bit of fun, we also have the Taylor Swift beer trail. The Taylor Swift Eras tour seems to be the biggest good news story of 2023 and 2024 so why not have a bit of fun with a once-only-in-the-history-of-the-festival Taylor Swift beer trail.
Remember to drink responsibly, have a great night, and a great tomorrow.
If you are new to sponsoring the festival or you are one of our regulars wanting to see what’s available and what’s new this year … read on …
What’s Changed for 2024
The quick summary is nothing really. 2023 was a popular event, all our sponsors had a great time, so why change something that’s working well?
Summary of What’s Available for 2024
Here’s a summary of what’s available for 2024.
Standard Barrel Sponsor
£145. Includes 10 admission tickets, admission to the Thursday sponsors’ hour, your name on a barrel, included in the programme and linked from our website.
Priority Entry Barrel Sponsor
£165. This includes everything in a standard barrel sponsor with two of the tickets converted to priority entry tickets.
Bar Sponsor
£250. This includes everything in a standard barrel sponsor plus your name on a banner over a bar. Yes, we can upgrade this to include priority entry tickets.
Entertainment Sponsor
£300. Includes everything in a standard barrel sponsor plus your name on a banner over the stage. Yes, we can upgrade this to include priority entry tickets.
Tokens Sponsor
£300. Includes everything in a standard barrel sponsor plus your name and company logo on the tokens plus a banner over the tokens desk. Yes, we can upgrade this to include priority entry tickets.
Glass Sponsor
£600. This is the big one. Includes a barrel sponsors package plus 10 more priority entry tickets plus your company logo on the festival glasses. We can bespoke the tickets and priority entry tickets in this package to suit you.
What’s With the Tickets, Priority Entry Tickets, Sponsor’s Only Session, and Beer Tokens? How Does All This Work?
Tickets
Every package includes a number of admission tickets. Each ticket admits one person to any session of the festival as long as there is no queue. This is important so we’ll say it again. These standard admission tickets do not bypass the queue.
Priority Entry Tickets
Each priority entry ticket admits one person to any session of the festival. It also bypasses the queue. That’s right, we’ll say it again. A priority entry ticket bypasses the queue. You turn up and walk straight in.
Priority entry tickets are the only way to bypass any queue we have.
The Sponsors’ Hour (Thursday 5pm – 6pm)
On Thursday (and only on Thursday) we open the festival an hour early for sponsors only. For 2024 the public get to come in at 6pm. Sponsors are welcome from 5pm.
This is a really cool and chilled session. You get to be the first people to see the festival. You get first dibs on all the tables and chairs. Every beer is available. You feel a bit special knowing you are doing something that’s limited to the chosen few.
If you want to entertain some clients, take your team out to say Thanks for working hard (and convince them to work harder next year), or do a bit of networking, this is the session for you.
Free Beer Tokens
When you walk into the sponsors’ hour on Thursday (5pm – 6pm) with a sponsors ticket we will give you a free £10 token sheet. That’s cool huh? Free beer! These tokens are yours to spend through the whole of Thursday night. The only restriction on them is that just like Cinderella’s carriage, they turn into a pumpkin at midnight.
If you come with a raging thirst or want to drink some of the more expensive beers fear not, we’ve got your back. The token desk will be open from 5pm to top up your token supply.
I’m Not A Business. Can I Still Sponsor With My Friends?
We get asked this a lot. Of course you can. The packages are the same. The tickets and tokens work the same. You’re welcome to join everyone at the Thursday sponsors’ hour. Instead of a business name you can put a personal message on a barrel or a banner.
We’ve had people sponsor a barrel to celebrate a birthday, remember a loved one, or just because they have a bunch of friends and want into the 5pm – 6pm Sponsors’ Hour on Thursday.
We’ve thought about doing something smaller than the standard barrel sponsor for a group of friends. So far we don’t have anything official but if you get in touch and ask we can almost certainly work something out with you.
Here’s the details for what’s available …
Standard Barrel Sponsor
This is the package that most of our sponsors go for. It includes: – 10 tickets for general admission at any session – These tickets are the only way you can get in to the early hour, 5pm-6pm on Thursday, for sponsors only – £10 of beer tokens for everyone attending the 5pm-6pm Thursday sponsors’ session – Your name over a barrel – Your name and details in the festival programme and linked from our website
The price for this package is £145.
If you are totting all this up in your head, yes, you are right. Ten people’s admission, plus £10 each of beer tokens at the Thursday sponsor’s session and you can see how good value this is.
It’s better still if you are sponsoring as a business. Tick YES on the form and we will send you a receipt to take the cost through your accounts and save a bit of tax. Book it as client entertaining or team building. Remember – the team that drinks together thinks together.
This is exactly the same as the Standard Barrel Sponsor but we convert two of the free tickets to priority entry. These will bypass any queue we have up to 7:30pm.
The price for this is £165.
Bar Sponsor
This includes everything in the standard barrel sponsor’s package plus we hang a banner over one of the bars with your business name and logo.
We can bespoke this package a little for you. If you need more tickets than the 10 included or you want to convert some of them to priority entry, get in touch and we can discuss it.
The price to be a bar sponsor is £250.
Entertainment Sponsor
This is just like the Bar Sponsor package except we hang the banner with your company name and logo over the stage.
The package also includes 10x admission tickets, your name in the festival programme and a link from our website.
The price for this is £300. It’s a more prominent position than the bars.
As per the bar sponsors we can bespoke this package a little for you if you want to do something different. Get in touch and we can talk through the options.
Tokens Sponsor
This is pretty cool. Like the bar and entertainment sponsors we hang a banner with your company name and logo over the token desk. We also print your details onto the tokens. Yes, each and every sheet of tokens.
The package includes all the benefits of a barrel sponsor; 10x admission tickets, your name in the festival programme and a link from our website.
If you are interested in this get in touch as soon as possible as we need to check that the tokens haven’t already gone to print.
The price for this is £300.
Just like the bar and entertainment packages we can bespoke the tickets included for you.
Glass Sponsor
This is the big one and it’s pretty awesome.
We print your company logo on the festival glasses. And yeah, that’s so cool.
We include the usual 10x admission tickets and then we amp this up by adding an extra 10x priority entry tickets. Woohooo!
This takes some organising with your artwork for the glasses so you need to be talking to us as early as possible if you want to take this up.
Advertising in the Festival Programme
We offer advertising space in the festival programme. Anything from a quarter page up to a full page including the back and inside covers. It’s an affordable way to reach people; most of whom are local, most of whom enjoy a few beers, a night out with friends, something good to eat, and a bit of entertainment. Put a coupon in there. Make them an offer they can’t refuse.
We’re going to be up front about this. Advertising with us is not likely to make you enough money to buy a superyacht and park it in Monaco for the F1. There, we’ve said it! We do get between 3,000 to 4,000 people (mostly local) visiting the festival over the three days. Put a coupon in the programme. Make them an offer they can’t refuse. If you are a local business it surely can’t hurt to try this.
If you are interested send us an email to advertising@bentnbongs.com and we’ll send you the rate card for programme adverts.
What Are You Waiting For?
If you have read this far you are interested, right? Or you are trying to find a better way of getting to sleep.
If it’s the former and you want to sponsor the 2024 festival, download the 2024 sponsors form, fill in the details, and send it back to us to the address shown on the form.
If you like to do everything electronically you can email a scan back to sponsors@bentnbongs.com, send an electronic payment, and we’ll organise it all from there.
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, To All Our Sponsors
We say this all the time and we can never say it enough. Thank You so much to all you wonderful people for supporting the festival. We couldn’t run this event without you, and for that, and on behalf of the charities we support, we are eternally grateful.
