Paisley Beer Festival

Lisa E, glad you enjoyed the beer festival & all the great beers (The supernatural Blonde was my favourite). You should have taken a little time out from your beer exploration & done a venue exploration. As well as the downstairs we had use of the upstairs as well There you would have found a much bigger seating area, a second food stall selling delicious toasted paninis, a cider bar, a wine bar and a second Scottish beer bar with some of the best beers from Scotland. Come again next year and have a look, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

My second ever beer festival and an entirely different experience to my first (Southside Beer Festival a couple of years ago).
In it’s 28^th year, this is a well established and well organised event. Camra staff were in abundance so advice on which of the multitude of beers to try next was never far away. Given there must be almost 300 to choose from, and my patented method of ‘Ohhh that’s a fun name’ hasn’t always been successful in the past, it was good to be able to ask for some recommendations based on palate.
The main hall of Paisley Town Hall hosts a long bar down one side and plenty of room for standing and enjoying your beverage of choice. A side room hosted the ‘English’ bar (I think) which also included some American beers, and apparently there was a wine bar somewhere…
A few hours of beer sampling required some food and we ventured outside where there was a selection of options — we plumped for Bowl Food, served from a cute green van, we had a delicious terrine of chicken, haggis and whisky sauce, with a tasty relish and some oatcakes to finish it off.
Back inside, more beer — I’ll spare you the names, like I said there were many to chose from and after the first few… well you get the picture.
If you are a fan of ale, keep an eye out for the festival next year, it’s well worth a visit.
Top tip: get there before 3pm as it started to get REALLY busy from then onwards.

If you like craft beer you need to come check out the Paisley Beer Festival! They have over 250 unique beers! And lots of cool names! If you like it blonde, there is everything from the Foxy Blonde to the Supernatural Blonde to the Blond Obsession, or if you are not sure there is always the Pretender Blonde! If you like to dance: Moondance, Bouncy House, or Dark Masquerade! I personally like to go dark: Black Hawk, Dark Island, Obsidian and my favourite the Windswept Wolf!
In terms of the beer, the festival gets 5stars. I was a little bummed there was not more seating, food, and live music. Also it was a lovely day, so it would have been nice if they had the doors opened to the courtyard. The food that was there was a decent German sausage and crêpe stand. I enjoyed my spicy bratwurst and the customer service was great! More options would have been welcome though. The only music was a little tent with a young guitar and drum duet whaling out songs… not bad, but could have been better. Music in the main town-​hall would have added to the ambiance. Oh and I can’t forget the balloon guy, he was making all kinds of fun creations!
It really was a good time! I thought I was going to spend a FEW hours with my friends at the beer garden in the evening… ended up taking the last train getting home at midnight!!! :)
Cheers! Salud! Prost!

This year’s Festival is bigger and better than ever before. Now the upstairs area of the Town Hall is also being used to house more beers, ciders & wine, plus seating areas and additional food stalls. Also, an outdoor tent has been added with live music.
The usual great selection of beer is available, with helpful and friendly Camra staff available to offer advice! I’ll be back again tonight!!!