Halifax and Calderdale CAMRA are pleased to announce that Calderdale Beer and Cider Festival will return in 2022 after a two year absence.
EVENT CONFIRMED
VENUE & ACCESSIBILITY
A unique, quirky and unusual venue in an historic industrial building with character
- 7 minutes’ walk from the bus station
- 12 minutes’ walk from the railway station
- Wheelchair accessibility
DRINKS
- 61 beers (with 19 served from wooden casks).
- Over 40 breweries represented. Commissioned and new beers available.
- Beers ordered from breweries only.
- Gluten free, vegan and vegetarian beer options
- 13 real ciders and perries; traditional and modern styles.
- Viaduct bar with a range of other alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks (including a gin bar)
FOOD
Hot and cold beer festival food available (at reasonable prices), provided by Foras Catering:

Restaurant dining in True North, which is included in the venue complex.
TICKETS
TICKETS AVAILABLE ON THE DOOR
OPENING TIMES & ENTRY FEES

GLASS HIRE
£3 – Fully refundable on return of your glass (Oversized glasses with third, half and pint markings)
FESTIVAL PROGRAMME (including beer, cider and perry lists)
Available on entry free of charge
ENTERTAINMENT
Following repeated requests from customers not to provide entertainment, no entertainment will be provided. Our festival will offer a time to chat with friends and to meet new people whilst simultaneously drinking our excellent beers, ciders and perries.
Optional educational talks/activities provided on Friday and Saturday afternoons free of charge.

Listen to the National CAMRA podcast Pubs, Pints, People article (6th September 2022) which shines a spotlight on Calderdale and Halifax CAMRA branch, which is preparing for the Calderdale Beer & Cider Festival taking place from 22-24 September.
WEBSITE
Updates and additional information will appear on this website.
FESTIVAL STAFFING
Thanks to all the CAMRA members who have volunteered to work at the Calderdale Beer and Cider Festival 2022. We are very sorry that we have been unable to accommodate everyone who expressed an interest, but with our staffing being excessively high at our last festival in 2019, we had to cut back.
WE ARE NOW FULLY STAFFED FOR THE CALDERDALE BEER AND CIDER FESTIVAL 2022.
If, for any reason, vacancies do become available we will be contacting those people who have already expressed an interest and we’ve had to disappoint.
Additional staffing vacancies will not become available at our festival so there will be no additional volunteer opportunities posted on our website.
Richard Lee (Festival Staffing Officer) and John Hartley (Festival Organiser)
p.s. If you are disappointed not to be working at our festival, why not attend as customers? We will be serving plenty of excellent beers, ciders and perries and feel certain that these will not disappoint.






PAYMENTS AT CALDERDALE BEER AND CIDER FESTIVAL 2022
Entrance Fees

- Entrance fees at our festival are as cheap as chips; in fact they are cheaper than chips when chips used to be cheap.
- CAMRA members – you will not have to pay more than £1 to enter any festival session and some sessions are FREE (YES FREE).
- Non-CAMRA members – entrance is £1 or £2 depending on the session you attend, unless you attend on Saturday evening in which case it is FREE (YES FREE), but you could take this opportunity to join CAMRA in which case your entry fee will be refunded PLUS YOU’LL RECEIVE FREEBIES (our high quality membership team will explain and all you have to do is join our jolly crowd, it’s simple and well worth getting involved).
- The high quality programme is FREE (YES FREE)
- You don’t have to book tickets in advance, because we don’t do Advance Tickets.
- Don’t be concerned that you might not be able to get in to this increasingly popular festival because our capacity has now increased (HURRAY FOR CALDERDALE).
On the Door

- You will be asked to put a deposit on one of our new glasses (HURRAY, NEW GLASSES) and asked (if required) to pay your entry fee.
- You can buy your glass if you wish by not returning it, or you can ask for a full refund (HURRAY FOR REFUNDABLE GLASSES). We don’t believe in charging customers for glasses they don’t want or need.
Can Customers Help Us?

- PAYMENT ON THE DOOR WILL BE BY CASH ONLY, NO CARD, SO PLEASE BRING CASH.
- You’ll be required to pay your entry fee (if applicable) and pay to hire a glass.
- IT WOULD BE GREAT IF ATTENDEES COULD PAY FOR ENTRY PLUS A REFUNDABLE GLASS WITH COINS (RATHER THAN WITH NOTES) – £1 AND £2 COINS WOULD BE PARTICULARLY USEFUL. THIS WILL HELP US TO ENSURE THAT WE HAVE ENOUGH CASH ON THE DOOR TO REFUND GLASS PAYMENTS.
Buying Beer Tokens

- Cask beer, cider and perry can only be purchased by using beer tokens.
- To offer customers flexibility, beer tokens can be purchased by paying by cash or card.
- Beer token cards will cost £10 each and each card will enable you to purchase a number of drinks.
- We will refund any unspent amounts on your beer token cards or, of course, you could donate these to our non-centrally funded (relying on donations) festival charity.
ENTRY FEES ON PARTICULAR DAYS

ANY QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS OF ANY KIND PLEASE CONTACT MYSELF (John Hartley – Festival Organiser) or Colin Phillips – (Festival Strategy Group Official and Website Controller) on Branch Contact. We pride ourselves in responding very quickly to all emails, but if we are up to our necks in quicksand or are being attacked by grizzly bears, it might take a little bit longer.
We really value our customers.
Free Beer Talks & Tutored Tastings
Halifax and Calderdale CAMRA are delighted to bring back another varied programme of educational and thought -provoking events on the Friday and Saturday of our Festival. We have two tasting sessions, one on beer and one on cider/perry. Both are based around a selection of ales, ciders and perries available at the festival.
The Tutored Beer Tasting is hosted, once again, by Richard Lee, a very experienced tasting panel judge, and the Tutored Cider Tasting is led by our cider expert Ian Priddey who not only talks about cider but produces his own
from home grown apples.
We are holding two talks, and we extend a warm welcome to Jane Stuart (Blackpool Jane) who not only finds time to be CAMRA Branch Secretary of Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre but also produces a blog and fanzine about supporting Blackpool F.C. We are also pleased to welcome, for the first time, Les Gillon who as well as being a local musician is also a director of the Community Owned Pub, The Puzzle Hall Inn, in Sowerby Bridge.
Free tickets, in advance from talks and tastings or, if available, can be obtained at the Beer Tokens Stand.
My Life in Beer with Jane Stuart
Friday 1pm

Jane has been exploring pubs for over 25 years whilst following Blackpool FC across the country. Her humorous blog www.janestuart.co.uk is popular with beer, pub and football lovers as Jane seeks joy (and beer) everywhere she goes. Founder of the Football Tourist Guide series (which of course includes pub recommendations), Jane also writes a series on Manchester pubs as well as editing the Blackpool fanzine and writing for a number of beer and football publications. Jane is Branch Secretary for Blackpool, Fylde & Wyre CAMRA. Find out how an 18-year-old Jane began her pubbing journey – and why she has such an affection for Yorkshire ales despite coming from across the Pennines.
Beer Tutored Tasting with Richard Lee
Friday 2.30pm

Richard Lee discusses and leads a tasting of a selection of our beers. These will be chosen to represent the “classic” beer styles. Richard is not only our Chair, but is a qualified tasting panel trainer and a member of the Champion Beer of Britain Selection Panel as well as being Chair of our Tasting Panel. He has also held Tutored Tasting Sessions at the Great British Beer Festival.
A Piece of the Puzzle with Les Gillon
Saturday 1pm

The story of the Puzzle Hall Inn is the story of a beloved pub that was raised from the dead by the community it served. Though the Puzzle had been well-known as a real ale pub and vibrant music venue for many years, in January 2016 it closed, after decades of neglect at the hands of a string of pub companies, and lay empty and decaying for over two years. Les tells the inspiring story of how the Puzzle was resurrected through the determination and commitment of the customers who cherished the fine ales, music, conversation and comradeship that the pub provided.
Cider and Perry Tutored Tasting with Ian Priddey
Saturday 2.30pm

Ian Priddey, the Festival Cider Bar Organiser, was born in West Yorkshire but brought up in Worcestershire, where he developed a love of cider. Since moving to Calderdale in 1994, Ian has produced cider from Herefordshire cider apple juice and in 2014 bought equipment to press apples and pears grown in his back garden orchard. In this session, Ian will include a brief history of cider, will explain how it is made and will provide a tutored tasting of some of the festival’s ciders and perries.
BEER/CIDER/PERRY LIST FOR THE CALDERDALE BEER AND CIDER FESTIVAL 2022
We would like to thank the following breweries for providing a complimentary cask for the festival: – Bingley Brewery, Darkland Indie Brew Co, Nightjar Brew Co, Stod Fold Brewing Company and Vocation Brewery.
There are 61 beers in total and 44 breweries are represented. 19 beers will be served from, and have been matured in, wooden casks (14 in 9 or 11 or 12 gallon casks and 5 in 4.5 gallon pins or 6 gallon half anchors). In addition there are 42 non-wooden casks. All stouts and porters and some other stronger ales have also been matured in their respective casks. Ales from breweries and straight to your mouth!
A LARGE NUMBER OF BEERS ON OFFER ARE SUITABLE FOR VEGANS AND VEGETARIANS AND THE FOUR GLUTEN FREE BEERS ARE LABELLED ON THE BEER LIST IN THE PROGRAMME.
We also have 13 ciders, perries and piders and this is the most extensive list we have had in a number of years.
We are hoping that there will be no cancellations or last minute changes and no rail strikes.
We’re excited, hope you are too? We recommend that you wear your big beer, cider and perry drinking wellies because you’re going to need them.
The Calderdale Beer and Cider Festival promotes sensible drinking…and big beer, cider and perry drinking wellies!


Calderdale Beer and Cider Festival 22nd – 24th September 2022 – Customer Festival Feedback.
Thanks to the 167 people who completed our Customer Feedback Form. The analysis of the forms is shown below.
We would like to thank customers for their positive comments, their ideas and suggestions for improvement and for their complaints, where complaints were found to be necessary. In some cases, it will be easy to rectify problems and improve things for next year, but in other cases we will need to discuss issues with the venue or food provider. In a few cases, marked improvements will be more difficult to implement, but we will try our best to sort things out.
In cases where we have conflicting views, of course, we have to go with majority opinion so there may not be any change at all.
Thanks for making an effort to complete a feedback form; your efforts are really appreciated.









Calderdale Beer and Cider Festival 2022 – Beers of the Festival Results
Beers of the Festival results are based on customer votes and not on the results of decisions made by a tasting panel. The results take the time the beer remained on the stillage before it sold out and cask size into consideration.
Bitter/Mild of the Festival
Harrogate Brewing Company – XX Mild (Wooden Cask)
Pale/Golden Ale of the Festival
Big Trip Brewing – Desperately Seeking Dopamine
Stout/Porter of the Festival
Vocation Brewery/Kirkstall Brewery – No.666 (Wooden Cask)
Speciality Ale of the Festival
Vocation Brewery – Naughty & Nice Salted Caramel Stout
Champion Ales of the Festival
Vocation Brewery/Kirkstall Brewery – No.666 (Wooden Cask) – Gold
Vocation Brewery – Naughty & Nice Salted Caramel Stout – Silver
Harrogate Brewing Company – XX Mild (Wooden Cask) – Bronze
Cider/Perry of the Festival
Dorset Nectar – Dabinett
Calderdale Beer and Cider Festival – Charity Support.
On Monday 19th December, during CAMRA Halifax and Calderdale’s Christmas Social, a cheque for £1,262.55 was presented to Community Transport Calderdale (CTC) at the Dusty Miller Public House, Mytholmroyd. Community Transport Calderdale were the Festival Charity at the 2022 Calderdale Beer and Cider Festival which was held at the Viaduct Theatre, Dean Clough at the end of September. Breweries supplying the Festival generously donated a range of items to the charity stall, which was staffed by CTC members, including bottled and canned beers, items of brewery clothing, pump clips, glasses and a range of other items. Money was also donated by customers in the form of unused beer tokens and glass deposits. Stod Fold Brewing Company owner, Paul Harris, also suggested that a proportion of money from a donated cask of Blonde+ should be added to charity funds and other smaller amounts were also incorporated.
Community Transport Calderdale is primarily concerned with assisting people who are no longer able to access public transport. CTC’s accessible minibus and car services connect people with their community, reducing isolation and loneliness and support people at vulnerable times in their lives, such as when leaving hospital or can no longer drive. CTC helps people to have fun and enjoy their lives despite ill-health, disability or reduced mobility. The money raised at the festival will be used take people on trips and excursions to local and more distant attractions.
The Calderdale Beer and Cider Festival Steering Group Committee always choose a charity that receives little or no Government funding and relies on donations in order to survive. Over the last five festival years, in excess of £5,000 has been raised for charities in Hebden Bridge, Mytholmroyd, Halifax and Luddendenfoot.

Thanks to all the breweries that donated items to the charity stall and to customers for their generous donations to this worthwhile cause.