THE 34th annual Booze on the Ouse beer festival is taking place later this month in St Ives, offering a selection of speciality beers and real ales to tickle your taste buds.

THE 34th annual Booze on the Ouse beer festival is taking place later this month in St Ives, offering a selection of speciality beers and real ales to tickle your taste buds.

The festival is organised by the Huntingdonshire branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and is being held from September 16-18 at the Burgess Hall in Westwood Road.

Paul Moorhouse, CAMRA’s beer festival bar manager, said: “Over the course of the festival around 55 real ales will be available from all over the UK, from well-established independent breweries and newer, smaller micro-breweries. Once again, the focus will be on locally brewed ales.”

A selection of mild, bitter, golden ales, old ales and barley wines will be available and there will be a foreign beer bar selling Belgian, Dutch, German, and Czech bottled beers.

For those with a sweet tooth there will be a range of speciality beers including Cambridge Moonshine Chocolate Orange Stout, Humpty Dumpty Lemon and Ginger beer, Bartram Cherry Stout and Dark Star Expresso Coffee beer.

Free soft drinks will be available to designated drivers and food will be sold throughout the festival.

Mr Moorhouse said: “The festival aims to encourage people to try real ale and for Huntingdonshire’s pubs to reduce their beer miles by stocking high quality, locally produced real ales.

“More than half of the real ales we are offering at the festival are from East Anglia.”

Families are welcome until 8pm each day.

We have three pairs of tickets and beer sample vouchers to be won for the festival. Plus one lucky winner will also receive a copy of the 2011 CAMRA Good Beer Guide.

To enter be in with a chance of winning, just tell us how many real ales from the UK will be served during the event.

Send your answer on a postcard or sealed envelope, with your name, address and daytime telephone number to: Booze on the Ouse competition, The Hunts Post, 30 High Street, Huntingdon, PE29 3TB.

Entries should reach us by Friday, September 10.

Usual Archant competition rules apply.

INFORMATION: Booze on the Ouse is open Thursday, September 16 5pm–10.45pm, Friday, September 17 5pm–10.45pm and Saturday, September 18 noon–10pm.

Admission including festival programme is �2 after 7pm on the Thursday, �3 after 7pm on the Friday and �1 at all other times. Free entry to CAMRA members. No entry or re-admission after 10.15pm on the Thursday and Friday and 9:30pm on the Saturday. www.huntscamra.org.uk/festival