Just like the drink itself, these days there's much more to beer festivals than drinking pints of god-knows-what in some dodgy old sports hall. Once patronised only by balding men sporting pot-bellies, shorts and sandals (with socks of course), a younger crowd along with serious foodies are now likely to be among the clientele.

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Where once beer festivals were the exclusive preserve of real ale, at many of them you'll now also find modern, micro-brewed keg beers along with bottles and cans. Many festivals offer third of a pint measures to enable (responsible) sampling of many different beers and the only thing some of them need to catch up on is the right food stalls to enable beer and food matching. Nevertheless it's still one of your best bets for supping new beers, and old favourites, brewed locally or from further afield.

Here's our guide to 10 of the best beer festivals - throughout the year - and across the UK.

Birmingham Beer Bash

The Bond Co, 180-182 Fazeley St, Digbeth, Birmingham, B5 5SE.

Part of the new breed of beer festivals featuring keg as well as cask (real ale) and bottle bars, this intimate festival offers plenty of choice despite its size and its size means you don't have to walk miles to get a beer. Highlights from last year included a sours bar (usually made with wild yeast and inspired by lambic beer from Belgium they're deliciously refreshing summer tipples) and two beer and food matched dinners. It's on 23-25 July so get your tickets NOW before it sells out - which it inevitably will.