The National Winter Ales Festival (often shortened to NWAF) is a yearly event organised by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA). The purpose of the event is to showcase the best winter ales (for example stouts and porters) in the UK. It was started in 1997 to give more exposure to these styles of beer as they are often not available during the summer when its sister festival, the larger Great British Beer Festival, is held. NWAF is home to the Champion Winter Beer of Britain awards.
The festival is generally held in January of each year; however there were two festivals in 1997, one at each end of the year. The first one gave the awards for 1996/7 and the second for 1997/8; there was no festival in 1998. The 2011 festival was held January 19–22.
Read more about National Winter Ales Festival: Venues
Famous quotes containing the words national, winter and/or festival:
“The national distrust of the contemplative temperament arises less from an innate Philistinism than from a suspicion of anything that cannot be counted, stuffed, framed or mounted over the fireplace in the den.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious by this son of York;
And all the clouds that loured upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Sabbath. A weekly festival having its origin in the fact that God made the world in six days and was arrested on the seventh.”
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)