BEERS from across the UK, Europe and the USA were on offer in Alice Street's Central Hall for Keighley's 2014 Beer Festival.

The event ran from last Thursday to last Saturday and was arranged by volunteers from the Keighley and Craven branch of the Campaign for Real Ale. (CAMRA) Speaking last Saturday afternoon, co-ordinator Denny Cornell-Howarth said: "We had a quiet first day but yesterday went really well.

"People have come along, stayed and enjoyed themselves, and we've had good numbers through the doors.

"We still have a good range of beers left today, thanks to our excellent bar team.

"This is the 26th year we've had the festival and it's our third year in Central Hall. It's a lovely venue and the feedback about it has been very positive. Central Hall has a lot of history for many people in Keighley.

"One man who came to the festival said he was once here as a school boy, because the building was then used by Keighley Boys' Grammar School. He said it felt quite strange to be coming back to school for a beer!"

She added the festival had featured a range of English draft beers from as far south as Cornwall and as far north as Durham.

"We've also served beers from America, Italy, Germany and Belgium," she said. "A lot of the American beers are never normally seen in this country."

The festival, which raised money for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal, hosted the Yorkshire and North East area final judging of the bitter category for CAMRA’s Champion Beer of Britain competition. 

Judges blind-tasted eight beers and the winner was Timothy Taylor’s Boltmaker. 

Boltmaker won the 2014 National Champion Beer of Britain competition at the Great British Beer Festival in August. Victory in Keighley means it has now won the first stage to enable it to go forward to the 2015 competition. Goose Eye Brewery’s bitter came second in the blind tasting.

Festival goers also voted for their favourite beer. The winner was North Riding Brewery’s Peasholm Pale from Scarborough. Second was Bad Kitty from Brass Castle brewery in Malton.

The winner of the popular vote for cider/perry was The Hogfather cider, produced by Orchard Pig in Somerset.

The beer festival was opened by Keighley town mayor Councillor Graham Mitchell.

He said: "I'm old enough to remember when every public house in Keighley had an array of hand-pumps, and nothing but hand-pumps, dispensing hand-pulled Taylors, Tetleys, Hammonds, Ramsdens, and we thought nothing of it.

"And then came the brewery takeovers, and the closures and the Fizz Pumps everywhere, and the truly dreadful Watney’s Draught Red Barrel.

"Thankfully, at the time of greatest need, CAMRA was born as the first and arguably the greatest of the consumer organisations and the fightback began.

"It was a long struggle for real ale drinkers to turn around the market and defeat the mega-brewers, but what a way we've come in the last half century.

"Not only have we through consumer pressure, rescued many of the original brews of our fathers and grandfathers, but we've seen an unprecedented growth of micro-breweries."