Time for Beer: Hastings Tap Takeover 22
This weekend, from 7-9 October, the UK’s largest fully independent town-wide beer festival returns to venues across Hastings and St Leonards. Fifteen independently run pubs, bars, and bottle shops are taking part, including The Marina Fountain, The Tower, Heist, Twelve Hundred Postcards and The Crown. Each venue will each showcase an independent brewery of their choice over the weekend.
The Hastings Tap Takeover was conceived by local bottle shop, Eel and Bear, and the Jolly Fisherman pub, to showcase the amazing range of independent craft breweries operating in the UK and beyond, as well as to bring together the ever-growing wealth of independently run, beer-focused establishments in Hastings and St Leonards.
The event proved very popular in 2019 and 2021 and drew beer lovers from all over the Southeast. Attendees require no tickets or wristbands, simply a venue map to plot their exploration … or pub crawl.
This year’s line-up reflects the great diversity of the independent beer scene itself and features some of the newest UK craft breweries as well as the most highly regarded, such as Overtone in Glasgow and Verdant in Penryn. There are also beers from further afield: The Jolly Fisherman, for instance, is hosting a range of beers from an Estonian Brewery, Pohjala (famous for its stouts). Over 100 beer lines are due to be turned over for the weekend – more than in previous years. Simply look on Instagram or on their FB page to find out about each of the breweries being showcased and the range of beers they offer, with even some non-alcoholic options and kombuchas.
The Takeover gives drinkers a chance to explore lines not commonly found around Hastings and to discover an abundance of pales, bitters, porters, and lagers – including some intriguing descriptions of brews (pastry sour? chocolate fudge milk stout?).
• For the full line-up, map and more information, please visit www.hastingstaptakeover.com, or follow @hastingstaptakeover on Instagram or Facebook.
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