Springwell Sessions 2023: Spring Edition

This time last week we were at the home of North Brewing for their Spring 2023 instalment of Springwell Sessions. We may have missed last year but managed to get over for the Friday evening session this time. Getting into the festival was very organised, with the ability to purchase tokens for drinks on arrival (with subsequent purchases available once wristbanded and inside). North Beer Club members were also being given £10 of free beer tokens on arrival, which when considering the cost of a ticket was £12 was superb value.

Continuing the same formula from their first on-site festival the line-up mixes standard beer pours complemented by talks on all things beer, including Beer Art with Refold (also better known as the man behind North’s iconic label artwork), discussions with North’s founders, special tastings from Field Recordings and much more. It’s actually a great way to break up the constant drinking cycle of a beer festival and harked back to the earlier days of the BrewDog AGM talks.

As well as North themselves (and their spin-off Field Recordings), the brewery line-up this year included Brulo, Basqueland, Beak, Boundary, Bundobust, Cloudwater, DEYA, Duration, Fuerst Wiacek, Stillwater, Gipsy Hill, Pomona Island, Queer Brewing & To Øl.

It wasn’t just the beer we were welcomed to however; aside from regular vendors Little Bao Boy and Kerbside Kids there was also a massive selection of food from Döner Summer, Salma La Fondita & Poco! - quite literally something for everyone no matter the taste.

As ever it’s impossible to get in every single beer available as much as you’d like to, but some stand-out beers included Bubba by Beak (an 8% DIPA I’d had in a can only the night before), Senescence by DEYA (a super pleasant New Zealand IPA), and an absolute 5 out of 5 banger from Gipsy Hill - not sure what the name of the beer was, but they were serving an epic mixed fermentation saison straight from the bottle (answers on a postcard please…)

You really do get a sense of just how sizeable the new brewery is when it’s fully opened up to wander around. The talks take place within the brewery entrance just to the side of the beer garden, with guest breweries pouring down the main aisle, surrounded by multiple huge fermenters. With plenty of seating both inside and out it didn’t feel too crowded and meant we didn’t have to stand all evening.

Springwell Sessions is back later in the year and you can buy tickets right now.

We attended the Friday evening session on the 28th April 2023