Ale fans flocked to the Snooty Fox pub, next to Canonbury station, for the annual event which introduces different hop varieties to punters and celebrates the new hop season.
The pub’s general manager, Steve Taylor, told Islington Now that the festival first appealed to him nine years ago.
“It takes a few years to get established,” Mr Taylor explained, “but this pub was known as a good one for it from the start”.
He has been interested in cask ale all his life and thinks this year’s festival has been one of the best.
The pub is a member of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) “LocAle” scheme, which encourages pubs to stock locally brewed cask ale. It also won the CAMRA North London Pub of the Season in 2011.
As part of the scheme, the pub pledges to stock at least one locally brewed ale at all times. However, during the ale festival this was extended to include a selection from what the pub described as five “real, trusted brewers”, including Redemption Brewing, Five Points, East London Brewing and Hackney Brewery.
MA Newspaper Journalism student