WELL, actually, beer festivals happen the year round, at venues all across the country, but there happen to be a number in our area during the summer.

These days there's much more to beer festivals than drinking pints of dark brown stuff in some dodgy old sports hall.

Once patronised only by balding men sporting pot-bellies, shorts and sandals (with socks of course), a younger crowd are now likely to be among the clientele. Things have definitely improved!

Many festivals also now offer third of a pint measures to enable (responsible) sampling of many different beers.

And, despite the plethora of real ales now available in many pubs, it's still one of your best bets for supping new beers, and old favourites, brewed locally or from further afield.

It may also be an opportunity to try one of the increasing number of gluten-free beers being brewed – they have tended to be lager-style but bucking (or perhaps, making!) the trend is Yorkshire’s Brass Castle brewery with their 4.3 per cent Hoptical Illusion.

While the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) continues to run the Great British Beer Festival and local branches organise their own beer festivals, many real ale pubs now also have beer festivals, often with as many as 40 beers and often including live music.

Festivals in our area this summer include:

Friday June 10 to Sunday, June 12: Spring Beer Festival at the Kings Arms, Silsden.

Friday, June 17 to Saturday, June 19: Beer and Music festival at The Turkey Inn, Goose Eye.

Friday June 24 to Saturday, June 25: Airefest Beer Festival, Airedale Heifer, Sandbeds.

Friday July 15 to Saturday, July 16: Beer Festival at Steeton Cricket Club.

And of course, the CAMRA Skipton Beer Festival ran earlier this week, with more than 70 real ales, ciders, perries and Yorkshire wines.

Sadly there will be no Keighley Beer Festival this year.

The Keighley and Craven CAMRA website is keighleyandcraven.camra.org.uk.

Have you missed any of the previous Down The Pub articles in the Keighley News? See the previous articles written by CAMRA volunteers by visiting keighleynews.co.uk, clicking on What’s On then Food & Drink.