An independent craft brewer has teamed up with a town club to launch a new beer festival next month. 

The Constitutional Club, on Guildhall Street, Bury St Edmunds will host the event - featuring more than 32 craft beers - on September 20 and 21.

Husband and wife team James Phillips and Kat Lawson-Phillips - who have been brewing beer in a converted shipping container on their family farm at Ixworth for the past four years - worked with Constitutional Club manager Neil Rayson to create the Craft Beer Festival.

James Phillips pouring his beers (Image: Mark Logan)

The eight different craft beer bars at the event will each be run by a top regional, independent craft brewery - with craft beers all poured on keg.

These will range from heavily-hopped New England IPAs, strong stouts, hazy pale ales to sour and fruity beers. They will include Artefact’s popular Jasmine Blonde and national award-winning Black IPA. 

The keg beer festival will be quite different to the much bigger East Anglian Beer and Cider Festival, recently held in the St Edmundsbury Cathedral and organised by West Suffolk CAMRA, say organisers.

James and Kat say they have wanted to hold a purely craft beer festival in Bury St Edmunds for some time but were frustrated by the lack of venues.

Kat approached the club at its spring beer festival to ask about holding it there.

"I just thought - why don’t we work together on this and hold  it here," said Kat.

“Since starting Artefact in Ixworth four years ago, we’ve really wanted to bring more independent craft beer into the town centre, and have been frustrated by the lack of freehold venues that we can sell our beer to - for one-off events and on a more regular basis.

"I know that many other local craft breweries feel the same, so we’ve spent quite a lot of time trying to find a suitable place to use for a one-off craft beer festival in town.

"However, we weren’t having much luck finding somewhere big enough with the right kind of vibe.

"We do a lot of craft beer events at The Pakenham Fox, and once a year we do a big festival at the brewery in Ixworth, which is always well attended, but our customers always ask us to do more in the town centre."

Organisers say they are excited about the event and hope it could be the start of a "new, really cool, dedicated annual craft beer festival for Bury St Edmunds". 

Kat Lawson-Phillips and James Phillips at their beer festival earlier this year (Image: Mark Logan)

"We have so many amazing, independent, small breweries across Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex, producing incredible beers, so this festival will feature a very good line up," said Kat.

Among the other breweries taking part are All Day Brewing in Norfolk. Ampersand Brew Co of Diss, Baker’s Dozen Brewing from Peterborough, Burntmill Brewery in Stowmarket, Briarbank Brewer in Ipswich, Radio City Beer Works of Chelmsford and Three Blind Mice Brewery of Ely. 

There will be a small selection of cask beers pouring on The Constitutional Club’s main bar throughout the festival, featuring special releases from these eight breweries and other limited-edition guest beers.

It will also be a chance to meet brewers from each of the breweries.

Food for the festival will be provided by pizza specialist Adam Lees from Pizza on the Hill which runs a popular pizza takeaway and restaurant business in Diss and a second site in Ixworth which opened last year.

Neil Rayson said: “We are really looking forward to adding a purely Craft Beer Festival to the range of beer festivals that we host at The Constitutional Club, alongside our Spring and Winter Beer Festivals”

"The demand for craft beer is on the rise in the UK and it will be nice to co-host with Artefact, and bring so many great beer innovators under one roof to really engage the public with their products! 

"I’ve worked with Artefact a few times since they launched, and really enjoy their beers. So when Kat and James came to me with this idea, I was really happy to help them and get involved.

"There is definitely a space for this type of event in Bury’s Festival Calendar, and by having each different brewery so heavily involved, I think it will make it something really different and unique!."

Tickets for the first Bury Craft Beer Festival are now on sale and cost £6. This includes for commemorative, reusable 2024 Bury Craft Beer Festival cup  sponsored by Crisp Malt, based in Great Ryburgh in Norfolk and Simpson’s Malt, which has a large maltings in Tivetshall near Norwich.

The festival will run from 3pm to 11.30pm on Friday, September 20, and from noon to 11.30pm on Saturday, September 21.