Every day is a beer festival at The Mall Tavern

For beer fans a visit to The Mall Tavern in Notting Hill is always an enjoyable experience because this neighbourhood pub is run by husband-and-wife team Nati and Andy Perritt who are both passionate about the beers they serve.

So much so in fact that they went free-of-tie after paying Stonegate a hefty sun. For this story, read my previous post about the pub on Beer Insider.

My most recent visit was to experience the two-day period when its beer proposition dial is turned up to 11. It was to celebrate the return of its Liquid Dreams beer festival dedicated to championing the very best of independent brewing from across the UK and beyond.

It featured over 100 beers from 50 world-class breweries that were served across the different rooms in the pub with a dedicated Belgium Beers room and one specific to Czech beers. Among the mix was some tremendous strong IPAs that have become rare beasts apart from at specialist beer festivals. I was particularly drawn to some of the international collaborations involving the likes of Omnipollo of Sweden and the West Coast IPAs of the Czech Republic.

It was great to spend time chatting to the passionate servers behind the bars – notably the guys from Cave Direct and Martin Macourek of the Czech Beer Alliance – as well as enjoying the beer chat with a friendly mix of drinkers that the relaxed festival had attracted.

Although Liquid Dreams ran for only two days at the end of February The Mall Tavern has 20-plus lines of interesting beers on at all times so any visit feels very much like you are at a beer festival – only it’s taking place in a lovely pub.

Glynn Davis, editor, Beer Insider