SAY three cheers for 33 beers – the annual Hall and Woodhouse festival is fast approaching.

It takes place on Saturday, September 27 and the brewery in Blandford and this year brewers are hoping to raise even more for Macmillan Cancer Support.

“The turn out last year and the atmosphere was better than we could have imagined – so we didn’t hesitate to get this year’s date in the diary,” said head brewer Toby Heasman.

“We will have more than 33 cask beers to try and a veritable orchard of ciders too, so we hope to see plenty of people on the day trying new ales and ciders and enjoying the bands we have coming.”

Music will be provided by a trio of different bands; Brementown are a three-piece, Dorset-based contemporary folk band, playing a mix of modern and traditional instruments and offering folk songs, shanties and dances. The Tin Pan Allies are a strolling vaudeville band playing acoustic jazzy entertainment and finally, a three piece Ukulele band The Mother Ukers will play modern day classics with a spot of ‘Ukular Fusion’ thrown in for good measure. Toby added: “We are also holding a Silent Auction and I’ve promised that I will host an exclusive beer tasting as an auction lot, and one other lucky winner will also have the opportunity win their height in beer. No stilts allowed just in case anyone was thinking of bringing a pair along.”

Hall & Woodhouse has been brewing in Dorset since 1777 and is one of the UK’s leading independent brewers.

The company’s new brewhouse continues the legacy and secures the future of brewing in Blandford for the next 100 years. The brewery, now managed by the fifth generation of the Woodhouse family, makes ales under the Badger brand, which are brewed with Dorset spring water filtered through the Cretaceous chalk downs and drawn up 120 feet from the Brewery’s own wells. Hall & Woodhouse would like to thank other local breweries that have been keen to support the Beer Festival – these include: Piddle Brewery, Palmers, Sixpenny Brewery, Otter Brewery, Small Paul Brewery, Corfe Castle, Dorset Brewing Company, Isle of Purbeck, Hopback, Keystone, Yeovil Ales, Timothy Taylor with nine ciders from Hall & Woodhouse, Westons and the local Cranborne Chase Cider. Tickets costing £5 are available online at hallwoodhousebeerfest. com and there will be a limited number of tickets available on the day.

All money raised will go to Macmillan.