Dorchester Beerex raises £18,000 for charity

The money is going to the Dorchester Youth and Community Centre.

Author: George SharpePublished 9th Feb 2022

£18,000 - that's how much Dorchester's Beerex festival has raised for charity this year.

Over 1,300 visitors dropped in on the two-day beer event featured 80 beers and 21 ciders this year.

A large part of this year's proceeds will be going to Dorchester Youth & Community Centre (DYCC) which provides an essential service to youngsters and vulnerable people. DYCC also benefited from £2090 from the ongoing raffles over the weekend.

From the festivals inception in 1988 to date over £225K has been raised.

Dorchester Beerex committee Chairman Ellis Ford said:

”After a year with no Beerex we didn't know how successful the event was going to be. It’s been a tremendous success and we are very pleased with how well it’s gone. We are grateful for all the support from local businesses in these difficult times and look forward to Beerex 2023”

This year’s entertainment came from local musician Jack Daniels with an accompanying acoustic set Friday night while Saturday night saw Dorchester/Weymouth band Fluke play up-town funk and bass tunes alongside popular rockier numbers.

This year’s customer voted beer of the festival was won by Christchurch brewery’s Drop the Anchor who took the public vote with their rich, smooth; hazelnut chocolaty flavoured Breaking Glass Porter at a hefty 6%. ABV.

On hearing of the news owner and brewer of Drop the Anchor brewery; Neil Hodgkinson said:

“This is amazing news and really means a lot to me after the past few months, I’m really made up”.

Following in a close second was the collaboration brew from Cerne Abbas & Dorchester’s Copper St brewery with their 8%ABV un-hopped Old English ale recipe.

On hearing of the two winners, the festivals beer procurement officer who selected the 80 beers Rich Gabe said ”It’s always a fantastic credit to local brewers when they win awards and in these changing times it’s great to see public acknowledgment to local breweries and small businesses”.

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