BEER lovers from London, Leicester and York were drawn on a hop-scented cloud to the annual Wantage Beer Festival this weekend.

Hundreds of punters sampled glasses of locally-brewed ales and ciders, listened to home-brewed Wantage music and watched the Six Nations on a big screen at the town’s Beacon hall on Friday and Saturday.

The event, organised by the White Horse branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) also saw members present their annual awards for best pubs and clubs.

It was the second year the annual festival was back at the Beacon after being moved out temporarily in 2014.

CAMRA branch chairman Ian Winfield said: “It was a a great weekend and we had really positive feedback.

“Lots of people said it was very friendly, the music was well-received and the Six Nations was enjoyed by everybody.”

He said a particular success had been the Beacon’s decision to serve hot food – pasties, pies and sausage rolls – which sold out on the Friday night.

Among the punters was 29-year-old Robin Kappen-Rutterford who lives in Wantage and went along to the festival on Saturday.

He said: “This was my first CAMRA event and it was really enjoyable.

“The staff were very friendly and there was a great selection of beer. My personal favourite was Bellinger’s Brewery’s Arnhem.”

This year’s CAMRA branch awards winners were as follows:

White Horse Pub of the Year: The Royal Oak, Wantage (runner-up: The Shoulder of Mutton, Wantage)

White Horse Country Pub of the Year: The Greyhound, Letcombe Regis

White Horse Cider Pub of the Year: The Royal Oak, Wantage

White Horse Club of the Year: Stanford Social Club, Stanford in the Vale

The Royal Oak and Stanford Social Club both won their categories in the Oxfordshire CAMRA awards and are now going through to the Central Southern finals.

This year’s Beer of the Festival was named as Forest Fruit Porter, from Flash House brewery in North Shields, while Cider of the Festival was Hitchcox Dry from Oxfordshire’s own Orchard Cottage Cider.

The festival also persuaded 16 people to sign up as CAMRA members and raised an estimated £200 for Wantage’s October Club for Alzheimer’s sufferers.

Looking to 2019, Mr Winfield said the one change the group had already decided on was to rename the event the Wantage Beer and Cider Festival, to pull in even more punters.