We have a three day Chester based tour open for September Wednesday 6th to Friday 8th. The first day will be a visit to a Chester brewer and historic pubs, the second a day in vibrant Liverpool and the third day a trip to Shropshire to visit a unique brewery followed by several wonderfully atmospheric pubs in beautiful Shrewsbury. You can join the whole three day tour with accommodation in Chester or for individual days.
Later in September we will again tour Liverpool on Thursday 21st and North Wales on Saturday 23 for a mini bus tour to a brewery and country inns. If interested in any of these tours please contact us now for details on steve@beertoursuk.com
THE BEST OF BRITISH BEER TOURISM
WITH GROUND BREAKING TOURS
Our tours offer a fascinating glimpse into the rich and varied tapestry of the independent British cask ale brewing scene, all interwoven with visits to our unique British pubs.These are simply beer tours you just can't do alone.
We work closely with long-standing transport, brewery and pub partners to bring you a smooth and memorable beer experience to treasure- see our testimonials.
For 2024/25 we warmly welcome enquiries, both for our established tours around the North West of England and North Wales and new roll outs - including a tour to the beautiful Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors or a Hop Walk in Herefordshire..
​
Please enquire at steve@beertoursuk.com or ring 07751 578605 (mobile) or +44 (0) 1829 250502 for more information.We love to talk through our tours.
​
Newsflash: EXCITING NEW TOURS FOR 2025
BEER TOURS UK LAUNCHES NEW NORTHERN TOURS - FEATURING A COAST-TO-COAST BEER ODYSSEY
For 2025 we have rolled out fresh opportunities in Northern England.
Exciting new tours are offered covering Yorkshire’s panoramic North York Moors, the idyllic Dales, and into the majestic Lake District.
For the adventurous, the individual area tours available will be joined up in a spectacular Coast-to-Coast Beer Odyssey across the three gloriously scenic National Parks.
These new tours add to well-established itineraries in North West England, North Wales, and Shropshire. For more than 10 years Chester-based Beer Tours UK has hosted guests from Australia, the United States, Scandinavia, and Japan alongside homegrown groups with an ethos to visit hidden and hard-to-reach beer venues.
The bespoke tours welcome both veteran beer enthusiasts and novices alike, often groups of family and friends for special occasions while still meeting the needs of the lone traveller.
Our aim remains to seek out the hidden gemstones of cask-conditioned ale. Nowadays, in tune with the market, we see brewers producing both cask and craft ales, but we firmly hold that cask ale makes for unique journeys of beer discovery. Many overseas visitors want to try a British pint in a proper British pub – we meet that desire in spades. Many of them see only London and Edinburgh, for beer lovers we help fill in the gap to reveal the glory of northern England and its wonderful world of beer and pubs.
With great flexibility, if required, we can dovetail tours with parties undertaking other activities such as outdoor pursuits, touring historic sites, or enjoying heritage railways. Our star tour next year will take us from Yorkshire’s North Sea coastline across the Pennines to the Cumbrian shores of the Irish Sea. Over several days we will visit independent brewers and outstanding country inns, all interwoven with regular tourism in the beguiling northern landscape of rugged hills and towering mountains. Quite a beer journey to remember. ​Early interest from individuals or group will be welcomed. Please contact steve@beertoursuk.com
​​
June Tour will visit Chester, North Wales, Liverpool and Shropshire
Join us for four days and four (or five) nights for an exceptional beer sojourn you won't find anywhere else
DAY ONE: This day we will explore historic Chester. Meet at your hotel between 12 to 1pm followed by a complimentary ‘greet beer’ with other tour members at a nearby pub. We will spend the afternoon/early evening getting to know Chester, including a walk on the city walls, with a brewpub visit with tasting and snack lunch (included) and a selection of interesting city pubs all with a fine selection of cask ales. You will learn something of the intriguing histories of the pubs and sample local ales. In the early evening there will be a dining opportunity in a traditional pub. This day will give you a good insight into the layout of the city’s centre for sightseeing during your stay.
​
DAY TWO: We visit splendidly bustling Liverpool. We call at a fine Merseyside brewery followed by a tour of several fascinating city pubs - including one that has been in every edition of the Camra Good Beer Guide - with a little ‘normal’ sightseeing thrown (we have our own city guide), for instance a visit to the majestic Anglican Cathedral is very worthwhile.
​
DAY THREE: This will be a big day with a larger party by minibus. We will leave Chester 10.30am and return for approximately 9pm. We will visit North Wales for a brewery tour and visits to several characterful rural pubs, some dating back to drover days in the 1800s. We will sample some fine locally produced and award-winning ales.
​​
DAY FOUR: Another small group day, we will visit Manchester or Shrewsbury by train. Both are fascinating in their own particular ways, Manchester based on an industrial history now developing as a modern city where we will visit an award-winning brewery with beers in a variety of styles and find historic pubs hidden among the new development. In Shrewsbury we will discover highly characterful pubs with a great variety of cask ales from the Midlands and North among the wonderful Georgian and wood framed Tudor architecture.
​
ACCOMMODATION: We recommend a privately run central Chester hotel for four nights, which includes full breakfast and access to the swimming pool, gym and spa. A converted mill, this hotel is only a few minutes’ walk from the city centre to the cathedral and other sights. There is a restaurant, while the public bar also hosts several fine cask beers. Past tour guests have enjoyed this hotel.
The tour fee (to be quoted on request) includes five nights single room accommodation in the superior city centre hotel quoted. (Hotels can be varied as required). We include the extra night at the beginning to allow for arrival the day before the tour begins, however, arrival in Chester by approximately 1pm to begin on the first day (Wednesday) is perfectly possible if travelling from London that day. If flying into Manchester International Airport transfer to Chester will be arranged on request. The tour fee also includes transport for four days and all brewery visits with tastings. Please contact: steve@beertoursuk.com
​​
​​
​​​
We also offer WALKING TOURS IN CHESTER LIVERPOOL and MANCHESTER
Take a stroll with us around the fascinating and historic pubs of Chester,Liverpool. and Manchester. These tours can be tailored to your group for either the compact 2.5 hours early evening pub experience or our 4 hour afternoon tour, which takes in a brewery visit with light lunch. If you wish, you can decided the length of time you require for a small party. Contact us now for a summer tour experience.
Unique to Britain
Cask ale and our wonderful pubs - many dating back centuries - are unique to Britain.
I have had the pleasure of going on 2 beer tours with Steve Hobman from Beer Tours UK. The first was to North Wales and Liverpool in 2013, and the second was to the Peak District and Manchester in 2018.
​
On each tour we visited both rural and city local breweries and pubs, some were classic examples from the Victorian era and early 20th Century. We sampled both traditional British real ales as well as some newer, craft beer styles.
​
Steve not only has a fantastic knowledge of British beer, but he ensures we learnt some of the history and culture of the places we visited.
​
The accommodation on both holidays was in delightful pubs, and the tours were well planned and paced.
​
As a British expat visiting the UK it was a great way of seeing parts of Britain I had never seen and enjoying the best of British beer.
Mark Davies
Australia
All About Cask Ale
Beer Tours UK has a very special offer in British beer tourism. We arrange bespoke tours for small groups, with enormous flexibility. Since we began, we have welcomed beer enthusiasts from Canada, the USA, Japan, Scandinavia and Australia along with many homegrown groups.
As a pioneer in British beer tourism, we have been leading both ale veterans and ale novices to breweries and pubs across northern England and North Wales for several years. We started out way with a clear mission to showcase the unique national heritage of craft cask-conditioned ale alongside the iconic British pub - the only place you can drink cask.
Yes, we do recognise and respect the talents and creativity of the new craft keg brewers - and some of our brewing partners we visit now brew in both styles. And we may even trip over a craft gin producer or two. But cask ale and our wonderful pubs, many dating back centuries - from characteristic city centre ‘boozers’ to grand old coaching inns – are unique to Britain. Our tours celebrate them. This is really good fun beer tourism that you just can’t manage alone. We know the brewers, we know the pubs and we know the beers - well a quite a lot anyway.
The Tours
With tailored itineraries for organised groups or simply like-minded individuals, we travel to cask ale brewers across rural Cheshire and Shropshire and the wonderfully vibrant cities of Manchester, Liverpool, and Leeds while also heading into the dramatic landscapes of North Wales, the Peak District and the Yorkshire Dales – all wonderful backdrops for tours. We can also arrange tours in London, the Lake District, Scotland and the West Country or other parts of the UK.
A visit to Stonehouse Brewery.
Steve Hobman
Founder | Lead Tours Advisor
Beer Tours UK is headed by beer writer and brewing media consultant Steve Hobman. Steve is a member of the British Guild of Beer Writers and the Brewing History society.
Beer Tours UK is featured in articles across Europe for our experience in British beer tourism.
Maltesen Magazine | Issue 116 | 2019
BEER Magazine | Issue 24 | Summer 2014
