Transatlantic strangers meet up at Yapton beer festival

Two New Yorkers struck up a friendship '“ at Yapton's annual beer festival.

The transatlantic angle to the village's beerex arose when an American journalist visited the event to write about real ale for his readers.

Coincidentally, an Englishman who lives in New York and imports casks for ales also decided to visit the village hall festival last weekend.

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Festival organiser Phil Wildsmith said: "When they got chatting, they found out they lived just a few blocks from each other.

"Yet they were completely oblivious to each other until they had travelled all the way to Yapton. That just shows you the interest there is in real ales."

This year's festival was the 20th held by the Western Sussex branch of the Camra real ale group. A total of 67 beers were available for the 1,000 visitors to enjoy along with a selection of ciders and perries.

The perries proved so popular they were all drunk within three hours to reflect their increasing popularity.

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The festival also enjoyed the patronage of representatives of three Sussex breweries as well as several local publicans.

"Everybody knows where we are and looks forward to the festival," said Mr Wildsmith, the Camra branch chairman. "They all had a good time."

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