The ready availability of good beer is, arguably, as crucial to camping as a sound tent or warm sleeping bag. So what better than camping at a brewery tap or at a campsite that has a fantastic brewery next door? We pick sites from wild and remote to luxurious, with great ale guaranteed at all.
Rivington Brewing Co, Lancashire
Below Rivington Pike, this Pennine hamlet between Bolton and Chorley is a hub of outdoorsy activity. After exploring the terraced gardens running up to its Grade-II listed 18th-century tower or clambering around at Go Ape,Rivington Brewing’s tap is a great place to rehydrate. Housed in handsome, historic farm buildings by a reservoir, Rivi makes modern, hop-forward craft beers (Beach House cask pale or hazy, juicy 5.2% Never Known Fog Like It). Street food vendors set up shop in its garden and, in a neighbouring field there are bell tents for beer lovers and hard pitches for caravans.
Pitch from £20, bell tent for two £65, rivingtonbrewing.co.uk
Tarka Trail Camping, north Devon
This simple, family-run site is on the eponymous 180-mile north Devon trail and overlooks the River Taw estuary. It has views to spare and is an excellent base for walkers, cyclists and surfers heading to Westward Ho! and Woolacombe. Next door, Yelland Manor Brewery’s bar is a similar find. A traditionalist, owner Lawrence Weatherston brews one bitter with English fuggle hops, which he changes, every few months, by using different historic brewing yeasts. Yeast, as Weatherston describes it, is the unsung key to the character and diversity of real ale. There is also wine, cider or G&T, a conservatory with views to Lundy, andpizzas made with those vibrant yeasts.
Adult from £12.50; tarkatrailcamping.co.uk
Gwaun Valley Brewery, Pembrokeshire
This brewery and neighbouring campsite (since 2019, separate but closely allied businesses) enjoy splendid views of the Preseli Hills over the Gwaun Valley and easy access to local woodlands or, further afield, Pembrokeshire’s celebrated coast. In the brewery tap, brewer Nigel Smith’s range encompasses both on-point takes on traditional styles, such as his porter and best bitter, and more contemporary creations, including a white IPA, a wheat beer hybrid, and Cwrw Melyn, his bestselling blond ale made with the distinctive US hop citra. On the last Saturday of each month, the brewery – a former grain store – hosts acoustic sessions with local musicians.
Pitch for two from £15, gwaunvalleybrewery.com
Little Earth Project at the White Horse Inn, Suffolk
Close to South Suffolk Cycle Route A1 and the ancient woodlands of Groton Wood nature reserve – Little Earth brewery makes sour, funky, wild fermented and barrel-aged beers. Its Echoes of Summer (made with summer fruit, stored for winter) and “stock ale” (a historic, long-aged beer) are served in its neighbouring pub, the White Horse, alongside beers from regional breweries such as Burnt Mill and Ampersand, traditional Castlings Heath Cottage cider and natural wines. Food includes charcuterie and cheeseboards, weekend sourdough pizzas and regular guest street food. Drinkers can ditch a tent or park a campervan in the adjacent field.
Camping £9pp, edwardstonewhitehorse.co.uk
Beech Estate campsite & Battle Brewery, East Sussex
Set within a 243-hectare (600-acre) wood, this wild camping and glamping site consists of 30 off-grid pitches, including eight pre-erected bell tents and meadows for group bookings that can accommodate up to 15 families. The site’s back-to-nature vibe encourages campers to build dens, go bug-hunting, and enjoy firepit fun. Refreshments are readily available, with three mapped walking routes taking in local pubs. It is a mile or so to Battle Brewery’s onsite tap bar (Sat, 12-7pm during the summer months), and footpaths lead into Battle itself, where, on the high street, Battle Tap Room serves pints of the brewery’s citrusy, hoppy Abbey IPA or its rye ale Alan The Red.
Adults from £24, pegsandpitches.co.uk
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Snowdonia Parc, Gwynedd
Two miles from the start of the Snowdon Ranger Path, this brewpub and campsite is popular with (serious) walkers, cyclists and families. The site, by the River Gwyrfai, takes tents, caravans and motorhomes and has three new glamping pods. It is very close to the narrow-gauge steam Welsh Highland Railway station. In Snowdonia Parc’s cellar, owner Carmen Pierce has been brewing for two decades, producing beers ranging from Theodore, a complex stout, to hoppy pales such as Aur Eryri Gold and zesty Trithro, made with Falconer’s Flight, a blend of US Pacific north-west hop varieties.
Pitches for two adults, £25, snowdonia-park.co.uk
Spilsbury & Jones, Orleton Court Farm, Worcestershire
Orleton Court Farm has been growing hops for generations and, in 2017, owner Tom Spilsbury and master brewer Tony Jones began using challenger and fuggle varieties to make their own beer. They now make several lagers and ales, such as Ernest, a showcase for this fruity, eponymous English hop. A brewery tap-bar was opened in 2021, popular in summer for its beer, barbecue, woodfired pizza and live music. Those camping around Orleton Court or rolling up in campervans (no set pitches), can relax at the tap after a day exploring the farm’s orchards, paddleboarding on the adjacent River Teme or pottering around Tenbury Wells.
Pitch from £25, on facebook.com/Orletoncourtfarmcampsite
Grain Brewery & Broadwash Farm Glamping, Norfolk
There’s a huge variety of accommodation within walking distance of the rural Grain Brewery tap. The likes of Choo Choo Moo’s converted train carriages (two nights for two from £250) and Broadwash Farm’s super-luxurious, secluded glamping tents offer comfort that would convert even the most ardent urbanite to country life. Grain Brewery produces impeccable ales that run the gamut stylistically, with an undercurrent of fondness for German and Belgian beers. Its tap at South Farm attracts local beer lovers, holidaymakers, walkers following circular routes around Alburgh, and cyclists.
From £150 a night for two, minimum two nights, broadwashglamping.com
Cheviot Brewery, Northumberland
Running along the Till valley, the family-owned Ford and Etal estates already boasted multiple attractions (castles, steam railway, numerous walking and cycling routes, including sections used in the Reivers road race), before Cheviot Brewery opened in 2018. During the pandemic, this maker of traditional cask ales (Upland bitter, Black Hag stout, Harbour Wall pale), and new-wave US-hopped beers, opened a public tap-bar and, in 2021, added accommodation ranging from centrally heated single-sleeper cabins and bell tents to swanky glamping pods. Campers from nearby Ford Bridge campsite use the tap too, and Cheviot Brewery also runs the thatched Black Bull in Etal.
Single cabins £40, bell tents for two from £86, minimum two nights, cheviotbrewery.co.uk
Missing Link Brewing, West Sussex
A 130-hectare estate in the High Weald, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Chiddinglye is a rural hideaway a short hop from London or Brighton. In a former dairy and sawmill, cutting-edge Missing Link has created an attractive brewery and tap, where beer geeks will find all their latest kveik yeast or cold-fermented IPA needs catered for. In summer the party spills out into a huge field, with street food trucks adding to the menu options, and day trippers bringing their own outdoor games and gazebos. Nearby, there are also 10 hi-spec heated glamping pods, with kitchens and en suites, sleeping between two and six. Foraging and adventuring tours of the estate are available, and Ashdown Forest or Kew Gardens’ offshoot Wakehurst are nearby.
Pods from £80, missinglinkbrewing.com