The Clacton Air Show put extra thrust into the town’s 21st Real Ale and Cider Festival.

From Wednesday to Saturday, the St James Hall was packed out like a German beerhaus, as thousands enjoyed the 80-plus beers and ciders originally on sale.

But hot weather and thirsty throats helped whittle down the choice, leading to extra supplies being drafted in for Saturday.

Among the first to go was the recently voted Supreme Champion Beer of Britain, Bingham’s Vanilla Stout, sold out by Thursday afternoon.

Festival organiser Jeff Luesley said the event was “extremely busy” for himself and the 50-plus volunteers over the four days, including the dozen or so who cleared up on Sunday.

The volunteers wore distinctive T-shirts with a Nimrod on the front to honour the air show which celebrated 25 successful years. The specially-made beer glasses had the same design.

Around 80 nine-gallon casks were sold, which Tendring CAMRA expects will mean a ‘surplus’ for the not-for-profit organisation.

“It’s about the campaign. We get an awful number of people who drink the regular beers and ciders. They come in and we get them to realise there’s a variety of these products rather than fizzy beer and fizzy cider,” Jeff explained.

“People then pop into pubs for the real beers and real ciders as opposed to Carlsberg or Carling,” he said.

Tendring CAMRA split off from Colchester CAMRA around 12 years ago and then just had less than 200 members.

Now, the local branch estimates the 20-or-so that signed up during the festival will mean the numbers now top 700. Nationally, CAMRA has more than 170,000 members.

Jeff, who has been involved in organising beer festivals for nearly ten years, believes CAMRA is helping to bring change to the brewing and pub trades.

“When I first started out organising, those going to beer festivals would mainly be in their 50s and 60s, with just a sprinkling of youngsters. Now, many are in their 30s and their mid-20s. Youngsters today are far more discerning. They want new tastes. Youngsters who went for lager-type drinks are now going for dark beers as they love the taste,” he said.

“We ran out of dark beers before the light ones, which was amazing. Pubs should stock more real ales if they want to survive,” he added.

Tendring CAMRA’s next beer festival is at Parkeston Railway Club from Wednesday November 23 to Saturday November 26.