Firstly, thank you for the incredibly understanding response to the sad news that there will be no FyneFest this year – you guys have blown us away with your positivity and support. You’re amazing.

Secondly – we’d like to invite you to FyneFest @ Home on Saturday 6 June 2020!

Now to be honest, we weren’t planning to do anything big to mark the FyneFest weekend, but we’ve had so many people tell us their planning mini-fests in their garden, or zoom calls with the FyneFest pals, that we felt we should do something to help bring a bit of FyneFest to your homes.

So the plan is that we’ll upload a load of videos of the morning of Saturday 6 June to our Youtube channel, put them all in a playlist so they run as a single video, and you can watch them with loved ones, digitally with pals around the UK or pretty much however you want. But what will these videos include? Well, there’ll be:

• – Guided tastings with Fyne Ales Head Brewer Malcolm Downie and Head of Origins Brewing Pawel Nowak.
• – A virtual brewery tour with a member of the expert Fyne Ales team.
• – Q&A with Fyne Ales MD Jamie Delap
• – The BIG FyneFest Quiz hosted by the one and only Elaine!

We’ll also be a few more bits and pieces including a scattering of musical interludes from FyneFest acts, special guest messages and more – and we want you to be part of it! More on that soon. The idea is that you can just watch the segments you want to watch, when you want and pause to fill up your glasses whenever you need to – nice and chilled and bit of fun for everyone missing the glen this June.

But, let’s talk beer – because what would FyneFest be without it?

You’ll be pleased to know that Jarl mini-casks are back in stock on the online shop, and we plan to keep it that way from now on, but what else? Well, our special offer this week is the FyneFest @ Home Mixed Cases!

We’ve put together two mixed cases featuring the beers that Malc and Pawel will be talking about in their tasting videos, so you can taste along with them. We’ve put a bit of a discount on both cases so you can get involved and save a few pennies too.

AND, every year we brew a special beer to launch at FyneFest – and this year is no different. Our first new beer since lockdown, Daydreamer IPA is our hoppiest, softest and juiciest beer ever committed to cask – a reworking of our popular Mixtape #1 that’s unashamedly hazy and perfect for summer garden sipping. It’s on sale now on the online shop – lovely stuff.

Now if you’re thinking about ordering a mixed case or anything for FyneFest @ Home, please ensure your order is in by midday, Tuesday 2 June at the very, very latest so we can try to make sure it gets to you in time for the weekend – the earlier the better, really.

So, what do we want from you?

Well, we want you to send us a wee video, ideally in your garden (or by a window), beer in hand, telling us why you love FyneFest – it can be your favourite memory from previous fests, a shout-out to your FyneFest pals who you only see once a year, or even a song about FyneFest (strongly encouraged). Get creative with it, because not only will we use the vids during FyneFest @ Home, but we’ll pick our favourite videos and send a free case of beer their way after the digital festival.

Film your video, on your phone, tablet – anything really, it doesn’t need to be fancy, and drop it in an email to marketing@fyneales.com (if it’s a big lad, use WeTransfer to get it to us). We ask that all videos are in by midnight Wednesday 3 June to give us time to edit them into the videos.

The second thing – we want your questions for Fyne Ales MD, Jamie Delap! We want to know what you want to know from our big boss – it can be anything about the past, present or future of Fyne Ales, his favourite beer brewed by another brewery, his favourite flavour of ice cream – anything at all to help you get to know our fearless leader. Simply comment on Facebook or @ us your questions on Twitter and we’ll add them to the list for his FyneFest @ Home interview!

So, that’s the rough plan, sounds alright? Aye? We’re looking forward to it and hope you are too – however and wherever you’re watching, join the conversation on Twitter and Instagram with #FyneFestAtHome or tag us, and we’ll be sharing our favourite Tweets and photos on our profiles.

Thanks again for all your support, you wonderful, wonderful folk. We always knew our FyneFest community was special, thank you for continuing to prove it.

Love and Jarl,

Fyne Ales & FyneFest Teams.