ALE aficionados from as far away as Germany sipped their way through almost 5,000 pints at the 8th Redhill Beer Festival.
Crowds were up seven per cent on last year with 1,273 people attending the three-day event at Merstham Village Hall between Thursday and Saturday.
One group of visitors even travelled from Cologne just to sample the best of British beer, pie and Scotch eggs.
"The biggest surprise was a party of guys who came over to Gatwick, spent four hours at the festival, and then flew back," said organiser Clive Jennings. "They just came over for the festival, it was quite incredible. They told people here that our beer is better and the food was better.
"The festival was a great success. We couldn't have asked for more.
"All the comments were fantastic. Everyone said there was a wonderful selection, the beer was in great condition and the food was good. There were no negative comments at all. A lot of people commented it is the best small beer festival around."
Organised with the East and Mid Surrey branch of CAMRA, the festival offered 68 different beers, plus ten ciders and perries.
Punters downed 4,728 pints, with just 200 left undrunk at the festival's end.
An army of 70 volunteers helped run the event at the hall in Station Road North.
Attendees voted Dorking's Surrey Hills brewery's Greensand IPA as their "beer of the festival".
