Probably the poshest beer festival in the UK is returning to Manchester in October as it celebrates its third anniversary.

The Great Northern Beer Festival is to run again between the 25th – 27th October at the Mercure Piccadilly Hotel in the city centre. It will see over 260 cask ales and over 120 bottled beers being served in the hotel’s grand ballroom.

This year’s industry report called the Cask Report has revealed that real ales or cask beers are now the only type of beer to be showing a growth in consumption, beating the more mainstream mass produced lagers. In 2011 some 633 million pints, were consumed by UK beer drinkers.

At this year’s festival 110 breweries will be competing for the coveted status of champion of the festival, with winners going through to the national final which will be held in Sheffield in 2013.

There will also be other 45 awards for different types of beer but overall champion of the festival is the most prized award.

Last year’s event saw over 3800 people attend over the three days, sampling craft ales from Yorkshire, Merseyside, Lancashire, Cumbria, Northumberland and the Isle of Man.

Chairman of the organising committee, Malcolm Ireland of Napthens solicitors said: “The growth of craft or real ales hasn’t seen any signs of abating. Beer drinkers are putting quality and local provenance high up on the agenda when looking for beers to drink and coming to the festival will be a good way of seeing what great ales are now on offer from across the North.

“We are hoping to see around 5,000 people attend this year’s event as it is gaining in momentum and popularity.”

Winners of each specific category will go through to the national competition called Beerex to be held in Sheffield next year.