3,744 gallons of beer was drunk at this year's Ealing Beer Festival despite a council blunder contributing to a 40 per cent drop in attendance.

Over 10,000 visitors turned up to Walpole Park to sample real ales over the four day festival which began on  Wednesday July 2 and ended on Sunday July 6.

However the attendance was down from previous years, which usually see over 17,000 people attending. Organisers have blamed the drop in part, on Ealing Council, who printed in their Ealing Summer Festival publication that anyone under 18 will not be admitted and anyone under 21 will need ID.

The family friendly festival suffered as a result with with mums and dads wanting to sample some ales unable to bring the whole family.

Despite this misinformation, which curiously the council have point blank denied, a total of 29,952 pints were pulled and 307 different beers and ciders were almost sold out.

Vice chair of the West Middlesex Campaign for Real Ale, Roy Tunstall said: "The council sent out their Ealing Summer Festivals leaflet months ago and in it they wrongly said that nobody under the age of 18 would be admitted, which is categorically incorrect and potentially damaging to the festival. Families and their children have always been welcome at the event. Luckily I noticed the editorial was wrong on the website but the copy in the leaflet never got to me so thousands of copies were printed with the wrong information, putting off thousands of would be festival goers. I'm hoping for an apology and I'm sure it will be mentioned when the council come to discuss the park fee."

An Ealing Council spokesperson said: “We are really happy to have supported the Ealing Beer Festival for another successful year, with a range of different free publicity material.  The information on one leaflet was slightly briefer than what appeared on the website but none of the material about the Beer Festival stated that families were not welcome. We understand this year’s event was so popular the beer almost ran out and so far all the reports we’ve heard have been really positive.  We look forward to enjoying the other upcoming events in the Ealing Summer Festival calendar.”

Festival organiser Graham Harrison said. "I am absolutely delighted that over 10,000 visitors joined us in our 112m marquee in Walpole Park to celebrate our silver jubilee, tasting a range of the best beers, ciders and perries in the country. Despite increasing the beer order from last year we had to make two re-orders so that we could offer a wide choice on our final day."

Now in it's 25th year, Ealing Beer Festival included West London breweries as well as breweries from Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany and Denmark.

A selection of wines from Brightwell and Lyme Bay were also on sale and, new for 2014, Highland wineries.

Ealing is now gearing up for the next exciting event with the Ealing Comedy Festival which starts on Friday.