Blog by Neville Grundy, Southport and West Lancs CAMRA
Wetherspoon’s is holding its customary autumn real ale festival this month. It will be offering up to 30 ales, with five overseas brewers and 25 ales new to Wetherspoon. This selection of real ales will be available during the pub chain’s 12-day real-ale festival, which will run from Wednesday 11th to Sunday 22nd October inclusive. The overseas brewers are from Canada, USA, South Africa and the Czech Republic.
Among the festival beers are vegan beers (which are also suitable for vegetarians) and gluten-free beers. Tasting notes on all of the beers along with allergen information will be available in the pub as part of the festival magazine. A digital version of the magazine will also be available on the app and Wetherspoon website. As usual, you will be able to order your beers at the bar or via the Wetherspoon app.
If you’re unsure which beers to try, or if you fancy trying a wide range, they will sell you three different beers in third-of-a-pint tasting glasses for the price of one pint.
The international beers at the festival will be:
- Zululand Zulu Blonde 4.5% from South Africa.
- New Realm Hoptropolis IPA 6.0% from Georgia in the USA.
- Yazoo Dos Perros 4.8% from Tennessee in the USA.
- Joe’s Garage Bohemian Pale Ale 5.0% from the Czech Republic.
- Steel & Oak Easy Stout 4.0% from British Columbia, Canada.
The Wetherspoons pubs in the Southport and West Lancashire area are:
• The Court Leet, 4 Wheatsheaf Walk, Ormskirk, L39 2XA.
• The Sir Henry Segrave, 93–97 Lord Street, Southport, PR8 1RH.
• The Lifeboat, 41 Three Tuns Lane, Formby, L37 4AQ.
If you’re happy to travel further afield, I can recommend the rather spectacular North Western situated in the 19th century North Western Hotel building on Lime Street in Liverpool.
Millions were spent on restoring this handsome building to its former glory.
In the other direction there is the Twelve Tellers on Church Street in Preston. This is an impressive Baroque-style, grade II listed, building which, as its name suggests, was formerly a bank – and it did indeed have twelve tellers.
► The national CAMRA website is at: camra.org.uk. The Southport & West Lancs Branch website is at southport.camra.org.uk.
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