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8,000 pints go down at city festival
by Peter Lazenby A NORTH/SOUTH beer festival staged by two Leeds city centre pubs sold 8,000 PINTS in a single weekend, leaving the two cellars virtually dry.
The two licencees said customers flocked to the festival in their hundreds to sample more than 80 "real" ales. Enthusiasts ranged from students to veteran beer drinkers and included young women converts to the cause of real ale. Now the pubs plan to repeat the event in the future.
The novel beer festival involved two of Leeds' favourite traditional pubs – The Grove at Holbeck and The Scarborough opposite Leeds city station.
The Grove is south of the River Aire as it flows through Leeds city centre, and The Scarborough is just a few hundred yards away north of the river.
Licencees John Rowe (Grove) and Toby Flint decided to give the festival a north-south theme, with the Scarborough serving beers from northern breweries with a creamy head, and the Grove serving the beers from south of Yorkshire.
At the end of the day both pubs sold out, although the larger Scarborough sold most.
Toby said: "To say it was a success would be an under-statement. It was incredible, real ale in Leeds really is alive and kicking. In the end we sold out of all of our guest beers and a few more.
"At the Scarborough we sold 61 different ales in seven days, a total of 4,300 pints (give or take one or two!)
Unbelievable! I could never have predicted this kind of response. We had all the normal beery-type people coming in but also lots of younger – possibly students – and plenty of them were young ladies trying our ales.
"They're not normally associated with real ale."
Down at the Grove, manager John and his staff sold out of 25 beers in four days. They shifted 144 barrels of beer – or 3,456 pints.
John said: "We were sold out by Monday. We could not get it served fast enough. People just couldn't get into the place."
Toby said: "We will be doing the same festival next year at the same time – last week in January. I may try for 100 beers!"
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Friday 25 May 2012
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