The landlord of a Burton pub is hoping that their popular beer and sausage festival will overcome the current "uncertainty of the bridge closure" and prove to be one of their busiest events ever.
Carl Stout is the landlord of the Burton Bridge Inn, in Bridge Street, and has been speaking ahead of their 17th beer and sausage festival, which is normally the highlight of the pub's calendar.
But Mr Stout has told the Burton Mail that he has concerns that traffic issues around Burton because of the closure of St Peter's Bridge may impact the number of customers they get at the usually popular event.
The bridge, which connects Burton to Stapenhill, has been closed since Tuesday, August 29, as repairs are made to rusted bearings. Without the work the highways authority would have to impose a weight limit. St Peter's Bridge is due to reopen at the end of November, three months after work started.
Mr Stout said: "It's just the uncertainty in the back of your mind. With the type of operation we have with the festival, once the beer is opened it has to be sold, so we need people in. There are concerns with the uncertainty that there is both in and around the town with the bridge closure.
"But it's a really strong event and I remember one beer festival when the road was actually closed out the front of the pub and I think that was about five years ago.
"We held a beer festival and it really didn't make an awful lot of difference, so, fingers crossed, it'll be exactly the same this time round.
"But I think everyone in the town has been affected in one way or another; it's just one of those things that you just need to work through. We're trying to continue as we do, trying to do business as usual. But one thing I can definitely say is that this bridge will be open at the weekend."
The festival, which runs twice a year, will begin at 5pm on Thursday, October 5, and will run until late. It will continue from noon until late on Friday, October 6, and Saturday, October 7, with a live music performance on the Saturday evening. The act will be revealed on the night.
There will be 31 different beers on offer, an incredible 24 more than the number usually on offer at the pub and come from across the United Kingdom, from Scotland to Burton. For example, the Albion Bitter, is brewed in Burton, while Scottish beer Jarl has travelled all the way from Cairndow, a small hamlet in Scotland.
Mr Stout continued: "We've got a range beers, 24 outside and a further seven inside, they come from as far away as Scotland and some are from as close as Hawkins Lane, at the Burton Town Brewery.
"So we really like to think that we have really catered for all tastes. We've got sausages made by a local butcher, Barkers of Rolleston and all the bread is freshly baked from Buckley and Horne, in Swadlincote.
"We've tried to keep everything as local as possible. Fundamentally, the beer is really the star of the show, followed closely by the sausages."
Mr Stout is excited that the pub will be serving Goat’s Milk, a beer brewed by Warwickshire brewery Church End.
According to the landlord, the beer is quite difficult to get hold of, after being crowned as the Champion Beer of Britain at the Great British Beer Festival at Olympia London.
