This coming weekend marks the third anniversary of the reopening of The Dog on Lichfield Street. The pub won Burton & South Derbyshire CAMRA Pub of the Year in both 2017 and 2018 are holding a birthday beer festival which runs from Thursday 17 to Sunday 20 May, where drinkers can sample 35 real ales, craft ales and ciders.
“This will be our sixth beer festival, we do two a year,” says Landlord John McLaughlin. “This year I am partnering up with Wild Weather from Reading, they are the brewery that I’ve featured here the most, apart from Thornbridge who have a permanent tap on. They do great beers; they’ve only been going a couple of years themselves.”
The festival kicks off in style on Thursday: “We’ve got the owner and the Head Brewer coming down to do a ‘Meet the Brewer’,” says John excitedly. “We’ve got some local bands playing, barbeque , meat raffle, games … it’s more of a social one for the staff, it’s hard work at a beer festival but we can all let our hair down and have a laugh and enjoy the job.”
Wild Weather are bringing an array of beers that cover all different styles: “We’ve got eight casks and six kegs, everything from a normal 4.2% English Pale Ale, an 8% Imperial Russian Stout, a mango and lime milkshake IPA, a rosemary and lemon sour and a dry hopped sour using Simcoe which is one of my favourite hops.”
John is also able to boast an exclusive: “I’ve got the only cask they have ever done of End of Level Boss which is a 9.2% Double IPA, it’s not even a full cask, it’s just a pin. I often get the stronger beers on the keg lines, but it is nice to get them on cask; I imagine that will go quickly. At the last festival we had another Double IPA on cask and that was the first to go. We only sell it in thirds as it gets a bit silly people ordering pints of a 9.2% beer.”
Come down and join John and his hard working staff this coming weekend: “It’s going to be absolutely fantastic; I can’t wait to drink a lot of their beers!”
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