00:00It gives me great pleasure, both as the chairman of Stockshire Council and as the owner of the baby head, the Canberra National Pub of the Year, which is in this Canberra branch, to open the Shrewsbury Beer Festival and say to all of you, cheers.
00:21Cheers!
00:22Hey, cuss beer, yes we do, and so does Dave. Hello Dave.
00:27We're here at St Mary's Church in Shrewsbury, and Dave, what's your surname again, just remind me.
00:34Dave Ricketts.
00:35Dave Ricketts. So Dave, tell us about this lovely beer fest you've got going on here.
00:39Well basically, we start the ordering process about three months in advance to get all the new beers possible.
00:45So we always aim to have beers that's not been seen around and get new beers, but we also run the Shropshire Brewers Challenge.
00:52What's that then?
00:54We invite the brewers to enter beer of choice into the competition, then we do blind judging, and the winner was Stonehouse Brewery's Saturnalia.
01:03So that's Stonehouse and Western near Osmer Street.
01:05Yeah, yeah, we've done a few features on those guys. They've got their own little bar, haven't they, down at the brewery?
01:09They have, yes.
01:10Cool. So, did you approve of that as a win?
01:14Absolutely, it was a lovely beer, yes.
01:17Great stuff. I bet they were chuffed with that then, weren't they?
01:19Oh yes, they found out.
01:20Yeah, yeah. So how many different beers do you have here?
01:23We've got 96 different ones.
01:2596?
01:26We should have had 100, but a few decided not to show.
01:29Yeah, yeah. 96 is crazy though, isn't it?
01:31And what about if someone, you know, someone brings a friend along and they want a cider or a bit of wine or something like that?
01:38We've got a full range of ciders and berries available. We also have country wine and then we've got the gin and rum bar as well.
01:44Great. And it's, St Mary's Church is an annual fixture, isn't it, for you guys here?
01:48It is, yes. We've been here since 2019, but the pandemic's put paid to 20 and 21.
01:54Yep. And it's open today, Wednesday, and how long are you on for?
01:58We're open, so Wednesday through to Saturday, 11 o'clock each day.
02:03Great stuff. And how many people would you guess you'll have come through your doors?
02:07Two, two and a half thousand, maybe more.
02:10Yeah, yeah. Well, it's great. I mean, what a setting, you know, in this church.
02:14Oh, it's just amazing, as the sun goes round and illuminates all the windows.
02:17Yeah, and the light comes through. So get yourselves down, guys, if you're in Shrewsbury for the Beer Fest,
02:22here for the weekend till the end of Saturday, yeah?
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