Twenty pubs and clubs and a unique opportunity to experience the taste of real ale and unique craft beer.
That’s whats on offer to residents and visitors to Bury St Edmunds as the first official Ale Trail was launched, on Monday.
It features 20 of the town’s licensed premises and a special map and brochure has been produced giving information about all the participating venues.
At the launch of the trial, held at the One Bull, one of the pubs on the trail, Mike Kirkham, business support and marketing officer with Our Bury St Edmunds, said: “They say good things come in three and I think that’s absolutely the case tonight.
“We are launching a new initiative, we are launching it at a fabulous place that’s on the trial and we’re launching it with you great people here and it would not have been possible for this Ale Trail to happen without the businesses.
“It’s really all about that and it could not have happened without all those people here tonight.
“It’s given me an opportunity to work with some really great businesses and to realise that there’s some fantastic choice of real ale and craft beers in Bury in a short area and each place you go in is just so uniquely different from a 15th Century inn with a glass floor to look into a beer cellar to a small pub.
“When you think of Bury St Edmunds with its heritage, a thousand years ago the monks knew what it was all about, they didn’t have any problem with it drawing water from the chalk wells which Greene King still draw from today. I think they would be quite proud of what we’ve done tonight and maybe in a thousand years people will talk about Bury and the Ale Trail.”
Those on the trail include The Rose and Crown, Masons Arms, Boosh, The Nutshell, Corn Exchange, Constitutional Club, Oakes Barn, LP, Karooze, The Grapes, Edmundo Lounge, The Snug, Kings Arms, One Bull, Fox Inn, Old Cannon Brewery, The Bushell, The Beerhouse, Greene King Beer Cafe and Casa.
The trail was the idea of Our Bury St Edmunds director Heather Warren, who owns Oakes Barn pub, on St Andrews Street South. She’s worked closely with Mr Kirkham to bring the concept to fruition.
And she said: “We’ve got a town rich in brewing history. We’ve got breweries, we’ve got a medieval town, it’s picturesque, we’ve got lots and lots of pubs and they are in beautiful buildings with lots of history.
“We are a food and drink destination. All the pubs offer a large variety of real ale and craft beer from local breweries to more national breweries as well. We’ve got tours, we’ve got endless events going on in the town and for me the Ale Trail links it altogether.
“You can walk from one pub to the next and really that’s the importance to me why we need an Ale Trail to showcase what we do in town as well as all the ales that are available to us.”
A brochure is now available at pubs and bars throughout the town centre, the tourist information point at The Apex and to download from www.ourburystedmunds.com and there are also special t-shirts that have been made.
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