THE Wetherspoon pub company, which operates a number of hostelries across Worcestershire from Evesham to Bewdley, is running a spring beer festival this month.

It will be offering a choice of 50 real ales including 11 medal-winning brews from last year’s Campaign for Real Ale Great British Beer Festival.

The festival runs from Friday March 11 to Sunday March 27 and promises to cater for a wide variety of tastes with beers ranging from best bitter and porter to wheat beer and cask lager.

The award-winning beers are; Barnsley Bitter (Acorn), Best Bitter (Pheasantry), Boltmaker (Timothy Taylor), Black (Williams), Explorer (Adnams), Darwin's Origin (Salopian), Ruby Mild (Rudgate), Port Stout (Hanlons), Triple Chocoholic (Saltaire), Revelation (Dark Star) and Plum Porter (Titanic).

As well as the award-winning ales, the festival will include a number of beers brewed exclusively for this Wetherspoon’s event. These include Wadworth 6X Gold (4.5 per cent ABV) a golden ale offering from Wiltshire’s Wadworth Brewery; a new pale brown beer from Elgood’s Brewery, in Cambridgeshire called Lazy Dog (3.9 per cent ABV) which is a refreshing and hoppy bitter; and Hawkshead Brewery has exclusively produced a new, full-bodied, speciality cask lager for the occasion. A combination of Munich, Pilsner and Vienna malts imparts light toasted malt aromas in the Hawkshead Vienna Lager (5.0 per cent ABV).

The overseas beers are; Bravo Four Point (Devils Backbone, USA), Pacific (Thunder Road, Australia), O'Hara's JDW Irish Red (Carlow, Republic of Ireland), Amsterdam Blonde (Brouwerij 't IJ, Netherlands) and Bibock (Birrifico Italiano, Italy).

The festival will feature new, seasonal and speciality beers, including a chocolate beer, wheat beer, cask lager, fruit porter, rye beer and spiced beer as well as a beer brewed with peated malt.

Those customers who are not sure which ale to choose can sample any three brews in the special third-of-a-pint glasses for the price of a pint. All beers will be priced at £2.09 for a pint during the festival.

One of Wetherspoon’s pubs is the Foley Arms Hotel Worcester Road, Malvern, and manager Emma Harvey said: "We are promising our customers a superb range of award-winning ales, together with some great beers from overseas and many others from brewers across the UK.

"The festival will be the perfect way for real ale enthusiasts to enjoy a range of excellent beers over 17 days."

Tasting notes on all of the beers will be available in the pub.