It's full steam ahead after brewery sale

1:53pm Friday 19th May 2006

When the landlords of The Cross Guns in Avoncliff started stocking beers from a nearby brewery, they liked them so much they bought the business.

Ken and Jenny Roberts, who own the pub, were let down by their usual beer suppliers one day last August, so they called the local Box Steam Brewery to see if they could help them out.

The beers went down so well with their regulars that they began to stock them permanently and when the brewery came up for sale recently they leapt at the chance to buy it.

The pub managers, Gordon King, 25, and Andrew Roberts, 31, will be taking over the running of the brewery and have been learning the brewing ropes over the past few months.

Mr King said: "We have been brewing with the previous owners to make sure we keep the high standard of the ales.

"In the fullness of time we'll expand and try to do Christmas and summer specials and some organic ales and fruit beers. "Conveniently we are based on a farm that has pick-your-own strawberries, so there might be a strawberry beer here by the end of the summer."

Marshall Ewart and Mark Hempleman-Adams, brother of the explorer, David, set up the brewery in 2004 as a hobby, using a Fulton steam boiler inherited from Bath Ales. They have three flagship ales the award-winning Tunnel Vision, the straw-coloured, summery Reverend Awdry's Ale and the hoppy' Blind House, named after Wiltshire's notorious lock-ups.

The Cross Guns was awarded the Country Pub of the Year 2006 prize by the Heart of Wessex Railway Partnership passengers, and the landlords believe this was in part due to the regular selection of the Box Steam Brewery's Engineered Ales'.

Mr King said: "We are based on tiny premises, but this does mean that we can concentrate on getting the product just right."