Hall & Woodhouse will be introducing a new seasonal ale in M

Marketing manager Rick Payne said: "Badger has established a good track record of attracting new consumers to cask ale through product innovation...

Marketing manager Rick Payne said: "Badger has established a good track record of attracting new consumers to cask ale through product innovation such as Golden Glory and Golden Champion Ale.

Fursty Ferret will continue this trend by attracting modernists who have not been tempted to purchase real ale previously."

It will be made available to pubs in H&W's 250-strong estate and also to free-trade outlets.

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Suffolk craft brewer St Peter's has produced its 1,000th brew.

Its Bungay Brewery started production in June 1996 and has rapidly gained a reputation for the quality of its beers ­ half of which are exported.

Head brewer Mark Slater said the 1,000th brew will be St Peter's Organic Ale (winner of the Soil Association's gold medal) and all will be exported to the USA.

He added: "We have been running at full capacity ever since we opened the brewery.

Every time a fermentation tank is emptied, we brew again immediately.

Given that we have expanded our brewing capacity five times since 1996, we now have to brew at least once every day.

Unlike most British breweries, we are running at 100% capacity and we are planning another expansion later this year."

* * * * * Coors Brewers is sponsoring Ember Inns' Festival of Champions ­ a six-week celebration of real ales, which started two weeks ago.

Coors has put its premium cask ale, Worthington's 1744, into all 137 Ember Inns' outlets that are taking part in the festival.

It will be available throughout the event alongside 18 other cask ales which have won championship awards, and the Great British Beer Festival or other Camra-organised competitions.

Coors is supplying 1744 banners, point-of-sale displays, and leaflets to support the event.

The brewer is also offering drinkers the chance of winning a weekend for two in New York by voting for their favourite beer.

Ian Sykes, Coors' national account manager for Ember Inns, said the pubco's decision "to have 1744 headline its beer festival highlights the ale's championship credentials".

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* Camra's Scottish branch is hosting the 27th European Beer Consumers Union's meeting in Edinburgh next week (28 to 30 March).

EBCU represents millions of beer consumers via its 12 organisations and campaigns for pan-European legislation to protect the brewing industry and beer lovers.

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* Charles Wells has helped launch Bed:Safe ­ a pubwatch scheme in the brewer's home town of Bedford.

The scheme aims at reducing crime and violence in the town as well as alcohol-related disturbances.

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* * * * Carlsberg-Tetley has produced a new mild to mark the success of Leeds Tykes rugby league team.

Appropriately-named, Tykes Winning Formula, the 4.4% abv dark mild is made from Tetley's own sugars but all other details are being kept secret by C-T technical brewer Helen Salisbury.

The beer's first public outing was at the Leeds Beer Festival, which ran from 13 to 15 of March and was organised by the local Camra branch.