Nursery nurse turns hand to brewing

A nursery nurse who started a brewery in her mother-in-law's garage has been nominated for a national business award.

Patsy Slevin of Standish, Lancashire, founded Prospect Brewery in January last year after deciding on a radical career change.

The former childcare worker went on a brewing course with husband John before working as a volunteer in the Bank Top Brewery, Bolton to "learn how to do it properly".

Just seven months after launching her first beer, Slevin is up for Most Promising New Business in the British Small Business Champions (BSBC) 2008.

She said: "It's a great feeling. You can just enter yourself but to be nominated for it is very nice. The business is going fantastically well. But I'm quite overwhelmed by all the attention. All I wanted to do was hide in the garage and make beer."

Slevin now has a range of six permanent brews, sold at 48 local pubs, including Pioneer, Gold Rush and Silver Tally, as well as special Christmas beer Clementine.

But she said she had no plans for expansion in spite of her success. "The idea was always to brew small quantities of very good quality beer. Just because I'm in a garage I don't want anybody to think I'm not taking it seriously," she said.

As "chief tester", her 88-year-old mother-in-law is happy for the brewery to stay put, she added.