Cask Ale Pub of the Year 2009: The Dove Street Inn, Ipswich

If you think technology and tradition don't mix, take yourself down to the Dove Street Inn. Just outside Ipswich town centre, the Dove has become a destination for beer-lovers across the country since Ady Smith and Karen Beaumont took over the former Enterprise Inns pub as a freehold in 2004.

Of course, walk in the door and it's the tradition that hits you first - solid, no-nonsense ale-house furnishings and a dozen handpumps on the bar let you know straight away what the pub's all about. And there's more behind the scenes.

The former kitchen behind the back-bar has been converted into a 'Tap Room' where eight to 10 extra beers are poured straight from the cask. Only a few of them can be described as regulars - including the best-seller Crouch Vale Brewers Gold. There are always at least two milds.

In case that's not enough variety for you, the Dove has its own wooden casks in which well-known ales, such as Theakston Old Peculier or Mauldons Black Adder, are given a unique twist.

Customers can check out the current selection from the wooden panels that hang from the ceiling, or from small screens continuously updated via a computer link from the cellar.

Yes, there's a computer in the cellar, used to manage stock rotation and deliveries from more than 60 suppliers.

Ady and Karen have developed the pub this year to create a conservatory area that's great for the Dove's regular beer festivals, which extend out into a marquee in the garden.

Want to find out what's on before making the trip? There's a list on the pub's website, each beer with a tilting barrel icon alongside so you can tell when something's new on or about to run out.

The true aficionados, though, are members of the Dove's new loyalty scheme. Not only can they accumulate points for pints to earn discounts and benefit from promotions, they can see a record of everything they've had to drink by logging on to their own page on the pub's site.

And if you want to know what you're drinking now, the till receipts carry tasting notes for what you've bought. Although there's always a human being behind the bar to talk you through it and give your tasters.

The loyalty scheme is helping Ady and Karen understand their customers better and they plan to link regulars with common interests into clubs, developing the pub's role as a community hub.

Now they have bought the shop across the road, too, which will eventually be home to the Dove's own microbrewery as well as selling bottled beers and brewery paraphernalia. It will include two letting rooms - handy with so much good beer on offer!