Beer festival hits the road for charity
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is set to receive a £50,000 boost after a licensee pledged to undertake a year-long beer festival tour in aid of the charity.
Neil Readman who runs the Captain Cook Inn in Staithes, North Yorkshire with his father Trevor, regularly holds real ale festivals at the pub.
But after searching for new ways to raise money for charity, Neil hit across the idea of taking his festival on the road.
The tour will travel the length of the British coastline, stopping in 40 towns including Cleethorpes and Lowestoft on the east coast, Dover and Portsmouth on the south, Cardiff and Blackpool in the west and taking in Aberdeen and Sunderland on the return leg to Yorkshire.
Neil and co-organiser John Hutchinson aim to raise a minimum of £1,000 per venue. Over 100 bitters, porters, pale ales, stouts, milds, ciders and perrys will be available at each event, most with a nautical theme and all will come from microbreweries. A donation of 10p per pint will be made.
"If you're going to go for it, you need to jump in and see how far you can swim," said Neil.
"We have been doing beer festivals at the pub for the past 12 years, so we thought, what can we do next? Take the festival on tour! We always raise money for charity, but we thought as we were taking this festival around the coastline, it would be appropriate to raise money for the lifeboats.
"It's shocking that they are totally run on donations. The average lifeboat launch costs £5,000. We aim to fund 10 launches."
The tour kicks off in Whitby from November 11 to 14 at the Whitby Mission and Seafarers Centre, with beers on offer from Conwy Brewery, Hoskin Bros Ales, Nelson Brewery, Titanic and Steamin' Billy Brewing Co.
For more details or to volunteer a venue for the festival visit www.captaincookinn.co.uk.
