Reporter Gareth Bethell performs the arduous taks of sampling beer at the festival Picture Ref: 77349-21IT SEEMS that Swindon has got festival fever. Not content with a literature festival as well as a fringe, two pubs in town have just launched a beer festival.

Wetherspoon pubs The Savoy, in Regent Street, and The Groves Company Inn, in Fleet Street, are promising 50 different brews over the next two weeks.

Helen O'Gorman, who runs the Savoy, said: "This is the biggest beer festival we've held and we've already had a good response to it.

"We've done them before and they always prove popular.

The beers are so popular in fact that people were waiting at the doors for the first day of the festival yesterday.

Phil Russel, 29, who works for PC World, said: "I've taken three days off work for the beer festival.

"I'll make a point of trying all the beers and I will have by the end. God help my liver.

"But you get to try things you wouldn't normally and it's value for money. I took the time off so I'm not in a bad state for work."

Retired Rodney Bagshaw, from Churchward Avenue, is also a keen festival follower.

He said: "As an expatriate northerner, from Manchester, it's nice to be able to have a decent beer.

"I've been to these since Wetherspoon opened in the town."

Among the drinks on offer, until Sunday May 22, at £1.49 a pint, will be Spinning Dog, Mutley's Revenge, Beartown Black Bear and Dorset Durdle Door.

The two guest ales from foreign shores will be Budels Alt, from Holland and Herold Granat from the Czech Republic.

The pubs are also taking advantage of the increased number of punters to raise money for charity.

Staff will be collecting funds for CLIC, a charity which helps children with cancer and leukaemia.

Helen said: "We'll have staff dressed up on weekends and they'll each pay £1 for that and we'll have buckets for people to donate money.

"We're hoping to raise £500 by the end of the festival."

There is also a real ale festival until May 31 at the Steam Railway pub in Newport Street, Old Town.

Research

Purely in the interests of investigative journalism I made my way to the Savoy to try some of the concoctions on offer.

First up was the Black Bear, a Guinness-like brew that I didn't take to at all. It's a dark ale from Cheshire with a distinctive taste.

Next was Banoffee Bitter. I might have given this a miss were it not for the number of punters warning me off it. I wondered if they just wanted to keep it for themselves.

But no. Banoffee and bitter just don't go.

I left the homemade brews and tried a Dutch drink called Budels, a light beer that doesn't taste anywhere like its 4.8 per cent.

Things continued in an upward vein with a pint of Flying Scotsman. This apparently combines the best of Scottish and English traditions. Wherever it comes from it tastes good.

My fifth drink was a forgettable but inoffensive pint of Gales which, at 3.9 per cent, is no good to man or beast.

But I saved the best until last. Hobgoblin was the one that most punters pointed out to me. Definitely one worth trying more than once.

Gareth Bethell