A LANDLORD turned brewer will be rolling out the barrels today as he prepares for a popular real ale festival.

John Taylor, of the Clarendon, in Sunderland's east end, will pull two barrels of his beer 17 miles to his former pub, near Stanley.

Mr Taylor owned the Beamish Mary Inn, at No Place, for several years and built it into one of the region's leading real ale pubs.

As well as running the Clarendon, he has turned to brewing, and his Bull Lane Brewing Company will have two ales, Bull Terrier and East End Light, in this weekend's beer festival at the Beamish Mary.

Mr Taylor, pals John O'Neill and Brian Smith, and Beamish Mary landlord Graham Ford will pull the barrels in a sack barrow along the C2C cyclepath, to raise money for the Sunderland Independent Lifeboat.

Mr Taylor said: "It will be tough, but in the past I have taken barrels in canoes and dragged them to the festival.

"We are setting off at 8am, and hope to reach the Beamish Mary by about 5pm or 6pm.''

The festival runs from Friday to Sunday, and will feature 26 ales chosen by regulars who visited breweries throughout the North.

The brews include Big Lamp's Silly Blackout, which is 12 per cent, Celtic Warrior, from the Pictish Brewery in Rochdale, and Brewer's Storm, from WF6 in Wakefield.

The person who selects the ale voted the best by festival-goers will win the pub's own FA Cup.

Tipplers will be able to soak up the alcohol with ten different types of pork sausage, including apple, leek and chilli, and two German sausages.

Admission is free. For further details, call the pub on 0191-370 0237.