The Mansfield breweries delivering home-brewed ales straight to your door in lockdown

One brewer who 'perfected' a pale ale has named the drink after the lockdown

Home-grown beer is part of the culture in Mansfield, with the town championing its legacy as a true brewing town.

Despite the town's historic brewery site closing its doors in 2002, the spirit of a Mansfield-brewed beer is still alive and well - with numerous brewing firms continuing the town's legacy.

Yet with the ongoing coronavirus lockdown, serving the ales and ciders has become somewhat difficult for brewers.

When the government imposed the lockdown on March 23, pubs and other hospitality venues had to shut their doors indefinitely. Customers stopped arriving and ales sat flat in the venues.

But this hasn't stopped some of the town's best brewers from continuing to get their ales out there - turning to home delivery services to keep their customers satisfied.

Staff at The Garrison, a Peaky Blinders inspired micro-pub on Leeming Street, have taken this approach.

Dan Moody, the site's brewer and co-owner, has continued creating the ales out of its Moody Fox brewery near Hilcote, before shipping them out to their customers through its Facebook page.

Mr Moody, who started brewing four years ago, says the gins, tonics, ales and ciders have helped keep his customer-base "connected".

"We've been delivering them straight to our customers' gardens and it's great as we've been able to stop for a chat in their gardens", he told Mansfield Live.

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"We have even started to host online parties with and been able to have a laugh with them despite all this going off [with the pandemic].

"I've spent a lot of time in the brewery, in a way it's kept me sane and it's allowed me to forget about everything going on.

"For about two weeks I've trying to perfect the best pale ale, and I think I've finally cracked it.

"So I've called it the 'Lockdown Ale' as it was brewed during this lockdown period, and I think it'll go down a storm."

The same system is being used by the Kings Clipstone Brewery, which has been running a delivery service via Facebook from its base in the heart of Sherwood Forest.

The company, which was set up in 2012 by David and Daryl Maguire, recently opened its The Pavilion micro pub at Mansfield's Racecourse Park and have had a "good reception" from the scheme.

"We recommenced brewing at the beginning of April and it's been going quite well", David Maguire told Mansfield Live.

"We have started delivering our brewed beers straight to peoples' doorsteps and a lot of people have been taking us up on the offer.

"Initially we put the feelers out online and it had a good reception.

"We've got our own real ales as well as guest ales which we are regularly changing, and I think it's a bit of light relief for our customers.

"It's been hard but you've got to remain as positive as you can. At the end of the day the brewery is still here, we just need to find ways of serving it up differently."

Phil Scotney, co-owner of Prior's Well Brewery which is now based in the former Mansfield Brewery on Littleworth, says he has used the opportunity to offload stock that would have otherwise gone out of date.

"We haven't been able to brew at all since the start of lockdown, mainly because I've had to furlough staff and we're struggling to get grants from the government", he told Mansfield Live.

"But we have been able to get out and deliver some of the stock to our regular customers who are supporting us.

"It's been really helpful as it's prevented it from going to waste or out of date, and it's also good for the environment by not putting it all down the drains."