'We want people to have some fun, enjoy some great drinks and support a host of local businesses': Stourbridge brewery ready for return of popular rum and gin festivals
A Stourbridge brewery and taproom is getting ready to put on two of its most popular festivals for those fancying something a bit different.
Green Duck Brewery will be holding its sixth annual rum festival at the brewery taproom on Rufford Road in the Gainsborough Trading Estate on Friday, July 18 and Saturday, July 19, which will be free to enter and promises a mixture of rums from local suppliers.
It will also be holding its 14th gin festival from Friday, August 29 to Sunday, August 31, with nearly 100 gins and a wide range of mixers on offer and tickets for each day costing £25 each, which includes £20 worth of gin tokens, a glass and a programme with all the gins in.
Green Duck owner Alex Hill said it was great for the brewery to be able to open up and welcome people to enjoy its taproom and have some fun with some good drinks.
He said: "The rum festival is about having a good time and we'll have a mixture of locally produced rums, including a few from local suppliers, plus a few more unusual ones, depending on what's available.
"The focus will then be on the cocktails and we're keeping it fun, serving them in red party cups with bits of pineapple and a little umbrella and we'll have Lei necklaces and make the room feel like a Caribbean Tiki-kind of style, with a DJ and a cook who does jerk chicken and the like.
"We've done quite a few gin festivals and it's becoming a very slick operation to run them, so we'll have more than 100 gins and the tickets for the gins, plus a brochure, and the atmosphere is a bit more relaxed for this one."
Mr Hill said he believed there were more than 10,000 combinations that people could do with the gins, from the different mixers to adding fruit, while there would also be pizzas on offer for the three days of the festival.
He said the two festivals were also a great advert for the taproom as it allowed people to see the size of it and how they could use it as a venue in their own right, from a wedding venue to birthday parties.
He also said the festivals helped to showcase the brewery's core belief of supporting local business.
He said: "With the gins, we would rather buy in from people who do it all the time and we work a lot with the West Midlands Distillery and get a lot of stuff off of them, as well as Jordan Lunn from the distillery being at the festival as a vendor.
"We support quite a lot of the local distillers as well as they are able to come down and do a pop-up stall and let people sample their wares and buy directly from them.
"We try to support local wherever we can, from the ingredients we use for our pizzas to the gins and rums, and we want to ensure that local businesses get as much help as they can."
