A VILLAGE pub's beer festival proved so popular it ran dry eight hours before last orders.
Real ale fans got through more than 2,300 pints during the three-day annual event, at The Beamish Mary Inn, at No Place, near Stanley.
Usually there is some beer left over, but this year all 32 beers, from small breweries across the North, sold out.
"It is unbelievable,'' said landlord Graham Ford. "This is the 15th festival the pub has had and it is the first time we have sold out.
"The beer went at 3pm on the Sunday, and the selection of sausages put on by Geordie Wood, one of my regulars, was gone by Saturday night. It was busy all the time, particularly on Friday and Saturday nights.''
The most popular brew was East End Light, brewed by the Bull Lane Brewery set up by former Beamish Mary owner John Taylor, who now owns The Clarendon in Sunderland.
"It was a nice pint. It sold in a crack, and John is cock-a-hoop about winning,'' said Mr Ford.
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