MORE than 1,400 pints of some of the country's finest beer will be on tap this weekend at The Beamish Mary Inn, at No Place, near Stanley.

The pub will be serving 20 barrels of brews such as Radgie Gadgie, Love Muscle and Yellow Belly.

For years the pub has been a mecca for discerning beer drinkers - in the mid-nineties it was voted the country's best real ale hostelry - and now it is celebrating the tenth anniversary of its popular beer festival.

Graham Ford, who took over the Mary from John Taylor, who launched the festivals, said: "What we are doing is having all nine winners of the previous festivals and pitting them against 12 other brews, to see which one is the best.

"We have got a new one that has been specially brewed, a 4.6 per cent mild by Rudgate, of York. We'll see how it goes and give it a name. Last Year we tested Westoe XXXX, which the Durham Brewery at Bowburn made from a 100-year-old recipe."

The event starts on Friday at 7pm and continues all day Saturday and Sunday. A quiz will be held on Friday night, there will be acoustic music at other times during the weekend and No Place For Jazz will be playing on Sunday night. For details call (0191) 3700237.