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Retail & Consumer

Pubs are literally pouring beer down the drain ahead of reopening

With old stale ale having to be disposed off before boozers can welcome the public again it means South West Water was flooded with requests

Beer is poured down the drain at a pub in Cornwall

Pubs across the South West have been throwing away thousands of pints of beer before re-opening tomorrow.

South West Water said it has received requests from 1,100 pubs and breweries across Cornwall, Devon and small parts of Dorset and Somerset to allow them to pour beer down the drain.

And it has had three scientists working full-time on the project to ensure only small amounts of beer have been released into the system on any one day.

Beer takes a lot of oxygen to break down, oxygen which is vital to the way water treatment plants work, so South West Water has had to co-ordinate time slots for every pub to avoid overloading the system.

The Polgooth Inn, near St Austell, in Cornwall, had 800 pints to get rid of. Alex Williams, who runs the inn, said pubs will receive tax returns on the lost beer, while breweries have also been generous with credits.

Around 100 pubs had their requests to pour beer down the drain declined, as the nearby treatment works were too small to deal with the load. Instead, those pubs had to return the beer to breweries, or take it to bigger water treatment centres.

St Austell Brewery recovered about 20,000 nine-gallon casks from its supply chain around the country, containing approximately 1.5 million pints.

Andrew Turner, managing director, beer and brands, at St Austell Brewery

Andrew Turner, managing director of St Austell Brewery’s Beer and Brands, said: "In order to destroy any beer, publicans have had to seek permission from their local water board. Only once this was granted, could beer be poured away.