Everards Brewery has worked with Andrew Leatherdale and Paul Gaukroger, who run The Sun Inn at Cottesmore, Rutland, to create Django’s Beer House & Bottle Shop – a beer-focused ‘micropub’ within a pub.
Named after the pub cat, Django’s, which Everards has granted free-of-tie status, used to be an old function room but has been transformed into a shrine to cask and craft beer. It cost around £45k to create and is 50 square metres in size.
“The idea sprang out of our regular get-togethers with Everards,” said licensee Andrew. “We were discussing what to do with the old function room and the topic of micropubs came up. Micropubs are growing in popularity so we talked about installing one to create a pub within a pub. The idea grew and we all visited some Nottingham micropubs to get some inspiration. It was great fun and before long we were planning the design in detail.”
The leading feature of Django’s is a set of beer casks illuminated behind glass. The beer lines are transparent so you can view the colour of each ale. Next to the window display of casks are two fridges packed with bottles of craft beer. Overall, 40 beers are available in Django’s and the plan is to showcase a vast and frequently changing range of exciting cask and bottled brews.
Simon Godson, Everards operations director, said: “We’re constantly looking for creative ways to add value to under-used spaces in pubs and this fitted the bill.”
