AN INDEPENDENT bar and micro-brewery is celebrating the end of its first year in a new town centre location.

The Drink Valley owner Dhiraj Pujari and his wife Deepali originally set up shop selling craft beers in a vacant Brunel Shopping Centre unit on Canal Walk in 2020 before submitting plans in March 2021 to move into more spacious premises and then finding an available space on Fleet Street last December.

Mr Pujari spent 12 years working as a brewer and has a Master's degree in brewing and distilling, so he's put all that knowledge and experience into expanding the beer shop into a full-blown microbrewery, bar and restaurant.

The bar offers lagers, ciders and spirits along with a range of beer and ale from small, independent breweries as well as exclusive offerings brewed on-site. Customers can also order Indian street food to go with their drinks.

Dhiraj told the Adver: "Once one batch of our beer is done, we make something new, so people have different recipes to try every time rather than keep the same ones over and over.

"Our speciality is small breweries because they're the ones that need the most help - the big brands will do fine on their own.

"We branched out to offer food because, in the current climate, it's good to have more options to increase revenue.

"The landlord is very friendly and wanted this business here, so we got permission to move in.

"It's been great, slowly but steadily growing with a lot of support. People come from Old Town and walk over from the train station to visit. I think we bring something special to the town centre, with competitive prices.

"Our electricity bills have gone up so much from when we started but we are trying not to pass that on to the customer and keep our real ales around £4.

"If everyone is happy, that's more important than profit to me. This business has come from passion, I started this during the pandemic because I felt like it was now or never.

"Thank you to our supporters, we wish them all a very merry Christmas!"

Friday December 16 sees the start of a three-day beer festival which will celebrate the one year anniversary of the big move. Entry is free and visitors can come along between 12pm and 11pm. The last night, on December 18, will have live music from 6pm to 9pm.

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