Yesterday (1/12/2016) saw the opening of a new town centre micropub in Rawtenstall.
‘The Hop’ located on Bank Street, hopes to bring the love for local beers & ale back to the town. The new micropub is run by Landlady, Michelle Morris, along with her husband Andy & will be run by three full-time members of staff along with one part-time position.
The premises has been vacant since September of last year and has previously been used as shops but with the couples hard work, this has been transformed into a brand new micropub to bring back a sense of community in the town, along with good, local real ale.
Mr Morris said: “Bringing the love of local beer back is what we want to achieve.
“It’s had a resurgence across the country over the past few years and it’s great to see. We are doing this for the love of beer. Michelle’s family own Deeply Vale Brewery in Bury so it’s always been part of us.
“Many years ago every village in the country would have had a micro-pub of some sort, we want to bring them back. It is about having a sense of community and togetherness.
“It has been an adventure to get to where we are now.
“I have always wanted to do something like this and now I’m really happy I have got the chance.
“We want to be able to bring local beers to the town and challenge the bigger beer businesses who have a big stake in the industry.”
He continued: “The big brands have been in control of the beer industry for a while now.
“But the more-local brands are becoming popular and rightly so.
“There are lots of nice beers out there that are brewed on a small scale that people will never try unless they go to a place like ours.”