PUNTERS bought a pint of beer every seven seconds at a hugely successful South Lakes festival.

Hawkshead Brewery's 10th summer beer festival, Northern Craft, drew in the crowds as people enjoyed sipples of 106 different beers from 29 breweries.

The famous brewery in Staveley, near Windermere, hosted the event from Thursday to Saturday.

The festival also saw 13 top craft breweries get together to create a special beer to mark the occasion.

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Hawkshead head brewer Matt Clarke called in his generation of craft brewers to pool ideas for the new ale, with Magic Rock, Thornbridge, Pivovar, Ashover, Cloudwater, Marble, Quantum, Siren, Buxton, Fyne, Runaway and Roosters all collaborating.

Mr Clarke said: "We've been doing our summer beer festival now for 10 years and they keep getting bigger and better.

"With so many different and interesting beer styles it was easy to put together a beer list. We concentrated on showcasing Northern Craft breweries as many have been at the forefront in the new wave brewing scene.

"I decided to ask many of my close friends, who also happen to be very talented brewers to come together as a celebration of our 10th summer beer festival.

"Collaborations can showcase different brewer's talents and it's also a chance to share knowledge which can only benefit the brewing industry as a whole."

Beer lovers attending the festival were able to watch the beer being brewed, a highly hopped session Indian pale ale. It will be on sale in the next few weeks.

Alex Brodie, owner and founder of Hawkshead Brewery, said the festival was a huge success.

He said: "I never expected that we would ever actually be able to drink the brewery dry but we appear to have achieved it this year. By closing time there was barely a drop left.

"We had some of the most innovative and most flavoursome beers at the festival."

Throughout the three days of Northern Craft, eight and a half pints of beer a minute, which equates roughly to one pint every seven seconds, were sold.

During 33 hours of opening from noon Thursday to 11pm on Saturday, 243 casks and kegs were drunk dry.