Cask Ale Pub of the Year 2008: the Hare & Hounds, Bury, Greater Manchester

Great cask beer does not belong to the pub, but to the people running it. And if you need proof of that you need look no further than Andy and Lynn Grant.

The Grants run the Hare & Hounds in the village of Holcombe, just outside Bury in Lancashire. It's a managed house, more often than not a recipe for a standardised offering. But owner Orchid Group has enough confidence in the couple to give them free rein to serve an ever-changing range of 10 cask ales of their choice.

That confidence has been earned over the 15 years they have run managed pubs and consistently built a reputation for cask beer at each business - thanks to a blend of passion, attention to detail and sheer perseverance.

The couple are in their second stint at the Hare & Hounds. The first began a decade ago when the pub was part of the Spirit Group and Andy shocked his bosses by installing two handpumps where none had existed before.

"Nobody thought you could sell cask ale here," he says. "But when I added two more pumps I found I was selling twice as much, and at eight pumps sales really took off, and I finished up with 12."

So successful were the Grants that they were lured away to another pub where they performed exactly the same trick. But three years ago they returned to the pub they loved. Without them cask ale sales had collapsed but with the support of a loyal band of regulars who remembered them they have got 12 pumps back on the bar.

As well as Andy the pub has four staff trained in cellar management. Cask beer lines are cleaned each time a barrel is changed which means two of the pumps are usually out of action at any one time - a small price to pay for quality.

The couple have also re-introduced the Hare & Hounds' famous beer festivals. Unlike most pub festivals these are 10 days long, and a temporary bar is built to serve the extra beers. At this October's event Andy was aiming to serve 100 different ales, a record for a pub, he believes. Customers can keep track of what's on by visiting the pub's website.

But the pub does more than cater for the cask ale aficionado. Walk in through the main door on any day and you straight away see a large chalkboard listing the beers on offer. As well as their ABV alongside each brew is a number denoting the colour of the beer, from one for a light golden ale to five for the darkest ale.

The system was devised by Andy himself to help the uninitiated choose something they might like from the mainly locally-brewed selection, much of which was sourced through SIBA's Direct Delivery Scheme.

It sums up the remarkable contribution the Hare & Hounds is making to the revival of cask in the UK.

"We're proud to be doing our bit to preserve a true icon of British society - the great British pint," says Andy.