THE Isle of Wight's two Wetherspoon pubs will be hosting a 12-day real ale festival this month.

S. Fowler and Co. in Union Street, Ryde, and The Man in the Moon in St James Street, Newport, will host the festival from Wednesday, October 12, to Sunday, October 23 inclusive.

They will feature ales brewed using only British-grown hop varieties.

A selection of up to 30 real ales, including three from overseas brewers (who have brewed their beers in England for the festival) will be available.

A number of the ales will also be available in the pubs for the first time, including some brewed especially for the festival.

The ales will be priced at £1.99 a pint.

The festival line-up includes Jester (Green Jack Brewery), Rebel Flame (Shepherd Neame Brewery), All the Leaves are Brown (Brewster's Brewery), Bonkers Conkers (Greene King Brewery), Hoptober (Coach House Brewery), Kaleidoscope (Lancaster Brewery) and Victory Ale (Batemans Brewery).

The overseas ales are Autumn Amber (Mad Giant Brewery, South Africa), Rav (Telemark Bryggeri, Norway) and Wungong (Nowhereman Brewery, Australia).

S. Fowlers & Co. manager, Peter Allan, said: "The festival is a great celebration of real ale all made using only British-grown hop varieties.

"It will allow us to showcase a selection of superb ales over a 12-day period and support the British hop industry too.

"The hop varieties include Jester, Fuggles, First Gold, Opus, Goldings and Godiver.

"The ales will be available at great value for money prices."

Customers will be able to enjoy three one-third-of-a-pint ales for the price of a pint.