BEER will be pouring in the streets of a historic town as a popular ale trail is set to return after a two year pause.

The Harwich Ale Trail launches today with eight venues around Historic Harwich offering around 50 different types of beer.

The festival, which will run until Monday, was first organised in 2015 by Paul Mellor and Paul Turvey following the cancellation of the Winter Ale Festival.

Many of the venues taking part this year are hundreds of years old and haven’t changed much since Tudor times, including Alma Inn, Cafe on the Pier, Globe, Hanover, and New Bell.

Shakers, Stingray and United Services Club will also be enticing visitors with their unique ale.

Mr Turvey, who is co-ordinating the event, said: “ We are blessed of having a good number of pubs in Historic Harwich all within a few streets of each other and it is quite unlike anywhere else in the Tendring district.

“The first time round nine pubs, restaurants, bars and social clubs were involved and something like four thousand pints had been drunk.

“We had hundreds of people come into town to take part in this rather unique multi venue festival.

“So we decided it was worth running it again.”

Ale lovers will have the chance to enjoy mainly East Anglian beers which they “may not ordinarily come across in their local pubs”.

Mr Turvey added: “Perhaps we can persuade a few people who haven’t tried ales before or have only tried drinking blonde ales to try some of the darker ones or some of the more interesting flavoured ones.

“There is so much here beyond the pubs so we could also get people to come to town to appreciate what we have got.

“People come to Harwich for just the beer and sometimes all they know about the place is Harwich International.

“They don’t know about the Medieval streets that we got down here, the buildings that date from 15 or 16 century and that we are the home of the Mayflower. “

Visit harwichaletrail.co.uk.