FORMER local cricketer Don Toft is hoping to catch beer lovers' attention with two of his real ales.

The 56-year-old turned his garage into a brewery 12 months ago after using some of his redundancy money.

Now he has received planning permission for the enterprise, has his beer stocked at a number of pubs and is due to make his debut at the 29th Stoke Beer Festival, which starts on Wednesdaay.

He will be showcasing Toft Brewery's Full Toss, described as a pale, four per cent session ale, and Stumped, a 4.5 per cent bitter-cum-brown ale.

Don, of Cheadle, said: "They're local beers and people will support that if they can. At the moment I'm trying to find a pub to put it on the bar, but they all want to have it as guest ale and they like to keep those rotating."

Full Toss and Stumped are available at The Huntsman pub, in Town End, Cheadle; the Royal Oak, in Dilhorne; and the Red Lion Inn, in Boundary, near Cheadle.

Engineer Don, who now works at Gough Engineering, in Newstead, started his own garage brewery after losing his job at Stone-based QVF Process Systems.

He added: "I only make four nine-gallon casks and keep it as a local beer for local pubs. Everyone wants to have a taste, but it's a 72-pint container and when it's open it all has to go, so it'd be quite a session.

"I've always done home brewing and this is something that'll hopefully earn me some pocket money for pension time."

Other local breweries at the festival include Stone-based Lymestone and Alton-based Peakstone Rock, which produced its first brew in 2005 in a converted milk tank, and will bring all five of its beers.

Brewery owner David Edwards, aged 48, who is serving up Nemesis, Chained Oak, Alton Abbey, Black Hole and Oblivion, said: "The one thing that is growing in the pub industry is cask-conditioned ale. That's because people are fed-up with drinking bland, fizzy, non-entity beer and want something that tastes of something and, ideally, is locally produced."

There are 258 beers listed in the programme for the festival, as well as about 60 different ciders, foreign beers and bottled drinks.

The Kings Hall festival is run by the Potteries branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra).

About 100 volunteers from Camra branches around the country will be helping out during the busy Friday and Saturday sessions.

But there will also be 80 on hand on Thursday and up to 70 for Wednesday's afternoon trade session, and the evening 'quiet' time in which there will be no live music and no advance tickets.

Potteries branch chairman Clive Ameson said: "One member, who is a doctor, is coming from Germany and having a few days off to work at the beer festival."

This year's entertainment will come from Party Animals on Thursday, Trafford Park on Friday, Audley Brass Band on Saturday afternoon and 11-piece soul and rock band Soul Provider on Saturday night.

Advance tickets are already sold out for Friday night and only a few remain for the Saturday evening session. The remaining tickets can be bought at participating pubs, including the Old Brown Jug, in Newcastle, and Hanley's Coachmakers Arms.

But organisers only release half of the 1,200 tickets in advance, meaning drinkers can turn up on the door. Admission on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights is £5.