Free beer was given away by one village pub to help raise money for the NHS.
Beer residents were invited by The Dolphin Hotel to take their own containers and have them filled up for free, in return for leaving a donation.
In just two days they gave away around five barrels of draught beer, lager and cider, and raised a total of £459 before making the difficult decision to cease, following further government orders to bunker down even further on Monday.
It followed the Government’s decision to put the country in lockdown, closing all pubs temporarily from Friday, March 20, to help combat the spread of Covid-19 pandemic.
Like all licensed premises, The Dolphin was faced with immediately closing down, which included dealing with all perishable stock in its kitchen and cellar.
Owner Darren Clinch said: “We had our cellar well stocked for what would have been the beginning of a busy period for us, with Mother’s Day and Easter coming up.
“When faced with the closure, all the open barrels that were connected had to go and it seemed crazy just to waste them.
“The team at The Dolphin came up with the idea to give the beer away to their local community in return for donations to their local Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust to help the people working tirelessly on the front line.”
Posting an appeal on their social media pages, the hotel invited people to come to their outdoor patio area with a clean container and have it filled with their choice of draught.
They asked people to be responsible and keep to appropriate social distancing, whilst providing buckets for them to drop their donations in to avoid handling cash.
Darren said: “We had an incredible response to our social media post, including our local football club, Beer Albion, kindly offering us their supply of lager to add to our fundraiser – it was a great feeling of community spirit during these unprecedented times.”
The Dolphin Hotel would like to thank Beer Albion Football Club and all those who contributed to their efforts and ask that everyone stay safely at home at this time.
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