SIX friends who love beer have been raising a glass after realising their dream by opening a craft ale shop.

Opening two weeks ago to a foray of tourists and visitors in Keswick’s Packhorse Court, the shop is the brainchild of the friends who had always wanted to open up a beer business and were waiting for the perfect opportunity.

Craft Beer Keswick offers customers a diverse range of beers from local breweries and across the UK.

Primarily used as a shop, there is also draught available with seating areas indoors and outside for customers to enjoy a drink on-site.

Mark Swider, Adam Slaughter, Steve Stables, Zara Barua, Leon Finn and Lindon Bolton all share in the making of the the venture with Lindon taking the role of general manager.

“We’ve been friends for a really long time and we all love beer,” he said. “It’s an idea that has been floating about for a couple years.

“Once the lease on the shop became available we jumped on it.

“It’s been really good and we’ve been really busy so far. Obviously the number of people in Keswick at the moment helps us out tremendously for the first couple months.

“We got open at the perfect time — the shop is doing much better than we expected and the local community is something special.”

Hitting the peak of the summer holidays, Craft Beer Keswick is off to a fantastic start, running out of stock of some of their local beers within the first few days of opening.

The six friends are all locals to Cumbria. Lindon has lived in Keswick for nearly ten years working as an assistant manager at Millets the outdoor clothing shop in Main Street.

While working there, he noticed that the town was lacking an amenity that sold an eclectic mix of craft ales. He said: “We’ve seen lots of similar places like ours proving really popular in city centres across the UK and thought there was nowhere like it in Keswick so got in first.”

The range of beers in the shop is vast. Stocking everything from double dry IPAs to sour beers, it even has a 9.5 per cent strawberry, hibiscus, and vanilla beer with golden glitter floating in it.

Craft Beer Keswick is working closely with local breweries and beyond, and recently had new beers delivered from Verdant Brewery in Cornwall and Deya Brewery in Cheltenham.

The beer lovers hope to do taster nights as a way to introduce visitors to the creatives behind their selection.