Pioneering micro-pub boss Colin Aris has retired after 10 years at the helm of the award-winning Conqueror in Ramsgate’s Grange Road.
When Colin set up shop in 2010 it was Thanet’s first micropub and only the fourth one in the country. There are now more than 500 across Britain.
Now the Conqueror will come under the stewardship of Mike Beaumont, owner of the Four Candles micropub and brewery.
Mike, who opened The Four Candles in 2012, followed by the site’s microbrewery in 2014, said: “Colin was kind enough to ask me to take over the business and I was glad to accept. It’s an important part of the micropub revolution and Colin has had lots of Kent CAMRA awards as well as reaching the top four in their national competition.
“The Four Candles has been building up quite a following at our base at Sowell Street, St Peter’s, and we’re brewing house beers for several of the other micros across East Kent.
“The ‘Candles may be Britain’s Smallest Brewpub but we have enough capacity to make cask ales for the Conqueror too. It won’t just sell our beers though – we’ll have lots of bottled ales and a small spirits bar.
“We’re giving the place a bit of a spruce-up and hope to be open in December.
“People have been asking if the name will change. It definitely won’t! Colin named it after his grandfather’s ship and the Conqueror has family connections for me too.
“My cousins traced the Beaumont family back to Normandy and it turns out that two of our ancestors were at the Battle of Hastings.”
Colin added: “I’m really pleased that the Conqueror will be in Mike’s safe hands. I sincerely believe that he’s the ideal person to take the pub onwards and upwards and I know that all the regulars are eagerly looking forward to the new era.”
