REAL ale brewers in East Lancashire are experiencing a rise in sales, despite fears that the credit crunch was cutting people’s spending on beer.

According to an Intelligent Choice Report, which was commissioned by a consortium of beer industry organisations, regional and local brews had seen a 1.8 per cent sales increase in the year to May 2008.

The figures were welcomed by East Lancashire brewing chiefs who said they were seeing growth in their cask ale sector.

Bosses said people maybe turning more to real ale because of it tends to be slightly cheaper. In addition, sales figures for lager show that in the past couple of years many people have turned away from the drink.

David Grant, managing director of Burnley’s Moorehouse’s Brewery, said in the first week of October sales from the brewery were 25 per cent up on the the same week last year, with more than 400 brewers’ barrels sold.

He said: “The pub trade is suffering badly in the present economic downturn on top of the smoking ban and rising costs, but some pubs are still trading well – and those are the ones selling cask ale.

"We are doing healthy business in the free trade as well as with big pub companies.

“As evidence from Camra (Campaign for Real Ale) and other industry reports show, more and more people are turning away from global brands and towards to cask ale.

"With an excellent range of award winning beers, Moorhouse’s is very well paced to meet that demand and we have great confidence in the future of cask ale and our business.”

Earlier this year, Blackburn’s Thwaites brewery reported that its profits were down 22 per cent year-on-year and blamed it on falling beer sales in its pubs partly caused by worries among drinkers over the state of the economy.

But owners of the area’s micro breweries said they were bullish about the future of the real ale market.

Richard Baker set up The Bowland Brewery, Bashall Eaves, Clitheroe, five-years-ago, and said sales were standing up well in the face of worries over the economy.

Mr Baker said: “Business has been steady through the year.

"Cask ales seems to still be popular whereas fizzy lager sales are falling off.

“The pubs serving cask ales seem to be staying busy which is encouraging.

"There are also a lot of young people discovering real ale for the first time.”