Thwaites beer reaches the parts other fertilisers can't reach -- as a publican discovered when he started feeding his vegetables a tipple a day.

Nothing gets wasted because even the dregs from a pint of Thwaites are recycled and fed to the landlord's vegetables and the end result is an 18lb cucumber.

Phil Greaves and his wife Wendy have been running their East Lancashire pub for six years after former sheet metal worker Phil decided to turn his local into his own.

A couple of years' ago he was offered a greenhouse by a customer and the only place to put it was on top of the toilet extension at the back of the pub.

It is only accessible by the fire escape.

Its lofty location -- and the very special fertiliser of Thwaites bitter -- is obviously the right combination because Phil's vegetables keep on growing.

He said: "I was given some courgette seeds by a customer last year and I had read something in a newspaper that you could feed plants on beer so I thought I would give it a try.

"I only fed one plant half a pint of beer a day so I could use the other as a test.

"I got courgettes from them both but the one that had been given beer produced a 20lb courgette."

Wendy said: "I didn't know what to do with it so I put it is the fridge and the next thing it had exploded. It took hours to clean the fridge!"

Phil, of The Masons pub, in Bolton Road West, Ramsbottom, said: "I think the beer inside it must have kept on fermenting, which eventually caused it to explode."

There will be no such problems with this year's cucumber, which is pale yellow in colour, because it is going nowhere near the fridge.

Where it will ultimately end up is open to suggestions.

Phil said: "I don't like cucumber and if it was on a sandwich I would remove it before I ate it.

"I am asking anyone with an suggestions for what we can do with the cucumber to get in touch."

Last year Thwaites gave him a free barrel of beer to celebrate the gigantic courgette and he was hoping the cucumber might prompt a similar gesture.

He said: "When regulars have a bit left in their glass they will often say to me, 'Here's a bit for your plant'."

Phil has also used the greenhouse to grow tomatoes, onions and leeks but only the courgettes and cucumber have grown to monstrous proportions.

He has never been a gardener and is no horticulturist and so won't be entering the local shows.

Phil added: "I don't know what I shall try next year.

"I am open to suggestions, or I shall just see what seeds I get offered."

John Lindsay, from Rochdale, who judged the vegetable classes at Edenfield Horticultural Society's summer show, said: "It's good going. There are two or three of the lads who grow giant vegetables and one has written a book on how to do it.

"I think it might be something to do with the sugars being easier to break down in beer because when you give a plant nitrogen the plant breaks it down into sugars.

"In some shows they have classes for monster vegetables and they do get some big entries.

"I have heard of someone in Newcastle who grows big leeks by giving them beer but I haven't heard of many people doing it down here -- we usually prefer to drink it!"