The Brewery Tap, in Westgate, which last week celebrated its 10th year of business, has been announced as Own-Brew Pub of the Year in The Good Pub Guide 2009 edition, which comes out today.

The guide stated: "A vast two-storey high glass wall divides the bar and the neighbouring brewery, which produces a range of Oakham Ales beers (Bishops Farewell, JHB and White Dwarf).

It adds: "The pub also serves a range of thoughtfully-chosen guest beers, a good number of bottled Belgian beers and quite a few wines by the glass."

However, the planned £450 million development of the city's Westgate area has left The Brewery Tap, or the Tap as it is affectionately known to city pubgoers, under threat of closure.

However, general manager Jessica Loock hopes the praise from the guide will add weight to the pub's "Don't scrap the Tap" campaign, which has seen more than 20,000 people show their support for the venue.

"We are absolutely delighted," said Mrs Loock, adding: "It's a really prestigious award, but we are still under threat from closure.

"The most recent talk was that we would be relocated, but not to a freehold premises. If that's the only option, then we would do it."

Award winning has come naturally to the Tap since it opened in October 1998, including winning Bargain Pub of the Year two years ago. The pub also scooped first place in two competitions run by Beers of the World magazine for its Hawse Buckler brew, made by Oakham Ales.

In their hunt for Britain's best pubs, the editors of the Good Pub Guide receive thousands of reader reports, and personally visit hundreds of pubs all over the country anonymously.

For Mrs Loock, the way the awards are carried out just proves how good the service and standards are at the award-winning venue.

She added: "They are carried out anonymously, so it's even better because they are seeing the pub in normal circumstances.

"We have paid attention to being welcoming, hospitable and nobody feels intimidated here. People feel safe and secure, and I think that sets us apart from our competition."

But the Tap wasn't the only venue in the area to be celebrating. The George of Stamford, in St Martin's, Stamford, is also celebrating after it won Hotel Bar of the Year in the book, which is published and updated annually.

Joint licence holder Chris Pitman said: "We are delighted. I think the main reason for our success is that all our staff enjoy working here. They care about being in the bar and they enjoy looking after the customers."

Good Pub Guide joint editor Fiona Stapley said: "These awards have been won amid especially tough competition this year. The awards are only given to pubs that have inspired a high volume of positive customer reports to the guide.

"It is the pubs which work the hardest and most flexibly to give customers what they want that will survive and flourish in the current economic climate."

Elsewhere online:
The Good Pub Guide - website.

View a 107 page preview of The Good Pub Guide 2009.