MAD Pig and Hog's Head 54 are now being produced onsite and served across the bar at one of the Lake District's most historic inns.

The Wild Boar Inn - so-called because a particularly ferocious beast was once slain there - has expanded into the real ale market.

Tucked away in Wild Boar country amid 72 acres of private woodland on a back road to Windermere, the new beers are the latest enterprise for the four-star venue.

The micro brewery in its grounds adds to the on-site smokehouse it set up to produce locally smoked sausages, cheeses, salmon and hams.

Andy Lemm, general manager of The Wild Boar Inn, Grill & Smokehouse, said: "It takes us two weeks to produce our ales and we get 10 barrels from each brew.

“The beers have been going down very well with our guests and we think it complements our other facilities at the inn allowing us to offer truly unique food and drink produced on site and served in our bar and restaurant. We are really taking localism and provenance to a new level.”

Overseeing operations is master-brewer Tim Bloomer of the Fell Brewery near Flookburgh.

Mad Pig is described as a traditional ale of four per cent which uses a 'new world hop' that gives it a distinct aroma and longer after-taste.

‘Hog’s Head 54’ - a 5.4 per cent brew - is said to be a seasonal pale ale named after the 54 gallon casks that were used to transport pale ales around the globe in the hey day of the British Empire.

The Wild Boar is part of family-run English Lakes Hotels Resorts & Venues and it has started supplying its beers to sister hotels Waterhead Boutique Hotel & Dining, and Low Wood Bay, near Ambleside.