AN ULVERSTON beer enthusiast has fulfilled an 'ambition' by opening a new drinking spot and shop in the town.

Alan Munro, 35, worked at Siemens for more than a decade before choosing to take voluntary redundancy in August and pursue setting up 'Beerwolf'.

"It was an ambition of mine and when this opportunity arose I decided to take it," Mr Munro, originally from Barrow but now an Ulverston resident, said.

"We call it a bottleshop. You can come in to buy and take home with you or you can come in and drink."

Described by Mr Munro as 'intimate' and 'traditional' in style, the downstairs area of the former Market Street estate agency has seating for 12.

Upstairs there is room for 40 in what Mr Munro said is a 'less traditional' setting, filled with reclaimed furniture and decor.

There are two casks on offer in the shop, eight kegs and more than 200 beers available in bottles and cans that can be bought to take home.

The shop is independent, meaning that it is not tied to any particular brewery and Mr Munro is free to choose what is sold.

"I have tried a lot of beers," Mr Munro joked, asked how he chose the stock. "We have a lot of breweries that we know are good and produce consistently good beers.

"We are not tied to any breweries or distributors at all as a lot of the pubs in this area will be."

Having attended university in Manchester and spent a year in Melbourne with wife Hanna, he was in part inspired to set up Beerwolf by the craft beer culture that he saw in those cities.

"I never had the time or talent to become a brewer myself," he said. "But this is the second best thing to surround myself with beer.

"I thought why not take that concept [from the cities] to Ulverston where I'm from and see if it works."

He added that as well as providing beers that people knew and loved from all over the world, there would always be a variety of new and different tipples on tap, including pale ales, IPAs, stouts and lagers.

And he was keen to promote the work of local breweries such as Stringers, Hawkshead Brewery and South Lakes, too.

"We will be really pushing the Cumbrian beer scene as well because there are a lot of very good breweries around here that don't get the exposure they would in the cities," he said.

The shop is open from 10am-6pm and until midnight on Friday and Saturday.

"Everything has been really positive so far," he said. "We have had good comments, the Facebook feedback has been really good. So far, so good."