Homemade Albrighton pub owner wins year's supply of free beer

Pubs, bars and restaurants may have reopened across the UK, but Lee Morris has no reason to leave his home or The Albert Arms, conveniently located in his Albrighton garden, anytime soon.

The 46-year-old decked out his shed with a bar and stools, beer pumps, electric drum kit, log burner, dartboard, optics, snooker table, atmospheric lighting, a 50ins TV and even home-brewed ale.

Having put the finishing touches to his pub, The Albert Arms, in 2015 at a cost of about £3,000, Lee has been using the pub for seven years and has now been recognised as the winner of a national competition to find Britain's top home pubs.

From more than 300 entries, Lee was whittled down to just 15 before judges at Liberty Games declared the Shropshire entrant to be the most worthy.

As a result, he now has a free supply of beer for the next year.

"It's a great achievement," said Lee. "I've done a lot of work on the pub over the years and we've been making adjustments along the way, and a year's worth of free beer is certainly going to help.

"It's nice having won the prize, but it's also quite nice thinking it's the pub that's done it."

Brewing his own ale, Lee said he plans on using his winnings as a backup to his own supply.

"I'll probably use the winnings as infill," he said.

"When I have none of my own beer available it'll be good to have a constant supply."

Lee added: "Although pubs have just reopened, with the situation we have at the moment I don't think I'll be in any rush to get back to the pubs.

"It's definitely nice to go out still, it's a different atmosphere, but a lot of the time it feels like we're at a real pub when we're in the shed anyway.

"I'll quite often sit in there with a beer, watch TV or play a game with my son – we quite often have food in there as well.

"When I started building it was all a bit bare, but then you just start working it up. I've managed to get a lot of beer-related ornaments and pictures and we've changed the furniture around a bit.

"It started as quite an old rustic pub, which we've tried to keep a bit of, but now it's a bit more modern and up to date.

"Throughout it's time we've had a snooker table, air hockey table and now a football table."

For more information, visit libertygames.co.uk/blog/the-uks-best-home-bar-2020/