At the end of October a swathe of people head, backs turned to the Bullring, towards Digbeth or Deritend, or the dirty end depending on your localisms. Whispers of eager sounding voices can be heard discussing imbibes of dark roasted malts and whether to go local brewery with Two Towers’ ‘Jewellery Porter’ or regional with Marble’s ‘Ginger Ale’ as the first drink of the day. With over 160 beers on offer to beer enthusiasts to sample over 3 days and worthy of note a good proportion are local beers; those within a 40 mile radius, it’s no wonder beer has replaced custard as Digbeth’s malty attraction. Over 4,000 people made this journey last year to Birmingham Beer festival and in the course Digbeth cemented its reputation as an epi-beer centre. In a city of such size you see the big beer boys all too often as the main drink offering but a collection of pubs are bucking the beer supermarkets in favour of an indie alternative and there are a number of Digbeth pubs championing thi...