LEIGH has got its first brewery.

And the Leigh-on-Sea Brewing Company has already supplied its first beer, Legra Pale Ale to West Road Tap in Westcliff and Fleur De Leigh at the weekend - and both watering holes sold out of the liquor.

Business partners Ian Rylings, 58, and Mark Springham, 55, who are both from Leigh, have so far invested £250,000 to launch their project in Progress Road, Eastwood.

Neither had any knowledge of the trade when they decided to launch their own range of beers earlier this year.

Mr Spingham was in industrial packaging and Mr Rylings was formerly head of corporate assets and head of housing at Thurrock Council.

Mr Rylings said: “We have no long history in brewing - other than drinking it! “We’re beer aficionados. And we are both very keen on the taste of beers so we decided to make our own. “At the moment we have a 150- litre brewery, that’ll become a 1,600 litre brewery in November.

“So we’re up and running on a small scale for now so if something goes wrong you only have a throw a small batch away.”

My Rylings went on to talk about their tailor-made beers.

Hes aid: “Legra is a hoppy, golden ale and we have six on our list. These include Cockle Row Spit, an American-style IPA and we will be making a traditional British Bitter, Six Little Ships which are named after the little boats that went to Dunkirk.

“That will be ready in about six weeks. There will also be a black IPA called Crowstone after the obelisk in Chalkwell and a Two Tree Island ale.”

The operation has been a steep learning curve for the pair. Mr Rylings said: “Mark did a brewing course and we’ve visited other breweries.“We were trying to be well advised so we’ve had consultants come in to work with us for a couple of days. “The brewery is quite modern. We’re picking up on craft beer but brewing it in a traditional way .

“We have traditional hand-pumped casks and bottles and keykegs which are plastic single use kegs.“You see them quite a lot in city bars but not around here .”