A ROYAL visitor steeped in the brewing arts was the special guest at the Matthew Brown brewery in Blackburn back in 1986.

Prince Luitpold of Bavaria, whose family had owned the Kaltenberg brewery in Germany for 700 years, was given a tour of the facilities in Blackburn.

Matthew Brown was producing Kaltenberg Pils, a lager to be sold in the UK under licence from the Bavarian brewery and the prince was shown around by production director Guy Branford and Harry Moffatt, a director of Kaltenberg UK.

They are looking at one of the giant stainless steel containers in which the lager was being brewed on site.