St Albans has more than 50 pubs offering a bountiful choice of fine beers and it needs exceptional skill and dedication for one pub to stand out from the crowd.

So many congratulations to Jim and Liz Pratt, landlords of the Robin Hood, who have won two prestigious awards from the local branch of CAMRA – Pub of the Year and Cider Pub of the Year.

They are seen receiving their awards from Ian Boyd, chairman of the South Herts Branch of the Campaign for Real Ale.

As well as a large range of ciders, the Robin Hood’s handpumps serve excellent cask beer and it’s a rare outlet for the superb Sussex Best Bitter from Harvey’s of Lewes.

The pub at 126 Victoria Street has a fascinating history. Jim told me it was originally owned by a St Albans brewery called Adey & White and when it was first built it was surrounded by open land.

Today there are houses and shops all around, including a branch of Iceland, and the pub is popular with commuters from London in search of a quick pint at the end of the working day.

Adey & White was a substantial brewery based in Chequer Street. The brewery was founded by the Kinder family in 1737 who added a maltings, using top quality barley from Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire: the maltings gave its name to the modern shopping centre.

The brewery was bought by Stephen Adey and Samuel Monckton White in 1868. They busily expanded the business, buying Parson’s Brewery in St Peter’s Street in 1885 and the last remaining competitor in the city, T W Kent & Son in 1918.

Adey & White developed a large range of beer, including Bitter Ale, Dinner Ale, Single Stout, Double Stout, Porter, AK and KKK Stock Ale.

The letter K, along with X, was used as cask branding to indicate strength. AK was a mild ale while KKK was a strong beer used for blending. McMullen in Hertford still uses AK as the name of its mild ale.

Adey & White built a substantial estate of 56 pubs. As well as the Robin Hood, the A&W pubs that survive today include the Beehive, Fleur de Lys (now called the Snug), Goat, Lower Red Lion, Mermaid, Portland Arms and the Peacock.

A member of the brewing staff, Jack Knight, recalled that A&W had a sign depicting the famous cricketer Dr W G Grace of Victorian and Edwardian times. The cricketing theme continued with the Bat & Ball pub on Chequer Street.

The brewery was bought in 1936 by J W Green of Luton and was promptly closed. The aggressive Luton brewery wanted A&W’s pubs to stock its own beers.

Green dated from 1897 and it changed its name to Flowers in 1954 when it bought Flowers Brewery in Stratford-on-Avon.

The head brewer at Luton, Bernard Dixon, achieved fame in 1955 when he produced one of the first – possibly the very first – keg beers.

Unlike cask-conditioned real ale, keg beer is filtered, pasteurised and artificially carbonated. Most importantly, it has a long shelf life while cask ale in contrast has to be sold within just a few days or it will oxidise.

The profits from keg beer were not lost on bigger brewers and Greens was bought by Whitbread in 1961. The London brewer closed the Luton plant in 1969 but continued to brew and market Flowers Keg as a leading national brand.

The Robin Hood, in common with several St Albans pubs, was a Whitbread tied house for many years.

But Whitbread left brewing in 2000 and the Robin Hood is now owned by the Stonegate pub company that allows Jim and Liz to stock an excellent range of cask beers that has won them their well-deserved CAMRA award.