HOGS Back Brewery is encouraging people to enjoy a pint in their local pub, and turn Blue Monday (January 20) into Brew Monday to stave off the worst of the January blues and keep their local thriving.

Blue Monday has been named the worst day of the year because it presents a ‘perfect storm’ of factors including post-festive season blues, failed New Year resolutions, and bad weather - as well as being a Monday!

Hogs Back Brewery, in Tongham, is running a ‘Support Your Local, Go TEA Total’ campaign during January, encouraging people to maintain a social life at their local pub with a pint of TEA - its best-selling beer, Traditional English Ale - and to help pubs stay busy during a quiet month.

Hogs Back managing director Rupert Thompson said: "January’s a challenging month for many people, but we think getting out and about is important to counter social isolation and improve our overall wellbeing.

"A brisk walk to the local for a sociable pint of TEA and a chat with the landlord or other regulars is a great way to turn Blue Monday into Brew Monday.

"We also think it’s important to support our local pubs this month, when many of them are suffering low trade, partly because of the growth in Dry January.

"If too many people stay away from the pub in January, it may not be there in February, which would be a sad loss for many communities who depend upon their local for vital social interaction and much more."

The ‘Support Your Local, Go TEA Total’ campaign is running in around 200 pubs across Surrey and the south east, who are displaying posters, pumpclips and beer mats.

Drinkers can tag themselves and mates in the pub on TEA Total Thursdays every week to win a brewery tour and beers, and they can nominate their local to win the ‘TEA Drinkers’ Pub of the Year’. There are also weekly competitions, asking people to nominate the best pub for dogs, open fires fireplace, pub quizzes and similar.

The campaign reflects the pub industry’s ‘Long Live the Local’ programme, which shows that socialising with friends is the main reason people enjoy visiting their local pub

Pub campaign Long Live the Local has carried out research into why people go to the pub, revealing that:

* 59 per cent of people say the main reason to visit their local is because it’s a great place to socialise with friends;

* 48 per cent go to the pub because they enjoy feeling like a local and bumping into people they know;

* 47 per cent feel the pub brings people and the local community together;

* 40 per cent believe the pub acts as a social centre for the community.