TO turn Rolf Harris' ditty on its head, Newport Pale Ale is a beer with no pub.

"A situation," says brewer Richard Jackson, "that we are about to change. "There hasn't been a brewery in Newport for 40 years, but by the end of this year we expect to have dozens of Newport's pubs serving up our new beer for a new city.

"Newport has a university and a cathedral. Having our own brewery is also a badge of civic pride."

Well-known to aficionados of real ale throughout the city, Mr Jackson was formerly landlord of the Orange Tree, in Pill, and of the Red Lion, in Stow Hill, from where his new beers - Newport Pale Ale and Newport Blonde - are to be launched in the summer.

Kerry Dobbins, 50, is a former Royal Mail manager and beer enthusiast who is joining Mr Jackson in the £30,000 venture. The business relationship is made closer by the fact that they're brothers-in-law.

"We've got a location for our brewery in the Shaftesbury area of Newport, for which we are trying to get planning permission," Richard says.

"My family has been involved in the licensed trade in Newport for generations. My father was actually born at the Royal Albert, in Maindee, in the 1930s.

"I'm a real trainspotter about beer. Very shortly after Kerry and I became brothers-in-law we realised we had a consuming interest in beer. "It wasn't long after that a business plan started to emerge."

Kerry, of Queen's Hill, Newport, added: "The first pints of Newport Pale Ale and Newport Blonde will be pulled in May if all goes to plan.

"We have both been away on brewing courses to Sunderland University and are convinced that we can come up with a product that is perfect for Newport.

"We are reuniting the city with a tradition that goes back at least as far as 1385."

The name Dobbins and Jackson on the brewery's trademark will appear over a depiction of the Transporter Bridge with the slogan A New Beer for a New City.

"At first the output will be quite small - 80 nine-gallon casks a week - but we will be able to work up from that when the demand materialises, as we are sure it will," Mr Jackson says.

"I've produced test samples of the Newport Pale Ales, which will be light and hoppy with a strength of 4.5, and using American hops.

"The Blonde will be a lager style but with a subtle, more complex taste. We have visited dozens of pubs in the city and throughout Gwent and are convinced there is a market. Newport people are proud of their city and will want to drink something that identifies with it.

"In the 1850s there were 16 breweries in Newport, and as recently as the last war we had Lloyds and Yorath, Simonds, Mitchell and Butler and Phillips.

"It is sad to think that we have been without a brewery for four decades." Ron Wallace, of the Ridgeway, Newport, where Mr Jackson often pops in for a pint, says he will be selling the new brews.

"My real ale sales are very good and rising. Richard and Kerry have done their research and know what Newport people want. "I will be happy to serve up the products of the Newport Brewing Company."