A new breed is in town.

They call them the tickers, and if you're in Birmingham city centre they are probably in a pub near you.

But alas it wasn't always so, explains Nigel Barker, a sprightly man who runs the newly-opened Wellington pub on Bennetts Hill.

He moved to Birmingham ten years ago, and spent a period running the Barton's Arms in Aston. But he was shocked and horrified by what he found when he first set foot in the city.

"I used to drink Guinness everywhere I went," he says slowly shaking his head in the slightly smoky atmosphere of his new real ale drinker's paradise.

"There was just virtually nowhere to drink real ale. I found that unbelievable. I thought this is one place that really needs a real-ale free house.

"It's taken virtually ten years for that dream to come true."

After a decade of keeping his ear to the ground for business opportunities, he has now unleashed The Wellington, and in many ways it is hard to imagine that Nigel could have been happier with the way things have developed since opening his doors on December 17.

"I've never looked back," he says, grinning and taking a mighty gulp of real ale. "Ever week it has got better and better."

The pub - which is owned by an independent investor, but which Nigel wholly runs - has already served 500 guest beers, an almost unheard of feat.

Perhaps there was a pent up demand among Birmingham's real- ale fanatics, Nigel speculates.

"You used to have to travel to Halesowen for a decent range. Now it's on the doorstep, five minutes from Snow Hill and New Street."

He only found the premises, formerly a slick caf>-bar type spot called Kempsons, in September. "It was all very modern and minimalists. That's all gone now," Nigel says with relish.

"And I've given it its old name back."

Once the property deal went through, he admits to celebrating with a pint of real ale.

"All the time I knew there was a call for it. But I never realized it would take off so quickly. I thought maybe it would take a year or at least months to be established."

But after just three short months there is already something of a community in the pub. The tickers, are a regular appearance - individuals passionate about their real ale who travel from pub to pub, beer festival to beer festival in a cloud of real ale, noting down the beverages they have quaffed down, beer's very own spotters.

"The locals and regulars, everyone knows each other," Nigel says, raising a cigarette to the crowd. His sweeping flame takes in Nigel Green, a fellow Wellington man who Nigel describes as his righthand man. "I've been working with him for 20 years, and he does 90 per cent of the cellar work. We get through so much here it's practically a full-time job changing the barrels."

The cellar typically has, at least, 40 guest beers in, almost certainly making it the most eclectic collection in the city.

"This is a complete freehouse, that means we can buy any beer we want," says Nigel. "We have stuff here from the big breweries and the more unusual beers from micro breweries."

The Wellington's first beer festival takes place this weekend.