GK collab helps tackle African poverty

Suffolk brewer Greene King has teamed up with Tapestry Brewery, a Bristol based micro-brewer, to brew a new collaboration beer, Encounter Pale Ale, which is available now until the end of April. 

Encounter Pale Ale is brewed with quality barley malt for sweetness plus oats and torrefied wheat for body. A 4 per cent beer, it's the second Greene King collaboration beer brewed with the team behind Tapestry and uses Cascade, Mosaic and Galaxy hops giving it grapefruit, citrus and tropical fruit notes.  

5p from every pint sold will be donated to Send a Cow, Tapestry Brewing’s partner charity. They provide families in poverty across rural Africa with the opportunity to build the skills and confidence needed to raise themselves out of poverty. 

This latest beer follows on from successful beer collaborations with smaller brewers under Greene King’s collaboration brewing programme, including Canopy Pub Company and Toast Brewing. 

Ross O’Hara, Greene King head brewer, says: “It has been a pleasure to work with Dan, Calum and the team at Tapestry to create this brew. Our collaboration brewing programme is a fantastic way to work with different brewers, bounce off ideas, create something new and exciting and give our partner breweries a profile too through our sales network. We are thrilled with the resulting beer; Encounter Pale Ale is a super tasty, easy drinking pale ale.” Ross is pictured (above, left) with Calum Doutch, co-founder of Tapestry. 

Calum Doutch adds: “We’re excited about this collaboration as it really brings two worlds together which are very much at different ends of the brewing scale. Encounter is about us coming together and brewing a cask beer which has a big focus on the hop Galaxy as well as doing our bit to help with the work Send A Cow do over in sub-Saharan Africa. This type of exposure for our brand and partnership with Send A Cow will help us reach and tell our story to corners of the UK we ordinarily wouldn’t be able to reach.” 

Catherine Harris, corporate partnerships executive at Send a Cow, says: “We’re delighted to join this partnership between Greene King and Tapestry. Corporate partnerships like these enable us to help even more families across sub-Saharan Africa to lift themselves out of poverty.”