Brewers come to the aid of the NHS

Signature Brew, based in Walthamstow, East London, has joined forces with the women behind the Manchester Punk Festival to launch a hoppy Nightingale New England Pale Ale. Signature specialises in providing beer for music festivals and other events. When the brewers heard the Punk Festival had been been cancelled as a result of the coronavirus crisis they decided to launch a special beer to support the NHS.

Nightingale has a stone fruit aroma, low bitterness, with pine notes on the palate balanced by an oat base. A 330ml can costs £3.70, of which £1 will go to NHS charities. 

The brewery is best known for the collaboration beers it has done with leading music groups. They include Mastodon, Idles, Slaves, Frank Turner, Enter Shikari and some 25 other groups.

To order Nightingale go to: www.signaturebrew.co.uk

Pitchfork Ales, based in Somerset, is set to score a world-first next month when it hosts the first cask ale virtual beer festival to start the early May Day Bank Holiday weekend. 

The Armchair Beer Festival has been created out of the countrywide lockdown that has seen events cancelled and pubs closed, while threatening the survival of independent breweries. 

Pitchfork Ales aims to unite beer lovers across the country with its innovative approach to tackling how to get high quality real ale direct to a consumer, during the restrictions imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Traditional beer festivals are predominantly cask ale. They allow visitors to sample whichever beers they wish, be entertained by some great music and enjoy the company of other beer lovers.” says Dave Turner, founder of Pitchfork Ales (pictured). 

“We saw numerous beer festivals being cancelled and wondered what we could do replicate that experience online, so we’ve done just that, but also supporting our incredible NHS by donating 20p from every pint sold to them." 

By visiting the website, beer lovers get to choose the drinks they wish to sample during the festival out of a varied range of 15 beers and three ciders. These will be carefully packaged along with a commemorative Armchair Beer Festival glass and dispatched by a specialist liquid carrying courier to the beer lover's home address in time for the festival on Bank Holiday Friday. 

The fresh cask ales and ciders are available for specialist overnight delivery anywhere within England, Wales and Scotland. With direct ordering and secure payment online, the cut off for deliveries is Monday 4 May at 12 noon. 

Pitchfork Ales is also offering a drive-through collection service from its brewery facilities in Hewish, near Weston-super-Mare. The cut off for ordering for collection is Wednesday 6 May at 12 noon. 

On the day of the festival, 8 May at 7pm, the exclusive live stream will run for three hours broadcasting three live music acts and offering beer-related chats with the Pitchfork Ales brewer along with award-winning beer writer Adrian Tierney-Jones. 

Dave Turner add: “Predominantly, it’s our local area where beer lovers get to sample our brews, but already we’re seeing orders come in for the beer festival from Southampton to Glasgow. The unique aspect of being able to ship freshly tapped cask ale anywhere in the country direct to the consumers’ door is a real pull." 

More information can be found on the dedicated festival website for the Armchair Beer Festival at: www.armchairbeerfest.com and anyone purchasing drinks will be sent the secret code for the live stream and also a range of free merchandise and discount vouchers, subject to their order amount.

Camden Town brewery has renasmed its Hells lager to Camden Heroes, with all proceeds of every can sold donated to charities supporting healthcare heroes.

All NHS workers will be able to claim a free six pack of Camden Heroes Lager by signing up to the Camden Web Shop, using their NHS email address and entering the code HEROESFORHEROES at checkout. The brewery is also donating 20,000 cans directly to frontline staff at hospitals, ambulance stations and clinics in London as a thank you for when staff clock off after their shift.

Jasper Cuppaidge, Founder of Camden Town Brewery says: “We had so many people contacting us from hospitals asking for beers to replace their weekly pub team visits. We were more than happy to help but wanted to do more. 

That’s why we created Camden Heroes Lager to say a massive thank you to the amazing healthcare workers and show our support the best way we know how, brewing beer. We are so grateful to all the incredible frontline workers risking their lives during this global crisis. Let’s raise a socially distant cheers to UK health workers.”

Camden Town Brewery’s Camden Heroes Lager has an ABV of 4.6 per cent and will be available from 29 April on the Camden web shop.