As excitement over the royal wedding reaches fever pitch, those who miss out on an invitation will be able to toast the happy couple with a specially-brewed beer.
Kiss Me Kate is being brewed just for the occasion and will be a “British beer through and through”, creators from Castle Rock Brewery in Nottingham said today.
The brewery, formed in 1998, produces seven permanent beers including its award-winning Harvest Pale, but brewers are adding the new tipple to their repertoire to mark the occasion.
Head brewer Adrian Redgrove said Kiss Me Kate would be “elegant, tasteful and British to the core”.
He said: “The recipe is still in the planning stage, I have to give this one very careful thought because it’s obviously a very special beer.
“The plan is it will be a pale beer. The malted barley and hops will be English sourced so it will be a British beer through and through, pale in colour and delicately hopped with a bit of sweetness in there.
“A nicely balanced beer, that’s what I am aiming for, not for the faint-hearted to a certain extent, it’s planned to be five per cent abv so a fairly strong beer but I think hopefully it fits the special occasion, a special beer.
“We’re sure it’ll be the ideal way to toast the couple’s future happiness. We’ll certainly be enjoying it in our celebrations here at the brewery.
“We weren’t here for the last jubilee or Charles and Diana’s wedding but I’m sure we will be dragging some bunting out and hanging it around the brewery on the day of the brew.
“Hopefully that will see us through with some good luck to produce a very decent beer.”
And he said they may even send a sample to Prince William and Miss Middleton as a gift.
“I would love to send some to William and Kate,” Mr Redgrove said.
“I’m not aware whether they’re beer drinkers but I think even those who don’t see themselves as beer drinkers would hopefully enjoy this, there should be something in this beer for everyone.”
Kiss Me Kate will be available on draught at Castle Rock’s 21 pubs throughout April, running up to the big day.
Only one brew is being made – around 40 barrels – and just 100 bottles will be produced for memento collectors and toasting future royal events. Castle Rock’s commercial manager Charlie Blomeley said the brewery was used to producing special beers.
As well as seven permanent ales it produces monthly beers for Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and quarterly beers called Nottinghamian Celebration Ales which mark the work of famous people in the city.
“And then we do occasional one-off brews for special occasions such as Kiss Me Kate,” she added.
“I think having this beer in the pubs is great, any special occasion we try and celebrate it in any pub whether it’s St Georges Day, a royal wedding, an extra bank holiday, we always try to tie it in with lots of different things, so we have beer, live music, food, it makes the whole event bigger and more special.
“We’re planning on having quite a lot going on in the week prior to the wedding.”