Vale Brewery's Brock's Den beer, launched in October 2022, with 10p from every pint sold donated to BBOWT. Picture: Vale Brewery
BBOWT has teamed up with a badger-loving brewery for an unlikely partnership: a beer that helps local wildlife.
The Trust has hopped to it with the Vale Brewery on their latest tipple, Brock's Den - named after an old-fashioned word for a badger.
The bucolic brewery, just outside the rural village of Ludgershall between Aylesbury and Bicester, has pledged to donate 10p from every pint of its new beer to the wildlife trust.
From left: David Sheffield from BBOWT, Huw Davies from Vale Brewery near Ludgershall, and Victoria Bentiba and Rob Cooke from BBOWT at the launch of Vale Brewery's Brock's Den beer in October 2022. Picture: Vale Brewery
Victoria Bentiba, Corporate Relations Officer at BBOWT, said:
"We were so delighted when Vale Brewery suggested this idea. Apart from the fact that many staff at BBOWT are extremely partial to a pint, this is also a small, independent business, selling its beer locally in a way that is much more environmentally-friendly than a lot of the international produce we consume today.
"We are very proud to be partnering with this conscientious company and we're really grateful for their support. What’s more, several BBOWT staff had the pleasure of sampling Brock's Den at the brewery this week and can confirm it is very easy to drink! Of course, we’d also like to remind people to drink responsibly."
The Vale Brewery team describe Brock’s Den as a traditional ruby ale using 100 per cent British ingredients. British Sovereign and East Kent Golding hops give an 'earthy, honey nose', and a blend of pale planet and dark crystal malts with some torrified (roasted) wheat give a malty finish.
The company has brewed 160 nine-gallon casks, approximately 11,500 pints, and is expecting to sell all of it in the next four weeks, so beer and nature lovers are urged to snap it up while it is available.
Vale Brewery's Brock's Den beer, launched in October 2022, with 10p from every pint sold donated to BBOWT. Picture: Vale Brewery
As an added ecological bonus, the beer's pump clip (the logo badge which pubs can attach to their pump at the bar) is also made from recycled cardboard.
Vale Brewery says that sustainability is a big part of its ethos 'from grain to glass'.
The company tries to use UK or European-grown hops as often as possible to minimise its carbon footprint and brews with sustainable, UK-sourced grains.
What's more, once the sugars are extracted, the spent grain is used by a local farmer to feed cattle and even used to feed black soldier fly larvae which are a sustainable aquaculture feed.
Huw Davies, Vale Brewery Head of Operations, said:
"I have always been a big believer in nature conservation and protecting our environment. I was very fortunate to be raised in an area of south Wales with every type of natural habitat on the doorstep and I immersed myself in the outdoors, so conservation became a passion.
"We’re very fortunate here at Vale Brewery to be surrounded by wonderful nature - in fact we're just a couple of fields away from BBOWT's Rushbeds Wood nature reserve. I’ve seen firsthand the positive impacts local wildlife charities can make, and having a BBOWT site up the road is a perfect opportunity for us to give back to the local area."
The company also happens to be just minutes away from BBOWT’s newest nature reserve Ludgershall Meadows, which it successfully acquired after a £330,000 public fundraising appeal last year.
The Wildlife Trust will put the money raised from Brock’s Den towards its work managing more than 86 nature reserves across the three counties as well as running educational events and working with local authorities and landowners to create more nature everywhere.
Check out the Vale Brewery website: https://valebrewery.co.uk/
