Brewer creates Fundraiser beer for Hospice

A Bedfordshire hospice has collaborated with the Potton Brewery to create a bitter celebrating the centre's thirtieth anniversary.

Sue Ryder's St John's Hospice will receive a donation for every firkin of the Fundraiser beer sold. Fundraiser is a four per cent ABV light golden bitter with a "noticeable" hop aroma and a "calm" bitter aftertaste.

So far around a dozen pubs have put in orders for the 72 pint Firkins.

The hospice's senior fundraiser, Simon Flowerdew, came up with the idea for the brew two months ago. He said: "I was just sitting at my desk as normal and I just overheard someone talking about cider. And my brain started turning over the idea and I thought 'wouldn't it be good to have an anniversary beer - we haven't done that before'.

"We've got a local brewery so I just gave them a ring and asked them how easy it would be to do this and they were fantastic. They said they could make something up - they had an old recipe we could use and we played around with that until we were happy with it."

Flowerdew was hoping to use the brew to make more pubs aware of the hospice so that they might fundraise for it and didn't expect to make any money from the sale. St John's offers end-of-life care for patients with illnesses including Cancer, Motor Neurone Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, heart, liver and lung failure.

He added: "We have done a lot of charity work with pubs so there's a connection there."

However, the Potton Brewery is donating £7.50 per Firkin, £3.00 per 20 litre and £1.50 per 10 litre polypack.