Marston's teams up with Shipyard Brewing to launch American Pale Ale

17-Apr-2013 - Last updated on 18-Apr-2013 at 08:37 GMT

Marston's brewing director Richard Westwood shows Shipyard's Fred Forseley and wife Judy around the brewery

Marston’s is to launch Shipyard Brewing's 4.5% American Pale Ale in May, in an extension of the breweries 15-year pan-Atlantic collaboration.

American Pale Ale will be brewed permanently by Marston’s Park brewery in Wolverhampton in draught 30-litre keg format. There are also plans for it to be released in bottle later in the year.

American Pale Ale is a new interpretation of Shipyard’s Independence Pale Ale which has been a success on Marston’s guest cask ale programme.

Fred Forseley, Shipyard Brewing founder, will visit Marston’s this week to trial brews that could make the final cut for May’s launch. “This collaboration with Marston’s enables us to get our beers into the hands of a wider audience." he said.

Earlier this month, American brewers Dogfish similarly teamed up with Charles Wells to brew a new IPA.

James Coyle, sales director at Marston’s, said the partnership represents an increasing trend for craft beer, and a step forward for Marston’s.

“The emergence of ‘new world’ craft beer represents a profitable opportunity to build on the success of established ‘old world’ speciality beers of Belgium, Germany and the Czech Republic. Our collaboration with Shipyard is just the beginning of what is set to be a very exciting time for Marston’s in terms of new product development.”

Richard Westwood, Marston’s director of brewing, said that the launch could be the start of a series of relationships with worldwide breweries. “Collaborating with breweries around the world, like in Germany or Belgium for instance, is a potential way forward. It’s a growing market, and we hope to share consumers and widen our portfolio,” he said.

The brewery said it hoped to introduce another craft beer in the Autumn.