Betwixt Cheers - (L-R) Mike McGuigan, Steve Briscoe and Andrew Pimbley raise a glass to Wirral Food&Drink Festival

Birkenhead

’s new Betwixt Beer Company will mark their sponsorship of the Wirral Food & Drink Festival with the official roll out of a ground breaking cask lager – Storr.

The fledgling craft brewery stepped in at the last minute as sole sponsor of the beer marquee at the award winning August Bank Holiday event when two larger companies pulled out.

The marquee will showcase beers from six craft brewers around Cheshire and Merseyside alongside Betwixt’s own range, including Storr. Celebrating Wirral’s Viking history, this is an authentically brewed premium strength lager (4.8%abv). The name is derived from the Old Norse word for great or strong. .

Betwixt director Steve Briscoe said: “Although still a very young company, we were delighted to step in with sponsorship. The festival is a terrific not-for-profit event that shows off the very best of Wirral food and drink. It’s the ideal place to spotlight our innovative new lager.

“Storr is produced in the true tradition of lager brewing and cold matured for four weeks. Very few brewers in the country are doing this – but where Storr has been tried so far it has gone exceedingly well.”

Earlier this year – after brewing for several years in London and Cheshire – Mike McGuigan joined with former telecoms man Steve Briscoe to bring brewing back to Birkenhead, following some forty years’ absence.

In a major investment they set up a ten barrel brew length plant in a former furniture factory and quickly established several cask-conditioned beers in the core range, including Sunlight – named after nearby Port Sunlight. The beers now reach Manchester and North Wales.

Farmer Andrew Pimbley, who hosts the festival at Claremont Farm, Bebington, said: “We were very pleased that Betwixt came to our aid and saved the day for the beer marquee.”