Simon MacVicker (left) and Edward Wood launch W•P•B Athletes' Ale

South Shropshire brewery Wood’s will notch up an Olympic milestone on July 16 when W•P•B Athletes’ Ale, specially brewed to celebrate Much Wenlock’s famous Olympian roots, goes on sale in the House of Commons.

Wistanstow-based Wood’s is sending five barrels of the 4.2% ABV gold bitter to Parliament for sale in the Strangers’ Bar.

The order came about after Simon MacVicker of the Wenlock Olympian Society met Ludlow constituency MP, Philip Dunne. Simon explained how the Olympians had asked local brewery Wood’s to come up with the beer, which was launched at the Brookes memorial in Much Wenlock in September 2011.

Wood’s MD Edward Wood said: “We’re delighted the House has ordered our beer so close to the start of the Olympics. It’s not only timely for the games, but it links to William Penny Brookes and the Wenlock Olympian Games, which have been the inspiration for the modern day Olympic Games.”

Brookes was born in Much Wenlock in 1809 and in 1850 started the annual Wenlock Olympian Games. The modern Olympics were first staged in Athens in 1896 after their organiser, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, was invited by Brookes to witness the Wenlock games – still staged to this day by the Olympian Society. Coubertin subsequently transferred the format to a larger, grander occasion.

Wood’s are donating 5p to the Wenlock Olympian Society for every pint of Athletes’ Ale sold through free houses in Shropshire and the surrounding counties.