Magpie’s 'Endeavours' Rewarded with trip to the Smoke
After a visit to the Magpie Brewery in Nottingham earlier this year Lilian Greenwood, MP was so impressed by her local brewery’s ethical and environmental values that she nominated one of their beers to appear in the Strangers bar in the House of Commons.
Lilian Greenwood, MP Nominates Magpie Brewery to have one of their beers in the Strangers bar in the House of Commons
Magpie Brewery has a local focus, uses green energy, re use their bottles and only uses British malt and hops in all their beers, and thus wanted to use this opportunity to showcase the British hop industry which has been in decline for many years – but is beginning to fight back.
The brewery put forward their beer “Hoppily Ever After” a beer created, and single hopped with a recently developed hop “Endeavour” which is grown exclusively at Stocks Farm in Worcestershire. In early December the farmer who actually grew the hops for this beer, Richard Capper, gladly agreed to join Katrina Mitchinson and Bob Douglas from Magpie Brewery as well as Lilian Greenwood MP to toast the British hop industry and its connections with small micro breweries like Magpie, at the Strangers bar. Chatting over a pint of the citrus and spicy “Hoppily Ever After” Richard, whose wife, Ali Capper, is heavily involved in promoting British hops through the British Hop Association, (see britishhops.org.uk), commented that he was finding increasing export opportunities as new countries are developing a taste for Britain’s more subtle but complex hop flavours.
Lilian Greenwood MP added;
“As a CAMRA member I was really delighted to welcome Katrina and Bob from Magpie Brewery and hop grower, Richard Capper, to Parliament to sample a pint of their beer in Strangers’ Bar. Many MPs and their guests enjoyed a pint of ‘Hoppily Ever After’ during its appearance and it was great to be able to show off Nottingham’s beer heritage in Parliament.
“Magpie are building on hundreds of years of proud Nottingham brewing history by producing wonderful ales using all British ingredients. They make a great contribution to the brewing industry and our local economy and I look forward to seeing many more of their ales being sold here in Nottingham and across the country.”
The brewery was also identified as one of Lilians’ favorite small independent businesses as part of Small Business Saturday on December 7th.
The final toast at the House of Commons was to the continued success of small independent breweries and that British hop farms should continue to live “Hoppily Ever After!”
For more information, please contact
Katrina Mitchinson, Magpie Brewery 07579 966 161 or
Ali Capper, British Hop Association 01886 884 202
