Volunteer-owned brewery supporting Derbyshire launches limited edition Coronation beer

Crown Imperial, named after the music commissioned for the coronation of King George VI and played for the coronation of Elizabeth II, has been launched by the community-run brewery and is available in bottles and on tap.

It is brewed with no less than seven malts and balanced out with traditional English hops, explained the chair of the brewery management committee Bernard Caddy.

He said: “We are owned and run by our volunteers - and all profits go to local good causes - and part of that process is that people want to try something different. Especially when for events it’s always good to have that special option so we do a brew a number of special beers throughout the year.”

“It’s a six percent strength so we’ve used a lot of malt such that the yeast can work it’s way through. It’s not heavily hopped though we have used traditional English hops from Malvern, Hertfordshire, and Kent.”

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Whilst the process for one of the brewery’s special can usually take upwards of two months – and include a small home brewed batch – the Crown Imperial proved to be ‘pretty quick’ with brewers using one of their in-house recipes as a base.

Just recently it was announced that an 86-year old ale made for the abandoned Coronation of Edward VIII was to go to auction and though Bernard didn’t advise keeping it for quite that long he did remark that the beer would ‘get better with age’ as it brewed within the bottles.

He said: “In the bottles it is going to get better for the next month probably because it still has that active yeast and second stage of fermentation when it’s in the bottle.”

“It’s certainly proving quite popular on tap: it’s not something you’d expect people to be drinking pint after pint throughout the afternoon because it is stronger than our usual offerings but it’s definitely holding its own.”

Drone Valley Brewery’s Tap Room, at the Unstone Business Complex in Dronfield, will be open from midday onwards on Saturday and Sunday with Bernard stressing “anyone and everyone” was welcome for some well-brewed hospitality..