Village shop stocks new Beckbury beer

Hop and Stagger, a micro brewery based in Norton, has launched its latest bitter after months of experimenting.

Following the positive response, The Beckbury Bitter has gone on to feature as a guest beer in around 15 different pubs and is now available to purchase in bottle form at Beckbury Community Shop.

Through a chance meeting at The White Lion in Bridgnorth, brewers from Hop and Stagger met local resident, Simon Stephenson, who in turn introduced the them to the brewing legend Dave Rawstorne.

Together they produced a brand new bitter which won the hearts of residents during a tasting evening back in June.

"Back in March we opened the community shop, and one of the aims was to sell as much local produce as possible," explained Simon.

He added: "Coincidently, we had a retired brewer, Dave Rawstorne, who lived in our village. He is very well known for his brewing recipes.

"I thought why don't we marry the two and see if they can come up with a great bitter named after the village.

"The bitter has done extremely well, since we've put the product on the shelf last week, we've sold about 10 cases.

Tanner's Wine, based in Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth, will also be stocking the beer after taking on 48 cases.

Simon added: "Effectively our shop is now the home of the Beckbury Bitter, we've even got a gift box now that people can purchase as the perfect Christmas present for beer drinkers."

Beckbury Community Shop is run by volunteers from our community and any surplus is ploughed back into the shop or other community projects.

The shop currently has 83 shareholders who, together with private donations, have invested over £7,000 into the community facility.

While the store stocks every day essentials, it also sells a wide range of local produce including the extremely popular Beckbury Banger sausages.