Pride In Surrey 'Brew up' a new project with Big Smoke Brew Co.
The new beer will be creating conversation during Pride Month.
As part of their Pride Month celebrations, Pride in Surrey are celebrating a very special launch today with Big Smoke Brew Co.
Free Verse is a new beer that has been brewed up to represent the Pride community in Surrey and it's allies, all aligning with Pride Month.
The brewery wanted to create a beer with the group for their charity beer this year, which saw Kel and Charlie from Pride In Surrey attending the brewery to pick the hops and brew the beer together.
Kel Finan-Cooke chose the hops for the beer and got the unique experience of brewing the beer ahead of the launch today.
The whole beer process has been specially selected to reflect the Pride community, she said:
"During Pride month people's eyes are opened and they're a little bit more open and susceptible to listening about the Pride movement.
"If people are stood at the bar and they see the tag and they want to buy it, they can then talk to the bar staff about it, it gets conversation going.
"To try a new beer like this and to sit with your mates and have a little chat about what Pride means and why this beer's been brewed, conversation is really important and that visibility of that tag on the pump is really important.
"I think anything that gets people talking in a positive way is really important."
Free Verse was carefully selected to reflect the Pride community and it's allies, with the aim to raise funds for the Pride In Surrey main event which is held in August in Camberley this year.
Jenn Merrick is the Managing Director of Big Smoke Brew Co and had deep thoughts with the Pride team to find a name that was fitting for the beer they were creating.
Jenn said:
"It's called Free Verse. We sort of workshopped names, we came down to this kind of concept about a style of poetry, free verse, which was pioneered by an American, gay poet called Walt Whitman.
"We worked a few names around the Leaves of Grass kind of territory but we came to Free Verse which we like the sort of, I guess the double meaning around freedom and also the history of the LGBTQ+ movement."
Free Verse had a soft launch last Saturday where members of both companies poured pints and celebrated the anticipated success of the beer and it's special significance during Pride Month.
Free Verse is launching at 5pm on June 17th in Big Smoke Brew Co pubs and restaurants across the county.