Northampton brewery unveil cask beer kept tucked away in cellar for five years

A Northampton brewery says it is ready to celebrate the end of 2020 by sharing a secret barrel of beer they have kept hidden away for five years.

In 2015, Phipps NBC tucked away a line of barrels filled with that year's batch of barley wine and ruled they wouldn't come back to them until 'the time was right'.

Now, after a 2020 that no one expected, the brewery in Bridge Street says it has cracked open the hidden casks of ale and is ready to release the five-year aged brew through a line of just 750 bottles.

"We're not doing it for the money as much as much as just because we can," said co-director Alaric Neville.

"Moving back to Northampton and restoring the 1884 Albion Brewery came with discovering the genuine conditioning cellar deep under the ground level, that stays at a steady 12 degrees Celsius all year round.

"When you leave a barrel of barley wine in a cellar like that for a long time it takes on a smoother flavour and develops new characteristics. It's where science and magic meet."

Now, the aging beer - dubbed 'Stingo' - will be released this week ahead of Christmas in a line of 750 limited wax-topped bottles.

Alaric said: "Stingo is taken from a generic name for aged strong beers denoting something more special than just Barley Wine, the old British name for other strong brews.

"I think as a nation we've lost touch with our more esoteric beer making. I think we're the only other brewery other than Sam Smiths in Tadcaster that produce regular Stingo beer in the UK."

For more information, visit the Phipps NBC brewery website.