When my brother-in-law Stephen dropped into The Park Brewery in Kingston-upon-Thames to order me a selection of beers for my birthday, little did I realise that this would lead to a beer collaboration with the brewery. It turned out that Frankie Kearns, who runs the independent Park Brewery with her husband Josh, used to go to The Haçienda in the 90s while at university in Manchester and mentioned this to my brother-in-law while taking down my details. After an email conversation the idea of a collaboration was born, and the result is the Park vs Park House Session Pale Ale.
I spent several weeks tasting the wonderful variety of beers that the Park Brewery produce as well as sampling loads of other beers and pale ales on my travels around the country while making extensive tasting notes and relaying my thoughts and preferences to Frankie and Josh, who then passed them on to their brewer Phil.
I really liked the idea of creating something light and fruity with good flavour but with a low ABV as that is my preference these days. Everyone agreed and Phil started working on a recipe for a pale ale. I was then encouraged by Frankie and Josh to come down and physically brew the beer myself, which I did on a warm and sunny spring day at the end of April. I had immense fun doing so under the guidance of the team and got stuck in with shovels, ladders, sacks and hops. Phil and his assistant Ewan were both very informative and patient and I learned a lot.
While the pale ale brewed, we had a few weeks to come up with a can design and name. After much discussion, we decided on Park vs Park House Session with a cool and distinctive label design that features both of our names and logos.
We launched House Session at the Park Brewery Tap Room on the 22nd June, which is when I got to taste it for the first time after a long train journey in sweltering heat. It’s light and fruity with hints of grapefruit and a smooth finish and we are all agreed that it tastes superb. Result! We hope you enjoy it too.
Park vs Park House Session Pale Ale has an ABV of 3.5%, is full of flavour and is available to buy now from The Park Brewery with 10% of profits going to my late son Oliver’s Sarcoma UK fund. For trade enquiries, please contact Frankie and Josh at The Park Brewery.