Cropredy Bridge 1644

I picked up two bottles of this 4.2% bottle conditioned offering from S H Jones Wine Merchants when back in Banbury a couple of months  ago. I was excited when I saw it because I am actually from Cropredy, growing up on a farm outside the small North Oxfordshire village in which the famous 1644 battle took place. As a primary school student I remember going around to Cropredy Village Church to see the bloodstain on the vestry floor said to be of the Roundhead messenger who fled the battlefield. With childhood memories like that floating around like the sediment in a recently disturbed bottle it is no wonder that I really, really wanted to like this beer.

Cropredy Bridge 1644 - the good bottle

You will understand then that I was completely wounded upon opening my first bottle of Cropredy Bridge 1644 to find that I had purchased a beer that tasted of…surely not…oh…it can’t be…yes…this beer tastes of STILTON!!!!! Fortunately I had got the two bottles and was able to find out that the Stilton vibe was purely the result of an unfortunately selected ‘off’ bottle.

The the second time of asking this Cherwell Valley Brewery ale was a huge amount more pleasing (well it didn’t taste of cheese so that was a plus right off the middle of the bat). I had it well rested but it was still a touch cloudy with what I would call a very real body. In fact I would say it is a very down to earth ale in all respects. It is not very hoppy but has the less aggressive flavour similar to local cask ales such as Hooky Bitter.

For the Real real alers out there this beer doesn’t have the hopiness or fruitiness to be turning any heads. Having said that, as a guy who  grew up in the village that insspired it, I can honestly say that this beer does conjure up the flavours of a place, of a summer afternoon outside the Brasenose Pub, of a Winter’s evening in Geoff Wheeler’s kitchen. For me this beer captures Cropredy, or maybe that’s just the opinion of someone living a long way from home.