May 20, 2015 11.13 am This story is over 102 months old

Exclusive Magna Carta anniversary beer launched at Lincoln Castle

Good beer: Celebrating 800 years since the signing of the Magna Carta, Batemans Brewery release a limited edition beer – Law of the Land.

A limited edition beer has been launched by local firm Batemans Brewery in celebration of the Magna Carta’s 800th anniversary.

The team behind ‘Law of the Land’ were joined by connoisseurs and guests at Lincoln Castle Tuesday, May 19, after working on the beer’s creation for a year.

Only 30 barrels of the product were brewed, using ingredients which would have been available in the 13th century.

The exclusive beer will only be available on draft in four pubs around Lincoln including The Dog and Bone, The Victoria, The Butcher and Beast at Heighington and The Treaty of Commerce.

Most of the beer however has been bottled, and is available to buy in stores such as the castle shop. It will also be available to try at the Lincoln Beer Festival, which returns to the city this year with a Magna Carta theme.

With an alcohol percentage of 5.5%, the brewery recommends that it is only drunk as half pints and served in a stemmed glass “to help the aromas and taste of the beer come through”.

Stuart Bateman, Managing Director at Batemans Brewery said: “What we have tried to do is produce an old fashioned style beer, a really traditional beer.

“If you went back 800 years, you would never have heard of light-coloured beers so Law of the Land is a good rich ruby colour. You wouldn’t have had any imported raw materials either, so it is good English barley malt and all English hops as well. It is a proper British beer.”

Rodger Protz, a beer connoisseur who writes for the Annual Good Beer Guide, as well as his own books, said: “It’s absolutely delicious. It is very spicy and very peppery and I suspect that’s the way that beers were back in the 13th century.”