A Derbyshire brewer has teamed up with a team of sword dancers to provide a special beer for their trip to an international sword dancing meeting.
Intrepid Brewery, based in the Hope Valley, is providing specially-produced bottles of beer for Handsworth Traditional Sword Dancers, who will be performing alongside teams from across Europe at the Zwaarddanstreffen festival in the Belgian city of Sint-Niklaas this week.
The beer has been called Handsworth Lock In in reference to the sword ‘lock’ in the traditional dance and is a version of Intrepid’s My American Pale Ale. It will be given as gifts by the Handsworth team to other dancers, who hail from countries including Germany, Austria, Italy and the Czech Republic.
The Yorkshire team will also visit the Menin Gate at Ypres to take part in the Last Post ceremony. The ceremony is held every night at 8pm in honour of the memory of the soldiers of the former British Empire and its allies, who died in the Ypres Salient during the First World War. The Handsworth dancers will pay their respects to the men from Sheffield who fell in battle in the area and lay a wreath of ‘locked’ swords in their memory.
Team captain, Simon Brock, said: “We’re incredibly proud and excited to be representing England at this gathering of sword dancers — and also to represent the excellent brewing that goes on in our local area.
“We were thinking of what we could give as gifts to commemorate the visit and thought what better way than through the universal language of great beer?”
Intrepid head brewer, Ben Millner, said: “I’m delighted to have been able to provide one of our beers for Handsworth Sword Dancers’ visit to Belgium. It’s great to think our beers will be travelling hundreds of miles to be enjoyed across Europe, even as far as the Czech Republic — where they certainly know a thing or two about beer!”
