A chat with the creators of a Sunday League beer? Mine’s a pint please

Credit: Lee Turner

If you’re sat down in front of the telly on Saturday night, you could grab a can of this delicious IPA to accompany your viewing of pundits in questionable shirts as they praise Saints’ recruitment policy once again…

Stood in the centre of Oxford on a Saturday in the build-up to Christmas last year, I felt two things: a) Pissed off at the hordes of people continuously barging their festive cargo into me, and b) Craving a pint after a self-imposed weekday drinking ban.

With that in mind, my friend and I sought refuge in the craft beer bar-cum-pizzeria, Beerd. Wandering up to cast my eye over the array of beers on tap, one immediately stood out – Sunday League Relegation Playoffs. I’m a complete sucker for some football related novelty, and after one sip of this tasty red IPA, my Scroogeish mood had been banished by the power of hops.

I later discovered that this was in fact the second of two ales sharing the same name made by a collaboration between two breweries – Hopcraft Brewing in South Wales, and Wild Weather Ales to the south of Reading. Intrigued by this two legged affair, I made my way to meet one of its innovators, Iain Clarke at Wild Weather, who told me about how its unique name came about.

“The name is a bit of a play, because essentially you’ve got six or seven core, well-known [craft] brewers in the country. Basically, whenever they do a collaboration, Facebook goes nuts about it. All the internet goes nuts about it. People will spend silly money on these beers.”

“When you’ve got two little unknown breweries so to speak, nobody cares. Hence, Sunday League Relegation Playoffs! There were a few names that were banded about like the Friday Night Covers Band. It was all just a friendly jibe. Everyone else does these big beers but we’re both shit, and sort of having a bit of fun with it!”

This analogy is a perfect example of what Iain describes as the “great community feel” that exists amongst smaller breweries. The tongue-in-cheek self-deprecation shared between Wild Weather and Hopcraft is similar to the relations held between clubs at non-league level, all of whom are well aware of their place in the established order.

But how did the taste of the two beers link to the idea of blokes hoofing a ball around on a gusty Sunday afternoon? The first ale was a session stout with “oranges for half-time”, which has obvious Sunday League connotations – it may not be the opportune moment for your centre-back to glug a pint down at the break though. On the other hand, the red IPA has more of an unintended Wimbledon theme with it being a “fruit based beer that stinks of tinned strawberries. There’s no real connection to any sort of football,” according to Iain.

Yet, when I asked him about the likely winner in a two legged tie between the two beers, Iain joked that the red IPA would triumph despite its lack of footballing pedigree, because “the stout would be a fat man!”  We can only hope that Hopcraft Rovers and Wild Weather FC will meet again for a re-match – although both deserve promotion.