Sample PLA at Saturday's Plymouth game
We are delighted to announce the relaunch of a brand new Plough Lane Ale with a taste worthy of the name this Saturday.
Bars Manager Mat Ansell and Commercial Director Ivor Heller recently took a group of Dons fans with a love of ales to a tour of facilities at Wimbledon Brewery after the success of our inaugural beer festival in the summer.
With the passion, expertise and resources shown by The Wimbledon Brewery since their formation, we decided to approach The Wimbledon Brewery and ask them to be the new force behind our Plough Lane Ale.
Mat said: “Last season we decided it would a great thing for the bars and club to have its own branded beer and with feedback from the fans it became known as Plough Lane Ale. The brief given to our then supplier was that we wanted something that everyone could enjoy. However, we were not happy with the product. This season we knew we had to completely change the PLA, and how we went about selecting it.”
During the Ale FC Wimbledon beer festival, the Wimbledon Brewery brought along a PLA prototype to go alongside their two beers. The feedback on the day was massively positive and incredibly useful in giving The Wimbledon Brewery’s master brewer an idea of what Dons fans wanted from this ale. He took that information on board and earlier in the week three new beers were born called PLA 1, 2 and 3!
Following this, a handful of fans met at the Wimbledon Brewery and they enjoyed a tour of the facilities. The tour included information about how the original Tower Brewery in Wimbledon burned down in 1889, which is represented on the Wimbledon Brewery Logo.
Our group of ale lovers sampled all three beers and they were adamant that there was a stand-out candidate to become the new, official Plough Lane Ale.
At 4.1 per cent, it is notably stronger than its predecessor and described by Wimbledon Brewery’s Master Brewer Derik Prentice as “fruit, floral spice and orange on aroma, rounded middle palate, completed with satisfying bittersweet finish”. It comes with a combination of finest English ingredients, including Maris Otter Malt, Fuggles, Golding and Target Hops.
“It is now with confidence that we can say a truly spectacular ale has been born,” said Mat Ansell.
Maria Potter, who attended the tour, said: “I think it’s really good the club is doing something like this and really giving us a chance to choose our own beer.”
The completely new Plough Lane Ale will be available every match of the season, starting with this Saturday’s game against Plymouth. It will be priced at £3.50 a pint and before each game we will inform supporters which of the club’s bar(s) it will be available in and what drinks will accompany it on the pumps.
Exciting times ahead as the next step in the PLA story is to have other pubs in the Wimbledon area serving it with a contribution coming straight into the club. Watch this space!