A NEW pale ale has hit the bar at the King Alfred’s Head in Wantage.

The King’s Tipple went on sale for £3.50 a pint from Wednesday and is flavoured using hops from the pub’s own garden.

It has been brewed by Adkin Ales and has an alcohol by volume of 4.6 per cent.

Assistant pub manager Kate Leeke said: “We noticed last year that we had hops growing in the garden but they died before we could do anything with them.

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“This year we have been watering them all summer so we could make some beer with them.”

Hop – or humulus lupulus (“wolf of the woods”) – is a tall climbing plant that bears “cones” in the summer needed for the brewing process.

The cones contain layers of soft petals where glands for lupulin – the plant’s active ingredient – form. They look like large yellow pollen grains and are usually harvested in September.

Each gland contains resins which can give beer its bitterness and flavour and so different hop varieties give different flavours of beer.

Using the hops from the King Alfred’s Head garden, Adkin Ales, based in Wantage, brewed The King’s Tipple.

For more information, visit kingalfs.com

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