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Robert Wicks opened his brewery in 2004 in Westerham in Kent, close to Chartwell, the country home of Sir Winston Churchill, who - in common with airmen stationed at Biggin Hill in World War Two - enjoyed the beers brewed by the local Black Eagle Brewery. Black Eagle was taken over by Ind Coope and closed in 1965. Robert has restored the brewing traditions of the area, even using Black Eagle's yeast strain stored in the National Collection of Yeast Cultures. The same water supply is also used. He has launched William Wilberforce Freedom Ale not only to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the passage of Wilberforce's parliamentary bill to abolish the slave trade, but also as a contribution to the growing Fairtrade movement. Fairtrade buys direct from farmers and other producers, cutting out the cartels that dominate food and drink supply locking Third World farmers into poverty. But there is a direct connection too in Steve Knight, the screenwriter for Amazing Grace, the movie about Wilberforce, who is also a brewery owner and who has given his blessing to the naming of this beer. Robert uses Demerara sugar from a smallholders’ co-operative in Malawi in Africa, which he adds to Goldings and Northdown hops grown in Kent and Maris Otter barley malted at Warminster Maltings in Wiltshire and sourced from small farmers. The response to the beer has amazed and delighted Robert. In cask-conditioned form, it has outsold his leading beer, British Bulldog, named in honour of Churchill. The bottle- conditioned version is now on sale in selected outlets but is not available from multiples. Westerham, William Wilberforce Freedom Ale (England) The pale bronze beer is complex, from aroma through to finish. The use of Demerara sugar - ironically widely used in Britain when brewers had estates in the Caribbean manned by slave labour - adds a fruitness reminiscent of pear drops and sherbet lemons to the nose, dominated by biscuity malt and hop resins. Tart fruit, juicy malt and bitter hops fill the mouth while the long finish is dry and intensely bitter, with rich malt, lemon fruit and spicy hops. Malt: medium. Fruit: high. Bitterness: high. 4.8% ABV, 50cl, �22.00+PP per case, brewery website, independents. go to beer of the moment archives

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