We are very excited to announce a collaboration with one of Southampton’s best breweries. The talented brewers at Unity have created a beer inspired by GHT’s dark history. Bearded Thomas is a smoked porter, and arrives at GHT tomorrow, November 27th – ready for us to taste, with you, on November 29th! Named after one of the biggest guns kept at GHT in the 1400s, Bearded Thomas is a warming winter brew, made with smoked malt.

Head brewer at Unity Jimmy Hatherley said: “Before brewers started using coke in the early 1800’s (which is smokeless) for kilning barley during the malting process, all malt would’ve had a smoky flavour and as a result, so would the beer. We buy our smoked malt from Bamberg where they still use the traditional process of drying their grains over beechwood logs to create a unique smoky, meaty flavour. We are using this malt in our collaboration Smoked Porter as a reference to GHT’s history as a gun tower along with a nod to the historic porters that would’ve been drunk all over Southampton and by the people working at GHT.”

If you’d like to join us in testing this special brew, come to GHT on Friday November 29th from 5.30pm when we’ll be cracking open the very first cans.