SOUTH: Mine's a pint of Bridge Road!

Although manager Mark Stimson is a tee-totaller, Grays Athletic fans can still enjoy a great pint in the clubhouse at Bridge Road, and by all accounts the quality of the bitter is on a par with the quality of the football currently being produced at the Rec...

Bridge Road Bitter 4% ABV is brewed exclusively for Grays Athletic Football Club by Cox and Holbrook and, after some months of development following the conception of the idea, the beer was launched at the Clubhouse just before Christmas.

The beer, essentially a very traditional bitter, is a pleasing, almost mahogany colour with an aroma of hops and fruit. The flavour is full of robust malts with a hint of dark chocolate whilst its characteristic slight sweetness is balanced by a generous helping of floral Goldings hops producing a lingering bitter finish.

Cox and Holbrook, a small craft brewery based in the village of Buxhall in mid Suffolk, was founded in 1997 by David Cox, a native of Grays, who runs it together with son Martyn (who might argue that the reverse is true).

Despite having lived in Suffolk for over fifteen years now, David still follows the club's fortunes and attends matches and social occasions whenever time will permit. David and his brothers, Paul and Michael, have been well known to many at the club for a generation. Both Paul and David were among the founder director shareholders of GAFC (1982) Ltd and all three were prominent in the working party that carried out the last overhaul of the old clubhouse, during that summer (1982), before the serious redevelopment began a year later. Those who are sufficiently old may even remember David actually being a member of the playing staff at the Rec during 1968-1970.

So it seemed a logical extension to the Clubhouse's great success as the best real ale venue in the town and, probably, the best real ale football club in the country, that, given the connections, it should have its' very own beer - cheers!

Click here to read our exclusive feature on Grays boss Mark Stimson.