British folk revivalists Mumford and Sons announced this weekend that they have partnered with a brewery to concoct their own beer. For the Lewes summer festival, the group teamed with a local Brewery called Harvey to concoct the “Lewes Stopover Brew” in a move that band leader Marcus Mumford seems to see as an extension of the culture of music.
“We have spent a lot of time thinking about what goes on around the music,” he told The Argus. Fellow band member Ben Lovett confirmed the amount of limited edition brew that will be available at the two-day festival in Lewes—enough for several hundred pints. “They have made ten lines of it,” Lovett said, “which amounts to ten nine-gallon barrels, or 700 pints.”
The sales and marketing manager for the brewery, Harvey’s is a guy named Bob Trimm, and he confirmed that the band were lovely brewing partners, and that the idea came about when the band recently took a tour of the facility. “They were really nice guys to work with,” Trimm confirmed. “They put the hops into it and helped mash it down. It will be interesting to taste the end result.”
The Stopover Brew created for the festival was brewed at the town’s Bridge Wharf Brewery, and is based on a bottled version the brewery already sells. It’s 4% alcohol and is described thusly: “a soft golden ale, with the gentle bitterness of Fuggle and Golding hops, best served chilled.” As most beers are.
The festival is held at Lewes Convent Field over July 19 & 20, and features Vampire Weekend, The Vaccines, and others who were hand-picked by Mumford et al. to play alongside them. Just off a headlining set at the Glastonbury Music Festival, their latest album Babel saw a 400% increase after the performance. It’s predicted to remain at the top of the charts this week as well. Hopefully their new beer will be bought with similar zest.
If you’re so inclined to mock their aesthetic/shtick, check out this sardonic tutorial on how to start a “Mumford” band.
