London Pride, the flagship brand of Fuller, Smith and Turner P.L.C the London brewer and premium pub company, has gone where no other real ale has been before. There is now photographic evidence that London Pride embarked on its very own space mission.
The original launch from The White Swan in Whitchurch took place on Saturday 5 July. However, corrupted image files on both mission cameras meant that no photographic evidence survived. Nevertheless, a second launch took place last week and photographs were finally obtained. The payload, being lifted by a 200g balloon, reached 24.3km into the earth’s stratosphere, where the pint of London Pride froze.
Chris Smith, the rocket scientist behind the mission, said: “The idea of this unique mission just came from a chat with Pete and Ros [tenants of the White Swan] who jokingly ask if it would be possible. Of course, I said yes. I have worked on many rocket launches as part of scientific and commercial programmes; however, it is exciting to send the first London Pride into space.”
Ros Bangs, tenant of The White Swan, said: “We were tired of seeing every village pub go ‘gastro’ so we decided to go ‘astro’! Seeing as London Pride is our top seller what could be better than celebrating our locals’ favourite tipple by sending it stratospheric.”