Purity Brewing Company has launched their first new permanent cask beer since the launch of Bunny Hop four years ago.
JIMBO has been created to celebrate the life of Purity co-founder James Minkin who sadly passed away of pancreatic cancer earlier this year.
Brewed to showcase the very best in British and local ingredients, JIMBO is a classic British Best Bitter that has a recognisable Purity character and balance of flavour.
James Minkin who co-founded Purity Brewing Company back in 2005 with close friend Paul Halsey, was affectionately known to many as Jimbo.
A qualified accountant by trade, Jim had a huge passion for brewing which led him in the early days to take on the mantle of head brewer at Purity.
Brewer of the original line up Pure UBU and Pure Gold, Jim’s passion for great tasting beer with real character lives with us still today.
Sustainability was another of Jim’s big passions and one his first major projects was the development and installation of the passive wetland system at Purity’s Warwickshire HQ.
Purity’s Wetland system is a series of 9 gravity fed ponds that naturally filter all the effluent from the brewing process before going back into the water course via the River Arrow as pure clean water.
The brewery was named SIBA Green Business of the Year earlier this year at the SIBA Business Awards due to their dedication to sustainability.
With Pure Eco at the heart of everything they do, Purity’s brew team led by Flo Vialan sourced local ingredients to reduce as many food miles as possible for the new brew.
With hops grown in Worcestershire and Herefordshire and a malt bill of 100% British malt, this new brew has the lowest carbon footprint of any Purity beer.
Jim loved nature and the countryside spending many years in and around Herefordshire, Worcestershire, and Warwickshire, with his passion for sustainability it felt only right to use hops from these areas.
Using only the finest hops from our long-standing friends at Charles Faram. JIMBO is brewed with Pilgrim for that initial bitterness alongside the classics Fuggles, Goldings and a brand-new hop Emperor – part of the Charles Faram hop breeding programme.
The combination of classic and new wave hops give JIMBO aromas of mixed berries, crisp apple, yet all balanced with a well-rounded nutty bitter finish.
The Hop Emperor is grown by Simon Parker at his farm Instone Court in Herefordshire. As a tribute to Jim, Charles Faram felt compelled to name the new hop in his memory.
The Minkin family were given the opportunity to choose the name, and landed on Emperor to reflect Jim’s love and fascination of Roman history which was evident when he found a number of Roman coins when excavating the wetland system back in 2005.
Purity has also announced that 5 pence from every pint sold of JIMBO will be donated to the UK medical research charity Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund (PCRF), founded in 2004 by Maggie Blanks, following the death of her husband from the disease.
Pancreatic cancer has the lowest survival rate of all common cancers and PCRF is dedicated solely to funding more research into this aggressive and complex disease.
To date, the charity has funded over £13 million of cutting-edge research projects focusing on early diagnosis, new treatments, and ways to make existing treatments more effective. In 2016, PCRF funded a national pancreas tissue bank, the only such tissue bank in the world.
Purity hopes that some good can come out of the devastating loss of our close friend and colleague by supporting this wonderful charity. Since his passing, Purity alongside the Minkin Family have already raised over £4000 for PCRF.
Paul Halsey co-founder and CEO said of the new beer: “2020 has been a tough year for everyone with the global pandemic and the sad news with my best friend Jimbo.
I am incredibly proud of the beer we’ve created and I know that Jimbo would have been proud of Flo and the team and what they’ve produced.
“The passing of Jim has left a huge hole in the Purity Family – we hope that this beer does him justice and leaves a legacy as big as Jim’s heart and passion for Purity.”
Maggie Blanks CEO of Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund added: “We’re hugely grateful to the Purity team for fundraising in memory of Jim.
“It’s a perfect tribute to him to know that buying a pint of JIMBO will not only help us to fund the very best research, but also raises a glass to Jim’s memory.”
