A SPECIAL beer has been created to celebrate the 70 year twinning arrangement between Stuttgart and St Helens.

Representatives from Dinkelacker, a 130-year-old family-run brewery based in Stuttgart, were in St Helens recently as part of the two towns' twinning agreement which was the first of its kind between an English and German town or city after the Second World War.

During their stay, David Raudonat, Thomas Hessel and Joachim Schneider met with Kevin Yates from Connoisseur Ales based in Church Street which has resulted in the creation of a recipe for a 4.1 per cent ale called ‘Siebzig’ which translates to ‘seventy'.

Taking around one month to make, Siebzig’ has all the same ingredients of a traditional German “Märzenbier” but will be brewed with ale yeast instead.

It is expected to taste crisp, slightly sweet with many interesting flavours coming through from the combination of six English and German hops.

Kevin from Connoisseur Ales said: “This was the first collaboration brew we’ve ever done and working with a brewery 3,000 times our size was certainly aspirational.

“The comparatively small size of our brewery meant that the visiting brewers felt much closer to the ingredients and brewing process than in their much larger brewery back home.

“We were able to benefit from over 130 years of brewing knowledge and experience and were introduced to new ingredients which we are likely to incorporate into our future beers.”

Joachim Schneider from Dinkelacker, added: “The idea was to brew a beer that combines both the German and English brewing tradition.

"We brought three local hops over with us which we use to brew our ‘Festbier’ – our beer for special occasions – and used them together with English hops.”

The beer will launch at the St Helens International Food and Drink Festival on Friday, July 6 from 11am to 7pm and Saturday, July 7, from 10am to 6pm which is free to attend and will see a variety of food and drink stalls from around the world.

There will also be a wide range of entertainment including live music from The Lancashire Hotpots – in Church Square as part of the borough’s 150th anniversary celebrations.

For more information, visit sthelens150.co.uk/events/international-food-and-drink-festival.