Gustav Ernst invented the portable home gymnasium in 1861, alongside a manual of workouts for the discerning Victorian. He warned, though, that exercise was ‘fatiguing and should not therefore be recklessly persevered’. We think that’s sound advice!

Maybe Gustav was the very first Gym Dodger.

We’ve invented a brew that won’t leave you feeling fatigued. Alongside robust Target, New Zealand’s Rakau hops give this copper ale a lush tropical aroma followed up with ripe apricot and passion fruit flavours. Gym Dodger is made for beer lovers persevering with Gustav’s logic.

Many believe rugby was invented in 1823 when William Webb Ellis, ‘with fine disregard for the rules’, picked up a football and ran with it. We reckon all the best things come out of misbehaving, which is why we’ve broken the rules with our new craft ales.

We’re going to take time out to think about what we’ve done over a pint of Sin Bin.

Brewed with super-alpha Admiral hops, Sin Bin is a brooding, dark copper bitter with a citrus and currant flavour, berry aroma and a smooth, malty taste; the ideal beer for enjoying the Six Nations on the big screen.

There’s nothing our Irish friends enjoy more than to share a good yarn over a good pint, especially around St. Paddy’s Day. So if they ask ‘What’s the Story Horse?’, be sure to have one up your sleeve – or a tip for the Gold Cup.

We’ve taken a truckload of Brewers Gold and added a handful of roasted malt to create our first Irish Red Ale. Soft and easy drinking, with some interesting twists and a superb finish, Story Horse is a beer you can bet on.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel liked his machinery to be the biggest, fastest, and strongest around.

You could say he was the very first Machine Head.

Our blonde APA updates the classic recipe and brings the ABV down to session levels. Brewed with Goldings and Motueka hops, Machine Head is a mosh pit of citrus and Deep Purple blueberry flavours, balanced out with a gentle biscuity maltiness. That’s music to our ears!

It’s been a long winter and we’ve got as much stored up energy as an old wind-up toy. As the season of new beginnings comes around again like clockwork, we’re ready to let it all go.

Are you feeling Spring Loaded?

Bounding into gear with ripe citrus and grapefruit flavours, our copper IPA is brewed with Target and Mandarina Bavaria hops, giving a uniquely sweet tangerine note that is sure to help May bounce along nicely.

The British love affair with the bicycle goes right back to Denis Johnson’s velocipede in 1818. The two-wheeler quickly became all the rage, especially among politicians, with newspapers hailing it ‘a recognised feature of all electoral contests’.

Like Johnson’s boneshaker, today’s orators tend to go further if they’re Well Oiled.

With long-lasting fruit salad aromas and all the pineapple and grapefruit you’d expect from a single hopped Citra ale, Well Oiled is a light copper IPA cranked with mango and lime flavours that will stop our pub talk going rusty in those late summer months.

Who doesn’t love rolling up their trousers for a paddle? Bathing etiquette hasn’t always been so simple. Frisky Victorians had to be escorted fully-clothed in and out of the water via a cumbersome bathing machine – a sort of shed on wheels!

Fancy a Paddler?

Our refreshing white Pilsner has a fruity aroma and malty taste that goes nicely with a fish supper and a lungful of sea air. Cask-conditioned with Target, Simcoe and Chinook, we’ve made waves with our new Paddler.

In 1938, The War of the Worlds was broadcast on live radio in the format of a news bulletin, creating panic that aliens had landed. H. G. Wells always dreamed of making it into space, but died in 1946…

Or did he? Maybe he’s up there somewhere on a Galaxy Hop…

Raise a pint of Galaxy Hop to the Father of Science Fiction on this, his birthday month. With its passionfruity character and notes of citrus, peach and pineapple, this celestial blonde bitter tastes like nothing on Earth.

In 2011, rail workers heard eerie moans of a woman coming from Box Tunnel’s east exit. They thought someone was messing around, ‘til one of them shone his torch down the track and they saw her – a woman in a ragged nightdress staring straight back at them, screaming. She vanished before their eyes.

It’s rumoured the spooked workers meet every October to steady their hands with a pint of Ghost Train.

Smooth, smoky and dark as Halloween, roasted malts and Columbus hops give Ghost Train a rich, complex character, with notes of black pepper and liquorice to warm you when scary stories leave you chilled.

Mutton chops, the dandy, the gentleman’s tuft… The discerning Victorian wouldn’t dare visit a gentleman’s club without wearing their whiskers in the latest trend. Nowadays, just for the month November, these facial fashions make a comeback.

Of course, the most aspirational moustache of all is, and always was, the Handlebar.

Smooth and well-rounded with Target, Challenger and Fuggle hops, Handlebar has the slightly smoky aroma and chocolate undertones of a dashing porter that will never go out of fashion. Box will make a charitable donation for every cask sold.

Despite Brunel’s long-running feud with fellow engineer Robert Stephenson, the two men finally sat down to dinner as friends on what was to be Brunel’s final Christmas.

Let bygones be bygones and toast the season of goodwill with a Chuffin Ale!

Decadent, delicious and filled with festive fruits, Chuffin Ale is traditionally engineered with Fuggle hops to let our wonderful malts shine and reveal their generous Christmas character.