The latest bottled beer from a Hartlepool brewery to be named in honour of a song

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Cloudburst is one of 10 out of 11 Crafty Monkey creations to have musical links.

Examples include golden light ale New Gold Dream, which was the title track of a Simple Minds album, and ruby red ale Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, inspired by Kaiser Chiefs hit Ruby.

Cloudburst is partly named after a song by 1980s star Thomas Dolby called Cloudburst At Shingle Street.

Pat Garrett, left, and Gary Olvanhill, from the Crafty Monkey Brewing Company, with one of the first bottles of Cloudburst.

But it was very nearly named after a more famous tune.

Gary Olvanhill, who founded the brewery with Pat Garrett in 2018 after the pair took redundancy from the oil industry, explained: “It was originally going to be called Cloudbusting, which is a Kate Bush song, but the name just did not look right on the pump clip.

"So we had another think and came up with Cloudburst, which is taken from a Thomas Dolby song.

"But it also fits well because it is a light and refreshing beer made with New Zealand hops and New Zealand is known as the Land of the Long White Cloud.”

From left, Pat Garrett and Gary Olvanhill from the Crafty Monkey Brewing Company.

The 4% extra pale ale was originally sold to the pub trade on cask before the start of the pandemic.

The Hartlepool brewery then began to increase bottled production of its other beers to cater for the home market while bars were shut.

Gary, 56, who is from Stockton, said: “We have just had our best quarter from April to June since we started. Whether that’s going to change now that everywhere is starting to reopen, I don’t know.

"We’ll have to wait and see and don’t want to get too carried away.”

Gary and Pat, 54, from Hartlepool, insist that any musical names must fit in with their beers and not the other way around.

But Gary admits that the titles may still have a part to play when drinkers see them advertised, adding: "We felt that something might stick in people’s subconscious even if they didn’t immediately know the song.”

Beers by Crafty Monkey, which is based in a converted outbuilding in Elwick, are available from its website at www.shop.craftymonkey.beer

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