Adnams launches shandy energy gel

Suffolk Brewery Adnams has partnered with a fitness brand to launch a limited edition sports energy gel that contains its best-selling Ghost Ship pale ale.

The Winter Shandy Gel is the first alcoholic energy gel on the market, the manufacturers claim, and contains around 24% of the Southwold-based brewery’s popular malty pale ale.

It has been manufactured by fitness consultant and sports nutrition specialists Torq, and is being it is being launching at the Cycle Show at the NEC on 22 Sept, in time for Halloween.

Adnams marketing director Emma Hibbert said the partnership has arisen on the back of the company’s involvement in grass roots cycling and its annual 10k run. 

“It’s been a bit of fun – we’ve support a number of cycling events and so many fruit-flavoured energy gels, but we wanted to do something a bit more interesting. Torq have a great reputation so we approached them and together developed the limited edition run for the winter,” she told db.  “They produce high quality and great tasting products so we knew they would be able to give an authentic Ghost Ship flavour. It is a one off, but we’ll see how it goes.”

Hibbert said that having been developed for cyclists, the maltodextrin and fructose based gels contained only “a tiny bit” of alcohol -equivalent to around 1.2%,or around 0.05 units per sachet so that it is safe for riders. “We worked out that you would have to consume around twenty gels to have the equivalent to half a pint of the 4.5% ale,” she said.

Around 28,000 gels have been manufactured and will be sold through Torq’s suppliers and potentially through Adnam’s shops, according to Hibbert, as well as being sampled at the annual Adnams 10k run in November.

The booze flavour marks a departure for the fitness consultants, whose range of gels usually come in fruit flavours, including orange and banana, strawberry yoghurt, apple crumble and raspberry ripple, but Torq’s Matt Hart, who coaches riders on the UK mountain bike circuit, said the company was delighted with the partnership. 

“The purpose of this project has been to together to produce a fun limited edition product especially for Halloween and the winter season when keen cyclists tend to take things a little bit less seriously.” he said. “The link between ‘Ghost Ship’ and ‘Halloween’ is a great one and we really liked the idea of having a bit of fun at a time of year when everyone tends to be a bit miserable because most of the racing’s finished for the year. And of course, we knew categorically that there are not many cyclists out there who don’t like ale!”

He added that there was a more serious element to the project. “Both Adnams and Torq want to use this as an opportunity to communicate a clear message about responsible alcohol consumption and the responsible use of sports nutrition. Over consumption of alcohol together with lack of exercise with over consumption of calories can destroy lives and we want to send out clear messages from both of our brands. Drink responsibly and use sports nutrition as your lifestyle demands,” he said. 

Ghost Ship is said to be inspired by a haunted smugglers’ pub owned by Adnams, and contains Pale Ale, Rye and Cara and American hopes including Citra.  Last year the brewery launched a Ghost Ship crisp with a local crisp producer.