A truly royal drop is served on May 5th, the day before Charles III’s coronation celebrations. be auctioned. The “Coronation Ale” was originally brewed 86 years ago for the planned coronation of Edward VIII. However, this celebration never took place. So the entire custom batch went into a cellar and remained there for several decades until it was almost forgotten.

It was not until 2011, i.e. 75 years after storage, that the stocks were rediscovered during work in the cellars of the Greene King brewery in Bury St. Edmunds in south-east England. “Until a few years ago, pristine Coronation Ale sat deep beneath the brewery in our cellars. Until we accidentally stumbled across it. We left it there as a historical tribute to the King’s abdication and as a reminder of our long brewing history,” Greene King describes the history of beer in a Facebook post.

Edward VIII ascended the British throne in January 1936 after the death of his father George V. In December 1936, however, he resigned, so that the actual coronation ceremony did not take place. Instead of becoming king, Edward VIII preferred to marry the American – and already once divorced – Wallis Simpson. Since both plans, i.e. marriage to Simpson and accession to the throne at the same time, were considered incompatible, the coronation ceremony, which had been prepared for months, was finally canceled at short notice. And as a result, the “Coronation Ale”, which was specially brewed for the occasion, went into a cellar and remained undrunk, as CNN summarizes the circumstances surrounding the unusual festivities at the time.

But now, several decades later, the beer bundle is being auctioned off. A beer with an impressive twelve percent alcohol by volume will go under the hammer. As CNN quotes the brewery as saying, it was made with English hops and barley “to give it a rich fruity flavor.”

All proceeds from the auction are to go to The Prince’s Trust charity, dedicated to Charles III. once founded to help disadvantaged young people.

Sources: Greene King Brewery Facebook page, CNN