Hot Cross Bun Beer Is Hot In England

We normally approach beers that try to recreate iconic foods cautiously. We’ve laughed at eggnog beers, destroyed the whole concept donut and bacon beers and thought the idea of mince pie beer was a joke.

But now an adventurous UK brewery, The Wild Beer Co, has come up with a hot cross bun beer that sounds like it’s not such a ridiculous idea.

So what’s a hot cross bun anyway?

A hot cross bun is a spiced sweet bun usually made with fruit, marked with a cross on the top, that has been traditionally eaten on Good Friday in Commonwealth countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, India, New Zealand, South Africa, and Canada. It’s less common in the US, but sometimes you run into them at artisan coffee shops and bakeries.

Largely associated with Lent and Easter Hot Cross buns come with a lot of religious baggage. According to Wikipedia, “the bun marks the end of the Christian season of Lent and different parts of the hot cross bun have a certain meaning, including the cross representing the crucifixion of Jesus.” The spices inside signify the spices used to embalm him at his burial and on occasion orange peel is added to Lenten hot cross buns to reflect the bitterness of his time on the Cross.

In 1592, Elizabeth I of England, issued a decree forbidding the sale of hot cross buns, except at burials, on Good Friday, or at Christmas.. As a result of this decree, hot cross buns at the time were primarily made in domestic kitchens for a while.

So yeah hot cross buns come with a biblical amount of historical and religious subtext, but that doesn’t they can’t work as a beer, especially around Easter, so The Wild Beer Co. went at it…

“Experimentation is a major part of what we do and after 10 years of brewing we love to keep things fresh,” Andrew Cooper, co -founder of The Wild Beer Co, in Bristol, England said. “So when we had the idea to create a brew for Easter we couldn’t resist making a beer version of the much-loved hot cross bun. At The Wild Beer Co we get creative with our flavor combinations and produce beers that pair harmoniously with and are inspired by food.”

“Tasting over 15 different kinds of hot cross buns – hey, someone’s gotta do it – to understand the bready, sweet flavor, we’ve landed with One A Penny, a pale, smooth, full-bodied beer with hints of sweetness blended with complex spices. We’ve created a smooth, hazy, full-bodied base similar to a New England IPA, but without all the hops, that pairs perfectly with the Easter treat.”

To further celebrate the occasion, The Wild Beer Co partnered with a local UK bakery Lievito, and developed hot cross buns made with the One A Penny beer.

So now, hot cross bun beer, and beer hot cross buns, are both “things.”

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(All Image credits: The Wild Beer Co)