White Horse Blowing Stone at the Rising Sun, Redditch

You’d think that a beer with a name of ‘Blowing Stone’ wouldn’t be a bitter at all. A name like that conjures up images like dust being blown off a pebble or rock to reveal something else completely; especially when it originates from Oxfordshire. But the beer is as bitter and as traditional as it can be, and it’s even brewed with only English ingredients. There’s actually a story behind the beer; it’s named for the legend that whoever can blow the stone at the foot of the White Horse in Kingston Lisle shall be King. It’s a much better way of judging a King that simply passing the title on. But there’s more. The White Horse is actually a vale of hills with a physical horse chalked into one of them. It’s kind of like that big dog that Plusnet uses for their adverts, only without the paint. But the weird thing is that if you actually look at the county boundary of the White Horse area; it’s shaped more like a rabbit than a horse. Shame on you Oxfordshire.