This was an amazing day to be a part of, from picking Dan up at Reading Station to being there helping to document his day, this was a wonderful experience.
Understanding how Dan’s disability affects him physically is one part, that he does not let it inhibit anything he wants to achieve is quite another. He can certainly throw a Javelin, those Gold Medals are both impressive and really heavy, be but he can also envision a beer – and it’s really, really good.
With the support of Siren Craft Brew’s head brewer Sean Knight, Dan has crafted a West Coast Pils that has that dry bitterness we now all expect from a West Coast beer courtesy of Elusive Brewing and Oregon Trail, but the Pils aspect makes it – in my opinion anyway – very sessionable.
If Dan’s aim (which is pretty good in a competitive sense) was to create a beer worthy of celebration, I’d say he’s hit the bullseye.
This is the full press release I wrote for Siren Craft Brew about the beer, and the day. Links to buy your own cans of Ice Gold are at the bottom.
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10% eyesight but 100% vision, meet the para-athlete who doesn’t let his disability get in the way of brewing a truly inspiring beer – a golden reward for anyone chasing a goal.
When British athlete Dan Pembroke MBE landed back in the UK after winning gold at the World Championships in India, the Javelin throw champion brought that vision to Siren Craft Brew in Finchampstead for his second brew day.
Dan is a force of nature. Diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa at the age of six, his eyesight became further impaired as he grew up. He is a two-time Paralympic Gold Medallist as well as three-time World Championship Gold Medallist, and keen home brewer.
What began as an enjoyment of growing hops on his allotment, became a passion for home brewing and ultimately his first collaboration with Siren on Paris Gold.
If the idea for Paris Gold was to ‘manifest gold for himself’, Dan’s new beer is all about the team and having the same effect on the 2026 Winter Games athletes.
“Ice Gold” suggested by Georgie, former skeleton athlete from Teal House Designs, was the name chosen for the beer in a competition on Dan’s Instagram page. Georgie has her own link to winter sports as she competed in skeleton at an international level from 2018-2022. She is currently coaching the British Army Skeleton Team ahead of the Interservices Championships in February.
The beer – Crafted to inspire the same focus and fire that fuels champions – is a West Coast Pilsner. This modern style of beer combines a traditional lager base with generous dry-hopping of aromatic American hops. Along with being suitably ‘Crisp’ like snow-laden mountains, it also takes inspiration the Italian Pils (host of the Winter Games) as well as the USA (host of the next Summer Games).
“I wanted to use what I’d done in Paris in terms of that manifestation, and I want to give them a beer to manifest what they want to achieve at the end of the Winter games, and hold up that beer just as I did in Paris.
“Over the last couple of months I’ve been creating a recipe in my back garden with my home brew kit, I’ve done some brews that weren’t great, some that were really great. I’ve been learning and using that process to manifest the best beer that we can come up with to give them best beer to celebrate their victories,” Dan said during his brew day at Siren.
Ice Gold is available at the Siren Craft Brew webshop here.
