BEER-brewing Cotswold landlords have started bottling one of their most beloved creations – just in time for Christmas.

Claire and Jim Alexander, landlords of the Ebrington Arms, near Chipping Campden, started brewing their own beer not long after buying the pub almost 10 years ago.

They now brew three unique beers that have been available until now almost exclusively at the Ebrington Arms and its sister pub, The Killingworth Castle, in Oxfordshire.

But demand for the beers has proved so great that Mr and Mrs Alexander have now started bottling one of them – Yubby Bitter – for the first time.

The first bottles of Yubby are now appearing on the shelves in local stores and to celebrate, Mr and Mrs Alexander threw a launch party at the Ebrington Arms.

Friends, brewers, retailers and supportive locals all gathered at to taste the brew in its new incarnation.

Mrs Alexander said the new venture is already going extremely well.

"Yubby Bitter was born of an unflinching love of beer and the camaraderie unique to our most famous British institution, the great British pub," she said.

"After selling it almost exclusively in draught over the bar at the Ebrington Arms and the Killingworth Castle for nearly three years, the time was ripe to release the beast in bottle form.

"Jim fulfilled a life ambition when he started brewing beer, with the help of local scientist and beer expert Julian South and brewer Guy Holiday.

"We are excited to be able to offer our punters a ‘carry-out’ at the end of the night, in plush box set format no less, and to start selling it in cherry-picked local shops."

The name ‘Yubby’ is the name many locals still use when they talk of going ‘up the pub’ and it comes from Ebrington’s historical name of ‘Yubberton’. "So it seemed rather apt that the first beer from the Yubberton Brewing Company was named ‘Yubby’," Mrs Alexander added.