How refreshing: Whitbread serves a British brew

GB, which will go on trial in the North-west next month, will be the only definitively British lager in the market, the company claims. Its parochial nature will be endorsed by a logo modelled on the GB car sticker and the bathroom-style taps from which it will be poured. GB is entering a market dominated by Australian, French and German lagers. Even Carling Black Label, which is often thought of as British, originally came from Canada.

GB, which will go on trial in the North-west next month, will be the only definitively British lager in the market, the company claims. Its parochial nature will be endorsed by a logo modelled on the GB car sticker and the bathroom-style taps from which it will be poured. GB is entering a market dominated by Australian, French and German lagers. Even Carling Black Label, which is often thought of as British, originally came from Canada.

As its name suggests, GB will be brewed here using British wheat, hops and malt, "giving the lager a distinctive, rounded taste and flavour".

Sophie Spence, Whitbread's development brands director, said: "There has been a move towards popular nationalism and people feeling good about the UK. We were looking for an idea which appealed to lager drinkers between 18 and 24."

By giving GB a strength of 4.4 per cent, Whitbread claims to be filling a gap in the market between strong lagers like Stella Artois and Kronenbourg and weaker ones like Heineken and Carling.

An advertising campaign echoing "the wit and realism of modern British humour" has been devised by Mother, the innovative agency, and will hit screens in the Granada region to coincide with the launch of GB.

Whitbread hopes GB will boost the value of its brewery arm, a business which many believe it would like to sell.