AN INDEPENDENT brewery is raising a glass to local history with a new range of beers.

Loose Cannon Brewery in Abingdon will produce six new beers this year, each available for only a month at a time.

Each drink will mark the role of local workers over the years.

The first beer, 606, was launched yesterday and is a dark cask lager, named in honour of the reserves unit formed at RAF Benson in 1996.

In February, Leathered will recall the Pavlova and Gloria leatherworks, big employers in Abingdon from the 19th century to the 1980s.

Brewery founder Will Laithwaite said: “We are a local brewery. When we launched in 2010 with Abingdon Bridge, people loved the fact that it was from where they were from.

“It isn’t just the beer. It is everything.

“People like to get food locally as they can trust where it is from.”

Leathered will be followed in March with Atom, celebrating rocket scientists and atom splitters at Culham and Harwell.

In April, Painter’s Mate will recall Abingdon’s Morland’s Brewery with its logo of an artist with a palette.

Painter’s will be traditional in flavour, using British ingredients possibly sourced from local farms.

Abingdon 251 in May is named after the 1930s telephone number for the MG factory in Abingdon.

Ock Street Ale will mark the traditional mock mayor election on Midsummer’s day in June.

Each beer will be available for a month in the first half of the year but will return for a second month later in the year.

Brewery spokesman Chris Harrison said: “Each new beer will appear twice to avoid the problem faced by ale drinkers that if they miss one beer in a traditional range, they have little hope of tasting it again.

“It also works as a business driver for pubs as they can confirm to customers when the beer will return so they can make a date in their diaries to drink more.”

Apart from 606, all the beers are still in the design process. The brewery welcomes suggestions for how to flavour each ale.

Loose Cannon produces more than 600,000 pints each year for the trade and public.

The brewery supplies the unit beer for 11 EOD at Vauxhall Barracks in Didcot and last year named a beer Gunner’s Gold in honour of Abingdon Second World War veteran Stan Bradford.