Somehow, Stouty McStoutface was never going to make the grade for naming the collaboration brew between Atom and Black Lodge. For context, the latest Meet the Brewer at the Clove Hitch/23 Club with Atom Beers (for their triumphant second session no less) was preceded by a day brewing in the Baltic Triangle, making an Imperial Russian stout which will be available at the Black Lodge premises in the coming weeks. Allan and Jack offered some prizes to the winning name for the stout halfway through their presentation; I still maintain that Event Horizon would have been the perfect moniker for something strong, dark and epic whilst in keeping with the scientific nomenclature of Atom's stable. Yes, as alluded to, this was the return of Allan and Jack from Kingston-upon-Hull based Atom Beers to Liverpool for an MTB and another great experience thanks to some great beers and excellent food provided by the Clove Hitch staff. The time since the last visit of Atom has thrown some significant obstacles in their way, not least the threat to the very existence of their brewery due to some shake up on the staffing front. Thankfully for us beer drinkers, they've gone from strength to strength and have now got Jack at the forefront of their brewing as their Head Brewer; he even has his own assistant these days. They are still ‘scientzing’ and teaching college students about brewing, looking to work their way into the shake up for the Kingston-Upon-Hull 2017 Capital of Culture event and have found time to increase their export abroad to at least 8 other countries. I was lucky enough to have a quick catch up between their presentation beers with both Allan and Jack, and they had lots of news and many exciting things on the horizon, Jack was up first: We've just done a collaboration brew with Black Lodge in Liverpool before the Meet the Brewer today and this is a recipe I've been holding dear to my heart for a while. It starts with a trip to Three Floyds, one of my favourite breweries in the world. I had a great tour of the facility, including their new distillery and their new oak foeders for souring. They even let me try some of their notorious Dark Lord, a 15% motor oil thick imperial stout with coffee and vanilla. It's ridiculously rare and very sought after, a ticketed release day one of your only hopes. I couldn't help but ask them their technique on brewing the big beers, how do they get the thick body and the almost umami intensity of the malts. Being the awesome guys they are, they were very forthcoming with what they do! As if I need to tell you, but check them out if you're ever in or around Chicago/Indiana. Fast forward a few months, and Atom were invited back to the 23Club for a meet the brewer. We hold the honour of being the first brewery to be brought back twice, you must like my waffling! It seemed only right that we check out the new Black Lodge brewpub in the process, and it was suggested that we should do a collab at the same time. Not one to mince my words, this seemed the perfect time to brew this bombastic beast! We plan on bottling a good proportion of this beauty, and have a release party, alongside a further collaboration brew down there too. How's that for a triple whammy? As for how to do something like this at home... Here's a few hints on how to achieve a crazy gloopy, intense and powerful imperial stout: This recipe calls for two separate mashes. The first contains the bulk of the base malts, pale ale malt being our choice. This is mashed in hot to keep some body and sparged to volume. The wort is then boiled for 3 hours to increase the viscosity or the wort, create tons of melanoidin and a deeper, richer colour. Meanwhile, a second hot mash of speciality malts (roast barley, choc and crystal) with some base malts is on the go. There's also a bit of aging involved; yhe beer needs to be aged on vanilla and coffee beans for as long as you can resist! The first runnings from this are added to the kettle after 3 hours, alongside 100IBUs worth of hops and boiled for a further hour. We chilled and oxygenated heavily to encourage a good fermentation, and pitched a healthy and large amount of 50/50 English ale and West Coast US ale yeasts. The yeast mix will give you some fruity English notes, but also attenuate well to get you the alcohol. Overall, you should have a ridiculously high original gravity, and you'll need it because this should falter at around 1.040-1.060! That's enough sugar left to ferment some pretty strong beers itself. I also caught up with Allan briefly and asked if they had anything big on the boil for going forward, luckily he was in talkative mood and they sounded like they have a bit project on the go: “On the Atom front, expansion is about to occur with a new equipment additions that will allow us to expand capacity by quadruple. We are also going to be looking to launch a new microsite atom.beers which will be focused on special projects, working on that currently, although slow burn. First up is our canning project. To stay true to our ethos of science, education and drinkability, when we seek to release our beers in can, we need to ascertain a way to do it differently. To achieve this we have come up with building a Microsite online – [www.atom.beers] In this part of the project we are going to release six different beers with a standard simple label linking to the Microsite and the recipe for the beer. With the Microsite we can also use it as a tool to create an education link looking at why we want to can, what we need to do to can, how we can and what are the results.” All interesting stuff, so I asked Allan how they were going to achieve this, he responded: “To achieve this, we have a serious video interviews (short less than 2 mins) with the following people; Hop Supplier, Malt Suppler, Science researcher, Canner, Can Manufacturer, Mobile Canner and last but not least, the Brewers themselves. We will then launch the cans via key partners to get them out to as many people as possible. At the moment this will be Honest Brew and probably at least three other outlets. Once that is done, we will also undertake a social media campaign to match and link to the videos. The social media campaign will be pushing for a call to action asking people buying our cans to pick the top three of the six to go into cans permanently and do this by submitting video reviews to go up live on the Microsite. That’s our big project currently, out with that we are currently looking at the feasibility for a crowd funding campaign; to see if it is worth it, is the brand strong enough, do the beers stand up to standard etc?” Exciting stuff, but back to the event; what of the beers they brought with them? Gladly, there was quite a different selection from the previous event they did, though they still broke out some pretty heavy gear right at the end as is seemingly customary... Blonde A nice standard 4% light blonde cask ale, which is reminiscent of a wheat beer on the nose and carrying no shortage of banana, cloves and a slight metallic bitterness in the finish. Slightly grassy, herbal and lightly bittersweet, this kolsch-style brew has undergone some tweaks since its first outing. The Atom blonde is very pleasant to drink. There is some talk of lagering this properly and chill it right down in the brew to try and make something a bit different too, so keep an eye out! IPA A slightly more robust cask beer this time with a 5.6% IPA, which has a massive hit of spruce on the nose from the use of Chinook and Centennial hops, there is also a very peachy character with some dried apricot in the bouquet. The malt profile make for a tidy drink, not too acidic, not too cloying and lightly chewy in the mouthfeel. This amber to dark gold IP makes for a very good ‘house beer’ if you need a go to. Clementine Mission This is a 6% kegged saison, which is a double orange and rye brewed (award winning no less!) beer. Atom have been focussing in tightly on saison style beers recently and added some homemade marmalade into the brew; the nose is very interesting and carries the bitterness of the oranges off very well, with touches of black and white pepper. The mouthfeel is rounded a bit residual and lightly juicy with a bittersweet finish and good effervescence to keep some freshness going through drinking. Critical Temperature This is a quite fresh and acidic coffee porter made using coffee roasted by Atom's local Blending Rooms roastery, weighing in at 6.5% and brewed using the wares and expertise of a local coffee specialist in Hull. The nose is chocolate, coffee, berries, dates and other dried fruit along with a flavour set of lightly metallic malt, more chocolate and dark fruit leading into a very rich but surprisingly light finish with little residue and a good subtle level of earthiness. A clever bit of a brewing and good interesting take on a kegged darker ale. Ocean of Storms Ocean of Storms is a lovely 5% kegged blueberry saison that acts very much as a sorbet of a beer. Allan and Jack admitted they will be playing about further with the recipe in order to obtain the shocking purple colour often associated with blueberries. On this occasion, the aroma is very much driven by a bubblegum note along with a plethora of fruit aromas, lightly herbal touches and spicy pepper, which is very much present in the flavour. A light mouthfeel and a very easy drink, but it will be interesting to see the direction this goes in. Mars The God of War is the big boy on this occasion, weighing in at a hefty 11%, this barley wine is not for the faint hearted. The Ruby coloured body is pretty thick and viscous and carries a lot of pine and cedar wood on the nose from the overt hopping. The use of rye provides a drying quality to temper the honey and sweetness from the use of other malts in generating a large abv. This is the Phobos and Deimos on steroids apparently. Drink with caution, or you might start seeing little green men. So that's your lot once again for another slice of ElectroKemistry, thank you for giving this a read and thank you again to Allan, Jack and all at the Clove Hitch and 23 Club for their work on putting on another great event, particularly to the kitchen for producing some excellent food for pairing with the beers on the night. Take it easy! Pedro. ------------------------------------------------------------ Atom Brewing Company Unit 4, Food & Tech Park, Malmo Road, Sutton Fields Industrial Estate (West), Hull. HU7 0YFWeb: http://www.atombeers.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/atombeers Email: [email protected] Tel: 01482 820 572 Twenty Three Club / Clove Hitch 23 Hope Street, Liverpool, L1 9BQ Web: http://www.theclovehitch.com/# Twitter: https://twitter.com/TwentyThreeClub or https://twitter.com/theclovehitch Email: [email protected] or [email protected]
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Greetings one and all!! Another month goes by and more beers have been drunk, not only this but the Summer festival season is almost upon us, with many things going on across the UK to keep everyone busy. I have a rack of other articles ready to be finished off, written and conceived at the moment, this should make up for a relatively shy period of activity at the start of this year… it’s amazing how busy things can get without too much product, speaking of which let’s see what got drunk in April…
Now that is your lot for the moment, but please pay close attention to Twitter or the ElectroKemist Cuisine Facebook page for updates… you’ll have lots more articles coming in store soon!! Cheers for now! Pedro. So here we go again, the fourth year of the Expo and its second to be based in the Constellations venue just off Jamaica Street in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle. Have you been before? Have you read the reviews from the last few events yet? If you answered ‘no’ to either of these questions, then you’re in luck, as I’ve dug out the links to the ElectroKemist Review of the events as per below: 2013: http://electrokemistcuisine.weebly.com/blogs/liverpool-craft-beer-expo 2014: http://electrokemistcuisine.weebly.com/blogs/liverpool-craft-beer-expo-2014 2015: http://electrokemistcuisine.weebly.com/blogs/liverpool-craft-beer-expo-2015 Each year that has gone by has seen a shift in the way the event is run; with ever more excellent beers being brought into the Baltic Triangle, it is very hard to keep up. Luckily last year saw me finding my feet with a writing rhythm and being very prepared for taking notes and remembering each of the beers that I had tried. Hence forming a solid top ten of the event. Give it a read, you might have had some of those beers over the last twelve months or so! Anyway, I was lucky enough to have a catch up with Paul Seiffert and Rob Tuffnell, two of the event’s organisers, they provided a bit of information with what we can expect in terms of layout and brewer presence at the Expo this time around. Thought there is no formal interview this time around, in which Paul can’t insult my very manly hands (they’re not small at all). There will be around 250 beers and 40 different ciders on, along with the absence of the Whiskey Den this year, there will be even more room for beers and some more food stalls. This time, the dispense of the beers will be from brewery led stalls, rather than from rows and rows of indistinct bars where consulting an ever shifting programme or massive chalkboard can be problematic. There was a hint of this at the last Expo, with Wylam, Cloudwater, Beavertown, Camden, Liverpool Craft and Fourpure all having their own stalls set up. This year, it will pretty much be all brewery-led aside from the cask bar, which is rumoured to be outside this time rather than at the back of the venue indoors – and the line up is actually quite exciting. The line up so far: AD HOP Brewing Company Alphabet Brewing Atom Beers Beavertown Big Hug Brewery Blackjack Brewery Black Lodge Brewing Company Cloudwater Five Points Brewing Company Fourpure Liverpool Craft Beers London Beer Factory Mad Hatter Brewing Company Thornbridge The Wall Wild Beer Company Wylam Brewery This isn’t to say more won’t be added at some point soon, not to mention all the breweries represented in cask beers and individual keg offerings. We also have the return to Liverpool of the excellent Karkli (Hi Kumar!) who has been frequenting a lot of Beer Festivals over the last 18 months and is set to continue with his rather brilliant beer snacks for the foreseeable future.
The event is running from Thursday afternoon 16th June and has sessions on Friday evening, Saturday daytime, Saturday night and all Sunday 19th June. If you need to grab your tickets head here: [https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/liverpool-craft-beer-expo-2016-tickets-21586784654] and if you want some more information on the event, then look no further than here: [http://www.liverpoolcraftbeerexpo.com/]. So we’ll see you there then? Pedro. A lot of breweries are located in business or industrial parks on the outskirts of a town, often unassuming places where the first giveaway to their industry are a number or kegs, casks or spent grain sacks sitting idly near to the roller shutter doors. Deva Craft Beer are no different, at least not on the day I visited them on a very sunny and fine afternoon to find them preparing for their stall at the Chester Food and Drink Festival. Deva (for those not familiar with the area or its history) are so named after the city of Chester's historical ties as a Roman settlement, the brewery is the creation of Nick Gilbody and his father, Adie. The brewery, which has been going since mid 2014 has support from other family members and brewer Tom Sinclair, who has brewing awards to his name (from a previous life at the Pied Bull Brewery in Chester). The beers they have produced thus far in a relatively short space of time have been very, very promising. The Pandemonium, Eureka and Equinox have been steady beers, along with the likes of the excellent Dual IPA and series of Cellarium ales (specially brewed for the bastion of craft cask and keg beers at the Cellar on Chester's City Road) and the more recent heavy hitter 'Instruments of Destruction'. The beers tend to be heavily hopped pales and IPAs (for example the Pandemonium is a fiercely hopped American Pale Ale, the Equinox an English Pale with hops of the same name laced throughout), though there was some indication they were looking to expand into other styles at some point in the future, which is rather exciting considering the prowess of the team thus far. Currently, this is the only real weakness in the brewery's repertoire, but something easily rectifiable and given the application to quality in their other products not much to worry about. The other pleasing item for consideration is the reticence of Deva to draw upon an oft-trodden path in naming of their wares - though with the likes of 'Gladius' and 'Nemesis' there is a some classical influence, the temptation must have been there to make beers named 'Centurion', 'Collosseum' or even 'Patrician' in drawing upon the foundations of their home city (though 'Vomitarium' would certainly be a step too far... and you would expect very unlikely to sell). The first proper encounter I had with the team was at the Liverpool Food and Drink Festival in Sefton Park, 2015, where the brewery shared a tent with the likes of Tatton Brewery and the now fully operational Dead Crafty Beer Company. The team seemed happy to be there, were very happy to engage with the festival goers and even entertained my presence for a while, all the while providing some great beers and looking to spread their reputation as a go-to brewery for any cask or keg drinker. Some six months on and the brewery has expanded to take on adjacent premises, entertained parties of beer enthusiasts to peruse their site and was setting up a stall at Chester Racecourse. Luckily, following the conversations with Adie and Nick, they were kind enough to provide a little interview for the ElectroKemist and it went a little something like this... ---------------------------------------- Hi Nick, so when exactly did you set the brewery up? We set up the company in June 2014. It took us until March 2015 to get the brewery installed. And what made you give up what you and the others give up the other day job to pursue brewing? I loved being a homebrewer so to do it for a job was very attractive, plus I'd had a taste of being self-employed so wanted to go for it. What was the first beer and were you happy with it? The first beer was Nemesis. I was mostly happy with it (as much as I can be with my beer as I'm my own harshest critic!), though it went under some big tweaks including changing the yeast and upping the amount of hops used for example. What size kit are you working on at the moment and are there any plans to expand further? We are working on a 5BBL kit (we can kind of push it to 6BBL). We recently built a new cold room to increase our storage capacity. We may look at expanding early next year, but at the moment we are working towards full capacity on the current kit. Are there any plans to change gear and attempt a few different styles considering the shift to produce sours/saisons/yeast experimental brews? Yeah, we are looking at producing a sour over the summer and I have a few ideas for incorporating chilli and fruit into a very interesting pale ale. I'm looking at getting the fruitiness of the chilli more than the heat. Would love to play with yeasts but would need some equipment modification first. Are there any big plans for 2016 and 2017 with your brews/events? 2016 we will be having monthly open days over the summer at the brewery with food and tours of the brewery - some with potential live music too. I have a few big things on the horizon for 2017 but it is in the very early stages so people will have to keep an eye out I'm afraid! What beer are you most proud of that you've produced so far? I would have to say the Dual IPA, Pandemonium and the new Oatimus Prime. I think they all encapsulate the brewing we have honed over the last year. It has been a real team effort and its great to see the progression in our products. ----------------------------- Thanks very much to Nick, Adie and the rest of the Deva crew for their time and patience. As ever, I hope you enjoyed the read and will now have a bit of a thirst for trying some of the Deva Craft Beers' range, which are predominantly available across Chester, but expanding their radius all the time. Please share on the usual social media channels if you did enjoy this read and seek their beers out, you won't be disappointed! Pedro. -------- Deva Craft Beer Unit14 Engineer Park Babbage Road Sandycroft CH5 2QD Email: [email protected] Tel: 07841384143 Web: http://devacraftbeer.co.uk/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DevaCraftBeer Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/devacraftbeer Greetings!! So we’re into March and looking on into April and there has been much to consider on the scene. In Liverpool we have had the opening of Dead Crafty, The CAMRA AGM and a Beer Festival in the old Cain’s/Higson’s site on Stanhope Street and a few other bits and pieces, parochially speaking. There is a glut of articles to come from these pages over the next few weeks and hopefully months, as things gear up for the summer and a number of festivals and other new items filter down onto social media. Tickets are on sale now for some of the bigger craft beer festivals and you would do well to pick them up as early as you can, rather than hold off and suddenly find yourself short when the thin end of the wedge is finally upon you. Anyway, on with the beers…
And that is your lot for March, a range of styles and strengths once again. See you soon for another blog! Cheers for now! Pedro. |
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