Another year draws to a close and sadly (probably more for me, than you dear reader) I've not published an awful lot over the last twelve months. A sum total of two articles; one being last year's round up of beery goings on and a rather heavy-hearted obituary to what many regard as the spiritual home of craft beer in Liverpool. I tell a lie of course, I have written a lot of other stuff and expended rather a lot of energy elsewhere beyond the confines of this site. The blog and various updates to the Liverpool Beer Collective's website have been at my own fair hands (both in a writing and editorial capacity), plus I have written more emails, queries, co-ordination notes and other assorted nonsense in the name of Liverpool's first ever Beer Week. In relation to the monthly reviews I published, it reached a point where it become more of a chore and an obstacle to doing other things. I have cut down on the amount I drink, partially because I am getting older (as much as I hate to admit it) and it takes its own toll and partially due to requirements of my day job and a rather unpleasant length of commute. Trying to sit down, drink eight different beers and think long and hard about each one did eventually become a burden rather than something I actively enjoyed, as much as I did enjoy testing my own palate and thinking once in a while about the beer someone had spent time producing. Maybe I'll return to writing something in the style of those reviews, time will tell. In terms of the other content of this article, I am again going to treat you to some contributions from other prominent writers about what has tickled each of their fancy over the last year and what beers have really given them some enjoyment. We also have some sadder news from this year with some losses from the Liverpool scene; 23 Club (covered here: electrokemistcuisine.weebly.com/blogs/an-ode-to-the-23-club), Mad Hatter Brewing (See below) and sadly the lovely Mark Yates, brewer with Connoisseur Ales and all round good egg. I have of course, selected my annual top ten standouts from this year too. Brewery Buy-outs and Investment Buys outs of breweries are now becoming slightly more commonplace; this year has seen both Fourpure and Beavertown taking investment from the big boys, with the total share going to Lion (an Australian subsidy of the Kirin portfolio) in the case of the former and a significant but undisclosed amount into Beavertown from Heineken. The news was met with rather a mixed reception; murmurings of displeasure, outright indignation through to messages of a more congratulatory nature from all corners of the beer world. Perhaps the more interesting aspect of these buy outs was the rather uneven tone in the Beavertown deal. As covered in a previous edition of this blog, some drinkers drifted (and maybe still do drift) into a bit of hero worship with some brewers; brewing good beers, putting out an enticing image and having a touch of the rock star about you will cultivate fans. This is very true in the case of Beavertown and perhaps, given their status on the UK beer scene, this is what has created a slew of disappointed fans - 'selling out' will never go down well with some. It's not only some of the brewery's former fans that have directed ire at Beavertown; some other UK breweries have responded in a variety of ways, including by vocalising criticism, by removing associations and involvement with them at festivals and in collaborative projects. Sussex's Dark Star was another buyout earlier this year, with Fullers of London now owning the whole portfolio. Whilst this isn't an example of a bigger fish (such as AB, Heineken or A N Other) swallowing up a small 'craft' brewery in what could be viewed as cynical acquisition to corner every square inch of the market. Anyway, it was all excellently covered by Pete Brown in February: [www.petebrown.net/2018/02/21/favourite-brewery-gets-bought-sold-taken]. The waters are only going to get muddier from hereon in, if people are truly disturbed by their favourite breweries being owned by larger corporations, it will mean more and more vigilance in keeping tabs on where you spend your money. Return of the Cask A skim of quite a few other articles over the last twelve months has shown that many regard the British staple of cask beer to be significantly undervalued by and large by the public. It still often lags behind the price of keg beer in many establishments and often is not treated with the care it requires to be served properly; leading to many breweries halting output of cask over concern of both margins and of quality. In a bold reversal, both Cloudwater Brewing [cloudwaterbrew.co/blog/2018/9/30/aw18-part-2-cask-is-back] and Brewdog [www.brewdog.com/lowdown/blog/cask-is-back] both returned this year to output of cask beers, albeit with a strenuously tight grip on quality control in terms of where it is sold. It is telling that during my trip over to San Francisco this year, many establishments were keen on developing their cask output and looking to emulate British brewing techniques to add another string to their bows. An example was the brewpub belonging to Thirsty Bear in the city; brewing mostly stouts and British bitter styles, they actually presented a very good beer on their premises and planned to continue increasing output as drinkers in their pub demanded. Other brewers across the world have taken note and hold cask beer in some reverence; as indeed both European and American brewers anecdotally claim to have been influenced by British brewing, not least Bruno Carilli of Toccalmatto and Brooklyn's own Garrett Oliver. The price is often the bone of contention in the UK; margins are incredibly tight as cask is in the main, undervalued, with a large slice of tax inflating the cost of production and sale. The overall market is down 6.8% since the previous year [www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2018/10/3-reasons-cask-beer-is-declining-in-uk-pubs-and-3-ways-it-can-change], with some of this change being attributed drinkers shifting from cask to 'craft' keg beers. The bulk of the market is still held by premium macro-brewed lagers. Hopefully cask beer is art that is continued to be appreciated on our own shores, though this will take continued vigilance and a sensitively progressive approach from consumer and the marketplace.
In slightly better news, the fallout from this is that Lally Morrison took the head brewer role over at Glen Affric, who have incidentally just started canning their beers. Expect to see much more of them in 2019. Over the last year or so, we on Merseyside have gained Clay Brow, Carnival, Brooks Brewhouse, Liverpool Brewing Company, Conch Brewing and Uncanny Valley... along with new bars like 8 degrees, hobo kiosk, Punch Tarmey's (with the promise of the resurrection of the Cain's Brewery). In theory, this should soften the blow somewhat of losing such a big hitter from our ranks. I'll be giving some column inches over to pushing out more information on all of these developments in the next article in the next few weeks! In the meantime, I would like to pass on my thanks to Mad Hatter for all the hard work, enjoyable beers and moments they have given me over the last five years or so. Cheers guys. x ElectroKemistry Top Ten Beers for 2018 2018 was a very solid year for quality in beers; from great quality cask right through to bottled and canned delights. I have to keep things down to ten beers here, or the article really would get a bit too long. I am however going to throw out a few 'honorable mentions' though for a few local breweries; Neptune (especially the Citra Mosaic IPA), Chapter (especially for Steadfast Companions) and Glen Affric (for the amazing Morning, Lemon) all raised their game massively this year and showcased some great brewing. I am really looking forward to how they kick on along with Carnival getting a premises and Black Lodge expanding their operations. From the wider world, those just missing out included Siren's Limoncello IPA, Garage Brewing SOUP, Box Social's Brut DIPA, NMBCo Celestial Motion and Victorian Lemonade collaboration and also Harmonic Brewing's Hoppy Pale - Mosaic from their tap in San Francisco. Anyway, that top ten... 10. Magic Rock - Botany of Desire Honey DIPA This was an outrageously good beer, which I have a hankering for ever since I sunk a can at Magic Rock's Brewery Tap earlier on in 2018. Honey-infused beers usually don't tick many boxes for me, often being far too perfumed or cloying in flavour. Botany of Desire however is a much, much different proposition; the malt bill and hopping provide an excellent balance to the honey present. Think a big, slick and juicy beer with a finish which has a very pleasing honey-mustard type glaze flavour; there is plenty going on with this beer but it all was all great fun and incredibly enjoyable. Fingers crossed for another 2019 seasonal release and faith in the original recipe! 09. Other Half - Rake it Up A collaboration brew with Barrier Brewing, Rake it Up is a very competent Imperial IPA/DIPA which I happened to enjoy at Hop City in March 2018. Hopped with Mosaic, Citra and Denali, it has a healthy dose of oats in the malt bill leaving the mouthfeel incredibly luxurious; soft, sticky and lovely and slick. Possibly having more than a bit in common with NEIPAs, the bitterness level was not very high at all, letting the juiciness and aroma drive things. It was. all in all, just a really enjoyable beer to drink. Especially a highlight, considering this was drunk on a day when many of the IPAs on display were merging into one long session of drinking tropical fruit juice with little to discern between them. 08. Track Brewing Co - Sonoma Whilst this beer has been collecting praise over a couple of years now, whether it be keg or cask dispense, something stuck with me on trying it keg-fresh from the Brewery Tap early on in 2018. There was something of a completeness about the beer; soft carbonation, a gentle lingering bitterness and loads of soft fruit aromas in balance, making it a beer worth drinking repeatedly. Or maybe I was just thirsty from too much table tennis? Great work, Track Brewing. 07. Gibberish - Coconut and Tonka Bean Stout A stupidly, stupidly moreish 6.5% Stout which was enjoyed on an autumnal evening at the Gibberish Brewpub. Given the richness and tendency of dessert style stouts to be session-enders, there was probably no departure from that here, but the desire to keep going back for more was quite startling. The sweeter notes, coconut and heady chocolate/light coffee aroma and deeper malt bitterness was actually quite something to behold. A pleasure for all the senses and great to roll around the palate, this stout was massively enjoyable to drink and a cracking bit of brewing. 06. Young Master Ales - Tai Sui Barrel aged Sourdough Ale (2015 vintage) I'd been holding onto this bottle for a while, following a kind gift from a friend living over in Hong Kong; hence the delay in wanting to drink this one. Given the barrel aging, wild yeasts and ABV it was a fairly safe bet that this brew would take some bottle aging quite well indeed. I can honestly say that I have never had a beer quite like this in my life; the complexity and layering of flavour was pretty astonishing. High carbonation, big whisky aromas, freshly-baked bread, funk and almost wine-line chewiness all contributed to the experience that was this bottle of Tai Sui. As a disclaimer, whilst I could wax lyrical about how clever this beer was, given how loaded it was it made it only possible to drink relatively small measures and was not a repeat drinker, something to be savoured a little more sparingly - otherwise it probably would have found itself in my top 3. Great beer, excellent brewing and a delight to experience. 05. Burnt Mill x Track Brewing Co - Enigmatic Galaxies Another excellent IPA that I enjoyed at Hop City back in March 2018, a succulent and juicy DIPA that stood out a little more than the Other Half brew at the same event - both had a much more enjoyable mouthfeel and a touch more complexity in terms of their structure. The aroma was wonderfully inviting; tropical and white stone fruit and a lot of citrus character along with a decent bitter back note to draw in the reins of being a total juice bomb with zero subtlety. This was actually quite nuanced and enjoyable, not just another massively drinkable high abv IPA style beer. Burnt Mill (and Track for that matter) have had a brilliant year in 2018 and I hope to see them build on this, with their beers becoming more readily available in the north west. 04. Northern Monk Brewing Co x De Molen - Dark City Imperial Stout The Devil's Dessert stout, which is a big and bold a beer as you get in 2018. Understandably divisive, the residual sweetness and overload of desserty notes do make this a tough beer to drink in any quantity, but for me that defeats the whole point of this 7.4% beer. A plethora of different flavours and aromas come through as the beer adjusts in temperature; nutty praline, light coffee, chocolate, caramel, dried and candied fruit, vanilla and other spices with hints of black pepper are all present in Dark City and in front of a warm fire a can will see you through the evening and give plenty of enjoyment. It certainly worked for me, both in can and on keg at the Northern Monk Refectory before the Dark City Beer Festival. 03. Alvarado Street Brewery - Countach A warm and sunny evening in San Francisco, you've checked out 3 brewery taps and a former cinema turned into a Craft Beer and computer games arcade, you arrive at a dive bar that was a bit ropey a decade or so ago... it is now a nirvana. Sinking one of these beers from Alvarado Street in Ashbury-Haight's Toronado was a true highlight of an amazing trip out to California this year; there were a few excellent ones to choose from and Salad Bowl, also from Alvarado Street was also excellent, but this stood out so much. Loads of pineapple a lingering, strong finish along with some yeasty, zesty notes and a light bitterness gives the end result of a great beer, although at 8.1% it was somewhat dangerous for revisiting. 02. Amundsen - Cookie Monster A massively sweet aroma drives this big boy coconut chocolate chip imperial stout, tasted and enjoyed immensely at Indy Man Beer Con in 2018. Tonnes of roasty character with a subtle spiciness to go with all the big chocolate and biscuity notes. The mouthfeel was right in line with how I felt it should be to align with the aroma and flavour, a lovely dry finish also meant Cookie Monster was as complete a beer as could be for this style. Despite the fun name, there was almost something 'grown up' about this beer too.
It also gave me a chance to meet one of my beer heroes Jaega Wise from Wildcard Brewery – she came along to talk to us about brewing with fruit and was one of quite a few of our speakers who had a full house. The festival was well received by both brewers and attendees and we hope it opens up the city for many more of these types of events. Back in April I was happy to celebrate the first birthday of my Brum Beer Babs. When I started the ladies group in 2017 I wasn’t sure we’d last 3 months so to celebrate a year felt very special. We were also lucky enough to brew our own beer this year at Twisted Barrel in Coventry – I really hope we get to brew somewhere in 2019 too! Back to Brum and its growing beer scene, this year we’ve seen the opening of Pint Shop and Head of Steam in the city as well new breweries such as Glasshouse Brew Co and Attic Brew Co. We’ve a few more to look forward to in 2019 too and I really feel that this year is a bit of a turning point for my city which in the past has always felt like it’s lagging behind the likes of Leeds and Manchester. We’ve still a way to go but it’s all going in the right direction and I for one am very excited! I also got to do some more writing about beer for Midlands Beer Blog and I got into print at the end of the year with an article in our local Area Guide. There is something a bit special about seeing your name physically in print. This is something I’d definitely like to do more of in 2019 to help support and promote our local scene. What was not so good? There’s been lots of good things in 2018 but of course there are always somethings which are not so great. I think we continue to see times being hard for bars and breweries due to a number of factors including financial and media issues. The constantly changing advice on what to drink or not and how much doesn’t help anyone. Much of the advice is not based on any scientific evidence and with it changing, it seems, every week it is no surprise that your regular drinker is confused. One thing that has made me sad this year is the end of Mad Hatter in Liverpool. These guys have made some truly ground-breaking beers over the years and it’s never nice to see a brewery close but especially one that has led to some great friendships for me. Good luck to everyone involved for 2019. Another area where we’ve seen some great improvements but we could do with more is in the area of sexism (and other ‘isms’) in branding and advertising. Beer is for everyone and by using some of the images or slogans I’ve seen this year you are excluding people who could be buying your product. A big shout out to Jaega Wise, Melissa Cole and Lily Waite, among others, who are really leading the crusade on this. What do you think will be good/interesting/different in 2019? Now I wish I had a crystal ball! For me I am feeling there is a shift away from big bars and a move towards people being interested in their local beer and in visiting their taprooms. As some of you will know this is a topic close to my heart as I continue to champion our local, independent bars and breweries. I think people are much more interested in seeing where their products come from and supporting independent businesses over the ‘big brands’. I’d also like to see a return to breweries doing traditional styles well. A great mild, brown ale or porter is a joy! We’ve had a lot of ‘fuss’ beers in recent years and I think we will see a move away from those and on to really good innovative beers which showcase styles but still with the flair we naturally see from our breweries. As part of this I was happy to see Cloudwater return to making cask beer in 2018. Of course we have some amazing breweries making cask every day but with someone like Cloudwater back to championing this amazing product it can only help everyone – here’s to more, great cask beer in 2019! Still talking about Cloudwater I am excited to see the line-up for their new festival Friends & Family & Beer in March. I’m hoping to get up to Manchester for this and am interested to see that as it’s a non-profit festival all profits will to go local charities – nice one guys! What were you top 3 beers of 2018? Goodness these are the hardest questions! Just 3!? I’ve had some great beer adventures this year so I’m going to shout out a few places I’ve visited who’ve had great beers available. I was lucky enough to go back to New York this year and this time we stayed in Astoria – this gave me a chance to visit a lot of local breweries, away from the main tourist areas, where I tasted some really amazing beers. I have to say that Interbro Spirits and Ales in Brooklyn ticked a lot of boxes. As well as great beer they had a great atmosphere, music and staff. I made trip over to Brussels for BXL Festival this year (highly recommended!) and whilst there of course had to visit Cantillon. It’s hard to pick out just one beer there but we did have an amazing sea buckthorn beer (Tyrnilambic Baie d'Argousier) in fact it was the last one of our trip. Finally a shout out to one of our new local breweries – Glasshouse Brew Co. They’ve moved into a full brewery this year and we are now starting to see their beers in bars around the city. So far every one I’ve tasted has been spot on. There’ve been a lot of juice bombs so far and I’m excited to see what Josh and the team come up with in 2019 as well as the much anticipated opening of their taproom.
On a more personal note, through my bottle shop CatHop Beers, I have had the pleasure of working with even more new and/or local brewers, such as Clay Brow Nano Brewery in Skelmersdale and Conch Brewing in St Helens. A sign that the scene is burgeoning at grass roots level locally, as well as on the whole nationally. What Was Not So Good In 2018? I suppose my obvious answer here, is Heineken's acquisition of a 49% stake in Beavertown, and to a lesser extent, the 100% buy out of Fourpure by Lion (at least the head honcho at Fourpure hasn't been on record recently, decrying the evils of macro beer companies). It was sad, to me, to see two of the country's most vibrant and fore-running breweries capitulate to macro beer, at a point when the national scene is beginning to come into it's own. Indeed, it must be tempting to grab out when somebody waves a few million quid in your face, and i understand the desire to secure a future, financially, for your family. But to turn your back on the bars, bottle shops and fellow brewers who stood side by side with you for years, championing independent businesses, well, that suggests your morals were for sale all along. For what it's worth, that's two more breweries whose beer will no longer get into my gut, or onto the shelves in my shop. Thoughts/Predictions For 2019 I hope that 2019 sees the sector continue to grow, and i also hope that the remaining independent businesses rally together to reject macro involvement, reducing the likelihood of further capitulation to macro beer companies, reducing tap space committed to macro beer companies (and subsidiaries) and increasing available tap and shelf space for true, independent brewers. It will be interesting to see how the role of bottle shops changes over the next year, and beyond, with the sheer number of online shops and brewery online stores opening up. Whether these developments spell an imminent end to what we now recognise as bottle shops - as consumers move more towards the "bring it to me" method of shopping - remains to be seen. Top Three Beers of 2018 It was a fantastic year for new beers. Choosing three was never going to be easy, but in no particular order: The Mobberley Brewhouse - Batch #1000. This 10% ABV imperial hop monster was brewed as Mobberley's 1,000th gyle since their inception, and boy did it hit the mark. Previously, beers like UnNamed, BeastMode and PipeDream had drawn attention from the nation's craft beer drinkers, but it was Batch #1000 that cemented their place as quality juice merchants. 4.34/5.00 on Untappd isn't too shabbhy eh?! Northern Monk X Other Half X Equilibrium - Infinity Vortex. Northern Monk's Patrons Projects have given me plenty of joy and excitement this year. Infinity Vortex was pretty much the pinnacle of the year's releases to me. The 7.4% murk bomb was about as juicy, soft and drinkable as an IPA can feasibly get. Other Half and Equilibrium's involvement was fairly obvious to see! 4.33/5.00 on Untappd! Wander Beyond - Octopod. Well, you either tried this beautiful little number or you didn't. If you didn't, then you missed out. A 12.0% mango and passion fruit smoothie IPA that the brewing team absolutely smashed out of the park. This effort stood head and shoulders above all other UK milkshake/smoothie IPAs that i tried this year. Thick, gloopy, fruit smoothie, with just enough booze burn to remind you it was alcoholic, and yet tasting nowhere near the 12.0% ABV. 4.30/5.00 on Untappd.
Music thrives on sub-genres, why not beer. With there being new beer out pretty much every day, if one doesn’t work you move onto the next one, or go back to an old faithful. You’ve got to enjoy a little bit of silliness every so often. For me this year has been less about drinking good beer and more about being with good people, whilst drinking good beer. Where I use to think of the beers I had had the night-before during a hangover, I spent a lot of this year recounting who I met and chatted with, and got drunk with. Cheers to them. What was not so good? I wrote a few paragraphs about this and wasn’t happy with any of them. So instead I’m just going to use some Against Me! lyrics from the song ‘Don’t Lose Touch’ to explain how I felt about the not so good parts about beer in 2018. (With a few words changed to suit my agenda) You're coming off quite contrite and pretentious You're not saying anything we haven't heard before You're caught up in an argument Oh, oh, you're so lost in modern beer You will lose it all, and you will find again Don't lose touch Don't lose touch SOS posted from a cell phone Please tell me I'm not the only one That thinks we're taking ourselves too seriously Just a little too enamoured with inflated self purpose Talk is cheap and it doesn't mean much Don't lose touch Don't lose touch Constant twitter engagement for our restless minds Constant stimulation for epic appetites Is there something wrong with these beers? Maybe there's something wrong with the audience Manipulation in the craft beer scene, fucking nausea I'm losing touch, I'm losing touch (I'm losing touch) I'm losing touch, and it's obvious - You can listen to the song here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9iTNNi8Gh0 What do you think will be good/interesting/different in 2019? We’re already seeing style specific fests happen in 2018 and I think this may grow and grow. With success of Seshfest and Hop/Dark City being returned to again next year and the likes of We Are Lager being announced it seems there is a market for it. Within all styles there is such a big scope so with these beers fests you can delve a bit deeper. There will always be the more traditional fest around so why not have these type of fest in between. Though the past few years have always been predicted as ‘The Year of Lager’ it has never really come to fruition. But I’m going to continue that annual guess and say 2019 will see the rise of the craft lager. With Cloudwater, Lost & Grounded, Braybrooke, and soon to be released Manchester Union Lager all bringing lager to our locals I reckon its going to grow and grow. And its a great style for refinement and growth. With a chance to show skill, gives the drinker drinkability and the chance for repeat buying. I cant wait to get a round in. (If UK craft lager fails to reach the heights I envisage then this last paragraph will be stricken from the record/internet.) I’m hoping 2019 sees more independent people writing opinion pieces about beer. It seems we are all losing many voices due to the shit the writers get. While I don’t agree with every word written on beer surely thats the point, to gain new perspectives. And for fucks sake, this is obvious shit, but if you go into a discussion about beer (or anything) with absolutely no possibility of having your mind changed then you are a total prick. As I stated in a paragraph above I love over-the-top beers with random adjuncts, but it’d be interesting to see the bigger players in craft beer trying to nail down styles that could be classed as more traditional. Bitter, milds, straight forward stouts, red ales; with every brewer in the North’s obsession with Landlord and brewers down South always giving the same praise to London’s Pride I wonder if they could try to tackle a similar thing. They don’t have the legacy or possibly the time maybe but with Cloudwater’s recent foray back into cask including an ESB, I’d appreciate maybe 2019 being the year we see those traditional styles being given some attention. Certain breweries seem to create the trends now, if you brew it they will come. What were your top 3 beers for 2018? If I do a Beer of the Year list I usually check Untappd but these three are beers that stuck in my head regardless. Cycle Brewing - Pecan Pie A La Mode During Manchester Beer Week this year the amazing Marble Brewery brought over women who work in the beer industry in Florida over to these shores. 7venth Sun Brewery, Green Bench Brewing Co. and a few others were represented, including the mighty Cycle Brewing. The ever hard working Hannah of Marble put together a big meal/booze up on a Sunday morning, and the multiple stunning beers from the mentioned breweries were passed around while we all tucked in to some fantastic food from The Marble Arch kitchen. I was lucky enough to get to go, as a plus one of Kaleigh’s. It was a ridiculous few hours of beer we may probably never try again, next to massive jugs of Sunshine Radler. The star of the show for me was the Cycle Brewing ‘Pecan Pie A La Mode’. A beautifully sweet, rich, thick imperial stout. It felt decadent, yet silly, complex, yet simple. With enough burn from the Bourbon barrel ageing to set every off. The company was right, the food was spot on, the beers were outlandish and its was only about 11:30am. A great memory that has stuck with me ever since. And I like that during a week of celebrating local beer for Manchester Beer Week my favourite beer was from America. Oops. Brauerei Greifenklau - Lagerbier I bloody love German beer, and had wanted to go to Bamberg for a few years, so for my 30th birthday Kaleigh booked us a weekend away there. On a rather warm and sweaty day, after a few hours of sightseeing we trundled up some hilly residential streets out of the Old Town towards Brauerei Greifenklau. We were met by a gorgeous biergarten (German for Beer Garden) that overlooked the tree filled hills that surrounded the city. Feeling hot and bothered from the walk and the heat I ordered the Lagerbier and the first sip was possibly the best mouthful of beer I had ever had. It is the best lager in the world? Probably not, but its pretty damn good. Especially on a warm summers day when you’re turning 30 and questioning your mortality. A swig of cold German lager looking out over some green countryside will do you the world of good. Franziskaner - Weissbier This year I kind of stepped back from ticking (a little), and focused more on going back to beers that I enjoyed, and rather shockingly, have had before. Weissbiers (German for White Beer) got me into beer, trying Erdinger for the first time was a revelation, and so I’ve always had a soft spot for it. This year when I’ve wanted a drink at home of an evening the one bottle I’ve had constantly in the fridge is Franzikaner Weissbier. It’s readily available in most supermarkets now, is *whispers* affordable, and I could drink it at any time. Plus the slight grandeur of drinking out of a tall wheat beer glass has never diminished for me. I just want a reliable drink sometimes and this is definitely one. So as a nod to my slightly changed drinking habits in 2018, and for sheer enjoyment I’ve got out of drinking it on numerous occasions, this is definitely one of my beers of the year.
We've also had new pub openings, most notably and recently Goose Island and Mikkeller, both in Shoreditch (please ignore the particular geographical bias shown here, but I rarely venture far from my home or work locations, as such there is a focus on north and east London). As we know every cloud has a silver lining but as every pessimist (or realist) knows the reverse is also true. So what's been less good about 2018? Well if you care about brewery ownership you may have lamented the partial sale and sale of Beavertown and Fourpure respectively. I'm more relaxed about the issue nowadays but I do feel we must always be wary of the spectre of 'big beer' and the competing interests of shareholders and creatives (brewers). The fallout from the Beavertown deal with Heineken was particularly unseemly, with one London brewery embarrassing itself with its attempts to commercially exploit the situation with childish antics which screamed 'love me, love me!'. Returning to the positives, Five Points did a wonderful job with the newly renovated Pembury Tavern, while the Hackney area also saw The Experiment open its doors for the first time. When you throw The Cock Tavern into the mix, the fact I am too poor to reside in my former home borough leaves me crestfallen, dejected and utterly disconsolate. If you hadn't noticed I'm prone to hyperbole. What were my beers of the year? Well to be honest I've stopped chasing new releases. I find the prolific nature of breweries' output overwhelming so prefer to drink what I like when I see it. This means Pale Fire, any Kernel pale ale or Five Points Railway Porter when out, and ideally Orval at home. That said here are my top 3 beers of the year in no particular order: Two Roads Brewing Sauvignon Blanc Kernel Bière de Saison Sour Cherry Burning Sky Coolship Looking forward to 2019 I am considering a beer festival I've not been to before, and I can't wait for the Affinity-organised 'Cask 2019'. I will continue to drink what I believe to be good, and be respectful of others' tastes. In fact, if we could all be more respectful that would be swell. Happy New Beer or something.
Manchester Beer Week was incredible, particularly for myself and Kate who did something most days and it really highlighted everything that is great about the beer scene. From the variety of events and tastings to the people we met (who we would now count as firm friends!), the MBW organisers & the venues across Manchester did so much to showcase what the region has to offer. We were thrilled to be a part of it and It was one of the best weeks of the entire year. What was not so good? Nothing is perfect and although the beer scene has been incredibly empowering, friendly and largely positive there has been toxicity and unkindness, especially on social media platforms and on some of the forums. We are all new to beer at some point and elitist attitudes can be off putting to those folks and lack of empathy to others can make online platforms a really negative space. Despite the work that is being done to try and promote more equality in beer it is still disheartening to say not all conversations we have had this year have been positive. Also on what planet is a striptease appropriate as entertainment for a Zwanze day celebration?! Beer wise we haven't been mad keen on the Brut IPA trend, they haven't been very consistent to a style and we haven't really come across any that have knocked our socks off! With the demand for canning at an all-time high we have also had our fair share of dodgy cans, perhaps the demand outweighing the infrastructure in place. What will be good/interesting/different in 2019? Beer style wise I think we will see a lot more classic traditional cask around, the demand for a well-kept pint of Landlord in places like Heaton Hops or Northern Monk Refectory MCR is most definitely there and classic beers like Coniston’s Bluebird Bitter flying out of neighbourhood bars. We will see more festivals adopting the ‘all in’ approach to beer pours, with Cloudwater’s Friends and Family and Northern Monk’s Hop City already confirmed which is something which doesn’t suit everyone and certainly divides us as a group! Whatever your thoughts on the 'all in' approach, it will be an excellent opportunity to try more international beers that have been properly shipped over and kept well. On a more personal level, the ultimate change is that myself and my husband are moving into our own space and setting up our very own bar and bottle shop in early 2019. A huge change from consumer to retailer and one that we are both excited and terrified to be doing! Top 3 beers 2018 This is where deciding to ditch Untappd really comes back to bite me! I’ve therefore chosen three beers that I drank a lot of this year! Alefarm- Solemn Cycle My beer of Indyman as a super easy to drink coffee milk stout with bags of flavour, so much so I pretty much skipped along to the Pilcrow to drink more when they had their MTB. Track- Sonoma A beer that will be on many lists for sure, this is my definite ‘go to’ beer and I love it on both cask and keg. Neptune/LTB- Namaka Having being lucky enough to attend the brew day, I was super excited to try Namaka. It really did not disappoint and with the wonderful summer whenever I saw it I got it.
What was not so good?
The realisation that cask beer across the UK is not doing so well. We have to make a conscious effort as an industry to make sure this heritage is not lost. Nowhere else in the world is cask beer available in every town, in every city. A true British Institution. Cask beer has been an inspiration for many many brewers around the world, and globally we are revered for it. People regard it with real respect. Sometimes I don’t think in the UK that we place the same value on it as others do around the world. I would love in 2019 to see a focus on innovative cask beers from breweries and exciting cask lead events. What do you think will be good/interesting/different in 2019? For me personally, I will be releasing the first Wild Card beers from my barrel aged beer programme. In 2018 Walthamstow had one of the best grape harvests in living memory (Yes in East London!) and I made a fair amount of Rioja Barrel Aged Saison Hybrids with Walthamstow grapes. I’m beyond excited about it. What were your top 3 beers for 2018? Passion Fruit Gose, 4.7% - Wild Card Brewery As a team we’re really pleased with our special 440ml canned releases in 2018. The Passion Fruit Gose was my personal favourite. It was fresh, zesty and packed full of passionfruit. It was also very expensive to produce. Passion fruit is one the most expensive fruits money can buy, so I was suitably nervous when we were making it. It turned out fantastically, and the feedback received was pretty incredible. In 2018 Moving the brewery to bigger premises has allowed us the time and space to brew things other than core range. We have some really interesting releases in 2019, starting with a 2.7% Table Beer, made with really fresh 2018 crop Enigma and Vic Secret from Australia. Sidewinder - 2.7% - Track Brewing Co. I was sitting with Alix (co-founder of the Crafty Beer Girls) in Cafe Beer Moth in Manchester, the day after the big Ladies That Beer & Crafty Beer Girls Meet Up. We were feeling suitably delicate and I had a train to catch in a few hours time. Everything about this beer was perfect. Ridiculously refreshing. I had more beer from Track Brewing Co the next time I was in Manchester, this time on cask and again it was fantastic (Venue: Port Street Beer House). Definitely a brewery to watch in 2019. Into The Haze, 6.2% - Deya I love it when a brilliant beer hits you when you least expect it. It was a very unremarkable Wednesday evening, and I was meeting a beer loving relative who was staying with me and a couple of friends for a few drinks after work. Trying to impress, I took them to Pressure Drops ‘The Experiment’ bar in Hackney. When we got there it was closed (my fault, should have googled it), so we stumbled into the closest pub ‘The Cock Tavern’ in Hackney. There was someone gleefully playing the piano as we approached the bar. The range in The Cock is pretty staggering, so after we tried a few we settled on Deya’s Into the Haze. It’s a juicy, dank hop bomb, but also a well balanced tasty pale. We tried to switch beers several times that evening, but just couldn’t bring ourselves to do it. And yes, it was expensive, but honestly...it was beyond worth it. --------------------------------------------------------- Many thanks for reading and best of luck to you all for 2019! Pedro.
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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. As disparities between reputation and brewery size go, this one is a pretty stark example. Started only around a year ago in 2014, the reputation for quality of their beers has carried them on a relatively strong wave within the high tide of Bermondsey based breweries. Friends, Jack Hobday and Paul Anspach started brewing following a suggestion from Jack’s lecturer at UCL that they start homebrewing for economic reasons and their brewery is now the first in the UK to be financed through crowdfunding website Kickstarter. Paul, Jack and their accomplices are sat slightly nervously at the end of the room in the Conservatory of the Clove Hitch and seem eager to start, with this MTB taking place the evening before the Liverpool Craft Beer Expo, the audience is palpably ready for their beers. Two kegs of Anspach and Hobday’s beer made the trip north to the Expo in 2014; for 2015 this has grown to a 16 keg haul thanks to some dedicated brewing on their 450 litre (2.5 barrel) kit back at the brewery. The guys estimate that some 90% output of their beers comes in kegged form, as neither of the brewery’s founders claim to have been massively influenced by cask beers during their earlier drinking experiences. Something they have taken on board is the growing trend for a more unique approach to use of yeast in their beers, with having a stock source of yeast held by a business partner in Surrey that they use in most of their beers, they have experimented in many batches by using yeasts that indigenous to their brewery environment. Speaking of their yeast, they do enjoy their bit of writing now and again, with a few interesting blogs of their own [http://anspachandhobday.com/anspach-hobday-blog/], which has a run down of their penchant for and adventures with yeast and also had some of Paul’s thoughts on his own ‘desert island beers’. There is a six beer haul on for the evening and some are eyeing it with trepidation; whilst the beers are no doubt delicious, the abv for the latter four beers is slightly eyebrow raising for what is still a school night session! The Funky Pale This cloudy, straw coloured ale with a lightly frothy head has a huge amount of aroma and deep esters to offer. At 5% it has banana, cloves and deep sweetness on the nose which belies how the beer actually tastes; an incredibly savoury tang and a muting of the fruity aromas leads to a more bread-like and yeasty taste. The acidity is nicely balanced with a borderline tartness and the body is quite chewy but not overly residual, this all pushes towards a dry and pleasingly clean finish that does linger slightly. One of their newer beers, they’ve used a pale ale base and fermented using a yeast strain derived from the clever collection and propagation of bottled residue from sour beers, giving the savoury and reminiscently saison character. Hopping includes citra and mosaic with some dry hopping, occasionally (but sadly not here) using simcoe. The Best Bitter Now this is something… a very clever iteration of a classic style which tastes rejuvenated and eschews quite a lot of the character associated with ‘boring brown beer’. At 4.4% on this keg, the thick ruddy to light brown ale carries a white crisp head and has aromas of carob and chocolate oddly emanating; strangely the first thought in mind was a reminder of the smell of Weetos breakfast cereal! The use of rye gives a dry and slightly earthy flavour to the Best Bitter, finely tuned with the raisins, maltloaf, chocolately notes and overt roasted cereal, also complimenting a crisp and smooth mouthfeel with very little residual character. The dry finish (partly down to the use of rye) comes from the use of some British hops, namely the currently fashionable Admiral and the berry laden Bramling Cross. This is usually available on cask, which would be a slightly different proposition, but one which should not be passed up. Sour Saison A punchy 4.9% rhubarb and gooseberry laden aromatic ale, with a witbier-esque appearance and a thin, lacy white head, this sour also has plenty of aromas of ripened crab apples. A deeply acidic ale with a champagne yeast character, this is acerbically puckering and carries a slightly savoury note in the finish. Very much of a palate-stripper this sour ale has a very light body but seems a little unbalanced with regard the lack of the rest of the structure in standing up to the acidity. This experimental effort from Anspach & Hobday uses very little by way of hops and combines the use of sour Berliner-weisse mashing, repitching of lactobacillus with malts and use of saison yeast. There is plenty of lingering fruit in the finish, but could benefit from a little change in the structure. Double IP Saison A red coloured saison with plenty of hops and a smack in the mouth at 8.9%, the Double IP Saison is incredibly pine-fresh and acidic on the nose, plenty of unripened tropical fruit and there are abundance of other light and fruity esters lingering on the fringes of the core aromas. The flavour is spicy and carries the pine rather well; wood, red berries and other orchard fruit also come through courtesy of the US hops (centennial, chinook, cascade and citra). The body is big, bold and resinous giving a heavy mouthfeel and a slightly cloying nature to go with the delicate funkiness from the yeast strain used; imagine an APA crossed with a saison. This certainly doesn’t taste as the strength would suggest, a proverbial iron hand in a velvet glove - a very good ale with a dry finish that clings to the middle of the tongue. The Black IPA A dark ale with plenty of chocolate, liquorice and freshly dug earth on the nose courtesy of the heady and dark malts used, this black IPA is a little more restrained than the previous beer at 6.7%. A combination of pale and munich malts in the initial mash has the addition of black malts added in the final sparge, allowing a leach of colour and different flavour set into the brew. The use of German pelletised TNT and Galaxy hops allows for a fruitier set of flavours and aromas to be gently emergent above the malt character of this beer, they sometimes look to the addition of nelson sauvin or simcoe to supply more floral, fruit and resinous character. The finish is pleasant and the body is reasonably chewy and slightly residual. The Stout Porter This is the oldest recipe used by Anspach and Hobday, initially brewed on their homebrew kit and is what they call an ‘amplified porter’. A black (although when held up to the light, very dark red) stout with a beige to tan head, the earthiness of this 8.9% ale shines through. Nutty, gentle smokey and peaty, there are a multitude of dark roast flavours present here and the aromas give a portent of all of the above. The body is oily and slick, giving way to a dry roasted cereal finish which lingers in a soft and gentle manner. The use of EKG hops and a simple 4 malt base gives a stout which is around 30-40 IBUs and notably also has some flourishes of coffee and liquorice in aroma and taste. An excellent and nailed down recipe from Anspach and Hobday, which you get the impression is one of their solid and most consistent performers. That’s almost your lot everyone! Thanks for reading and hopefully you’ll get to try some of the Anspach and Hobday beers before too long, since they have been on recently at 23 Club/Clove Hitch and at the Liverpool Craft Beer Expo. Paul, Jack and their gang managed a round of golf after this MTB, although quite how things ended up after their foray to the Expo… fingers crossed they made it back to Bermondsey in one piece! Pedro. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anspach and Hobday 118 Druid Street, Bermondsey, London. SE1 2HH Tel: 0208 617 9510 Web: http://anspachandhobday.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/anspachhobday Email: [email protected] 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] Tel: 0151 709 6574 So, the notebook has a single page of notes made and most of the information from this extraordinary festival of beers is locked up in my head. Not a promising start really, is it? Regardless, I can pick out most of what I was going to write up from follow the breadcrumbs of my social media posts; I was very happy to make it to three of the five sessions up until the Saturday afternoon, though duty was calling for Sunday and best behaviour was required. From the first daunting moment of Thursday evening stepping into a transformed Constellations on Greenland Street of Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle, there was almost a sensory overload of what to go looking for and a slight panic adjusting to the layout; much more like a rabbit warren compared to the open nature of the previous events at Camp and Furnace. This took a little adjustment, but the event seemed much better for it. A kid in a sweet shop analogy really doesn’t quite cut it, when considering that feeling of getting started at a festival and there are so many new breweries’ beers to try. There were a number of bars at the Festival, scattered in and outside the venue with a cask bar along with many keg bars indoors, featuring many Breweries’ own personalised bars with more than five taps on most. Camden Brewery rocked up in their van, Beavertown brought their own colour to the event with a spectacular bar and their signature brews, Cloudwater and Fourpure provided additional colour and great beers (with the former circumnavigating some early dispense difficulties with a bit of help!). Outdoors, a whisky den, cider bar and no less than four keg bars awaited punters, including an Imports Scotland Bar and Liverpool Craft Brewery’s own. Plenty of choices, with beers rolling out across the weekend at each bar and a checklist in the foyer area showing those who’d had their day. As Thursday’s trade session departed for the evening’s formal proceedings, I arrived and managed to grab tickets and a quick Brew By Numbers IPA before I was grabbed by the guys from newcomers Red Star Brewery (who you will be hearing about in a upcoming article later this summer) whose enthusiasm for the event and having one of their beers on was highly infectious. A few drinks later, including their own excellent English strong ale, Partisan, and I found myself being introduced by Glen and Ian to some other Festival newcomers in Wylam Brewery from Newcastle. Sadly, their beers haven’t seemed to have made it this far south and west to date; having been in operation for 15 years, this family brewery has some serious brewing talent and a repertoire of some note. A conversation with Dave Stone garners me with the information that following a 4.5-barrel expansion to 9 in 2002, the brewery having two pubs and Golden Tankard being a best-seller for them, they are now looking in 2015 to expand up to a 30-barrel operation, meaning their beer will be seen further afield in the future. Karkli snacks made an appearance at this year’s Expo, building on what I was told was an already buzzing presence at other festivals such as Indy Beer Man Con over in Manchester. With three flavours to choose from (ranging from mildly spiced through coriander and a light heat, to ghost naga chilli flavour) there is a little something for everyone with these lentil based snacks. They do lend themselves to working rather well with a range of beers, especially heavily hopped and upper level IBU beers which benefit from some salt and spice to allow the taste buds to open up. Kumar, who runs the show with his partner, assured me that he’d be present at a number of other festivals coming this year, so if you keep your eyes peeled you may just find him and his stall waiting to give you a great drinking snack. You can follow Kumar here: https://twitter.com/chomponkarkli Here’s a pretty proud moment for me… Siam Legend was also present at this Festival and those who follow me or follow Liverpool Craft Brewery on social media may have seen a bit of fuss made about this beer. In the weeks running up to the Expo, I was kindly invited into the brewery to work with Terry and Joe Murphy to devise a small batch brew specifically for the event. After a bit of thinking (admittedly, this isn’t the first time I have been invited to work on a collaboration beer, thus have stored up a few ideas!) I decided to plump for something pretty close to my culinary heart by drawing from Thai aromatic ingredients. I’ve seen on Uptappd (for those who’ve not heard of it, it is a mobile phone application for beerspotters) a few guesses at what was in the beer by way of adjuncts, but they are all pretty much incorrect. This heat-building Thai-PA was created using some basic British ingredients and a bit of ingenuity on Joe’s part for getting the aromatic side boosted. I am massively glad for it being kegged too, as the carbonation lifted the beer that little bit more and allowed the acidity to punch a little harder. It worked for me, but I think some people weren’t quite into the combination as others, though I was very pleased with the enthusiastic responses. The event may have seen a few of the organisers, stewards and the odd volunteer looking a bit foxed or bewildered and rushing around, but generally it seemed very well organised; relatively low queuing times, enough room to move around between the bars and well versed volunteering team able to keep a constant supply of the beers going. The session lengths were also probably just about right; five and a half hours is plenty of time to pick up enough from each bar without feeling rushed or like you really must stay for another couple of drinks. Much has been made about the pricing of certain beer festivals around the UK, with some complaining about the cost of drinks and others about the door tax to attend these events. The pricing at the Expo was actually pretty fair, with £10 vouchers stretching to a few drinks and each priced between 3 and 8 (though 7 and 8 beers were rare) and the door tax also coming it at £10. Broken down, this translates into 3 tokens (enough for one of a few lower abv session beers), festival glass (these tulips are usually a few quid, between £3 and £4 for one), covering paid staff, paying for various insurances and events fees and also for the venue hire. It's not a bad deal all in all. Not everything was perfect though, but you're not going to please everyone with an event like this; for me there could have been a bit more indoor seating (though this really wasn't possible due to space restrictions) and the Expo programme was far less informative than the previous year's giant effort. An attempt to list the beers would have been welcome, though understandably difficult as not all the beers are available simultaneously throughout the weekend. As it was, people were restricted to wandering to a bar to check if a beer was available or checking the giant lists in the foyer to see what had been dispatched by festival punters. Anyway, down to business… as with previous years at the Expo, there have been a few beers available that have stood out from the crowd, hoisted themselves above the stillages and screamed to be drunk, word of mouth recommendations spreading like wildfire amongst festival goers only to be quenched by something a little bit special. I’ll attempt to name a few of the beers which really gave something a bit different in their own way, though I will not make this an ordered ‘top ten’ simply for the fact (as explained in an earlier blog) that I drank different styles over many days making it impossible to compare all beers in such a direct manner. In no particular order, my beers of the festival were… 1. Dent De Lion – Kubla Brewery A superb dandelion (which translates into French as Lion’s Tooth) saison from newcomers, Kubla, based in Somerset. This sold out pretty quickly from keg bar number 3 and it was easy to see why. Flavoursome, refreshing, light and balanced, Dent De Lion is pretty much the whole package. 2. Yellowbelly – Buxton Brewery An enigma of a beer, which at 10% is potent, dark as the night, oily and incredibly heady on the nose. Available from the cask bar, it ran dry very quickly at the festival. The depth of aroma and flavour is quite something to behold, not least because it imparts an incredible peanut butter character without using any peanuts, so I am told. 3. Jakehead IPA – Wylam Brewery Apparently this is an invigorating tonic, maybe, but it certainly is a superb IPA and has picked up awards at SIBA to boot. The edge to this IPA was just a bit different to a lot of other IPAs tried lately, though I am not entirely able to pinpoint why. There is a lot going on in this beer, lots of fruit, caramel, pine and other stalwart notes from an IPA base, but the complete package stands out somehow. 4. Hoptart – Fourpure Brewing Company Another saison and Hoptart is something of a move away from the fairly safe path usually seen with Fourpure (pales/stouts/brown ales). They really need to push in this direction more often, the gently acerbic nature along with an overtly fruity and sour finish makes a great sorbet of a beer which is very drinkable. 5. Orange Crush – Amager Bryghus An American IPA brewed in collaboration with Cigar City, this has tonnes of juicy hop character and a bit more depth provided by the late addition of citrus (probably orange?) peel to the brew. Only very slightly chewy, gently resinous and just a bit different from a lot of IPAs going around. I even wrote this without wedging an REM joke, although I was out of time. Dammit. 6. Earl Phantom – Beavertown A serious sour ale with a lemon and bergamot hit. A very acidic beer, which works, like the hoptart as a brilliant sorbet beer and palate cleanser. Very drinkable and almost scarily like traditional lemonade making this a summer beer in the extreme. 7. Les Saisonnier – Wylam Brewery A lemon balm and rosemary saison, which I happily recommended to a few people at the festival. There was something very special about this saison, the depth of flavour, the aromatics and the balance of acidic and fruit made it a stand out performer; although others enjoyed it, they weren’t quite as gripped as I was. Lemon drizzle with a delightful finish. More please. 8. Cascade – Wylam Brewery A superb Cascade hopped ale and at 4.1% something that isn’t too strong to drink a little more. Working brilliantly out of keg, there was a great amount of flavour present from such a simple beer; delicate brush strokes throughout of pine, fruit both tropical and citrus, crisp dry finish and a bit of the floral. Solid, drinkable and moreish. 9. Liquorice Lady w/ Raspberry infusion – Ad Hop Brewing Company A beer with deep liquorice character (I wrote about its release last year) now with the added punch of raspberries, meaning a silky, oily mouthfeel and a lot of red berry character thrown into the mix for your palate. This one is very rounded and very complex, the raspberries were a clever yet also straightforward twist on this porter. 10. Sin City IPA – Summer Wine Brewery Another great IPA from Summer Wine, who have a habit of producing very good bottled and kegged IPAs. This is no different, though at 7.2% there’s a bit more punch than with their other IPA repertoire; oily, chocolate orange, spice and some bitter pine in there make it a slightly different proposition. The mouthfeel was also very rich and backed up that this is a beer not to be enjoy too quickly. I could provide a rundown of up to 20 beers, but the line has to be drawn and this makes things manageable! There were a few brews that were not quite up to scratch along some of the lines, but in the main, there was nothing particularly awful, it’s very hard not to see how good the beer was and how well it was generally kept (the only reservations came from some of the cask beers possibly feeling a bit sorry for themselves towards the end of the festival). An eye catching fact from the top ten above is the inclusion of 3 different beers from the Wylam Brewery, but credit where it is due, they really do deserve to be there. Thankyous must go to Terry and Paul from Liverpool Craft Brewery and especially to Joe Murphy for allowing me to brew with him before the event and also everyone who volunteered or organised the event and those who supported and provided feedback on the collaboration brew. A truly memorable event all round! Pedro. Anyone who puts ‘Chief Beer Geek’ as their job title on their business card is certainly worth sharing a pint or two with do we not think? One such person is Allan Rice, who has bisected England along the M62 for the evening to park up and talk all things beer and science for an evening with the 23 Club regulars. Alongside Allan, is an equally scientifically astute brewer in the form of Jack Walker, who rather than being the forebearer of success at Blackburn Rovers (one for the footy geeks) is the ‘Chief Bear’ at Atom and has a very eloquent and precise grasp on the processes required to make Atom’s brews. The Big Bang for Atom came in early 2014, meaning that Atom is a relatively young brewery. Allan was working at Tempest Brewing Company in Kelso, before setting up his own project with partner Sarah Thackray in the form of Atom along with a frenzy of welding, building and bodging (that’s a scientific term – just watch an episode of scraphead challenge). Nearly everyone employed at Atom Beers has some form of scientific education, adding to a technical and creative entity which has pinned its marketing on the appliance of science. There has been some feedback into the local community from Atom too; since the inception there have been a number of work-experience brewers,collaboration with the University on a 'Science without Borders' project, some teaching in schools, 8-week brewingschools run and a number of tours given. Add to this the 18 different beers, 62 brews, 50% growth in output and sales each month and the Atom has been a very busy particle. They are also the recent recipients of a prestigious local award - [http://www.atombeers.com/blog/140/we-just-got-best-start-up]. Well done guys! There isn’t total harmony for Atom locally however, with the local market providing only 2% of its sales and the local council failing to see the wisdom in having them fully involving the forthcoming Capital of Culture (which benefited Liverpool tremendously) events for 2017. A very myopic outlook on brewing and beer culture from the Local Authority only serve for a very depressing attitude within this country to our own brewing traditions, something we only know too well at the other end of the M62 (see recent objections to the now-welcomed presence of Brewdog). Thankfully, it is unlikely to be adversity that will stop Atom moving forward and creating some very exciting fission in the future. There is rumour of a Tap Room to be ready in 2015 for Atom, so if you’re in the Humberside area, you’re best having your ear to the ground for when it launches. Without further ado, it’s time to put the scientifically slanted beer from Hull under the microscope…. Camomile A relatively new beer from Atom, this is a very drinkable and pale golden ale with a 4.2% strength which has a deceptively quiet nose. Although stringently dry, it has an abundance of floral character and herbal flavours thanks to the calming infusion. There is some residual sweetness and a very bready or cereal like character and with some light carbonation, there is a pleasing smoothness to the Camomile. Atom Pale One of the core beers produced at Atom’s premises and with a pale copper colour it comes in at 4.5%. Using four different types of malt with predominantly Cascade over Summit or other hops, this is usually a heavily hopped pale beer. There is a slight sweetness to the beer, although nothing is remotely out of balance and it carries a robust citrus character and a good dry finish hitting between the middle and the back of the tongue. Although it supposedly carries a heavy hop hit, the aroma seemed a little muted on this occasion. A good beer for a core range nonetheless. Uncertainty Principle Uncertainty Principle is a golden and pale IPA style beer, which has a strength of around 6%. Carrying a much heavier punch of hops than the Pale and Camomile, there are some woody and pine aromas that linger well into the finish of this IPA. Using a combination of Citra, Summit and Centennial, there is a focus on some additional conditioning of this ale in order to increase the juiciness whilst toning down the more aggressive flavours within. The reduced malt content in this IPA means a much drier finish, pushed further with a double-dose of hops in the dry hopping stage. Every batch of the Uncertainty Principle (as its name would suggest – useful!) is a bit different from the last, with room left for the brewer to play with the hop content and other inputs to the beer. Sea of Tranquility Saison This saison style beer has tonnes of layers to the nose, coming in with mostly fruit notes of gooseberry, elderflower and honey amongst others. The acidity is very cleansing to the palate and gives rise to a very tart mouthfeel, although, not out of balance with the beer as a whole. The finish is very dry once again, and is very reminiscent of a New World white wine. Light carbonation of this 6.5% saison gives a very pleasant body and smoothness to the Sea of Tranquility, which is part of a suite of saisons named after moon landing sites. Unlike the technology used to land there, this is very simple, but very elegant. Dark Alchemy This is another flagship beer of Atom, although the absence of any hops in this beer might be a concern for some beer fanatics, there is a rather historical slant to this. Dark Alchemy was the first beer brewed by Atom Beers and was conceived by Sarah, the co-founder with Allan, using ‘gruit’ instead of hops to provide the flavour of the beer. Gruit is a generic term used for herbs and other plants that were traditionally used to flavour beers (and in some cases, wine) before the arrival of hops in the UK in the late 16th Century to Kent, most likely from the low countries in mainland Europe. In the case of Dark Alchemy, the gruit is composed of cardamom and coriander (not typically traditional gruit ingredients), giving a slightly spicy hum alongside a herbal freshness and verdancy in a very dark ale. Dark Alchemy is very rounded, but surprisingly light bodied for a dark ale. The finish is very mellow and has some nutty and slightly acidic notes poking through. Phobos and Deimos A rye IPA which at 7% is the heaviest of the bunch from Atom on this evening. With a name taken from the moons orbiting the red planet via Hunter S. Thompson (from Fear and Loathing – the latin names of Phobos and Deimos), it was the first beer which Jack has been given free rein to experiment with. Packed with cereal notes, red berry fruit and carrying a reddish-brown hue, Phobos and Deimos has an excessively dry finish, lingering heavily on the middle and back of the tongue. The mouth feel is very thick and has some floury and almost gluey character. The use of a packed hop-roster in Citra, Cascade, Summit and Centennial gives plenty of layers to the flavour and floral aromas. It would be a difficult beer to try and drunk much of, certainly one to be paired with some robust food or to have towards the end of session. Phobos and Deimos Mango The final beer of the night was an absolute stunner. Although incredibly lively, the addition of mango to the previous original beer (described handily above), really augmented the flavours of the hops used, bringing out the sweet and refreshing tropical fruit simmering within this ale. A similar beer to this would be something I personally hold in extremely high regard, in Thornbridge’s Kipling there is a typically bright expression of New World hops and the addition of the mango somehow fills out the beer, making it a smoother proposition all round. This was yet another entertaining experience with Allan and Jack, with yet another sumptuous meal provided by the Clove Hitch who worked long and hard to ensure this event went as well as it did. At this point, I’d probably try and make a pun or gag about smashing Atoms or something to do with the large hadron collider, just to round things off. But I was warned off it; besides, you can’t trust Atoms as they make up everything. Pedro. X ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Atom Brewing Company Unit 4, Food & Tech Park, Malmo Road, Sutton Fields Industrial Estate (West), Hull. HU7 0YF Web: 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] Tel: 0151 709 6574 So, once again the football transfer window slams shut (stay with me here…), but I’m still going to do my best impression of someone leaning out of car window and wax lyrical about something ‘triffic. Relatively quickly following his last exertions, our man in Hong Kong; Mr Palmer, has sent another scintillating salvo of beer based goodness over for your delectation. On this occasion, Luke has provided a double whammy of reviews; the first of which is a glance across his experiences on International Beer Day (which was right at the beginning of August) and the second was a tasting session at a Tap Takeover Event he enjoyed with Evil Brewing Company at the Globe in Hong Kong. So without further fanfare, please welcome Luke back… ----------------------------------------------------------- International Beer Day The Globe is a great pub in central Hong Kong, largely focusing on supplying a large range of craft beers to the people of Hong Kong, who like myself, are rather thirsty folk. A range of guest taps has been installed at the bar in the Globe, with a regularly changing roster of draft beers from around the world. Regular tap takeovers are events well worthy of attendance, enabling punters to try new and interesting beers that they would normally pass over, also affording some smaller breweries their time in the sun, so to speak. International Beer Day arrived this year on the 1st August, so I headed to The Globe ready to try the array of IPAs they had on offer. As mentioned, there were beers from all over the world, from the USA, New Zealand, to the Netherlands and back to Hong Kong, covering a variety of styles of beers. So a tasting flight was definitely in order and the reviews are as follows: Founders Brewing Co: All Day IPA (Session Ale) *** American IPA ABV: 4.7% Clear orange colour, with aroma of citrus and pine. Has a Citrussy hopped taste with a nice malt base, a very drinkable yet basic session ale. I believe this is quite readily available in the UK now, and Pedro informs me there are a few places in Liverpool at least that stock it? Worth a shot if you’ve not already partaken. Rogue Ales: Rogue Farms 7 Hop IPA **** Double IPA ABV: 8.02% With a golden, amber colour and with a light hoppy aroma, this beer has hints of astringency in the way of tealeaves and dried citrus. A lot of taste with a light crisp bitterness, citrus and tea carried over from the nose into the flavour, this double IPA has a slightly bitter and dry finish. Evil Twin Brewing: Hop Flood ***½ American Amber ABV: 7% This American amber ale has the Dark amber and red hue you would come to expect from the style. Carried by the aroma of pine, citrus and layered onto a base with hints of caramel, this has a good balance of fruit character, bitterness and caramel. It has a slightly harsh sharp and alcoholic aftertaste in the finish, but otherwise a good beer. Tuatara Brewery: Aotearoa Pale Ale ***½ New Zealand Pale Ale ABV: 5.8% A golden coloured ale with crystal clarity. Comprising a solid base citrus and pine aroma, these elements translate directly into the flavours. The length is slightly less hoppy but still contains those citrus and pine notes. Well-balanced and drinkable, having tried both this beer is certainly good in the bottle, but certainly much better on draught. Brouwerji De Molen: Zwart & Wit **** Black IPA ABV: 8.4% A Solid black coloured beer with a light aroma of chocolate and floral hops. The flavour is layered with a sweet and dark malty base, surprisingly fresh flavours of grass and with a lingering bitterness. The finish is remarkably smooth, contributing to the velvety mouth feel and a reasonable length. Young Master Ales: Island 1842 Imperial IPA **** Imperial IPA ABV: 8% The 1842 Imperial IPA is a lovely dark IPA, packed full of hoppy flavour, resonating citrus and pine notes, bitter grassy notes and with a solid malt backbone to provide some body and balance. All in all it was a great range at the Globe that were enjoyed by all those in attendance, if I had to pick my favourite from the selection it is a close run between 1842 by Young Master Ales and the Zwart & Wit by Brouwerji De Molen. I can’t really pick between the two at the moment. Fingers crossed you guys get to see some of these beers before too long! Evil Twin Tap Takeover The Globe set up yet another great tap take over with Evil Twin Brewery providing six beers, some of which will be first time they have been available in Hong Kong. The beers available were; 1) Hop Flood American Amber ABV: 7%; 2) Lil’ B Double Porter ABV: 11.5%; 3) The Cowboy Smoked Pilsner ABV: 5.5%; 4) Noma Oxalis American Pale Ale ABV: 5.5%; 5) Biere Blanca Berliner Weisse ABV: 4%; and 6) Luksus One Berliner Weisse ABV: 4%. Tasting flights were on offer at the Globe for partaking in the beer, specifically in three’s or for the full six. Sadly, with time being a particularly restricting factor on the occasion, I opted for a choice of just three, The Cowboy, Noma Oxalis and Luksus One. The tasting notes for you lovely people are as follows… The Cowboy Smoked Pilsner ABV: 5.5% **** The Smoked pilsner is a typical golden hue associated with pilsners, belying the aroma and flavour within, all sealed beneath a thin white head. The pilsner has a pretty restrained smoky aroma with hints of hop aromatics below. Taste is subtly smoky with has a lightly bitter quality and with some freshness from the grassy and acidic flavours. This beer has a dry finish, although not much length, with a pretty truncated and bitter aftertaste. Noma Oxalis American Pale Ale ABV: 5.5% *** This beer was brewed exclusively for the award winning and possibly one of the most famous eating establishments in the World, Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark. The beer has a dense copper/yellow colour with decent white head gained from the carbonation. The aroma was of a delicate grassy citrus quality, whilst the taste has hints of both the citrus by way of grapefruit, continuing green character from the grass and has a slight bitterness. The Aftertaste is little bitter on the palate, although there may have been some dulling of taste buds from being slightly overpowered by the Cowboy Smoked Pilsner. Luksus One Berliner Weisse ABV: 4% ****½ This berliner weisse has a vivid Orange colour with a thin white head resting above. The aroma is of soured fruit and no shortage in acidity and slight spice. Rather surprisingly, the taste is light, very pleasantly sour, whilst the body is rather smooth and has a good silky mouth feel. The finish has a gentle kick of sweetness above the dry notes from the malt and hops used here, although it is pretty rounded. All in all, this was a pleasant set of beers to try and would for sure have another Luksus One if it was on tap again in any of the bars I frequent over here. There are some great beers made by Evil Twin and I am looking forward to finding more in the future and sharing my thoughts!
Cheers! Luke Palmer. Time for another (somewhat belated than promised) guest blog from my friend, Paul Arrondelle, who has been an avid homebrewer for many years and on the last outing back in February 2012 [http://electrokemistcuisine.weebly.com/blogs/home-winemaking-guest-author-paul-arrondelle1] gave us an insight into his method for fermenting a basic wine at home. On this occasion, he talks about Homebrewing of beer and outlines some basics that might get some creative juices flowing. A rather timely addition to the blog too, considering the recent announcement of the winner of the Homebrew Challenge was announced a few days ago, in the guise of Graham Nelson's Vienna IPA. This is going to be realised through full production by Thornbridge and be in Waitrose by October apparently. Full details are here: [http://siba.co.uk/2014/08/the-great-british-home-brew-challenge-2014-winner-is-announced/]. I will be looking to get my hands on this promptly! Back to business... full contact details are given at the bottom of the article, but feel free to fire over any questions on the comments section below. Without further ado, I’ll let Paul’s words take the front…. ---------------------------- In my last post I talked about winemaking, and finished with the line that the next blog would be about beer making and why you shouldn’t do it. That needs some explaining really. The wine that I described making isn’t really wine, not in the traditional sense. It was a fruit based drink with the same alcohol content as wine. I realise it sounds like I’m splitting hairs but the reason why I make this distinction will become apparent shortly. Nevertheless, as far as the UK goes, I described wine making and it is pretty easy. If you can make soup you can make wine, and that’s the rub – beer making is different. It is complicated, requires some specialised equipment, and takes a large proportion of a day to do. Of course, if you were to make wine the proper way, from grapes and using natural yeasts, it is just as complicated and time consuming. You don’t however, and hence some beer makers look down on wine as being easier and therefore inferior. Firstly let’s go through the steps that are required to make a beer from its component parts, known as “all grain” brewing. This procedure is common whether you are in a shed or producing thousands of gallons a year, as anyone who has done a brewery tour will recognise. There is a fair amount of jargon involved but I’ll try to keep things simple. 1) Mashing; this is where you take the malted barley for your beer and soak it in water (liquor) at around 70°C for a period of time, usually 1 ½ hours. 2) Sparging; after drawing off the water that you’ve soaked the grain in, rinse the grain with more water 3) Boiling; take the mashing and sparging water (now called wort) and boil for 1 ½ hours. Add hops at beginning and end of boil depending on recipe 4) At end of boil cool the wort to room temperature, either with some kind of heat exchanger or by leaving overnight, transfer to a fermentation vessel and add (pitch) yeast 5) Leave until fermentation is complete then transfer to either barrel or bottles There are a few parts I’ve missed out but these are the basics. In total steps 1 – 4 take around 6 hours (plus overnight if needed), fermentation is 5 – 10 days and conditioning before drinking can be 1 week to 1 month depending on if you use a barrel or bottles. There are variations and shortcuts that can be taken but these are reasonable ballpark figures.
So why do it the long way? Well, if you get it right it can be the best beer you’ve ever tasted. It will certainly be the cheapest in terms of ingredient cost, and it will be the quickest despite the length of your brew day. All-grain ferments faster and is ready to drink about a week afterwards if barrelled, while kit beer usually needs a month and has a reputation for a slight after-taste even then. Also there is the satisfaction of having made your own beer from the bare ingredients, surely on a par with hunting and gathering! To be honest, it is pretty easy to move up to AG brewing in stages, as can be seen above. I’d reckon that anyone who is methodical could start straight away but perhaps starting with kits would at least allow for a person to get a feel for if they want to be a brewer. And for the record, I use BIAB and am more than happy with the results, but if I had the space and the money I’d go for more traditional mashing/ sparging.
Places you can buy the things you need: - The Art of Brewing (http://www.art-of-brewing.co.uk/); excellent general supplier with free shipping on orders over £49. - The Malt Miller (http://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/); formerly exactly as the name suggests but now expanded into a full range of products. I’ve met the owner Rob is he’s an absolutely top bloke, happy to help and give advice. - Wilkinsons (http://www.wilko.com/); basic equipment and kits, either on the high street, depending on the store, or online. Good prices. - The Home Brew Shop (http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/index.html); similar range to Art of Brewing and Malt Miller, they also run half day courses in how to do AG brewing at a reasonable price but you have to get to Aldershot for it. - https://twitter.com/TheHomeBrewShop Sources of information: - Jim’s Beer Kit; fantastic resource and great forum http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/index.htm - https://twitter.com/JimsHomebrew - How to make your own brewery: http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-Your-Own-Brewery-for-Under-100-STEP-1-/ Thanks for reading! Paul Arrondelle. As the Summer month roll onward unrelenting, weekends sometimes pass in a bit of a haze, this weekend was no exception following some particularly hot weather. The hot weather does make one thirsty, good job then that the double whammy of a beer festival and a Meet the Brewer Event was possible. Thirst quenched perhaps? Maybe so; having chosen to brave public transport away from the Giants and the throng of Liverpool city centre, the scrum was not totally avoided by having to use the train. Thankfully, the Freshfield Hotel is only a relative stone’s throw from the station on the Southport arm of the Northern Line. It is not a free house, although you would be forgiven in thinking that given the sheer number of guest cask pumps greeting you at the bar. We won’t hold it being a Greene King pub against it too much when they obtain (as standard) a very broad and well-handled line up of ales at any given time. A festival occasion gives further reason to rejoice, given that the equation of Friday plus good beer, plus big range of beers, plus good weather, plus beer garden and a few friends usually equals a pretty satisfying experience. This is not the first visit I have had to the Freshfield; having been on a few occasions previously for dinner and a few drinks with family, but the interior of the pub retains a healthy amount of wood, as would be expected from a country style tavern establishment. It also retains a sense of class and as mentioned, retains a good ethic of treating their beers correctly. The beer garden outside is ample in size, plus the establishment boasts a very impressive slate and stone courtyard for punters to rest their feet with a beer and dinner. The 5th occasion for the Freshfield, the Festival ran from Monday 21st July until Sunday 27th July, with the installation of two additional bars with hand pumps to dispense the extra ales. Sadly, there were no sparklers (which for me being a northerner, is a gripe on occasion) installed on the pumps, meaning some of the beers dispensed lacked that additional texturing supplied by a tight creamy head. Not the end of the world in the grand scheme of things however and definitely more welcome than dispensing straight out of a cask tap. Over the course of the week, the Festival boasted 88 ales, 8 ciders and 5 craft beers on, although not at the same time unfortunately. A similar issue experienced at the Liverpool Beer Expo was that many of the beers sound enticing, or indeed are ones some spotters want to tick off their lists, but they had simply already gone or were waiting to be tapped on another session. There were still enough beers to get excited about on the three bars, although having paid £15 for a sheet of tokens (to be used at the two temporary festival bars only), people had to pay the normal rate at the main pub bar for anything dispensed there. Although slightly confusing at first, an understandable arrangement to keep the pub’s normal operations flowing. A slightly more annoying arrangement was the lack of inclusion of the craft beers dispensed from keg in the Festival token system, although the programme clearly states they are included, the staff informed me that because they were ‘slightly more expensive beers’, they weren’t included in the token system. To be fair, there were plenty of beers to get through without venturing to the main bar for a while, or at least until 9pm when things started to run out and sadly, not get replaced. The beers on offer were, in the main very good, featuring notably amongst others, Blackjack, Marble, Darkstar, Saltaire, Oakham, Thornbridge and Tiny Rebel. The Marble ‘Pint’ was a welcome balm for a thirsty boy, providing the usual Marble competency of flavour with a refreshing body; this was swiftly chased with a pint of their ‘Summer’ beer which went down equally easily. As ever, the Saltaire beers were excellent, with several pints of the festival favourite, ‘Blackberry Cascade’ consumed within the group, but the ‘Cascade Pale Ale’ was another very enjoyable beer met with pleased palates. The enthusiasm of the staff was commendable in both the main bar and on the temporary festival installations, given both that the pub was a lot busier than it usually experiences and that the weather wasn’t particularly amenable to putting effort into anything other than a beer and some conversation. If you haven’t had a chance to visit the Freshfield yet, it may be worth a visit for cask fans, especially given the proximity to the train line. At this juncture I considered making a tenuous link in order to join together the second part of the adventure from the weekend, however, a rather hazy Saturday morning followed and killed any creativity I may have had for considering this. It may be possible that it still is impairing me… as I write at least! Having to steel both brain and stomach in preparation for a second outing in as many days, thankfully, the Meet the Brewer event held at the Clove Hitch and 23 Club once again was only a watered down event, albeit a free one. On this occasion, the Green Flash Brewing Company sent their head brewer, Chuck Silva, to wax lyrical about the launch in the UK of their West Coast IPA (at 8.1% it is a double IPA, although the punch is not quite evident at first). The West Coast IPA was first produced in 2005, a year after Chuck had joined Green Flash following a (as is often the case we find, with many brewers) change of career path and three years after Mike and Lisa Hinkley founded the brewery. The brewery takes its name from the natural phenomenon of the same name, whereby under certain weather conditions and just for a moment, the sun setting with its last rays turn emerald green on the horizon. The last mouthfuls of the beer didn’t turn anyone at the event green, thankfully, but it was a robust mouthful.
Light caramel in colour with an off-white head, the beer was much more heavy in malt tones than in hops for a West Coast IPA. It was also slightly sweet on the nose, using British crystal malts, giving off semi-sweet cereal and biscuit notes. The sweetness carries a little into the flavour, but finishes in a dry manner, especially towards the back of the throat with a reasonable length. The hops don’t quite translate as strongly as they should; with the use of simcoe, colombus and cascade pelleted hops at bittering stage, then a further blast of simcoe, citra, centennial and cascade added at the dry hop stage, you’d expect a bit more. A pretty resinous beer throughout drinking, pleasant and will pair pretty well with food, but the 8.1% is a high strength to pay with relatively low hop return. Having previously had ‘Le Freak’ from Green Flash, I can recommend giving their beers a chance, especially since they have been developing a strong relationship with St.Feuillen. Chuck provided an amenable and friendly afternoon at the Clove Hitch. Until the next time mi rasa! Pedro. ----------------------------------------- The Freshfield Hotel 1 Massam's Ln, Formby, Merseyside L37 7BD Tel: 01704 874 871 Web: http://gkpubs.co.uk/pubs-in-liverpool/freshfield-pub/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/freshieformby Twitter: https://twitter.com/Thefreshfield Green Flash Brewing Company 6550 Mira Mesa Blvd. San Diego, California, 92121 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.greenflashbrew.com/home/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Greenflashbeer 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] Tel: 0151 709 6574 Cometh the hour, cometh the err… Brewery? Gathering around twenty people to a secret location in Liverpool city centre for some blind tasting of some great bottle beers was some time in the making; thankfully the event came off rather well. The selection of the beers was made, some weeks before the event with the intention of contrasting the styles on show and putting some local breweries head to head with some others from further afield with some fairly weighty reputations behind them. The styles of beer were selected to give each brewery a chance to shine within 3 categories. The first up for tasting was a Pale style beer, be it English, American or Wit style, being lighter on hopping and lighter generally in alcohol compared to the following categories (so as not to cloud the attendee’s palate too much). The second style of beer was the IPA category (for the uninitiated readers, this acronym usually means India Pale Ale or in some cases Imperial Pale Ale, the latter of which is noted for additional alcoholic strength). The final style was that of a stout or porter, with flavours ranging from coffee, toffee malts through to liquorice and some chocolate and vanilla in sweeter styles. To begin with, the event was only meant to cover four breweries, but a last brewery jumped into the fray eager to have their beers tasted blind by the discerning panel. In total, this meant there were fifteen beers to taste, rate and as an added twist, all the attendees were asked to guess which of the five supplied each of the beers. So, the line up of breweries and the beers they supplied (Pale, IPA, Stout respectively) were as follows: Thornbridge (Bakewell, Derbyshire) – Wild Swan, Jaipur IPA and Beadecea’s Well; Mad Hatter Brewery (Toxteth, Liverpool) – Liverpool Wit, Follow the White Rabbit IPA and Fatter Stout; Liverpool Organic Brewery (Kirkdale, Liverpool) – 24 Carat Gold, Shipwreck IPA and Kitty Wilkinson; Meantime Brewery (Greenwich, London) – London Pale, Meantime IPA and London Stout; Melwood Brewery (Knowsley, Merseyside) – Paleface, Equinox and Derby Stout. The beers were all tasted by attendees in batches of 5 (in each category) before they were supplied with a rating of 1 to 5 for the respective placing. Each of the numbers in the ratings were added together and then the beer with the lowest score was placed first in the category, then the next lowest in second place and so forth. The overall brewery rating was then gained by the relative placing of the beers in first to fifth position, adding the numbers together again, with the overall lowest score being the winning brewery in this round. Hopefully that all makes sense, trust me, after a few drinks adding the scores up was rather a demonstration in focus! The winners were then announced at the event and the competition run for some excellent craft beers, supplied from Holborn Cask Ales in Ormskirk; I did promise a shout out to the winners, so congratulations to: Andrew Barlow (1st place) Jason Peters (2nd Place) Mark Toney (3rd Place) Les O’Grady (4th Place) Incidentally, Andrew and Jason both guessed 7 breweries correctly and Mark and Les guessed 6, so a tie-breaker was required in the form of guessing the month and year of Germany’s Reinheitgetsbot, which split the winners accordingly. So, which Breweries won then? Continue reading below for full details. Pale Ale Category 1. Mad Hatter Brewery – Liverpool Wit 2. Thornbridge Brewery – Wild Swan 3. Meantime – London Pale Ale 4. Liverpool Organic Brewery – 24-Carat Gold 5. Melwood Brewery – Paleface IPA Category =1. Thornbridge Brewery – Jaipur IPA =1. Liverpool Organic Brewery – Shipwreck IPA 3. Meantime Brewery – Meantime IPA 4. Melwood Brewery – Equinox 5. Mad Hatter Brewery – Follow the White Rabbit IPA Stout or Porter Category 1. Meantime Brewery – London Stout 2. Mad Hatter Brewery – Fatter Stout =3. Liverpool Organic Brewery – Kitty Wilkinson =3. Thornbridge Brewery – Beadecea’s Well 5. Melwood Brewery – Derby Stout Overall Brewery Placing 1. Thornbridge Brewery – 6 points 2. Meantime Brewery – 7 points =3. Liverpool Organic Brewery – 8 points =3. Mad Hatter Brewery – 8 points 5. Melwood Brewery – 14 points Although the scores seem stretched from top to bottom, the voting was quite tight in some places and all the beers received quite positive reviews; the Derby Stout in particular was particularly unlucky, just missing out on a lower score. Anyway, congratulations and thanks to the Breweries for getting involved and helping out with glassware loans and providing a discount on the beers to keep the ticket costs as low as possible, many thanks to John and Julie at Melwood for jumping in with provision of additional beers for the event too. Thanks also go to Gaz and Sue at Mad Hatter for glassware loans, especially to Karen Reilly for organising the venue and Angela Mulligan for helping to keep the event running smoothly. Finally special thanks to all the people who attended to make the event a veritable success; I think I’ll be hiring some elves to help run the event and keep things ticking along without having to run around with trays of beer! Stay tuned for the next event folks, I shall be putting feelers out for breweries to get involved and will spread the news on my Twitter feed, Facebook page and via this blog. Cheers and catch you all soon, Pedro x A joint venture between Liverpool Organic Brewery (covered on many occasions in this blog, thanks to their efforts in Beer Festival Events over the last few years, plus rather free and easy brewery tours) and John O’Dowd, Landlord of the Belvedere on Sugnall Street, Liverpool Gin has been created at a time when we are seeing a resurgence in ‘premium’ products for the food and drink market. In a somewhat paradoxical shift to the current economic downturn that is still lingering across many areas of the UK, the appetite for better food, better beers (both in terms of cask and keg ‘craft’/bottle conditioned) and indeed cocktails. Each of these has seen a rise in demand across the UK through new establishments putting down roots in our cities, stemming from London and diffusing out to other cities, including Liverpool. History states that many cities in the UK including most ports had their own Gin Distilleries present at one time or another. Despite all the negative connotations with Gin (See Hogarth’s Gin Lane propaganda and the rather negative moniker of ‘Mother’s Ruin’ which Gin acquired), it is now a rather fashionable drink and not just during summer months when the obligatory refreshment of sliced lemon or lime and heaps of ice is sought. Many food and drink programmes and other media outlets have been championing the rise of artisan Gin and styles that require other sundry flavour agents aside from citrus fruits. For a while cucumber has been associated with the likes of Hendricks, some others work best with grapefruit or mint. With Liverpool Gin, the addition of juniper berries and watermelon is a slight departure but one in keeping with the premium nature of the spirit. The distillery have held a number of tasting sessions in Liverpool now (including sales at recent beer festivals at Waterloo Christ Church and St. George’s Hall) and have rolled out production with more intent, supplying small batches out beyond Liverpool to other Gin purveying establishments in the capital, such as the Gin School night at Charlotte’s Bistro. There are a number of bars and pubs in Liverpool, which now stock Liverpool Gin; which has diamond like clarity with a fresh and punchy aroma with a slight herbiness lingering, giving a rather clever amount of length to the Gin. Having tried both the orange and berry and the watermelon and juniper combinations, the latter gives a slightly more interesting compliment with a good quality tonic. The tastings that I have personally attended prove that the distillery is keen to listen to its intended audience and build on the early momentum. Speaking to John O’Dowd from the Belvedere, I asked him a few questions to delve a bit deeper into why he had invested so much in this product…
I asked how did he become so fascinated with Gin that he felt the need to set up the Ginasium and ultimately release his own brand of Gin? John: “I spent a lot of time in Madrid and saw the growth and interest in gin so created Ginasium so Liverpool could enjoy as many gins as possible (noted a lot of competitors coming in to Belvedere and quietly taking photos of Ginasium and creating their own gin range). Then after tasting small batch production Bourbon I realised there was an opportunity to create a Liverpool gin.” When asked about how did the collaboration with Liverpool Organic Brewery came about, giving rise to the product, John replied that Liverpool Organic Brewery were supplier to Belvedere and so he came to know Mark Hensby (MD of Liverpool Gin and Liverpool Organic Brewery) personally. When John came up with the idea of gin and needed a partner as he didn't have time to do it by himself and suggest to Mark; who said "Distillery! I'm not sure about that". When John looked at his emails next day, there was one at 7.30am from Mark - “I've been up all night researching -- I think it’s a great idea!” So where does John see the distillery being in a few years time? Producing other Gin/lines of spirit? He was a little coyer on the subject, answering that “Currently there is enough to do with Gin and we do expect to expand the gin range later this year and we expect to have considerable activity over the summer over the International Festival Business.” At £36 a bottle, it isn’t a cheap item to pick up, indeed it weighs in around £10 heavier on the wallet than some other premium Gins. But then there’s a reason things of such quality hurt your pocket a bit more than larger production batch spirits, this becomes evident when they address your tastebuds in a manner you’re not usually used to. This is an excellent Gin and it can proudly wear its Golden Liver bird on its label for some time to come. Cheers! Pedro. ----- Liverpool Gin Web: http://www.liverpoolgin.com/ Liverpool Distillery Twitter: https://twitter.com/LiverpoolGin Facebook Website: https://www.facebook.com/liverpooldistillery The Belvedere, Sugnall Street: https://www.facebook.com/liverpooldistillery The Belvedere Twitter: https://twitter.com/belvederelpool You can drink Liverpool Gin in (including, but not restricted to): The Hub, Hanover Street, Liverpool The Kazimier/Kazimier Gardens, Wolstenholme Square/Seel Street, Liverpool The Freshfield, 1 Massams Lane, Formby Jenny’s Bar, The Old Ropery, Fenwick Street, Liverpool Berry and Rye, Berry Street, Liverpool R&H Fine Wines (Retail), Queens Arcade, Liverpool Cholmondeley Arms, Wrenbury Road, Malpas The Sparrowhawk, Southport Old Road, Formby |
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