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
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Greetings one and all!
Thankfully I have found time to finally sort things out, scribble a few ideas down, chase a few brewers and grab a few beers to get things up and running for the second installment of this ElectroKemistry event! For those of you who missed out, or those of you who were under the proverbial rock for the first event, you can read all about it right here: [http://electrokemistcuisine.weebly.com/blogs/electrokemistry-event-battle-of-the-breweries-round-1]. This time, as with the first, I am looking to get around 20 people to come and taste a few beers from a range of breweries in exchange for a little door tax to cover the expenses: As before, the tickets will be allocated on a first come-first served basis, so the best thing to do is to reply via the contact page (the link is above next to BLOGS) and send me an email, confirming interest and then I'll send out details for getting payment over. So how is the event going to be laid out this time? Well, it will be slightly cut down from the previous event as there were a few too many beers to get through in a reasonable timescale, thankfully the enthusiastic folk who came weren't put out and very happy to be rather inebriated by the end! There will be 5 breweries supplying 2 beers each within the two categories, with a generous taster of each for attendees. The two categories are: 1. Adjunct/Fruit Beer 2. Stout, Porter or Adjunct Stout Porter Needless to say, there will be food laid on and thankfully the kindly gentlemen at Clove Hitch/23 Club on Hope Street in Liverpool are providing a venue for proceedings on this occasion. There will also be a small competition as per the previous event where people can win a little goodie bag to take away. Ticket prices will be £10 per person for the event. I will provide further details and attendance updates until the event is sold out. Hopefully see you there! Pedro. 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 There is something genuinely warming about listening to stories of gentlemen such as Toccalmatto’s Bruno Carilli. Having spent many an hour or so watching the two greedy Italians; Antonio Carluccio and Gennaro Cantaldo, wax lyrical about their culinary influences with genuine affection and enthusiasm, it takes a little while for things to warm up and then Bruno hits his stride. Thankfully Bruno's English is much better than my Italian despite my Sister-in-law’s family’s best efforts to educate me. Any ruffled areas are easily smoothed out once again by Atlas Brand’s Giulio Temporin, who’s enthusiasm for spreading the word about these great Italian beers is infectious; also welcome for a second time following the earlier visit of Brewfist [http://electrokemistcuisine.weebly.com/blogs/meet-the-brewer-with-brewfist-the-clove-hitch-liverpool]. Having worked for large multinational companies, Bruno decided that in 2008 after stints with the logistical division within Carlsberg amongst others he wished to pursue something creatively his own. Having broadly stated that he was influenced by some of the 1990’s British cask big hitters (such as Summer Lightning from Hopback Brewery, Black Sheep’s Best Bitter and the classic Landlord by Timothy Taylor), various styles of Belgian beers and finally the more recent explosion of American craft brewing, Bruno set about trying to make beers that had distinctive and full flavours. The Toccalmatto brewery is based in Fidenza (located for Geography fans between Parma and Piacenza in Northern Italy) and the name translates as ‘now it is the turn of the crazy man’. The remit of the brewery, as Bruno recounts, is to produce beers which focus on a tight quality control whilst employing methods to maximise the strength of the beer; not really too crazy an idea, perhaps? Admittedly, Bruno unashamedly announced his preference for the way the British enjoy a pint rather than partaking in the smaller measures of beer that our continental counterparts often do. Some of the beers produced by Toccalmatto, given their strength, really aren’t so appropriate for pints! Without further ado, I guess it is time to hand over to the crazy man…. ReHop One of the most easy drinking and best-selling of Toccalmatto’s range, this beer is modelled on an American style pale ale (but isn’t a US pale ale) which is a cloudy straw colour with a tight white foam. The aromas carry notes of citrus, pine and other crisp acidicity laying way into a similar flavour. ReHop has a very juicy quality to it, despite a relatively thin and light body, almost as if this was made from a cordial. The hops used are route one of where the fruit and acidity comes from; around 60% Cascade is used along with Saaz, Amarillo, Marinka and Simcoe in both cone and pellet form. The brewing of this beer is complimented by the use of American yeast and it weighs in at around 5% with a dry finish of notable length. B Space Invader At 6.2% this is a variation of the normal ‘Space Invader’ produced by Toccalmatto. A Black IPA with some body, the name is derived from the original use of Galaxy hops in the dry hopping of the beer. This first iteration was a collaboration beer between Bruno and Brew Wharf in London and began as a pale beer. The beer was then made using different hops, namely Simcoe and Amarillo to compliment the Galaxy and uses a wheat malt to do away with the bitterness and roast flavours of barley. The tight brown foamy head gives way to a chewy mouthfeel, some aromas of coffee, chocolate and liquorice leading into slightly juicier flavours than you would expect given the nose. The finish is reasonably long and has some interesting hits of red fruit on the way out. Skizoid This beer arrives with a nod to the song ‘21st Century Schizoid Man’ by King Crimson; Bruno’s fascination with tilting musical slants onto his brewing becomes much more obvious. Using Belgian caramel malts, this American style pale ale is very dry throughout the flavour and not just in the finish, the use of Centennial and Chinook hops gives rise to a fairly chewy number, there is plenty of body here thanks to the use of the resinous hops, but it retains a fruity and aromatic edge. This beer was based on Bruno’s experience with the ‘Kentucky Common’ style of beer, which imparts some sour edge and the use of corn and sour mashes to lighten the beer. Zona Cesarini The biggest selling beer for Toccalmatto, the Zona Cesarini gets its name from the Argentine-Italian footballer Renato Cesarini, who famously played for Juventus. The ‘Zona Cesarini’ is an expression of the scoring a goal in the dying minutes of a match, as the player did on many an occasion. Born in 2010, this beer is a 6.6% fruit laden dry pale ale, with 90% of the hopping of this beer added in the 4 stages of dry-hopping over 5 days (at around 14g per litre). The use of US, New Zealand and West Coast Japanese hops such as Palisade, Sorachi Ace and Citra gives some interesting dimension to this beer, with the dry fruitier characters providing a good counterbalance to the bittering hops (using Colombus for the bittering). Aptly named, dry and fruity with tropical fruit which includes coconut imparted by the Sorachi Ace, this is a very competent and interesting beer. Apricot Scotch Ale
Finally, a relative sweet beer behemoth in at 7.5%, this fruity dark brown ale is initially rather sweet, with a quite tart finish. There is plenty of orchard fruit on the heavily perfumed nose, obviously screaming out apricot, but layers underneath of other fruit such as figs. This Scotch ale has a relatively light body belying its dark colour, the flavours echo the fruity aromas, but do incorporate some red cherry in the finish. This is a relatively new beer Bruno has made, based on a beer called ‘the last witch’ which was made used peated malts, the use of fruit changed the recipe and frozen apricots are added at the dry-hopping stage to impart the raison d’etre of this beer. --- MTB Attendees were also treated to some whisky from Malt of the Earth following the beer tasting, with Tom Mills from the company presenting a very pleasing number and guidance on how to taste. As is always the case with such spirits, the divisive nature shone through with many not taking to the flavours of a subtly complex whisky. It was relatively smooth and aged to 11 years, a nice way to round off a very entertaining and delicious evening. As ever, 23 Club/Clove Hitch provided delicious food to accompany the beer menu, on this occasion the attendees were treated to a BBQ with Mediterranean food. Good pairing with the beers too. Italian beers are going from strength to strength at the moment; Toccalmatto’s excellent presentation and highly competent beers are testament to the growth. Until the next time… Ciao! Pedro. X -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Toccalmatto Via San Michele Campagna 22/c 43036 Fidenza (PR) Web: www.birratoccalmatto.it Twitter: https://twitter.com/Toccalmatto Email: [email protected] Tel/fax: 0524.533289 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 Malt of the Earth Web: http://maltoftheearth.co.uk/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/maltoftheearth Gone is the first Bank Holiday weekend of May, along with it, a multitude of Beer (and some food) festivals across the Northwest (covered in a previous blog: [http://electrokemistcuisine.weebly.com/1/post/2014/04/may-bank-holiday-round-up-2014.html]), at least for another year. Whilst the weather held until the Monday evening, the majority of us received some warm, if somewhat grey conditions in which to indulge in some fine ales from up and down the UK. Unfortunately, already making arrangements for the Mad Hatter Brewery Tap opening on Friday evening and for a trip to Bispham Green into West Lancashire, it left little time to head elsewhere such as the Aigburth Cricket Club Beer Festival. There was however, a chance on a Sunday afternoon to wander down to the Old Christchurch in Waterloo to indulge in the embers of the seventh festival held at the remarkable environs. Journeying by train out to Ormskirk from Liverpool and then onward to the Eagle and Child pub in Bispham Green, between Mawdesley and Parbold is now an annual treat for me and a few other regular accomplices. The pub is owned by the Ainscoughs (also of Racquet Club fame) and run as a ‘gastropub’ – the term usually makes me shudder, but it isn’t too ill fitting here as the pub does indeed present some superb, honest and fairly priced meals. The tranquil settings are excellent at the beginning of our session, from 4pm onwards things tend to get noisier, with the live music sound checks and a larger number of locals heading down to the venue. A single large marquee is stationed to the rear of the pub, with the bowling green and other patio areas soon populated with revellers, getting in early with picnic blankets is highly recommended. There are usually around 50-60 ales on offer along a single row of stills, alas keg has yet to catch up here. There are a large number of ciders to compensate, although these have a tendency on warmer occasions to run out by the Saturday afternoon. A £10 door tax returns the festival pint glass, a programme and around £6 worth of festival tokens, with halves being around £1.50 to £1.75 depending on the ABV, meaning this is one of the better value beer festivals around in terms of entry costs. Food is available at a tuck shop and with proper chips and a rather enticingly aromatic hog roast also to the rear of the pub. The Festival at the Eagle and Child is now heading beyond its 19th year and is as popular as ever, but the setting is by far and away the greatest asset; few beer festivals feel as relaxed as this when the weather is dry and warm. The beers were of a usual standard for such beer festivals, alas none of them were listed in the festival programme. Sadly, the first festival where they have left it out, this was a glaring omission from previous festivals, where the presence of the list made planning your beers a much easier and stress-free task. Breweries such as Propsect, Southport, Allgates and Burscough, Frodsham and Phoenix all have a heavy presence at this festival; producing some excellent English pale ales, best bitters, red ales and stouts, although there wasn’t too much of variation beyond this. Coach house Brewery from Cheshire did supply many fruit infused beers such as the very drinkable ‘Pineapple’ and supermarket friendly ‘Blueberry’ – again though, these beers are all pale ale, where the Coconut they brew jarred with the hopped pale ale style when best paired with a darker ale in stout or porter style. An extra two hours was added to the session at Waterloo by the Liverpool Organic Brewery guys, making an 8pm close the order of the day. Luckily the session was not sold out, so being able to pay on the door was a blessing, although many of the first choice beers had gone in the previous sessions. With allegedly some 200 beers on offer (and excellently, some keg for the first time at the Waterloo iteration) alongside the ciders, Liverpool Gin, Peninsula Pies, Liverpool Cake Company and the ever-present Liverpool Cheese Company. As with many other festivals, there is live music alongside the beers, but the main attraction is the well organised and well stocked feel the festival has. As the festival has grown, attracted sponsorship and added a greater variety of beers to the repertoire it has also very gradually increased the cost of the sessions, sadly with overheads spiralling in all industries, this is sadly inevitable, but the festival does remain good value for visitors with the added attractions of great food from the aforementioned contributors. Attendance does feel as though it has slipped ever so slightly in the last two years most likely due to a saturation of the marketplace for Beer Festivals (where demand is thankfully still remarkably high), but the event still sells out on the Friday and Saturday evening sessions in a heartbeat, meaning slightly easier going sessions during Thursday, Friday and Saturday daytime and Sunday can be less crowded to get around. The beers at the Waterloo festival are again, as with the Eagle and Child, all run off stillage, aside from two groups; the Liverpool Organic Beers on cask hand pull and the craft keg beers from the likes of Mad Hatter, Saltaire and Tiny Rebel. Long may these two excellent festivals continue to provide a gateway for new beer enthusiasts, great beers and a convivial atmosphere in which to enjoy them. Pedro. ------------------------------------------------------------ Eagle and Child Malt Kiln Lane, Bispham Green, Mawdesley, Lancashire. L40 3SG Web: http://www.ainscoughs.co.uk/The-Eagle-Child/eagle-and-child-home.html Telephone:01257 462 297 Email: [email protected] Liverpool Cheese Company 29a Woolton Street, Woolton Village, Liverpool. L25 5NH Web: http://www.liverpoolcheesecompany.co.uk/ Telephone: 0151 428 3942 Email: [email protected] Liverpool Cake Company Web: http://liverpoolcakecompany.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liverpoolcakeco Telephone: 0151 734 0761 Mobile: 07864 069 105 Email: [email protected] 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 EDIT - UPDATE (18th April 2014):
Hi Everyone, just another quick update since this has been getting spread on Twitter and other social media. There has been a run on tickets, as such there are only 2 places left now due to a last minute drop out. First come first served! The ONLY way to guarantee your attendance is to contact me and arrange payment, once payment is received, the place is locked down, so you'll have to be quick. Pedro x ---------------------------------------- Original Post: Greetings Everyone! I am expressly aware that it has been sometime since the last ElectroKemistry outing, with the invite only session at the end of last year and previous to that the last open event was the summer wine tasting; as such, it is more than time to set the wheels in motion for another. As has been mooted for some time, a ‘Battle of the Breweries’ will currently be held on the 19th April at around 4pm, with the venue to be confirmed (either at the Laboratory or at a Liverpool city centre venue). The event will be epic, make no mistake! The tasting event will also essentially be a blind tasting where each attendee can vote on which of the beers in individual styles (such as Amber Ale/American IPA/India Pale Ale/English Pale/Porter/Stout etc) are best in category, thus giving rise to a ranking system whereby we can nominate a winner in terms of overall score too. Solely for fun of course! There will no doubt also be a chance to win a prize to take home from the event, for enjoyment and posterity. The tasting will include some nibbles and 9-12 different beers depending on numbers attending. I am hoping for 15 or so people at this event as a minimum, up to around 20. At the moment, I need numbers to check diaries and confirm they are able and want to attend the event, plus I will need payment as soon as possible for the event to avoid overspend on the food and drink for the event. I will provide details for the payment and confirm your place on receipt. Tickets are going to be around £12 a head depending on numbers and the beers I able to get hold of for the event. All details will be firmed up once a date and numbers are settled on. If you fancy having a delightful evening with some likeminded people, some excellent beers and all round good time, please just give me a shout back! Just drop your name and email address in the contact form on the page and a contact number. I'll then drop in an email or call with details on how to pay, once payment is received, your place will be confirmed! Pedro x The Meet the Brewer events across the UK are proving to be exceptionally popular ways to spend an evening. Twinned with the relatively rude health of the cask and craft brewing scene, social occasions with the additional spice of running shoulders with a brewer and imbibing a brewery’s best wares have given rise to the building momentum and thirst to try new brews and catch glimpses of beers that are otherwise stocked sporadically in drinking establishments. In the latest iteration of Liverpool’s Clove Hitch and 23 Club outings and following the successful Brewfist tasting in December 2013, Logan Plant, son of the erstwhile Zepellin frontman, presented six of Beavertown Brewery’s flagship beers for an eager crowd to experience. Set up in partnership with Byron Knight December 2011, the brewery began in relatively modest surroundings of a kitchen of Dukes Brew and ’Que, De Beauvoir in Hackney. Incidentally, a colloquial twisting of the location gave rise to the brewery’s name. Fast forward to March 2013 and the Beavertown boys set up new premises to grow their capacity and cement a reputation at Fish Island, with future plans to get canning. According to Logan, Beavertown’s beginnings were seeded long before 2011 and a while before his epiphany in New York and subsequent realisation. Teenage ale infatuation with a session beer, spending afternoons sinking a few beers in the beer garden was a precursor to a later moment of clarity. Whilst part of a band playing in New York, Logan was having to eat rather late and therefore experienced American style craft beers and barbecued meat, giving a push to exit stage left from gigs and the recording studio and thus into the brewery. Back to present and to Liverpool, the Monday Mersey evening air is chilly, but Logan’s passion has given rise to 6 beers that we are presented with for delectation…. First up was the proverbial ‘Neck Oil’, a veritable session beer if ever there was, weighing in at a reasonable 4.3% and bursting with citrus lemon and cut grass freshness. It is a very easy drinking, straw coloured and dry hopped number; something apparently influenced by Logan’s Grandfather who referred to an estimable drinking session at his local as the time for the ‘application of neck-oil’. A slightly stringent mouth-feel gives this beer a pleasant edge if you’re wanting to partake in a few. ‘Gamma Ray’ is the second and possibly one of the most common of Beavertown’s beers to be had. A former employee at the Kernel (another brewery in London) was the first recruit to Beavertown’s brewing team and after a couple of iterations, hit upon a dry hopping ploy with Amarillo, Calypso, Columbus and Omega hops for this tasty and light bodied American style pale ale. There is plenty of flavour, similar to the Neck Oil with citrus character, but a more coating mouth-feel and plenty of fruit. It will be the first to be canned when Beavertown roll out their new venture soon. Third up was the ‘8-Ball Rye IPA’ which was a much softer edged beer than the previous two. The initial process was using 3 grains and approximately 17% rye in the malts, there was some difficulty sparging due to the finely milled particle size provided by the supplier. Upon a solution being achieved through supply chain amendments, an earthy, spicy beer with a cloudiness has been created, using a combination of US and New Zealand hops to bring out a delicious IPA at 6.2%. ‘Some Like it Hot’ was next to hit the taste-buds; a chilli and lime saison, with the addition of raspberries and apples from Chegworth Orchard, giving rise to a standard sourness, but twinned with a very interesting tart-heat in the aftertaste and mouth-feel. The acidity is finely balanced with the level of hopping, giving an intensely fruity beer which was influenced by a cocktail mixologist who recommended trying to achieve something similar to a cocktail. The dry hopping with chillies provides a clever dimension to the beer providing some depth of flavour plus the expected heat. Onto the darker stuff with a black IPA named ‘Black Betty’. A beer which allegedly came about by a happy accident in the brewery, aiming for a beer that was reminiscent of the popular and nostalgic ‘black jacks’ chewy sweets so many of us of a certain age will remember. Coming in at 7.4%, there is plenty of punch to this dark IPA along with lots of fruit from the hops and a coffee and chocolate infused depth provided by the use of 5 types and especially darker malts. The aromatics kick quite a lot of arse here, belying any indication of a heavy body and any expectancy of a greater amount of chewiness. Finally we hit the big brother to a standard Beavertown brew, the ‘Imperial Smog Rocket’, which weighed in at a hefty 10%. Using smoked malt and brewed in the imperial style popular with Catherine the Great, the Imperial Smog Rocket was built as a foil for some collaborative work performed with the Brewdog boys. They created an Imperial Stout which was named ‘Catherine’s Pony’ (do an internet search for stories surrounding Catherine the Great and horses… just don’t complain when you find out why they named the beer as such, the dirty boys), but Beavertown decided they could raise the bar from the collaboration and thus launched the rocket, creating a thrust of big chocolate and coffee oiliness. Magnum and Chinook hops sit atop a mountain of malts, drifting in and out of liquorice, with some vanilla and smoke. A must-try beer, but perhaps stick to one or two eh? An excellent evening with affable hosts as ever, Logan has promised to make some more rounds when the canning gets going, I suspect we will be seeing a lot more Beavertown if they keep the bar as high as the above beers are set.
Until the next time…. Cheers! Pedro. --------------------------------------------- Beavertown Brewery Web: http://www.beavertownbrewery.co.uk/ Follow Beavertown on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BeavertownBeer Clove Hitch/23 Club: https://twitter.com/theclovehitch / https://twitter.com/TwentyThreeClub Tel: 0151 709 6574 Address: 23 Hope Street, Liverpool. L1 9BQ After much stress, drinking of wine, tasting of cheese and practicing some presentation skills that I haven’t used in quite a while, the Wine Tasting event went off rather well. At least by judging the feedback and beaming (possibly tipsy…?) faces at the end of the event, it was well received. There were 8 wines on show for people to taste, starting with 3 variable styles of white and then onto 5 equally variable reds. The event was started by explaining a little about tasting wine (using some excellent structured advice from Jancis Robinson in her BBC book ‘Wine Course’ published in 1995) and how to search for flavours; what the various terms of body, length, acidity and balance mean with regard to tasting a wine. As the presentation progressed (somewhat…!), additional notes on old world and new world wine differences were discussed, fruit acids and how grapes take on flavours from their fermentation and treatment during this period and beyond. The first white wine was from Oddbins, their Green Fish Verdejo 2011 (Spain). This is a simple, light and fairly dry wine with slightly peachy flavour and a lot of acidity. The wine is from the Rueda region of Spain (the area just to the North West of Madrid) and the grapes are harvested at night when it is cooler; this prevents the oxidation and therefore browning of the juices on maceration, keeping the wine lightly coloured. Possibly, this was the least praiseworthy wine on offer in the event, at least judging by its reception. The second white was the Ridgy Didge Chardonnay 2012 from Australia, a white peach coloured white with an abundance of stone fruit flavours of peach, apricot and melon accompanied with a hint of ripe apples. The wine was slightly oaked, giving a slightly spicey, vanilla undercurrent and a buttery mouthfeel. Another relatively simple wine, but different enough from the other two whites to give the attendees a tangible variation. The final white on show at the event was the Les Cascadelles Pouilly Fumé 2011 (France, of course). The selection of this wine was to show the dryness accompanying the Sauvignon Blanc grape and the fresh green acidity with gooseberry and slightly citrus-sharpness, terrific minerality and the aroma of gunflint. At this point, a little time was taken to explain how Terrior [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terroir] comes into play and how French appellations are used. Moving onto the red wines, the first foray was the Freeman’s Bay Pinot Noir 2011 (New Zealand). A very pale red wine, light in colour and body, although deceptively full of flavour. A very smooth yet meaty and slightly oaky character with flavours of cherry, plum and strawberries all present alongside a slight vegetal taste and aroma, less pronounced than in some French offerings. Was generally well received by the group. The second red wine was the fairly reknowned Toro Loco Tempranillo 2011 (Spain), which some members of the group seemed to be familiar with. This is a full-bodied red wine using the Tempranillo grape with flavours of berries, plums and a hint of some tobacco and leather. The wine can be quite tannic, having a slight pepperiness and pleasant mouthfeel also. Positive feedback from the group all round with this one! Following the Tempranillo was a delicious Rioja with a little age behind it in order to show the group how a grape can change flavours with age and treatment and by accompanying it with other grapes. As with the Toro Loco, this is a full-bodied wine with plenty of vibrancy and flavour; the colour was noted to have been significantly different (slightly less reddish-purple around the edges, tending to be a little sepia coloured). This wine is also stored in oak for a while, giving an undercurrent of spice. A superb value wine; which was positively received from all the attendees. A very interesting wine was had to follow the Rioja in the form of the Mont Rocher Pays D’Herault Carignan 2012 (Rousillon-Languedoc, France). Taken from old gnarled vines in the Mediterranean region of France, this is a juicy and quite fruity red with plenty of body and a slightly confected aroma twinned with flavours and aromas of sumptuous violets. An excellent wine which was well received by the attendees. A very interesting wine was had to follow the Rioja in the form of the Mont Rocher Pays D’Herault Carignan 2012 (Rousillon-Languedoc, France). Taken from old gnarled vines in the Mediterranean region of France, this is a juicy and quite fruity red with plenty of body and a slightly confected aroma twinned with flavours and aromas of sumptuous violets. An excellent wine which was well received by the attendees. The final wine was something with tonnes of body and robust flavours in the Santa Rita Medalla Real Carmenere 2009 (Colchagua Valley, Chile). A little way of explanation about the Carmenere grape was given, along with the tasting, with the wine giving flavours of chocolate, coffee and plums along with deep savoury notes. Fruit was present in the form of some dark berries, but there was a comment from someone that one of the strong aromas reminded them of fly-spray, indeed, a very unusual aroma that accompanies the use of fly-paper was present. Slightly disappointing that the wine was not strongly received considering the interesting and complex flavours on offer. To round the event off, there was a little contest between the attendees to see who could correctly identify the placings of each of the wines from the tasting in terms of their cost (at time of purchase). The wines were as follows:
The highest mark was 4/8 and two people went into a tiebreak, being asked to name the three grapes used in making Champagne. Alas they both correctly identified Chardonnay, but fell down on naming any more (for those curious/uninformed – also Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier), luckily they were in a couple so shared a lovely bottle of red lovingly selected for a prize. A special mention needs to go to the excellent Liverpool Cheese Company, based in Woolton Village, for supplying cheeses to the event, a lovely selection from the shop was soon demolished in less than 15 minutes (you’d think these people had never been fed?!). The buche log goats cheese and Y-Fenni with mustard seed were excellent, along with a very interesting cheese washed named ‘Baltic’ with Liverpool’s own Wapping Beer from the Baltic Fleet pub (brewed in the basement) by the cheesemakers. Their website can be found here: [http://www.liverpoolcheesecompany.co.uk/] and they are located at 29A Woolton Road, should you wish to visit their lovely shop (where you can also pick up deli-items including many beers from the local breweries of Merseyside). Another successful event, I shall keep you all informed as more crop up (there are ideas floating around at the moment, but until they turn concrete, I’ll hold fire). Should anyone have any ideas for an event, please just give me a shout and we can perhaps work together to put something on! Until next time, adios! Pedro. -------------- P.S. to follow Liverpool Cheese Company on Twitter go here: http://twitter.com/liverpoolcheese |
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