Big versus Small?

A question.

Luke and myself are sitting here chatting, I caught up on a few blog posts over the weekend and it seems the beer blogging and writing world are obsessed with this theoretical trend reversal from big, bold-flavoured, hoppy or extreme beers to the ubiquitous session brew.

Ask yourself. For those that have tried hundreds of different beers, all sorts of flavours, aroma, brewing techniques and styles, is it not inevitable that the drinking circle rotate back to session?

How about the uninitiated. Those that have never tried an American-hopped IPA or Belgian Dubbel. Their first taste. The look on their face. The classic line… “I don’t like beer, but I really like this!”.

A lot of session beers are unable to deliver this. They may be too close in character to what the uninitiated craft beer lover is used to supping. I’m sure a lot of you out there tried something unique or bold in flavour and had that moment.

When we write of the about-turn to session beer, are we only writing for the intended beer-geek audience?

Thoughts?

After multiple days of rubbish weather, the drive from Invercargill to Queenstown was amazing. The sun was shining and for the first time since Christchurch, the temperature even got into the twenties. It was time for singlets, stubbies and jandals! For those non-Kiwis out there, singlets are tank-tops/vests, stubbies are short shorts and jandals are flip-flops/thongs (no not that type of thong…)

The scenery leading into Queenstown is incredible, following Lake Wakatipu in gave us an amazing vista of the Remarkable mountain range and with the meraldd-green lake at their base, it was easy to see why so many people come and check this place out!

We ended up at the camp ground in Queesnstown, which, crazily, is the same one I had stayed in as a child in 1986! I remembered our family having signed a big boiler that was in the reception and went to have a look. The fact that thousands have since signed it meant  that our mark was no longer there, but my memories as an eight year old in this place were (surprisingly) still with me. Proof that beer doesn’t dull the memory perhaps?

We went into town and checked out Atlas, where we had a great hop-laden pint of Emersons 1812 India Pale Ale. Hunger drove us to the impressive Fergburger where we all went for the recommended Cock-a-Doodle-Oink-Oink, a massive creation of chicken schnitzel, bacon, avocado and all the trimmings. Why we decided to get fries and onion rings with the burger, no one knows (it was a seriously BIG burger)and as for the sun-struck, skunky Peroni that we purchased to wash it down… a fatal error and proof that Fergburger really needs to get craft beer into their place. Fergburger, I hope you’re reading this!

The sun woke us the next ay and we took the short trip to Arrow Brewing in Arrowtown, where we met up with brewing industry consultant/engineer John Timpany, who is their brewer and director, Darryl Jones who is responsible for the seriously impressive graphics and branding that the brewery has. The brewpub itself has an awesome bar, all leather seats and big gas fire, with a plan to put in more handpulled ales to accompany the great bunch of draught taps they have. John uses a plethora of different hops for his various styles which range from a big, crisp, lemon-sherberty and properly bitter Pilsner, through to a delicious English-style ale, Tobins, which is destined to to used on handpull alone as a cask ale.

It is the experimentation that really fascinated me with this brewery. John not only built the well-engineered kit, but also devises all of the brewery’s recipes. Their catch phrase is “Sufficiently Bizarre” and they enjoy playing around with barrel-aging, different herbs and spices, and even producing their own wine, grappa and maybe even some other spirits in the future.

The Christmas Ale that John produced was the best spiced beer that I’ve ever tasted. It was like liquid Christmas cake, big wafts of cinnamon and candied peel and even hints of marzipan icing impressed the nose and the balance of spice, alcohol and intense fruitcake character coated the mouth and filled the mind with images of Christmas Pudding and sweet brandy custard sauce. Luke threw drunken fruit into the mix, a perect descriptor for this truly decadent beer.

Thoroughly impressed with the Arrow setup and ethos, we moved on, picked up a bunch of ridiculously sweet, juicy Central Otago stonefruit, chowed down on apricots, nectarines, plums, cherries and succulent peaches and hit Wanaka Beerworks.

Californian native Dave Gillies met us at Wanaka Beerworks, which is attached to the Aviation Museum, the site of the amazing Warbirds over Wanaka airshow. Dave founded his brewery in the late 90s and came to quick fame with his flagship Pilsener, Brewski which took out Supreme Champion Beer of New Zealand back in 2000. Brewski, his Vienna Lager, Cardrona Gold and his Schwarzbier/Dunkel/Stout Tall Black are all brewed with the characteristic New Zealand Saaz hop and are great exponents of this variety. Brewski in particular had big notes of chamomile

His 600 litre DME-made brewery’s copper is still gleaming and working well for him and the brewery itself has certainly been keeping both locals and tourists alike happy and sated. Dave has done his time though and just sold the brewery to a Kiwi/Belgian couple who are to take over in 6 months. It will be interesting to see which direction the brewery heads and we are all really curious to see what calibre of Belgian-style beers come out of the heart of Otago in the future. Thanks Dave for your fantastic contribution to NZ Brewing!

With spectacular views of Lake Wanaka and Hawea, we climbed over the ranges and through the prehistoric Haast region. Ferns and Podocarp forest aplenty, it was easy to imagine Moa and giant dragonflies lurking in the dense rainforest just out of sight. A surreal and beautiful place.

The rugged mountain landscape continued as we reached our destination, Franz Josef, the glacial ice stretching over the pate of the mountains and glowing white-blue in the fading sunlight. Our campsite, The Rainforest Retreat was exactly as the name suggested – a series of campsites, cabins, treehouses and van sites filled with tourists young and old enjoying the ambience of the bush that encompassed the area. It was the next morning however that was magic. We got up just after 5am so as to make the next leg of our trip. The dawn chorus was astounding. Tui, Bellbirds (Korimako) and other winged forest denizens incessantly chatting and calling their territory and hollering for mates. What a way to start a new day.

After another late night earthquake, another Christchurch day dawned, albeit a little cooler than the balmy thirty degrees day that we had arrived to. Polar fleeces and jeans donned, our first port of call was the Dux de Lux Restaurant and Brewpub. Running since 1978, these guys definitely know how to crank out a good beer and the brewery was in full swing when we rocked up in the camper. We were met by brewer Paulie Rutledge, a Portland, Oregon native who has been pumping out Dux beers since 1999. The mash for the Black Shag Stout was settled in the mash tun and the first thing that was evident was the size of the brewery. Every conceivable space was packed with brewing vessels and pipework and filters, with an equally small coolroom filled with conditioning and bright beer tanks. 

These guys do something a little bit different in that they do high gravity brewing. This means brewing wort to a higher gravity (amount of original fermentable sugars) and then liquoring/diluting down the finished wort to the correct amount of sugars for fermentation. The reason Dux de Lux do this is related to their equipment and brewery size. Their mash tun can only hold a certain amount of malt grist, so this allows them to get a larger amount of beer than usual on a small brewery.  Paulie enthusiastically filled us in on the brewery and their beers until head brewer and brewing industry legend Dickie Fife arrived. Dickie is a dervish of energy, animated and excited and full of passion and excitement for not only the craft beer industry, but for drink, food and anything New Zealand. His past training as a chef has helped him to develop some great beers, full of flavor and character and as interesting as the man himself. We started off with a taste of their Ginger Tom, an incredibly spicy ginger beer with a great warming aftertaste attributed to the fresh Queensland ginger root that is liberally used in the brewing process. This is the type of beer that would work in either summer or winter. The great thing about ginger is that it can be both refreshing and warming. A great beer.

We then headed into the bar itself and Dickie poured us a Black Shag Stout. The first nitrogen-dispensed beer of the trip and probably the only that is brewed by the NZ craft scene, this was incredibly smooth and rich with lovely hints of roast coffee, chicory and hazelnuts. The finish was long and slightly bitter. You knew you’d drunk this beer and it’s a great example of how a nitro-brew should taste. The nitrogen itself helps the beer form a tighter, finer bubble, hence the impression of velvety goodness that the beer had.

Next on the agenda was Three Boys Brewing, so we headed through the city to Woolston to meet up with head brewer and owner, Dr. Ralph Bungard. Ralph was originally a plant scientist and fell in love with craft beer when working at the University of Sheffield in England. We asked Ralph about his brewery name and he told us that he had two sons, so his wife had three boys and he also had two brothers , so had grown up as a three boy family as well. My theory that it was named after Alvin, Simon and Theodore from Alvin and the Chipmunks was incorrect. They were chipmunks, not boys.

His 2000 litre brew kit stood resplendent in the building and while staff were hand labeling, Ralph showed us around. We went through his range of beers that were all top examples of their individual styles. We started with his Pils which shone with slightly floral, noble hop characters from New Zealand Saaz. Interestingly, we tried a sample fresh from his lagering tank against a bottle that was a few months old. The fresh sample had a more pronounced NZ hop character, reminiscent of fresh grass and subtle tropical fruit, whereas the bottle had a more European hop character to it. Both samples had a beautiful, crisp bitterness and it was interesting to chat to Ralph and Luke about the New Zealand Pilsener style, which we all thought was showcasing some great beers across the country.

Ralph’s Wheat is based on the Belgian Wit style and is up there with one of the best wheat beers I’ve ever tried. Ralph does a slight acidification of the water for brewing and uses 50% wheat malt. He then does something interesting and uses local lemon peel and Indian coriander seeds to provide a touch of citrus class to this incredibly refreshing beer. Usually wheat beers aren’t Luke or my favorites. We appreciate good ones but prefer the hop bombs! This however was a changing beer for both of us. If I ever see Three Boys Wheat in a pub or bottle shop, I’ll be buying it without even thinking!

Three Boys Golden Ale was a real taste of England for me, reminding me loads of one of the past beers I brewed, Thornbridge Kipling. The Golden Ale was an ode to the characteristic Nelson Sauvin hop and screamed big tropical fruits, lychees and ruby grapefruit. The finish was slightly malt sweet and absolutely delicious. From there we went to his IPA which again was a bit of a taste of the UK. Instead of the intense US hop style, this was decidedly more British in it’s hop-malt balance. There was some great fruity hop on the nose, but the mouth showcased some full toffee and caramel malt characters. Orange marmalade was also dominant and this beer had me thinking of Worthington’s White Shield and Thornbridge Seaforth in it’s complexity and balance and lovely edgy bitterness.

Finally we had a taste of the delectable Porter, all chocolate and massive drinkability. This was a beer that we discussed a lot. We were all in agreement that drinking this beer cold out of the fridge was as refreshing as any IPA, Pilsener or Wheat Beer on a hot summer day. The quality of all five of Ralph’s beers was second-to-none and massively impressive!

 From Three Boys we headed to one of Christchurch’s newest breweries, Cassels & Sons. These guys are doing something really unique and pretty special. Their goal is to be as sustainable and environmentally friendly as they can. They use refillable swing-neck bottles which are sold locally in handmade wooden crates and the team their are firm believers in local produce. Their 600 litre plant has been specifically made with the Eastern suburbs of Christchurch in mind, providing beer for local people. Owner and director, Alasdair Cassels has some awesome plans for the brewery and surrounding buildings. The beautiful red-brick building next to the brewery, a former tannery dating from back at the turn of the 20th century is in the process of becoming a brewpub and series of bars and is a really exciting prospect for the area. Head Brewer is ex- Wanaka Beerworks and Twisted Hop Brewery’s Nigel Mahoney. Nigel is really keen on sustainability and tries to use as much local organic Canterbury malt as possible in his brews. 

One of the coolest things about this brewery is that the brewing kettle is wood-fired. This is unique to New Zealand and only a couple of breweries around the world in places such as Belgium and Germany still use wood-fired coppers. Nigel only uses sustainable Pinus Radiata grown here in NZ and due to the fact that it is grown this way, means that the boiling process is carbon neutral. Nigel loves the chaos that the wood-fired process brings to the boil and upon firing it up, we saw what a challenge it was to balance the heat from the fire to get a rolling boil. This definitely brings another element of craft to the art of brewing and the beers we tasted were testament to the care that Nigel takes.

 We started on the easy-drinking Lager and then moved on to the Pilsener which was another brilliant example of the NZ style that is dominated by the citrusy, fruity New Zealand hops. The finish was remarkably clean and the top palate bitterness was pleasantly cleaning and pushed you towards another sip. We then tried the Elder Ale, which is produced with locally picked Canterbury Elderflowers. Nigel did a lot of research into the flowers and found that the best time to pick them was early in the morning, before the heat of the sun had pushed out their perfume and attracted insects. The unique floral aroma wafted from the nose of the beer and followed through into the mouth. A great example of this style and an ideal summer refresher. The 5.5% ESB was an impressive example of the style and stood up to and surpassed many an ESB that I have tasted in the UK. The nose showed some nice spicy and slightly earthy hop characters. Juicy, toffee and light milk chocolatey malt blended seamlessly with a great bitterness and made this beer incredibly quaffable. I really wanted to reach for more. I did

Last up was their Medicinal which uses local Elderberry juice. Alasdaid and Nigel are both firm believers in the antiviral and antioxidant properties of those little black berry and told us of it’s use in fighting the flu virus. The dark ale showed us it’s complexity and pushed out fruitcake and chocolate notes, making it a great warming beer.

While there, it was great to see the comings and goings of locals, returning their re-usable bottles (which the give a $1 refund on) and buying new bottles. It’s so exciting and invigorating to try such good beers from a new brewery and see the plans that they have for the future. Christchurch is a pretty cool place to live if you’re a beer lover. If you’re not, then now there’s no excuse!

Finally we popped in to see Ally McGilvray from Golden Ticket Brewing and his cool little homebrew setup. He trials his beers on this system before getting them brewed at Invercargill Brewery. We tasted a couple of his brews which were tasting great. This guy really knows how to use hops, Centennial in particular and we even tried his third ever homebrew. He’d brewed this with malt extract and loads of hops, aged it for two years and it tasted surprisingly awesome! Well-integrated alcohol blended with rich fruity, marzipan notes and the similar to dessert sherry were definitely there. The big hops followed through into the finish and again this showed us how accomplished some of the young brewers of Christchurch are.

The day over, we hit Pomeroy’s for a couple of beers, had a chat to the ever gracious host, Steve and had a couple of great pints of Mussel Inn Captain Cooker. A great drop. Already we were looking forward to the rest of the trip!

Christchurch is epic. Camper van all sorted and awe-inspiring with its bells, whistles (and more importantly a fridge for the beer), we hightailed it to meet Craig at BeerNZ. Craig handles distribution for 24 NZ craft breweries, so is a massively important link in getting what we brew to the the people who want to drink it!

We had a chat and a look around his coolstore and warehouse and then headed to Pomeroy’s pub. What an amazing place. Owner Steven Pomeroy and his family have been running the place for 10 years and have done an incredible job at developing a great centre for locals and the community to relax, eat and enjoy each other’s company. Chatting to Steven is great. He epitomises the passion that is so often seen in the industry. His heart, soul and most waking hours have been poured into the place and the lovely bed and breakfast next door. It’s so important for great pubs to have great personalities and this definitely delivers. Ava manages the pub, doing a great job as hostess and the staff are knowledgeable and inviting. Christchurch is a lucky city! With 20 plus tap beers to choose from, including a handpull for cask ale, it’s definitely beer heaven.

We met up with Ally from Golden Ticket Brewing and David Gaughan from Golden Eagle Brewery, chatted to them about their brewing experiences and tasted a couple of their beers which included a delicious session stout hopped with Centennial from Scotsman, Ally and a luscious, full, rich 6.2% Coal Face Stout from UK born and bred Gaughan (originally from Rotherham in Yorkshire). David told me about his trip to Thornbridge Brewery a while back, which I remembered and that he had recently opened a bottle of Thornbridge Saint Petersburg! Small world is the brewing one!

A night of beverages ensued and we met up with various beer lovers and brewers. Fraser Kennedy, president of the Canterbury University homebrewer’s club (and barman at Pomeroy’s) pulled out a delightful Feijoa Pilsner that he had brewed on his homebrew kit. Beautifully perfumed, the fruit was subtle and well integrated into the beer. The finish was slightly dry and not in the least bit cloying. Fraser plans to go on and study through the Siebel Brewing Institute in Chicago and is definitely a keen and eager young brewer to keep an eye on.

The next day dawned with a nice 5.1 earthquake at 6am. For some reason… perhaps the fact that the beer was far too tasty and needed to be sampled until at least 3 in the morning, Luke and I slept through it! Our film and sound crew, Scott and Jacob didn’t and ran out of their rooms screaming. They are young Aucklanders and it was their first earthquake. Poor souls. The footage we got on camera that day was a bit shaky. I’m guessing their nerves were a little frazzled. Or maybe I just lie…

The first brewery we visited was Wigram Brewery. We were eagerly met by the guys behind the beers who I designated The Two Pauls (Paul McGurk and Paul Cooper). Both of their names were Paul. Hence my decision. We had a look around their cool 600 litre brewery. They have a pretty smart setup, using fermenters/conditioning tanks on wheels so they can move them into their cold store. We tasted a couple of their beers including a bitter and a pale ale, both with great clean bitterness and joyfully balanced brews. The standout for me though was their Imperial Stout which was a rich, chocolatey 8% treat. Top stuff! Paul Cooper is a great guy to talk beer and brewing with. Being involved in brewing over here since the 70s, this guy is a wealth of information and has acted as a consultant for a number of breweries.

From Wigram, we stopped in to see student Fraser as he was bottling a Plum-infused Black IPA he had brewed at home. It was pretty awesome to see a student flat again and cool to catch brewing at the other end of the scale on camera.

Twisted Hop in the city was next and we met up with expat Brit and owner, Martin Bennett.  These guys are pretty unique in that they are one of the few breweries and bars in NZ that produce cask-conditioned ales. The brewpub is right behind the bar itself and the six handpulls were all go with beers ranging from 3.7% to 6.4%. From the citrusy Goldings Bitter to the lemon and pepper goodness of the Challenger, the beers were in great condition, all smooth and lightly carbonated and a pleasure to drink. The best beer of the lot though was the 6.4% India Pale Ale which screamed big tropical fruit notes and grapefruit bitterness and is definitely up there with the greatest cask IPAs I have tasted.

Martin then pulled out a couple of bottles. Nokabollokov, an incredibly rich and complex Imperial Stout had bold, bitter coffee notes with an amazing caramel and chicory nose and even hints of hazelnut. Brilliant. Even better was the Enigma, an incredibly rounded 11% barley wine that had coconut and toffee up front and a smooth, rich mouthfeel, almost sherry like. We tried it with a couple of pieces of Blue Windsor cheese and the match worked perfectly.

We finished with a palate cleansing Sauvin Pilsner which did exactly what it said on the tin. Hints of the characteristic Sauvin hop in the nose and a nice dry finish, this was a great brew.  If you’re ever in Christchurch and you don’t visit this place, then it’s a pity. It’s brilliant.

We made it back to Pomeroy’s where I had the best ever pub burger. I’m a bit of a pub burger fiend and really enjoy rating a drinking establishment based on the quality of the burger.  This Scotch Fillet, bacon and garlic butter packed taste sensation is now my official number one best bar burger experience ever. A big call, but a true one. A couple of pints of Epic/Dogfish Head Portamarillo washed it down and it was off to bed and ready for our next day in Christchurch. Earthquakes and all!

(Sorry about no photos, will stick some in at a later date… am currently typing this on my lap in a campervan outside the Dux de Lux Brewery!)

Cask ale is important to each of us in very different ways. Here myself, Mark (homebrewer), Mark (beer writer), Shea (young female drinker) and Glyn (bar manager) say why it’s important to us.

I brew ale and love what I do. What other job exists where you can be part-Alchemist, part-Scientist and part-Artist. Brewing is an act of creation and a job driven by passion for great beer. It is such a social profession, especially in this country where the pub and having a pint are tradition and part of a proud culture.

I am lucky to be involved in both brewery and pub. Waking hours are spent brewing and managing and looking at processes and calculating and general left hemisphere action. This blends perfectly with pulling recipes from that cerebral right hemisphere. Then at nights it’s home to the pub, where I live upstairs and can see my ales in action. Pulled at the bar and served with a smile, the locals having a laugh and chatting about sports, work and beer. I have many a warm, fuzzy moment getting home and watching people enjoy the fruits of many hours of labour.

The same applies to the burgeoning world of social media. Checking Facebook and Twitter and even emails that wax lyrical about the flavours and aromas and drinkability of something that I was a part of creating. It makes me proud and I’m not ashamed to admit it.

But it’s the brewing that always captivates. From tasting the water when I arrive at the brewery, to crunching merrily away on a handful of the finest British Maris Otter malt that money can buy, brewing is a series of tests. Whether they are sensory or based on science, technology and compromise, it is these little things that make brewing great.

This country is so lucky to have such a unique climate with regards to growing barley and hops and providing  us with the perfect brewing environment. There are only a handful of places that can grow hops in the world, part of the reason why the brewing tradition is so strong here.

It is hops that I love the most and ale is the perfect vessel for big, bold hoppy flavours. Sourced from the great hop-growing countries of the world, aromas and flavours of pine-needles, grapefruit, strawberries, sandalwood, chamomile, citrus fruit and herbal, grassy goodness abound. Blending the right hop varieties and characters together is where the art, the craft is greatest. Melding the chosen aromas with the malty, roasted and biscuit-like characters that the grains provide allows our artistic side to come through. Part-imagining and part-experience, brewing is the art of science.

If there was one thing I could change in the UK, it would be for people to understand what actually goes into beer. To see the effort and the unseen and often unknown amount of work that is behind that quenching liquid in your glass in a pub. To understand the almost religious fervour that brewers have when it comes to their craft. To know about the ingredients that have been used, chosen from the finest. We are artisans and scientists. We can wake up in the middle of the night, dream-flavours on our tongue, a beer concept fresh in our minds. We can create that beer and have it in a cask within a month. That is something that inspires me. Beer is awesome.

As some of you now know, I’m leaving Thornbridge in search of the greener hops of my New Zealand homeland. There’ll be a few little changes at Thornbridge and this will include our social media side. I’ve managed to convince the rest of the brewing team to join in on the fun and frivolity that Twitter, Facebook and blogging can provide, so you’ll be hopefully be hearing regularly from them.

I'll now just get angry with hops in New Zealand

Just in case you aren’t aware… our Facebook page is called The Thornbridge Brewers, so you can join up with this and see what’s happening on a day-to-day basis with regards to what’s brewing and what the brewing team are up to.

As for tweets, @thornbridgekel will eventually change to something else… what yet, I don’t even know, and the new Twitter name for everyone will be a collective @thornbridge. The whole team will be involved in using this and tweeting anything interesting that is happening as well as informing you guys on the random happenings at the brewery and beyond. I’m sure you’ll get a few insights into what everyone is drinking at random times as well!

Finally, of course, there’s this new blog. All of the brew team will hopefully have a go at posting something about their jobs or their days or their interesting insight into the world of beer and brewing. They know a lot, I just need to get them all writing it down!

If you follow my blog http://beerevolution.wordpress.com then don’t worry as it’ll still be going strong. But if you’re keen to check out what the Thornbridge brew crew are doing, then http://thornbridge.wordpress.com will be the go to place!

Cheers and beers,

Kelly Ryan, Brewery Manager, Thornbridge 2006-2010

It’s been a long time coming and always been something that I hoped we’d be able to do one day at Thornbridge. We’ve got the technology, so it’s time we brewed a lager!

I know that straight away some people will read this, purse their lips, make their eyes go all squinty and deride it as a bad idea with a deft,  ”What are these ale breweries thinking with all their high-falutin’ ways… imagining they can now make fizzy, generic, chemical-ridden lager.”

For those people, stop reading now please… I don’t want you to learn anything by reading any further. I believe that your ignorance is something to keep you in your own blissful (yet safe) state while those around you enjoy awesome craft beer and get their black belts in Bliss Kwon Do! It’s true that some people only enjoy cask ale, but for those out there that enjoy the myriad of flavours and taste experiences that beer as a delicious beverage provides, then this is for you…

This also ties in with our recent experimentation with bottling processes and with our first foray into kegging, albeit not in the traditional manner. It is actually quite surprising how many publications and beer authorities refer to keg beer as being a filtered, pasteurised, carbonated (or brewery conditioned) product. What happens if the beer you are putting into a keg (which is just a container for serving) is unfiltered and unpasteurised. As always with beer and brewing, the boundary suddenly becomes blurry.

We have begun using a product called a KeyKeg which is slightly different than a regular keg. Kegs usually contain product that is under pressure. This pressurised vessel is then filled with gas (usually carbon dioxide, nitrogen or a blend of the two) every time the beer is served at a bar. A constant pressure is maintained within the keg so that the beer that is being poured into the glass at the bar doesn’t fob or come out flat, but is still nice and fizzy and comes out at a good rate. Within the keg itself there is an interface where the liquid and gas meet. If the pressure of the gas and liquid are slightly different, you can either get dissolved gas leaving the liquid or dissolved gas entering the liquid, so that an equilibrium is reached.

A KeyKeg works differently. For a start, the KeyKeg is entirely disposable, consisting of a plastic and foil bag that is encased with a clear plastic ball, held within a corrugated cardboard frame and all wrapped up in shrink-wrapped plastic. The bag itself is filled with the product. As the bag fills, it displaces the gas that is held within the large plastic ball. To get the beer out of the Keykeg, the filling is done in reverse. This time, whenever the tap is opened at the bar, gas is forced into the clear, plastic ball and squeezes the bag, pushing the beer out. At no time does the beer come into contact with either gas from a bottle or the air itself. Brilliant!

The KeyKeg and it's cardboard outer

We have done a few kegs of both Jaipur and Kipling to test this technology and see how our unfiltered, unpasteurised beer tastes like under a different form of dispense. The beer is exactly the same stuff that we put into our bottles. If you like our bottled ales, then you’ll like our slightly unconventional keg ales as well.

So whenever we have an inkling that something will work and it does, what follows is further experimentation! In the past we’ve been heavily involved with our great friends from Birrificio Italiano in Italy. We’ve collaborated on a few beers, had a couple of brewer exchanges and had many a great night together. It also helps that one of our favourite Pilseners in the world, TipoPils is brewed by Agostino, Maurizio and Stefano at their amazing brewpub close to Como, a must see if you’re visiting the Northeast of Italy.

The plan is for their brewer, Maurizio Folli (pictured below) to come and spend a week with us and we’ll brew a version of their celebrated Extra Hop Pilsener, jam-packed with Hallertau Magnum and Saaz hops.

The planned brewdate for this is October 26th and we’re already ridiculously excited. The hope would be for us to join the ranks of all the other fantastic craft lager brewers that the UK has.

Another thing to point out, both lager and ale are types of beer! It amazed me when I first arrived in the UK and sat chatting to “lager drinkers”. They would look at me and tell me that they liked lager, but didn’t like beer. I educated them…

For those that don’t know, the main differences between lager and  ale centre around yeast and fermentation temperature. Generally lager yeast ferment at a cool temperature (11-14 degrees Celsius) and take 2-3 times longer than ale yeasts to finish fermenting. Ale yeast, on the other hand, ferments in 3-7 days at temperatures ranging from 16-25 degrees celsius (or even higher in some cases). Lager is called lager because traditionally it was stored/matured for a long period of time. Lager comes from the German and refers to this storage period.

We’re going to use the finest German malt we can get our hands on and do the same with the hops and yeast.

No chemicals, the finest ingredients, a long maturation (lagering) period. It’s going to be amazing!

The new standard for the Average British Beer Drinker

We’ve just launched a new beer called Larkspur. I had two pints of it the other night and it made me weep. Why would beer make me cry?

Is it the nose of ripe tangerine, those oil filled cells that burst and sting your eyes when you hedonistically squeeze the loose peelings, knowing the citrus bouquet that lies within?

 The mango that has fallen from the tree and is sliced open on the spot, it’s heady, tropical fruit sweetness invading the senses and transporting you to a beach on Thailand.

Is it the pull of passionfruit, just like those I would pick from my Nana’s passionfruit vine? Their skins all wrinkly after the sun had ripened them to perfection. The burst of flavour as I would bite through the hard skin to reach the rich, juicy pulp inside?

Larkspur is all of these. The fascinating Citra hop from America delivers and incredible tropical fruit salad of aromas. It fools me into thinking I’m drinking juice. The power of the flower.

We only got ten kilograms of the hop this year and already I dream of next year and the possible bounty that will arrive from the American hop harvest. This is what makes me cry! We only brewed thirty five casks of this beer. We based it on our Kipling malt recipe and then used Citra instead of the New Zealand Nelson Sauvin we use in Kipling. This allows us to find out how the hop behaves in a beer we already know a lot about. We can look at it’s perceived bitterness, the flavours, the aromas and of course the drinkability.

The parentage of this hop is also quite interesting… a real international mix of  German Hallertau Mittlefrueh and Brewers Gold, American grown Tettanger and British East Kent Golding. Who would have thought the heady mix of fruit salad could have come from such an interesting blend of hop mothers and fathers?!

It’s been great to see a bunch of breweries around the country use Citra to great effect. I just wish they would all stop so we could brew some more.

Larkspur. If you see it in a pub, taste it and let me know what you think…

The enigmatic, zymurgical genius that is Stefano Cossi was honoured last night with what I can only describe as the highest accolade in UK Brewing. The All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group acts to promote the wholesomeness and enjoyment of beer as well as highlight the importance of the British pub and the social, cultural and historical importance of the brewing industry. The Brewer of the Year award is recommended by the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is an amazing acheivement!

Stefano hails from the North-East of Italy, where he studied a Food Science degree at Udine before heading north to the UK to begin a brewing career with a brand new brewery called Thornbridge. Nestled away at the base of the Pennines close to the picturesque Bakewell, Derbyshire, the little 10 bbl brewery was made up of salvaged kit and originally manned by Stef, Martin Dickie (of Brewdog fame) and consultant and master brewer Dave Corbey.

Almost six years later, Stef is still here, working twice as hard and helping revolutionise the UK craft brewing industry with his exacting, scientific approach, brilliant understanding of flavour and aroma combinations and inability to compromise when it comes to quality. Not just the quality of the raw materials, or the beer that we produce, but also of the brewery itself. Over a period of a couple of years, Stef worked tirelessly to get a conceptual brewery from ideas and imaginings right through to a finished product. I had the enviable task of being involved with this and can honestly say that Stef’s eye for detail is second to none. He assimilates scientific papers and brings the theory into practice and like all good brewers, is all about continuous improvement.

The ideas that Stef comes up with have always impressed me as a brewer. Bracia is a fine example. Stef had bought a load of chestnut honey from a local producer close to his family home in Italy with the idea of using it in a beer. I remember smelling and tasting chestnut honey for the first time with him, amazed at the complexity and completely unique character it had, unlike any other honey I had tasted. A recipe was formulated, we brewed the beer and still, to this day, every time I crack a bottle of my dwindling supply from that very first brew, I am amazed. It takes skill and foresight to do this. Stef has bucketloads of both. This can also be seen with our barrel-aged beers. Stef visiting sherry-producing regions, sourcing Pedro Ximenex and Madeira barrels for aging, absorbing loads and loads of information on the wood-aging of ports and sherries and whiskeys and wines and applying this to beer.

For myself, coming in as a new brewer back in 2006 and for a time, just the both of us running the original Hall brewery it has always been interesting working with Stef. We had both studied Food Science, so had similar backgrounds. I had come from a big brewery environment and Stef from small. It was great to see our ideas and concepts meet somewhere in the middle. It was cool for me to downscale big brewery ideology and begin crafting and (I’d like to think) for Stef to see my background and approach that to craft. It was fun to brew my very own recipes for the first time… experimenting and constantly evolving already established beers. This approach has been absorbed by our entire team. Every one of our brewers is given the opportunity to do this. We have no tradition at Thornbridge and don’t find it all that necessary to follow certain styles or practices. We just want to make great beer and this is something that Stef has helped foster.

Legendary Roger Protz and the man behind Thornbridge, Jim Harrison, share a beer (hopefully it's Jaipur!)

Our brewery director, Jim Harrison, sums it up, “Well deserved for Stef, but also to everyone at Thornbridge for the amazing teamwork that allows us to compete at this level”. I agree!

In my mind this is a major step for microbreweries. This type of accolade is often given to well established brewers of regional or even larger breweries and for one of the little guys (we run a 30 barrel brewhouse) to be on the radar with regards to the pursuit of brewing excellence, it has to be a great thing for the burgeoning craft industry.

Would I say that Stef is a perfectionist? Absolutely! Would I say it helps us as a brewery produce the best beer we possibly can? Undoubtedly! It seems like others think so, too!!

Stef tests to check if his tankard is stainless steel 304... ideal for brewing vessels you know