Original Gravity magazine issue 8 by Don't Look Down Media

8 issue

GOOD NEWS FOR PEOPLE WHO LOVE GOOD BEER

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CRAFT BEER REAL ALES GOOD PUBS TASTING NOTES ARTISANAL SPIRITS + other nice stuff

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ORIGINAL_GRAVITY

BREW IT YOURSELF The explosive return of homebrewing + How to get brewing tonight + Make Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Breakfast Stout + Garrett Oliver on homebrewing

+ Why you drink what you drink

IMPERIAL STOUTS / 46 BEERS FEATURED / RUNNING & BEER / OXFORD

In the time it takes us to make our beer we challenged Brompton to design and build a new bike. Now we are extending this highly demanding task to six of the UK’s most exciting craft companies to each create an element of the perfect beer environment.

#MAKETIMEFORIT

MEANTIMEBREWING.COM BREWING COMPANY

Issue 8 | Contents

Cover image by Rob Vanderplank for Original Gravity%. / robvanderplank.com

ORIGINAL GRAVITY Contact daniel@originalgravitymag.com 01323 370430 Advertising originalgravitymag@gmail.com 01323 370430 Website: originalgravitymag.com Twitter: OGBeerMag Facebook: /originalgravitymag Instagram: ORIGINAL_GRAVITY Page visuals: @adamonsea

The Mash /p04 • Homebrew special /p10 • Mikkeller Running Club /p14 Drinking choices /p16 • Tasting Notes /p19 • Oxford /p20 • Your round /p23

IT’S GOING TO BE... AMAZING

Welcome the best year in the history of beer. How can we be so confident? Well, firstly it’s in our nature, but there are some indicators that suggest it’s going to be good. The rate of new breweries is growing at one a week, great US breweries, spying Britain’s buoyant market, are looking to up their sales here, and you can now get a bottle of Lagunitas IPA in Weatherspoons. At Original Gravity% we have some pretty exciting news too. This year we’re planning

*deep breath* a thick, beautiful magazine packing in the world’s best beer writing and photography. Its modest working title is “The Best Beer Magazine In The World”. It’ll be out in June. We’ve just relaunched our website – Original Gravity Daily – and have new stories up there every day. It’s your daily one stop shop for all things beer. What else? Beer collaborations, and loads of events, including a couple of beer festivals alongside the Original Gravity% Live tour. Oh, and

two Toronto editions are in the pipeline. Finally, a completely new section called I AM A BREWER is coming online at the beginning of February. It’s aimed at brewers themselves, but only written by experts in the trade. For brewers, by brewers. Yup, it’s going to be busy! In the meantime, you can become a homebrewer yourself with the help of this issue – in a couple of weeks you’ll have your own porter! Daniel Neilson, Publisher and Editor

© 2016 Original Gravity is published by Don’t Look Down Media. All rights reserved. All material in this publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without the written permission of Don’t Look Down Media. Views expressed in Original Gravity are those of the respective contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publication nor its staff.

What will 2016 bring in the world of beer?

TRY the beers The Curious Beer Club. Subscribe at curiousbeer.club for your ticket to the taste revolution. A beer club like no other. Already a member? This symbol indicates beers in the CBC boxes this edition. Note: only the 24 box includes all.

Buy the beers You’ll notice we mention our partners who supply many of the beers mentioned. Ales By Mail (alesbymail.co.uk): ABM Beers of Europe (beersofeurope.co.uk): BE Beer Hawk (beerhawk.co.uk): BH Real Ale (realale.com): RA

Daniel Neilson

Stephen Beaumont

Alan Hinkes

Adrian Tierney-Jones

Matthew Curtis

Daniel is the editor and publisher of Original Gravity%. He’s edited several magazines and books, including Time Out guides and national mags.

Global beer specialist Stephen Beaumont is the author of The Beer & Food Companion and co-author of The World Atlas of Beer.

Alan Hinkes OBE is the only Briton to climb the world’s 8,000m peaks. He lives in Yorkshire and enjoys walking mountains and discovering beers.

Adrian TierneyJones is a journalist who writes about beer, pubs, food and travel and how they all intersect. / maltworms. blogspot.co.uk

Matthew Curtis is a London-based freelance beer writer, speaker and editor of Total Ales. Follow him at @totalcurtis / totalales.co.uk

“More beer choice than we’ve ever seen before, more great breweries springing up everywhere.”

“2016 will see more national beer styles developing in nontraditional beer lands around the world”

“2016 heralds more beer pleasure. Designer labels, designer beer. Wild beers. Wacky beers.”

“More fruit-flavoured IPAs, sadly; more great lagers, hopefully; more ‘craft’ brewery buyouts, so what.”

“It’s going to be about low alcohol, intensely flavoursome, juicy, sessionable pale ales. I can’t wait.”

THE MASH

The ART OF BEER HIGH WEALD BREWERY

England was forged on the iron of the High Weald. Where today are serene woodlands, gentle hills and commuter towns, The Weald once panted the puff of bellows and breathed the fire of the bloomeries and blast furnaces. The wealth of Wealden iron was first identified in prehistoric times, and its use was hugely expanded during Roman times with more than 100 sites around the Sussex & Kent Weald. By the 1600s, the industry was in full swing – England needed cannons, and the ochre stone of the Weald provided it. The fuel for smelting this iron was charcoal, which had an abundant source in the area’s heavy woods. Today, it’s more often steam carrying the smells of barley and hops that waft into the Sussex air. In a part of the country curiously lacking an abundance of breweries, Andy Somerville saw an opportunity to expand his part-time nano-brewery High Weald, and in November 2015 he launched his three core beers in bottle. Chronicle is a delightfully drinkable 3.8% Sussex Bitter and Greenstede (the original name of East Grinstead where the brewery is based) is a golden ale at 4%, but the one that

first caught our attention at the Great British Beer Festival is Charcoal Burner, an lucious oatmeal stout. “The High Weald has an old, ancient feel to it,” explains Andy “It’s an evocative name and I wanted the artwork to reflect that. And it’s important to look good. You’ve got to pull them in with the art and then hook them with the beer.” The brewery were already using a hammer and anvil as their logo, but it wasn’t until designer Will Parr showed Andy the potential for the brand by adding a distinctive character. “We went for the most out-there option he presented,” says Andy. “It had skeletons riding chickens – who could resist that?” Will had worked with many breweries, creating some of the most identifiable beers on the shelves, before setting up Studio Parr in Sussex. “I started out on my own in order to talk directly to some of the UK’s most exciting craft brewers, I saw something in the early labels of High Weald that I liked, but more importantly the beers were really good.” Charcoal Burner is a great oatmeal stout, full of flavour

and life, and the first that Andy and Will worked on. “The area is so rich in history that we could build on to add in characters,” explains Will. “All of the stories on the bottles are based on Anglo Saxon folklore. It could be a battle or the wheat workers being chased by the ‘charcoal burner’. A quirky English lion was too good an opportunity to miss to use for Chronicle and the skeletal characters we have are reminiscent of those in Anglo-Saxon folklore, but we have a bit of fun with them. Those on the Chronicle label are having a pissup in the brewery!”

High Weald’s beers are resolutely English. “We’re using really good English hops,” Andy says. “They’re more complex and the flavours change and develop. English hops are more of a watercolour than modern art. And there are some really interesting English hops coming through, such as Jester. We’re looking at doing a 6% IPA with tons of English hops, and also a hefeweizen. With every beer, we want to tell a different story”. DN / highwealdbrewery.co.uk / studioparr.co.uk

THE MASH

The 6 PACK Californian IPAS

Beer meets... The sea Beer touches nearly all aspects of life: food, music and art among them. In this issue we’re setting sail to find where beer meets the sea. That stout and oysters go together is well known, but a beer actually made with oysters? How about one made with kelp? Or even sea water itself ? Here are three of the most interesting brews you’ll try all year.

/ Flying Dog, Pearl Necklace Chesapeake Stout, 5.5% Oysters have been used in the making of beer since Victorian times, but mostly just for their shells, which were known to clarify the brew. This Flying Dog example uses actual Chesapeake Bay oysters. Proceeds going to the Oyster Recovery Partnership. It’s a great stout, but there’s little flavour of the mollusc brininess. / flyingdogbrewery.com / Buy from BE, RA

some of the very best Californian IPAs. Beers are as much rooted in terroir as wines, and it was the West Coast US craft beer pioneers, using locally grown (and powerful) hops, who replicated the IPA style and turned out

what has become the craft beer’s flagship ale. These are the hop monsters. So drop the needle on that reasonably rare Beach Boys Japanese issue vinyl, put on some shorts, and get California Dreamin’. DN

/ Lost Coast Brewery, Indica, 6.5% The Ganesh design on the label gives, well, nothing away. This is full of stone fruits like apricot, with tropical flavours like a NZ beer. Mouthfeel? It’s a bit oily and resiny; the most easy drinking here. / Buy at ABM

/ Stone, IPA, 6.9% One of the all time great IPAs. This mahoosive hop hit delivers a piney, oily nose, smacking a punch of bittersweet hop on the back of the tongue before shifting away reluctantly with a tangerine wave. / Buy at BE, RA

/ Green Flash, Soul Style, 6.5% Green Flash make exceptional beers. This ‘Bright and Tropical’ beer is a fun walk around California’s abundant stone fruits. There’s a deep warmth to it too– bread pudding with added star anise. / Buy at BE

/ Left Coast Brewing, Trestles IPA, 6.8% Loaded with Centennial and Chinook, this is stereotypically grapefruity on the nose, but it’s a master of disguise. Yes the hops are big, but the chocolate and toasted almond aftertaste is utterly unexpected. Perhaps more malty in the East Coast style. / Buy at ABM

/ Anchor Brewing, IPA, 6.5% A masterful brew, and the most balanced here. Like the Anchor lager, this has a malty scrum, with none of the obnoxious forward hops. There’s even a hint of honey (which sounds like a San Fran band from when Anchor started in the 1970s) and an aniseed and liquorice aftertaste. / Buy at BE

/ Firestone, Union Jack IPA, 7.5% Proof, if any were needed, that cans are bloody amazing. Given the number of air miles these beers have been on, this is the freshest tasting here. It’s a fabulous example of an IPA: strong, powerful, not a subtle beer but for something that makes you stand up and shout from the boardwalk: I LOVE BEER. / Buy at BE

The weather outside is frightful (a guess, but it probably is) and we’ve had our fill of weighty porters. It’s time for some HOPS (in shouty caps). This February, we thought we’d spread a bit of California cheer with

/ La Socarrada, Er Boqueron, 4.8% With some bizarrely flavoured beers, there’s little hint of the actual ingredient – but not so here. Er Boqueron is made with Mediterranean seawater. The result is a blonde ale with a salty tang, perfect with seafood. Advocates say it’s naturally healthy too: full of electrolytes and hydrating minerals. / lasocarrada.com / Buy at ABM

/ Williams Bros, Kelpie Seaweed Ale, 4.4% According to the highly regarded Scottish brewery Williams Bros, beer made in coastal Scotland often used barley fertilised by seaweed, imparting a marine flavour. The brewers have attempted to evoke the sea by adding seaweed to their dark chocolate ale – and to great effect. / williamsbrosbrew.com / Buy at BE

THE MASH

IMPERIAL

Winston Churchill memorably described Russia as “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”. The same could be said of the origin of Imperial Stouts, a style of beer intrinsically linked with the country. In the utterly brilliant book Beer Styles from Around the World (see

STOUTS

below), Horst Dornbusch describes Imperial Stouts as “a dark ale as inscrutable as the solemn melancholy of the Russian soul”. Yes, this is the type of beer that will get you feeling darkly poetic and thumbing The Brothers Karamazov. Let’s start with what it is: a bloomin’ strong

/ Samuel Smiths, Imperial Stout, 7% A sophisticated beer from the Tadcaster brewery, with a lightness of touch and an effervescence that makes it very drinkable. Described as ‘barbecued port’ by one Original Gravity% contributor. / samuelsmithsbrewery.co.uk

stout. It’s anywhere between 7% and 12%, and black enough to suck light out of the room. It’s full of the expected malty character: dried fruits, coffee, chocolate, sometimes smoky, and the best are balanced with enough hops to make them drinkable. It was originally brewed

/ Schönramer, Imperial Stout, 9.5% This is the imperial stout of imperial stouts (stay with us). There’s a delicate liquorice flavour with a real sweetness. It’s real, it’s authentic, and it’s not showy. If you like beer, you’ll like this. / brauerei-schoenram.de

/ BrewDog, Black Eyes Imp, 12.7% Misconceptions about BrewDog #65: hops is all that matters. This powerful stout tastes like blackberries beaten to a pulp with a cricket bat made of liquorice (if you can imagine that?). / brewdog.com

/ Flying Dog, Imperial Coffee Stout, 8.9%

/ Harveys, Imperial Extra Double Stout, 9%

ERIAL STOUT P M I

As leathery as Hunter S Thompson himself, with lots of coffee. A sharp shock of coffee. We could imagine this being drank on the Cutty Sark around the Horn. We’d take this on the first watch. / flyingdogbrewery.com

/ Siren Craft Brew, Shattered Dream, 9.8% An overture of chocolate, coffee, and maybe a bite of chilli. This is a strong beer that smells like an Easter egg full of molasses. It is brewed with vanilla and cocoa nibs and, yes, it’s as good as it sounds. / sirencraftbrew.com

Beer

BOOKS “Business for Punks is a book for people who hate business.”

Business For Punks / James Watt “Business For Punks is a book for the people who hate business,” says James Watt. It’s undeniable that the co-founder of BrewDog has suceeded by doing things differently. So what can his book teach you about business? Well, it’s certainly inspirational. Once you get used to the shouty language that reads like early BrewDog beer labels (sections include “Make banks your bitch”) it all makes sense, and gives insights to BrewDog itself. If you liked Simon Sinek’s Start With Why, you’ll get on with this. Will it make you successful? F*&k knows, but we’re listening. / penguin.co.uk

strong enough to manage the trip to the Baltics, where this English style was hugely popular amongst the prole-bashing tsars, which is where the ‘imperial’ bit comes from. It’s thought that Catherine the Great was a fan, we certainly are. It’s a beer to take a journey around.

No beer deserves to be this interesting. This is a stroppy robust stout with a complexity even we can’t begin to describe. One of the world’s best beers. / harveys.org.uk

/ Thornbridge, St Petersburg, 7.4% Wildly different… There’s a sense of imperial indulgence here. A bit seedy, a little dirty, a lot exciting… the Rasputin in the court of imperial stouts. Probably the most hopped stout here. / thornbridgebrewery.co.uk

101 Beer Days Out / Tim Hampson “Yes please!” is the immediate response to seeing the title. I’m going to sound slightly like a press release here, but this really does offer something for the beer lover. The book is broken down into geographical sections with around a dozen suggested day trips. Suggestions include brewery visits, historical pub suggestions, beer steam engine rides, beer festivals and pub crawls. Tim is an amiable host to join you on the journey, offering juicy nuggets of information throughout. It should be taken as a guidebook, but you’ll learn an awful lot too. / camra.org.uk

Beer Styles of the World / Horst Dornbusch Dampfbier, Gotslandsdricka, Keutebier… Mumme, Pharaoh, Kartoffelbier (yes that does mean potato beer)… Sahti, Zoiglbier… we could go on. This book, Beer Styles from Around the World, by US-based writer Horst Dornbusch is a wonder. A book of information and reference yes, but it’s written with an eye for stories that bring the often bizarre or obtuse history of a beer to life. For this alone it warrants a place on your bookshelf but, get this, there’s also a recipe for every style. Yep, if you want to make a Potsdamer Stange, now you know how. Our new favourite book.

THE MASH

News Shorts

The q&A

Gareth Moore, Head Brewer, Gloucester Brewery

i/ Massive news that everyone already knows about: Camden Town Brewery has been bought by AB InBev in a deal said to be worth around £85m. Camden boss Jasper Cuppaidge told Original Gravity% “We have great plans at Camden and they are not looking at changing unless it’s change for the best.” Read the full interview at originalgravitymag.com. / camdentownbrewery.com ii/ London brewers Meantime were recently bought by SABMiller, but after the mahoosive merger plans with AB InBev they are now up for sale along with Peroni and Grolsch. / sabmiller.com iii/ University courses are now being offered in craft beer. The University of Vermont has started an online certified craft beer programme that focusses on the business side of the brewery, such as marketing, operations and sales, rather than the brewing techniques. In the UK, beer courses are offered by the Beer Academy (beeracademy.co.uk) /uvm.edu

What do you think sets Gloucester Brewery apart from other brewers? From our inception we have strived to offer modern progressive and even challenging beers, but at the same time we wanted to appeal to our local market of drinkers. Now we have further diversified and are selling directly into Bristol, London and Cardiff and I believe we punch way above our weight given our grass roots beginnings and purely organic growth. How do you see Gloucester Brewery developing over the next year or so? We have started our barrel aging project with sauternes wine, red wine and Scotch whisky barrels and also plan to brew our first sour next month. Of course this is nothing new in itself in the brewing industry but it certainly gives us an edge in our local market – also it is great fun to be experimenting in this way. We also have a 100 litre pilot kit in our taphouse TANK so there will be at least 40 super exclusive and wacky brews coming from that this year. Apricot Dunkelweizen, Bloody

Mary Gose, Rosemary Saison, Chocolate Oyster Stout etc... What was the ethos you set out with? Our ethos is really to be your friendly neighbourhood brewery. We know how important it is to provide a great service to the local area as well as beyond. We favour brewing more of the modern punchier styles of beer and we brew as many different beers as we can fit in. Variety is

Anatomy of... Altbier It was the delicious Altbier from new Battersea brewery Mondo that made us choose Altbier this issue. It’s a rare beer, but seems perfect for this time of year: a warming but crisp beer from Düsseldorf. This is partly due to the fermenting temperature of the beer, which is somewhere between an ale and a cold fermented

STRENGTH A rarity in the fluid world of beer styles, the ABV of Altbiers tends to be quite precise at around 4.7%-4.9%.

FLAVOUR Full-bodied beers with a clear nutty and warming malt profile, and a hint of fruit. Hops, usually noble ones, are less apparent and used to spice up the sweetness. APPEARANCE It is a deep amber, copper or even darker, but a lively, confident head. It’s clear, and looks, well, utterly appealing.

HISTORY Although resembling German beers from the middle ages, the name appears around 1880; ‘alt’ means ‘old’ (so brewed like an ale, rather than these new-fangled lagers).

lager, and the fact it’s then lagered (cold stored). It’s complicated, but when it’s done well it’s very, very drinkable. We’ve seen Altbiers from Orbit, Tweed and BrewDog’s Candy Kaiser in the UK. If you’re lucky enough to be in Düsseldorf, find Füchschen Alt or Uerige. Divine. Sod it, we’re off to Düsseldorf.

AKA... Kölsch from Cologne is perhaps the nearest style, but it’s lighter than Altbier. In Düsseldorf you’ll find Sticke Alt, a stronger and darker version.

FOOD Any traditional German fare – think massive pieces of pork, grilled salmon or smoked sausage. Also pairs well with crumbly cheeses. WHEN TO DRINK Winter… or autumn, or spring. Can you tell we like it?

WEIRD FACT Düsseldorf brewpubs in the 1800s were often also bakeries, because of their familiarity with yeast. Around a dozen are still open in the city.

important for challenging ourselves and we still love to brew some of our original favourites. Which other brewers and beers are you enjoying at the moment? No prizes for guessing, Wild Beer Co, Cloudwater, Brighton Bier from the UK, Tocalmatto, Ducato from Europe. / gloucesterbrewery.co.uk

Three to try

/ Schlosser, Alt, 4.8% The most widely available Düsseldorf altbier and a classic. Decidedly on the malty end, but not without balance; it’s super dry. / Buy at BH / schloesser.de / Mondo Brewing, Altbier, 4.8% This a great version of the altbier. It’s got a warming malt centre but with a sharp piney hop around the outside. Delicious. / mondobrewingcompany / Orbit Beers, Neu, 4.7% Admirably, one of Orbit Beers’ core range, the Neu is a faithful reproduction of the style, with perhaps a tad more hops. / Buy at BE / orbitbeers.com

THE MASH

MEANTIME

Festivals & events Feb 10-11 | Brooklyn’s Garret Oliver Newcastle and Edinburgh host Brooklyn Brewery Ghost Bottle tasting. See p11. / originalgravitymag.com Feb 13 | Beavertown’s 4th birthday Celebrate one of the UK’s best breweries. Beers from more than 30 breweries worldwide will be on offer among loads of entertainment. / beavertownbrewery.co.uk Feb 22-28 | London Beer Week A huge amount of events around the capital, including tours and offers. / drinkup.london/beerweek Feb 26-27 | Craft Beer Rising A brilliant beer festival in London. Hundreds of beers to try, plus tunes from Rob da Bank. / craftbeerrising.co.uk March 16-22 | Sheffield Beer Week One of the country’s best beer cities opens its doors. SIBA’s excellent BeerX is March 16-19. We’ll be there too. / sheffieldbeerweek.co.uk / beerx.org March 17-19 | Sussex Beer Festival Brighton Corn Exchange plays host to CAMRA’s Sussex branches. / sussexbeerfestival.co.uk March 25-28 | Craft Beer & Sausage Fest First annual beer festival from Gloucester Brewery brewers will feature more than 50 beers, and sausages! / gloucesterbrewery.co.uk / See originalgravitymag.com for loads more events.

Perfect 10 Hip Hops... the card game. This is brilliant. An awful lot of love and care has gone into this game that celebrates the best beers in the world. We’ve been playing the Brews of the World, and expansion packs are planned – there are a lot of beers out there. Each card features a world-class beer (with a beautifully illustrated bottle) and info about it – think beer Top Trumps and added twists. Good fun. / hiphops.cards

Brewery FOCUS “A brewery is an assault on the senses,” enthuses Meantime’s Brew Master Ciaran Giblin. “The smell of malt and hops, the steam, the sounds…” We’re about to throw in half a bucket of Summit hop pellets into a black lager we’re brewing with them, a current favourite style at OG% towers. Opening up the copper, the aroma of a dozen hectolitres of boiling wort and Herkules hops rolls around us in a steamy cloud. The instant hit of Summit just before the end of the boil will add a kick to the lager. The aroma is spectacular. “I bet you never get bored of that smell,” I mention to Ciaran. He smiles: “Never.” I’m here with our events maestro Richard to brew a special beer that will kick off Meantime’s new Pilot series, an ambitious range of 26 beers over the year that will push the innovation and flavour stakes like never before. There’s a lot of talk about it on the brewery floor. Brewers will be given a the chance to make styles far from Meantime’s core, and people like us can pretend to be brewers for the day, creating 24,000 pints of our favourite

beer. And five times this year, a very intimate tasting, limited to 12 places, will take place at Meantime. Our beer, London Gravity (see what we did?), will start it off, but we’re also putting it in 750ml champagne bottles – see below to win a case of them! Meantime broke onto the London beer scene in 2000, a time when the capital had less than a dozen breweries (there are now at least 80). Founder Alastair Hook took the reins on the recipes, focussing on lagers and US-style pale ales, as well as beers from deep within London’s beer psyche, such as porter. Meantime had bold plans from the start, investing in the largest new brewery in the country for 80 years. The beers proved a huge hit, offering something genuinely different for drinkers. In 2004, it was the only British brewery to win medals at the World Beer Cup. Expansion has since been breathtaking, even with the proliferation of breweries; visitors coming to tour the site number 15,000 a year. It was no surprise when SAB Miller came sniffing

around and bought it up. There was mild consternation in the industry, but the buying public didn’t mind: the beer was still excellent, probably better in fact. The investment also meant a new tasting room, a shop and this amazing pilot brewery we’re brewing on. The news that it may be sold again barely raises a shrug here; it’s only the beer that matters, not who owns it. On the computerised pilot kit, we push buttons, and listen for the whirr of motors and pumps. The last job is to pitch the yeast. I climb up a ladder among the stainless steel and pour it in. As we leave into the cold January night, we leave our beer to be conditioned, like all their lagers, for several weeks. Our senses have been duly assaulted.. in a good way. Can’t wait to try it. DN / meantime.london WIN: For a chance to win a case of London Gravity Black Lager, go to originalgravitymag.com and answer a very easy question.

Mondo Brewing Company + Original Gravity%

Brewery-fresh beer

Brewery tours

Friendly staff

15 taps

Explore Mondo’s w o r l d o f b ee r There’s no better place to drink beer than in a brewery’s tap room. It couldn’t be any fresher, of course, than when you can actually see the fermenting vessels through the window. There’s nowhere else you can try so many examples of a brewery’s work, and there’s also nothing like getting a true understanding of a beer than by drinking it where it’s brewed. In the short time that Battersea’s Mondo Brewing Company has been making beer, it’s quietly achieved an almost cult status among savvy beer

drinkers for its fascinating range of beers that often stray from the norm. Founders Todd Matteson and Thomas Palmer, influenced by their brewing experience in Germany, Japan, Spain, the US and UK, set it up to bring the best of the world’s beers to London. Among the range, you’ll find a Maibock, a German Altbier (see p7), a Blackberry Berliner Weisse, an Imperial Steam Lager and a Smoked Coconut Porter – which is every bit as good as it sounds.

When Mondo opened The Tap House it became a bit of a pilgrimage site, firstly for those who loved their beers and wanted it at the source, but also for those wanting to explore Mondo’s versions of world beer styles. It is also one of the loveliest tap rooms in the capital – think exposed brickwork, a copper bar and floor-to-ceiling windows looking into Mondo’s very shiny new brewery. There are 15 taps in all, showcasing the best of Mondo’s beer inspired from travels around the world. Mondo means ‘world’, after all.

86 Stewart’s Road, Battersea, London, SW8 4UG (0207 720 0782) / mondobrewingcompany.com Opening times: Wednesday – Thursday: 17:00 - 22:00 Friday: 17:00 - 23:00 Saturday: 14:00 - 22:00

F E AT U R E

B rew

YOUR SELF “When we start a feature like this, we bring in advice, thoughts and suggestions from around the industry and from the readers. We then begin to decide on what elements we want and then go out and get them. Sometimes we write them ourselves, sometime we call in professional beer writers and sometimes we call on people at the heart of it: the brewers, the drinkers and the entrepreneurs. And then things change, right up until we go to press. This feature we’ve seen pieces spiked, and more brought in. “We wanted to do a homebrew special because we too were getting into making beer at home. It’s a way to learn more about the beer making process, to truly understand what goes into a great beer, and, hopefully, to enjoy that pleasing moment when you pop off the cap of an old Grolsch bottle and it makes a pleasant pop and fizz before coming out clear with a good head. And that was it. But then the pieces started rolling in and two quotes from these articles struck me. The first from Dan Kaye of Brewtorial: “The best beer you ever drink could well be your homebrew.” I wasn’t expecting that, but it makes perfect sense. I’ve since spoken to other people who wholeheartedly agree. The other from Home Brew Depot’s Simon Pipola: “Our vision is that one day brewing a beer at home will be as casual as baking a cake.” This is, of course, just how it started. The final word, of course, goes to the inestimable Garrett Oliver, Brooklyn Brewery’s Brewmaster, who started homebrewing: “Homebrewers are to craft breweries what youth amateur sports leagues are to professional sports – it’s where our cultural DNA comes from.” Time to get brewing!” Daniel Neilson, Original Gravity% p10

01 Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast Mikkel Borg Bjergsø on how to brew one of the world’s most iconic beers

STYLE OATMEAL STOUT WITH COFFEE STATISTICS Volume 20 litres (51⁄3 gallons) Boil volume 25 litres (61⁄2 gallons) OG 1074 BG 1059 FG 1017 Alcohol 7.5% abv Colour 106 EBC Bitterness ~100+ IBU MASHING Pilsner Malt ... 3 EBC ... 3300g (7lb 4oz) Flaked Oats ... 5 EBC ... 1650g (3lb 10oz) Cara Amber I Malt ... 90 EBC ... 365g (121⁄2oz) Brown Malt ... 150 EBC ... 365g (121⁄2oz) Pale Chocolate Malt ... 500 EBC ... 365g (121⁄2oz) Chocolate Malt ... 940 EBC ... 180g (61⁄3oz) Roasted Barley ... 1150 EBC ... 365g (121⁄2oz)

Smoked Malt ... 6 EBC ... 180g (61⁄3oz) Total malt ... 6770g (14lbs 14oz) Mashing programme 67oC (152oF) for 60 min HOPS Centennial ... 10.0% alpha ... 50g (13⁄4oz) 60 min Cascade ... 5.7% alpha 20g ... (3⁄4oz) 60 min Cascade ... 5.7% alpha 45g ... (11⁄2oz) 15 min Centennial ... 10.0% alpha 45g ... (11⁄2oz) 5 min Cascade ... 5.7% alpha 10g ... (1⁄4oz) 5 min FERMENTATION Yeast ... 1056 American Ale Temperature ... 21-23oC (70-73oF) COMMENTS 0.5 litres (1 pint) ground coffee made with 50g (13⁄4oz) coffee added a few days before bottling. Mikkeller’s Book of Beer by Mikkel Borg Bjergsø and Pernille Pang ( Jacqui Small, £20)

F E AT U R E

Oliver 02 Garrett It’s brew time!

Brooklyn now produces an awful lot of beer - do you ever get back to the smaller brews?

Homebrewing is growing with a pace consistent with the beer scene. Before his mini-tour to the UK Garrett Oliver explains why there’s never been a better time to start brewing

You started off homebrewing, what essential advice can you give budding homebrewers? Today’s homebrewers are much more sophisticated and knowledgable than they were in my homebrewing days. They also have a lot more to work with when it comes to equipment, ingredients and networking. My homebrewing was all pre-internet, which seems almost unimaginable now. So I’m hesitant about giving “advice”, since many homebrewers are already making great beer. I would say, though, when I see faults in homemade beer, they often have to do with yeast health and yeast population. The bottom line is that smack-packs of yeast may contain enough yeast to start a fermentation....but usually not a great fermentation. So you should always either use two packs or make a starter at least 24 hours in advance with one pack. At the brewery, we expect warm-fermented beers to be clearly fermenting away within 12 hours after pitching, with lagers taking up to 24 hours to really get going. If yours are taking longer than that to start, that’s not good. Another thing is yeast nutrients. Pretty much everyone uses them, even the Reinheitsgebot-

bound German brewers – trust me on that. Yeast especially needs zinc. Better nutrition means better fermentations, and no “so-so” fermentation ever resulted in great beer. There seems to be an explosion in homebrewing in the UK - how important is that to craft beer as an industry? The craft beer industry is in a period of radical change. My generation of brewers were almost all former homebrewers to a person. Now you have folks coming along who are leaving university and heading straight for brewing careers, sometimes without having been homebrewers at all. And actually, as smart as a lot of these people are, I think that may be a loss to the community overall. Part of the power of American craft brewing comes from the fact that we all had other lives first. I was a filmmaker and live music producer. A “previous life” comes in handy! Homebrewers are to craft breweries what youth amateur sports leagues are to professional sports – it’s where our cultural DNA comes from. So I’m glad to hear that homebrewing is booming in the UK.

These days I suppose we’re bigger than many and a lot smaller than many others. After 27 years, yes, I’d certainly hope so! Sierra Nevada and Sam Adams are many times our size, but they themselves are dwarfed by the big guys; it’s all a matter of perspective. Our smallest batch size yields about 40 casks, same as it did in 1996 when we started up the current brewery. What’s interesting is that we’re much more “craft” than we once were. We’re doing wild fermentations, we are among the biggest practitioners of true bottle-conditioning in the country, we have a big barrel-aging program and do an awful lot of hand-work. So we’ve sort of gone “backwards” in many ways while going forwards with objective quality. We’re far more in touch with the roots of what we’ve always wanted to do than ever before. It feels good. “Craft beer”, which is something that we and our compatriots invented, has nothing to do with size. It has to do with individual vision and creativity. We make the beers we want to drink. It’s pretty simple, really. What can people expect from your talks in Newcastle and Edinburgh? Fun beers and odd situations! I’ll be slinging some of the Ghost Bottles, which are our rarest beers, the experimental ones that we don’t even sell. Some of these are single-barrel creations, and most of them will never be made again. But they are, in many ways, my favorite stuff. I can promise that we’ll have a lot of wild things that are much different than anything you’ve ever had before, from us or from anyone else.

Now you have folks coming along who are leaving university and heading straight for brewing careers

How do you see craft beer evolving over the 2016 – what are the challenges and where are the opportunities? The challenges are quality (and quality and quality; many great new beers are being brewed, but a lot of truly flawed ones too - the “butter-bomb” is back!), proliferation (so many breweries, so little time/wavelength), and community. Community – the principle that if your neighbor/competitor is in trouble, you drop what you’re doing and help him back up onto his feet – I see that spirit fading in the thin air of competition. The path of pure competitiveness leads to the Dark Side and an empty beer culture. A craft brewer’s main job is to brew the truth as he or she sees it, and to put out only the quality of beer that he or she is proud of. And to help your friends do the same. Period.

Ghost Bottle Tastings with Garrett Oliver Feb 10, 2016

Brooklyn Brewery Ghost Bottle tasting with Garrett Oliver, hosted by Wylam Brewery at The Bridge Tavern | Newcastle

The event will take place in the cold February night air of a rooftop in the city centre, sheltered from rain by the Tyne Bridge. Let Brooklyn Brewery’s Ghost Bottles warm you up as Brewmaster Garrett Oliver introduces us to some of the most rare and wonderful beers that the brewery has to offer. There will surely be a few of the local Wylam Brewery’s delicious brews during the night, so go join and be a part of the excitement.

The Bridge Tavern, 7 Akenside Hill, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 3UF Free event – register through Eventbrite.

Feb 11, 2016 | Edinburgh

Brooklyn Brewery Ghost Bottle tasting with Garrett Oliver

Experience some of the finest and most rare beers that Brooklyn Brewery has to offer from the cellars in Brooklyn direct to the Edinburgh stone basement bar at Spit/Fire. Brewmaster Garrett Oliver will walk us through Brooklyn Brewery’s elusive Ghost Bottles while we enjoy a night of live jazz, BBQ, and amazing beer. And if you can’t get enough of Brooklyn Brewery, we’ll also have a tap-takeover on the bar with at least 10 Brooklyn brews.

Spit / Fire, 26b Dublin Street, Edinburgh, EH3 6NN Free event – register through Eventbrite.

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F E AT U R E

03 Brewtorial Learning to brew

04 Brewtorial Stove top recipe

Team Original Gravity% are, admittedly, homebrewing novices, but a lesson in Brighton has set our eyes on the big time (or at least making a drinkable beer)

In the first of a series of very easy stove top homebrew recipes that can be brewed in a demi-john, Brewtorial offer up this simple, but delicious porter Simple Porter Stovetop Recipe Ingredients: MALTS Pale malt 650g Munich malt 125g Dark crystal malt 45g Chocolate malt 25g Black malt 20g First Gold hops (20g total) S-04 Yeast (Quarter of a packet)

You will need: A large, stainless steel pan with lid 7 litre capacity (your brewing pan) A cloth bag Another pan to heat water in A bucket A thermometer (probe/gun ones are best) A demijohn with bung and airlock A length of food safe, silicon/plastic tubing, for siphoning No rinse sanitiser (star san is best)

“The best beer you ever drink will probably be a homebrew,” Brewtorial’s Dan Kaye announces. In between hop additions, we’ve been discussing breweries scaling up and corporate takeovers, among much else. “That’s why there’ll always be a space for small brewers and homebrewers. When you get it right, small batch homebrew is the best there is.” I’d never really thought about it like that before. To my mind, homebrew was something that was a bit of fun, an opportunity to get some cheap booze, and a chance to learn about beer - in that order. Not anymore. Now I’d been thrown a gauntlet to make the very best beer I could. I’m inspired, but then everything about Brewtorial’s one-day homebrew course (tagline: from homebrew to pro brew) is inspiring. Thanks to Dan and Josh’s infectious enthusiasm, my beerloving, pub-running, event-managing cousin Ric and I will now be buying a mash tun, and ingredients and will get underway with our first full-grain brew soon: a hoppy Porter. We’d both dabbled with gloop in cans and extract brewing, with passable results, but now it was time to move it forward. We meet in Brighton’s North Laine Brewhouse in Brighton, a brewpub. Above the bar, the

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stainless steel fermenters dominate the scene. The day starts with Dan, one of the loveliest fellas I’ve ever met, going through the equipment and the day. We’ll be making a 20-litre batch using what is basically a converted tea urn, a converted cool box and a brew kettle. It’s startlingly low-tech compared with the abundance of stainless steel vessels around us. We look at the brew sheet for the method and recipe of a Cascadian amber ale, which we eventually name Gravitorial. The first job is to mash in – steep the grain in warm water to a porridge-like consistency and massage those clumps of dried malted barley. General instruction is interspersed with tips, advice, anecdotes, insight and enough puns to make a Sun sub-editor blush. I didn’t expect it to be so entertaining. Once we’re mashed in, we’ve an hour to wait. Time for a sneaky drink from Brighton Bier. Over half a Best we learn about Dan and Josh. Dan brews professionally, on a private, part-time basis, and met Josh through their mutual love of beer at a tap takeover night hosted by Bison Beer. Josh has come from a design background and has worked on creating a brand for the company, which includes the label designs for Brewtorial’s first commercial beers, coming this February. Brewtorial has started in Brighton, but there are plans to expand across

the South Coast to ’spread the brewing love!’. For £60, you can spend a day getting your hands dirty, learning lots, enjoying lunch and having a beer or two on them – plus one or two bottles to take away. We recirculate (new to this novice brewer), sparge and start the boil. Another drink, another chat, then we’re boiling. Ric and I do the majority of the work – it’s the best way to learn. We ask about our kit, and the next lot of investments we should make without breaking the bank (it’s all pretty cheap to be fair) and how to deal with different beer styles. We’ve been in the pub for a very relaxed five and a half hours and thoroughly enjoyed it. In three weeks we’ll be able to try Gravitorial. I leave with the thought that every beer lover should make a beer. It’s an appreciation of the ingredients, of the process, of the skills and infinite variety of beer. A homebrew course, of which there are dozens across the country, offers invaluable knowledge and the inspiration to start on a good foot. It’s the difference between following Anthony Bourdain’s boeuf borgingnon recipe out of the book, and getting a chef to talk it through with you. And it’s a lot of fun. DN / brewtorial.co.uk

Step by step: 1. Fill your large pan with 4l of water. Bring to 66 degrees Celsius. Mix the crushed grains together in the cloth bag. Fold the edges of the bag over the rim of the pan, suspending the bag and submerging the grains. Place lid on pan, and leave the grains steeping at 66 degrees for 75 minutes. 2. At the end of 75 mins, heat 3l of water to 76 degrees C in the second pan. Remove lid and bag with steeped grains from brewing pan. Start to bring the contents of the brewing pan to the boil. Put the 76 degree water in your bucket, then submerge/suspend the grain bag in the liquid, like a tea bag. Let the grains steep for 15 minutes, then remove the grain bag and discard grains. Add the liquid in the bucket to the brewing pan before it boils. 3. Once the boil is reached, start a timer for 60 minutes. After 15 minutes, add 5g of First Gold hops. After 45 minutes, add another 5g of First Gold hops. At the end of 60 minutes, add another 10g of hops, and place lid on pan and leave for 20 minutes. 4. In the mean time, boil a kettle, and rinse out the demijohn with boiling water. Boil the siphon tube, to sterilise. Fill demijohn with 1 litre of cold water, and add 2ml of star san. Swish the liquid around in the demijohn, then discard. Fill up a sink with cold water and ice. Using oven gloves, submerge your brewing pan in the cold, ice water in the sink and chill to around 26 degrees. 5. Using the sterile siphon tube, siphon the now cooled wort from the pan into the demijohn, leaving a small amount of headspace. Add a quarter of a packet of S-04 to the liquid. Seal with bunger/ airlock, and pour a tiny amount of sanitised liquid in the airlock. Gently shake the demijohn to aerate the liquid. Put demijohn in a warm area (20 degrees C) and leave for 1 week to ferment.

F E AT U R E which to me are the most important parts of brewing. The kits also taught me about temperature control in fermentation, which is where so many homebrewers get it wrong I feel. Gregg: The first big lesson was sanitization. I come from a chemistry background so the process was pretty familiar to me but did mess up a couple of early brews with infections. The second big jump in my homebrew quality came when I got a fermenting fridge; temperature control of the fermentation is vital in producing clean quality beers that can be compared to commercial brews. These two things are always the pieces of advice I give homebrewers. When did you finally feel as though you nailed your home brews? Was it winning competitions? Bryan: For me yes. The first ever all grain brew I made got a place at a competition, along with Sadako, my first Imperial Stout. It was this point I thought it was real, as friends and family will always be polite. Gregg: I guess maybe yes but more the general acceptance of the beers at London Amateur Brewers (a homebrew club that we went to) a lot of the members are BJCP judges and can be quite blunt with their judgements. I had a mixed bag entering competitions having some good performances and some less so. To win competitions you need brewing ability, good process, ability to brew to style and some luck.

Beard 05 Weird Passion + business Can you turn your beer making passion into a successful business? Bryan Spooner and Gregg Irwin of Weird Beard did exactly that. Here’s their story

You started off as home brewers. Was it always the dream to start your own brewery? Bryan Spooner: I originally started brewing for cheap booze; starting off with turbo cider, and moving onto beer kits. I then got addicted and started adding hops and all kinds of stuff to the kits. This then got me interested in really good expensive beer, so it all kinda backfired really. I then moved onto all grain, and started going to London Amateur Brewers and then the idea of the brewery came about. Gregg Irwin: Initially when I started home brewing it was because I had a lot of free time and could not find the sort of beer I wanted to drink in London. Only when I started to make decent beer did I consider that free time and hobby could be made into a business. I think Bryan and I started brewing together in around 2011 once we had decided that we were going to open a brewery. What were the important lessons that you learned homebrewing? Bryan: I think starting off with the kits was good for me. It gave me the chance to really concentrate on the cleaning and sanitation,

Why did you feel it was right to jump to a commercial brewery? Bryan: We were both good brewers and at the time there were not that many good breweries around London. There were some amazing breweries, but not many. It was obvious the scene was about to explode, so we were confident in ourselves and the market. Gregg: We had just enough money, the opportunity, and I had enough time on my hands to give it a good go. As we progressed Bryan and I both ditched our day jobs, so to speak, and went full time at the brewery. How big did you start with the commercial brewery? Bryan: We decided to go as big as we could afford and expected to grow into it. So we went for a 10bbl brew house with two 10bbl fermenters. The idea was to brew a half batch each week and then up to full brews when we needed. But for some reason, the first two brews were full, I think we just wanted to test out the kit properly. These sold pretty well and we never did do a half batch. We now have the same brewhouse, but six 10bbl and two 20bbl fermenters. So we have gone from 20bbl of fermentation to 100bbl. Are there any home brew recipes that more or less you continue in your production today? Bryan: Hell yeah! Loads. Of mine: Black Perle, Holy Hoppin’ Hell, Sadako. Hit the Lights lasted a while, but we recently retired that one. Gregg: Of my recipes: Mariana Trench, Five O’clock Shadow, Saison 14 and Decadence stout are pretty much as they were as homebrews. Faceless Spreadsheet Ninja is a slight variation on a homebrew. Although Decadence took a while to get the recipe right on the big kit.

Home Brew Depot

On homebrewing

Brewing beer was once as common as baking bread. Now with the explosion of craft beer, homebrewing is set to be as popular again, says Home Brew Depot’s Simon Pipola

As I’m sure you are aware the beer industry has undergone some major changes in recent years, for the better. From pubs, bars and restaurants to large supermarket chains and your local off-licenses, everyone is getting in on the ‘Craft Beer Revolution’. One of the natural ramifications of this surge in popularity of craft beer, and the consequent proliferation of microbreweries, has been a resurgence in that oft ill-spoken of pastime, home-brewing. Times have changed however. Beer consumers nowadays are far more knowledgeable and adventurous, and share modern society’s desire for transparent provenance, and a clear understanding of the ingredients that go into their favourite brews. Homebrewing is changing with the times also. Extract brewing, the process of adding water to concentrated wort syrup, is taking a back seat and all-grain brewing is becoming the standard. When we started our little shop, at The Adam & Eve pub in Hackney in 2014, our main desire was to give existing home-brewers in London somewhere to purchase malts, hops, yeast and simple brewing equipment. We didn’t expect the vast majority of our customers to be first time brewers, with an enthusiastic hunger to learn from scratch. We launched our range of Microbatch Beer Brewing kits (simple one gallon all-grain kits you can make in your kitchen) to cater for this growing number of aspiring brewers, who have limited space and time but wish for more than ‘just add water and leave’ home-brewing. Ultimately our vision is that one day brewing a beer at home will be as casual as baking a cake. We would like to see a new generation of casual home-brewers, alewives (and husbands), dinner party beer-brewing maestros and young home-brewers, thirsty for knowledge and innovation. We know that for many, their first brew will be the first step into a world of discovery of ingredients, experimentation of processes and appreciation of the final product: great beer. / homebrewdepot.co.uk

HOME BREW CON 2016

London’s first home brewing convention

On the 28th February Home Brew Depot will be joining up with friends at Ubrew to host a home-brewing event at The Moth Club, in Hackney. It gathers all of London’s home-brew clubs, shops and businesses under one roof, for tastings, a competition, demonstrations, talks from leading beer experts and a tap take-over from Hackney Brewery.

Top tips

Homebrewing

Essential advice from the Home Brew Depot 1) Sanitation, sanitation, sanitation. We use a non-rinse sanitiser (like starsan) to sterilise everything post-boil. You want to keep wild microbes out of your beer. 2) Choose one beer and nail it. Make the same beer again and again – noting whatever changes you introduce each time and their effect on the final produce. Keep doing this until you perfect that beer and you will be find many subsequent brews come out great first time. 3) Master simple beers. As much as we all love cloudberry and seaweed goses (oh yes, Siren!) these beers are complex and you don’t want to deal with them now. Master malts, hops and yeast first.

4) Use fresh, high quality ingredients. Treat your brewing ingredients as you would those cake ingredients. Freezing your hops keeps them much fresher, store your grains in a cool dry place. 5) Check your fermentation temperature. The yeast will add a lot of heat while fermenting so be careful that the ambient temperature is adequate for the beer. Yeasts add esters, phenols and alcohols – each will contribute to the final taste of the beer so make sure you’re only getting the desired flavours. 6) Don’t over prime. When carbonating the beer in bottle by adding priming sugar don’t get carried away. Use an accurate priming calculator as too much carbonation will ruin your beer, possibly your shirt and kitchen ceiling too. 7) Use glassware. Glass carboys or demijohns offer substantial advantages over the usual plastic buckets. They are easier to clean and sanitise and have better seals to stop oxygen leaks. 8) Relax, have a homebrew! As coined by Charlie Papazian, founder of the American Homebrewer’s Association. It should be a relaxed, enjoyable pastime, best shared in company, and always with a beer in hand.

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P H O T O E S S AY

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P H O T O E S S AY

RUN M.C.R On a frankly horrendous day at the beginning of January, we joined a dozen hardy runners to shake off the news year’s blues with a 10k run from BrewDog Camden, clubhouse of the London chapter of the Mikkeller Running Club (MRC). On the first Saturday of the month beer fans around the world go for a run and return to the bar for a few beers, the first of which is usually free (exceptionally, the London chapter from Camden goes on the first Sunday of the month and, again exceptionally, if you want to join then in February it is on Feb 14). It’s a simple concept, but one that is catching on worldwide. We stretched out in the bar downstairs, and then headed along the canal to Regent’s Park, struggled up Primrose Hill and panted back to Camden. A quick change, and the dirty dozen tucked into a few beers – Mikkeller Appreciation Pils of course – and spent a jolly afternoon talking beer and, occasionally, running. Beer and running have become common partners. As well as the chapters of the MRC springing up across the world from South London to Seoul (and Liverpool), we’ve met the lovely guys behind Advent Running (adventrunning.com) who organise runs to breweries around London. And we’re sure there’s many more – do let us know. And remember no matter what the weather, the rain is always turned off inside the bar. / facebook.com/mikkellerrunningclub

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E S S AY

Why We Drink What We Drink It may not be for the reasons what you think. North American writer Stephen Beaumont looks at the psychology behind our choices, and what that means for brewers Scientific studies have shown that over 78% of the people who read this magazine will do so with a beer in their hand. (Okay, I just made that up, but please bear with me anyway.) That being the case, I would like you now to look at that ale or lager and ask yourself the following question: “Why did I decide to drink this one particular beer?” Likely as not, the first reason that now pops into your head is that it tastes good. Further musing might yield the notion that it suits the occasion, refreshing if refreshment is what’s needed or satisfying and soothing if you’re at the very end of a long day, or if you’re holding the magazine with one hand and eating with the other, maybe because it pairs splendidly with what’s on the menu. Dig a little deeper, though, and I’m betting there may be an additional motive at work. Possibly more than one.

was first known, appealed to emotion in a different way, adding a political element to their siren call for the preservation of a form of dispense that was at risk of disappearing, and by extension the salvation of Britain’s traditional styles of beer. Drinking caskconditioned ale became not only a way of connecting with the Empire’s gloried brewing history, it was, as a Briton, your solemn duty. Beer drinking had now been politicised.

much more complicated in this day and age, so no worries if the answers don’t exactly trip off the tongue. Whether you call it traditional or artisanal or craft, this new era of beer has given rise to an entirely new way of looking at the beer we drink, but still one which has its roots in the past. Today’s beer choice has at least three facets to it, the most elemental of

Before I get to those other factors, however, I’ll ask you first to travel with me back through time, all the way to the bad old days of beer in the 1960s and ‘70s, when the full range of draught found in many pubs was lager and keg bitter – which, to be fair, was one selection more than we had over in North America at the time. It was an era when style ruled completely over substance and flavour was, in most instances of beer selection, barely a factor. Breweries of the time, or at least their advertising agencies, appealed to beer drinkers on an almost purely emotional level, hyping the lifestyles benefit of this beer over that, or using nostalgia, heart-warming scenes of family life or humour to attract us to their brand. Beer choice was not about taste, but all about feeling. When CAMRA appeared on the scene, things of course changed. The Campaign for the Revitalisation of Ale, as the organization

Fast-forward now to the present day, and back to that beer in front of you. Is it from a small, local brewery? Do you know the brewer personally? Would you like it as much if it were from Anheuser-Busch InBev – or whatever the ABI and SABMiller merged colossus is dubbed by the time this goes to print – or Carlsberg or Molson Coors? Can you say, without raising the glass again to your lips, what it tastes like? Is it any good? Truth is that these questions are becoming

Illustration: shutterstock

which being taste. There are people, although I suspect not a majority, who will drink a beer because of its taste and its taste alone, regardless of who makes it or where it comes from or what ingredients it may contain. It’s a laudable approach if you’re able to separate the drinking experience from all other factors – and the way I try to approach every beer I taste professionally – but not something I think the average beer drinker pursues.

Point two is perhaps the strongest, emotion. This is likely what influences the majority of beer drinkers, whether traditionalists or craft adherents or ‘lagerboys,’ when something about the beer appeals on a fundamental level, be it because it’s the brand dad used to drink, or specifically because it isn’t that brand, because is brewed down the street or maybe it’s simply the beer that strikes the right fraternal or patriotic chord. The final point would be politics. A small minority of beer drinkers are aware of this factor, but a majority are affected by it in some fashion, I suspect. On the craft side, it becomes a matter of the little David squaring off against the overwhelmingly better equipped Goliath, and is why Camden fans reacted negatively to the brewery’s recent sale – and by extension why the US has seen movements to boycott the brands of almost every brewery that has fallen to the highest bidder. On the CAMRA side there is still the preservation of Britain angle, while even industrial beers can inspire pseudo-political leaning, as with the ale that’s still brewed in your hometown or the one which supports the national side in football or rugby. In the end, most of us probably make our selections based on some combination of the three factors, just as we do with pretty much any consumer good, although in the case of beer this tends to be writ very large. It is also why any exhortations for people to calm down in the wake of brewery X being sold to megabrewery Y are for the most part in vain, since having built their businesses equally upon all three axes of beer choice, or even more heavily on the emotional and political, it’s more than a bit of a stretch for the owners of X to turn around and declare quite suddenly that taste is really all that matters.

/ beaumontdrinks.com

This new era of beer has given rise to an entirely new way of looking at the beer we drink

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From home brew to pro brew

We now have cans! e’re delighted to announce we

W now have cans of APA and

Revelation on our shelves and out in the wild! Buy online at:

darkstarbrewing.co.uk/shop

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TA S T I N G N O T E S

Dark Star Revelation [5.7%]

Keltek King Bitter

One of Dark Star’s first outings in a can, is an exceptionally fresh-tasting US-style pale ale Is there a difference between beer in a bottle, served on draft or cask, or swigged from a can? Probably, if you like to micro-manage your thoughts on beer, but on the other hand, beer is for drinking and Revelation is the type I like to drink a lot of. It’s been around for several years, but this is its first outing in a can. Style? When first brewed, then head brewer Mark Tranter described it as an American Pale Ale. That’s good enough for me given the burst of tropical fruit and hop dankness on the nose. There’s an orange sweetness on the palate, alongside a piny firmness and more tropical fruit, while the finish is a boost of bitterness and dryness that makes me want to keep drinking it, whether from can, tap, pump or bottle. ATJ / darkstarbrewing.co.uk

Six˚ North Tripel [9%] Take a Scot with an obsession with Belgian beers and you get this masterful brew

Vocation Brewery Life & Death

[6.5%]

St Austell Mena Dhu [4.5%]

Nomad Brewing Co Sideways [4%]

Remember bitters? Those British beers that were once the elixir? Time to try again

This Cornish stout gets back to basics, but does so with rich apolmb

The Aussies can compete with the best of them, especially with this big American pale ale

Beer time seems a bit of a vortex, and not just after several pints. Look back a mere decade and the English beer landscape was very different. Way back then, now lost in the annals of time, was a beer commonly known as ‘bitter’. No one drinks it now of course… (joke). However, among the goses and Imperial IPAs, I’m resurrecting my love of bitter, the beer that kicked it all off for most drinkers. Under head brewer Stuart Heath, Cornish brewery Keltek have developed a tight range of beer big on flavour and richly harmonious, full of the wealth of English hops and English malts conspiring to wed ripe fruits and a bready earthiness together. So balanced, it’s hard to discern where the malt ends and the hops start. DN / keltekbrewery.com

As soon as I poured this new ‘Cornish’ stout from St Austell I wanted to say ‘hello darkness my old friend’, such was the moonless night, stygian quality of the beer. So yes it’s a proper looking stout, especially with its crown of espresso crema-coloured foam. It invites, it intrigues, it involves, it pulsates, throbs even, with a flurry of chocolate, toffee and mocha coffee notes, accompanied by hints of vanilla, a soft roastiness and a creamy mouth feel — I love the latter, the smoothness and the latte-likeness of it, the soothing swirl and twirl of creaminess. This is a pleasing beer, an easy-drinking beer, a superior stout, a simple stout, a shout-out for a style of beer that doesn’t always make it to the bar-top. Sometimes, it’s good to get back to basics. ATJ / staustellbrewery.co.uk

There’s a bike on the label? Right, we’ll have that. From Brookvale, New South Wales, this pours a hazy gold with a pillowy cumulus of a head. Nose in, and there are distinct sherbert lemon hints. At a listed 48 IBUs, the brewery claims Sideways to be ‘intensely hoppy’, and they ain’t kidding. Big slaps from the unnamed Australian and American hops are there from the kick off, heading off into elderflower and pine and then a gripping, resinous quality that feels like it could last all week but settles into a smooth, warming orange brandy finish. Brooks Caretta is the Nomad, a former apprentice of Leonardo Di Vincenzo of Birra Del Borgo. A great beer from the burgeoning Aussie craft beer movement. Don’t save it for the barbie. TenInchWheels / nomadbrewingco.com.au

Here is a tripel that is lustrous and luminous, golden in the glass, elegant and sophisticated, cool and collective in the way it marries together ripe fruity esters, alcoholic heft and a bittersweetness suggestive of a monk’s end-of-the-day compline. It’s Belgian inspired and is brewed in the far north of Scotland, in Stonehaven not far from Aberdeen, where Six˚ North have a magnificent bar. I’ve often felt

that British brewing attempts at Belgian beers have been wrecked on a reef of incomprehension as if it were just enough to chuck in some Belgian yeast, candi sugars and orange peel if there’s any left in the kitchen. Six˚ North’s Tripel is not one of those ineffectual beers: it’s perhaps one of the best British versions of a Tripel I’ve had, with standouts being the soft

Brew By Numbers Baltic Porter Cognac [9.8 %]

Thornbridge Brewery TART [6%]

Fyne Ales Jarl [3.8%]

[5.1%]

ripeness of bruised peach skin on the nose, the pepperiness on the palate vying with bananas and booze and a floral and honeyed character. There’s a lot going on in the glass and if I close my eyes I’m sure that there’s a stationary frietkoten anchored outside in the street such is the authenticity of this magnificent beer. ATJ / sixdnorth.co.uk

A superb American style IPA that is staking a serious claim to the title of being the UK’s best

One of six beers created and aged to celebrate Brew By Numbers third anniversary

Definitely not as sweet or chewy as a Bakewell Tart

Sometimes beers come to life on their own, quietly being ordered again and again

If you haven’t heard of Vocation brewing yet then you must’ve been hiding under a Bridge, West Yorkshire in 2015, with some accomplished takes on hoppy style beers. From the second you open the beautifully branded can you’re hit with a burst of mango and passion fruit aromas. Life & Death’s flavour is on par with some of the best modern IPA’s I’ve tried, with spades of pineapple, grapefruit and lychee. The body is sticky without becoming cloying and the finish is lingering and fruity with a hint of bitterness. With so much competition from great breweries around, newcomers will have to hit the ground running if they mean to survive. Vocation Brewing have done this with style. Matt Curtis / vocationbrewery.com

It’s not uncommon for a brewery to release a limited special beer to celebrate a landmark or anniversary. To celebrate its third birthday, Brew By Numbers released six. The Gyle 100 series comprises of a strong Baltic porter as well as five more, each aged in a different type of barrel. At their launch the loud flavours of the red wine and bourbon editions got everyone talking. However it was the subtle complexity of the cognac edition that kept me thinking, long after the hangover had subsided. There’s a hint of green apple, which to me indicates the presence of acetaldehyde. This is balanced by oaky tannins, a sprinkling of vanilla and a rounded, dry finish. These flavours combine to produce arguably the most complex beer of the series, and also perhaps the most rewarding. Matt Curtis / brewbynumbers.com

I’ve tried a lot of the extensive range of Thornbridge beers and like them all. Tart, a ‘Bakewell sour’ was first brewed with Wild Beer Co. This zingy, pale straw coloured, effervescent beer, with a clean thin white head, has a fruity, lemony zest with a hint of tart sourness and a very pleasant aftertaste, reminiscent of a Lambic. It is refreshing and very easy to drink, rather like a tangy lemonade shandy. I can imagine gulping it chilled on a hot summer day in Derbyshire. It does what it says on the bottle, tastes tart. Perhaps not a beer for everyday quaffing, but definitely a beer to be sampled and savoured. A sour, tangy wild beer from Bakewell, what else could you call it. Alan Hinkes / thornbridgebrewery.co.uk

There are beers that take on a life of their own, beyond the brewer who just mastered it, beyond the branding, beyond the hype. I’m not talking about those beers with a cult status like Founder’s KBS and other beers that have Americans camping outside tap rooms, but those that quietly under the radar astonish in their own way. I found it in one of those pubs that similarly and quietly became brilliant: The Grove in Huddersfield. “Fyne’s Jarl” landlord Ian told me. “Jarl, Jarl, Jarl” I kept hearing over the bar. “Fyne’s Jarl” the barman said on recommendation. “It won’t blow you away with style, but probably the best session beer in the country”. So I drank it and drank it. It’s a golden session beer, 3.8%, lively citra twang, and quietly brilliant. DN / fyneales.com

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B EE R T R AV E L L E R B EE R T R AV E L L E R Brakspear Shotover Brewing Co Eagle & Child

LAM Brewing

Lamb & Flag

OXFORD Beerd Oxford

The Jericho Tavern

Big Society

Lamb & Flag

The Library

Eagle & Child

White Rabbit St Aldgates Tavern The Chester

The City Arms Loose Cannon

Real ale (and an amazing history) rule in Oxford centre, but for craft beer head down

Beerd Oxford

Cowley Road for a handful of pubs pushing the agenda. And where the beer is good, you’ll find it’s really good. Bars & pubs 1. Beerd Oxford Along with The Library, Beerd is the best place in Oxford to find some really interesting beer, with an impressive array of brews including on our visit Wild Beer Co’s incredible Hibernating Lemons and Left Handed Giant’s milk stout along with their own range of Beerd beers. Good pizza too. 7 George St, OX1 2AT (01865 793380) / beerdoxford.com 2. Big Society This Cowley Road bar is about as craft looking as it gets. White shiny tiles with the burger menu scribbled on, table tennis, pool tables and enough neon to forget you’re in Oxford. The beer – Brooklyn, Flying Dog, Meantime – hits the spot. Very friendly too. 95 Cowley Rd, OX4 1HR (01865 792755) / bigsocietyoxford.com 3. The Chester There are serious beer happenings at this pub, and they are getting better all the time (keep an eye out for events in 2016). On tap, there’s an all English bar (cask and keg) and mostly local: Cotswold, Loose Cannon – we can vouch for the Gunner’s Gold – and not too distant Purity. The food is excellent, and abundant. A destination pub. 19 Chester St, OX4 1SN (01865 790438) / thechesteroxford.co.uk 4. The City Arms This sports bar-styled pub on Cowley Road, has a reasonable selection of craft beers – BrewDog Cocoa Psycho was on when we visited – and selection of mostly local beers on cask. 288 Cowley Rd, OX4 1UR (01865 725299) / thecityarmsoxford.co.uk

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5. Eagle & Child The Eagle & Child would make our guide on the heritage of the pub alone – this is where literary giants such as JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis used to meet and may have hosted the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the English Civil War (Oxford was staunchly Royalist) – but the beer is good too. Hats off to owners Nicholson’s for stocking Siren, Williams Bros and Firestone Walker. 49 St. Giles, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX1 3LU (01865 302925) 6. The Jericho Tavern This pub set its place in Oxford history during the 1990s as a music venue that saw early gigs from Radiohead, Ride and Supergrass. These days we’d imagine it’s a bit more corporate looking, but with a good beer selection that on our visit included Brooklyn and Tiny Rebel. 56 Walton Street, Jericho, OX2 6AE (01865 311775) / thejerichooxford.co.uk 7. Lamb & Flag Like the Eagle & Child almost opposite, this is a pub with a rich literary history and is where Thomas Hardy purportedly wrote Jude the Obscure. As well as a good selection of cask beers, there’s a decent Belgian beer list. 12 St Giles, OX1 3JS (01865 515787) 8. The Library Is this Oxford’s best beer bar? Quite possibly. This bar has been around for five years and was one of the first to push craft beer in the city. The Cowley Road location is a perfect spot for this thoroughly authentic spot. While it’s not the biggest selection, you’ll find Camden

The Rusty Bicycle Town Brewery beers, a local ale on cask and an interesting fridge – Lervig dominated on our visit. Keep an eye out for events and a bigger food offering. 182 Cowley Rd, OX4 1UE (01865 241776) / thelibrarypuboxford.com 9. The Rusty Bicycle This Arkells Brewery pub is popular with students (and beer magazine editors) tapping away on Macs – it’s a gorgeous space. The beers are dominated by Swindon-based Arkells whose beers are most interesting in cask. There’s a sister pub, The Rickety Press, in the Jericho area. 28 Magdalen Rd, OX4 1RB (01865 435298) / therustybicycle.com

The Rusty Bicycle 10. St Aldates Tavern This lovely pub – long wooden tables, mismatched chairs – has a pretty good selection of beers. There are a few unexpected real ales such as Box Steam and Wild Weather which was new on us until our visit to Oxford, alongside Adnams’ excellent beers, Meantime’s Yakima Red and Camden Town’s Pale. Shame about the massive telly. 108 St Aldate’s, OX1 1BU (01865 241185) / staldatestavernoxford.co.uk 10. The White Rabbit What’s not to love about The White Rabbit, we could have staye all night. There’s great pizza, friendly staff and a very interesting collection of local beers including Wild Weather Ales and a beer from The Shotover Brewing Company on our trip. It’s a tightly packed place and you’ll leave having made new friends. Great pub.

Friars Entry, Oxford OX1 2BY (01865 241177) / whiterabbitpizza.com -----------Breweries 11. Brakspear We’ve always rather liked Brakspear’s beers – Oxford Gold is a good sessionable beer. Tours can be taken around their Wychwood Brewery in Witney every Saturday and Sunday – booking is essential. Eagle Maltings, The Crofts Witney (0193 890800) / brakspear-beers.co.uk 12. LAM Brewing LAM is a very small brewery just outside of Oxford. Their tight range of Happily Amba, Happily Indian Summer and Happily Nyk are well worth hunting down – try the Oddbins on Little Clarendon Street. Expansion and a wider range of beer is planned. Sandford on Thames (07913 061025) / lambrewing.com 13. The Shotover Brewing Company This small brewery in Oxford produces some great naturally-produced beers. There are four beers in the core, all great examples of their style. Visits can be arranged. Manor Farm Road, Horspath, OX33 1SD (01865 876770) / shotoverbrewing.com 164. Loose Cannon Brewery Beers from this microbrewery in nearby Abingdon can be at The Chester. Gunners Gold is excellent, and there’s plenty more monthlies. Unit 6, Suffolk Way, Abingdon, OX14 5JX (01235 531141) / lcbeers.co.uk

White Rabbit

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