ferment // issue 18

E X P E R I M E N T S I N T H E G L O B A L C R A F T A L C O H O L M O V E M E N TI S S U E # 1 8

2 FERMENT Discover craft beer at Beer52.com

Discover craft beer at Beer52.com FERMENT 3

WELCOME

You asked for it and now it’s here by Erin Bottomley & the Beer52 Team.

It’s the time of year for the dark beers to reemerge by Mark Dredge.

A.K.A. David Bishop.

By The Hungry Bears’ Blog

Why we need to stop treating brewers like Rock Stasr by Matthew Curtis.

The range of beers featured in this month’s Beer52 box.

By Melissa Cole.

A Busman’s Holiday by Craig Ballinger.

Taking a trip back in time to discover some forgotten about styles by Jordan Harris.

Brewing beer like a pro in your own kitchen is easier than you might think by Nick Moyle

From Uto Beers.

The ABCs of beer’s ingredients by Melissa Cole.For al l advertising and contribution enquiries, please contact Erin Bottomley [email protected] or cal l us on 0131 554 5527.Get in touch on Twitter @Beer52HQYou can write to us here at Ferment, 16/4 Timber Bush, Edinburgh, EH6 6QH, UK.

Customisation is here!

EDITOR’S NOTE

CONTRIBUTORS CONTENTS

A Guide to Stouts and Porters

Sam Dunn is an illustrator based in East London. She grew up in Hartlepool, a fading seaside town in the North East of England. Her work is delicately crafted by hand with pen and ink then coloured digitally with many layers of found and forged textures: www.sam-dunn.com.

Mark Dredge is the award-winning writer of the books Craft Beer World and Beer & Food, with his third book, The Best Beer in the World, published in October 2015. Each month Mark looks in detail at a different style of beer. You can follow his boozing on Twitter and Instagram: @markdredge.

Melissa Cole Certified Cicerone® and beer & food writer Melissa Cole is one of the UK’s leading beer experts. Author of Let Me Tell You About Beer, international beer judge, collaboration brewer, sommALEier and regular festival presenter, she can be found propping up bars all over the world but she sometimes manages to be home in London.

Matthew Curtis is a London-based freelance beer writer and speaker. In 2014 he co-authored Craft Beer: The 100 Best Breweries in the World for Future Publishing and is currently working on the follow up, Beer & Craft: Britain’s Best Bars and Breweries , which will be self-published later this year. He is the author of beer blog Total Ales and can be found getting enthusiastic about beer on Twitter @totalcurtis

Jordan Harris is a recently qualified freelance journalist and beer writer residing across the Severn where he is drinking his way through the great ales of Wales, is the author of The Grill & Barrel blog, dabbles in street food with his hot dog pop-up shop, Drunken Sailor, and works in the dark art of PR. Follow him on Twitter: @jordsharris

Craig Ballinger is a writer, caterer and drinker living and working in London. The giant chip on his shoulder is testament to his Mancunian heritage. Writing about beer evolved from a habit of writing on beer: ‘to some writers, drink is not only a means to an end but often an end to his means.’ @ByCBallinger

Jody Hartley is a Manchester based photographer who works in live events and festivals such as Outlook, Dimensions, Boomtown, Parklife and the Warehouse Project.He also does promotional coverage as well as landscape photography.

David Bishop doodles about beer in all its twatty glory, and is not an award winning artist. He lives in a small industrial town in the North of England where the use of coloured ink (and laughter) is forbidden. His dream is to have a doodle commissioned for use on novelty toilet paper. When he isn’t drinking beer, he’s poking fun at it. Twitter: @twattybeer

Hungry Bears’ Blog is run by Rich and Sal from their little flat in Welwyn. It’s a collection of recipes brought together to inspire other people with little kitchens (and little time!) to tuck into good, homemade food. Check them out: www.thehungrybearsblog.com

Two Thirsty Gardeners Nick Moyle and Richard Hood digging and swigging their way through the seasons: www.twothirstygardeners.co.uk @ThirstyGardener

Alex Haylock Beard. Pedant. Proofreader.

Customisation is here! Our Beer52 members are the most important part of our beer club; without them it wouldn’t be much of a club, so over the past wee while we have been asking you what you want your beer club to be and you guessed it – customisation was the number one request. So from now on you will be able to let us know your taste preferences so that we can tailor your beers to your taste. Find our more and how it works on pg 4.

We plan for customisation to continue to develop so if you have any suggests or just want to say hi then get in touch: Twitter @beer52hq, Instagram @beer52hq.

Cheers,

Erin Bottomley

Twatty Beer Doodles

Zingy Green Chilli with Tortilla Bowls

No More Rock Star Brewers

Service does not mean Servile

Contact

What we’re drinking

Indy Man Beer Con 2015

Beers from Yesteryear

Step up to all Grain Brewing

Winter Warmers

Breaking Down Beer – Alpha Dogs

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You asked for it and now it’s here. We want to give you more of what you want so from now on you can tell us which beer styles are your favourites, and they will appear more frequently in your Beer52 box. By Erin Bottomley & the Beer52 Team.

B eer52 is the UK’s largest craft beer club, and with so many awesome members we have

been listening to what you want your club to be. It is so important to us to hear what you guys want, as after all it wouldn’t be a club without its members.

The number one request that has been made by you guys is to be able to tailor your beer box to your tastes. We are

“Spotted a new favourite brewery you’d like to see in your box? Let us know by suggesting it on your account!


CUSTOMISATION IS HERE!

now launching, for the first time, the option to choose the styles of beer you would like to see arriving at your door every month. We will still be a beer discover club, but now the beers will be tailored to your tastes.

From here on in you will be able to tell us what beers styles you would like to taste more of. So if you love the big, hoppy, bitter IPAs or love to savour a

sweet, rich stout or try out a tart sour you can now tell us exactly what you want.

You will also be able to recommend breweries that you like, so we can try to get them featured in an upcoming box!

We are constantly developing as a craft beer

club, and we want to hear more of your ideas so that we can keep

improving and delivering the best possible beers to you

every month. Read on to find out how it

works.

HOW CUSTOMISATION WORKS?

New Members:

If you’re a new member, you’ll be given the option to select which beers you would like to discover by setting your Taste Preferences when you first sign up. You can easily update your taste preferences, or suggest a beer you’d like in your box at anytime, straight from your account

Current Members:

If you’re already a member, you can set and change your preferences at any time by logging in and selecting ‘Taste Preferences’ from the drop down menu at the top right of your account page. All changes will be effective from your next box. You can even suggest a beer you’d like in your box at anytime, straight from your account.

Which beers do you most want to try? Here are the options for customising your Beer52 box...


Pale Ale Golden in colour with crisp, light and hoppy flavours. A classic beer style with generally a lower ABV but still packs a punch of flavour. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale – Sierra Nevada

IPA Similar to a pale ale but more intensely hoppy aromas and flavours, and a slightly higher ABV. Single Wide IPA – Boulevard Brewing Company

Lager

A style that is conditioned at low temperatures that uses bottom fermented yeast. In the UK, it normally refers to very pale pilsner styles but it includes a range of styles from light pils to dark dunkels or black lagers. Tipopils – Birrificio Italiano

Wheat

Made with the majority of wheat malts, making for a cloudy or hazy appearance. These beers have predominant flavours of banana, clove and vanilla. Hefeweizen – Weihenstephaner

Stout

A rich, malty beer that is black in colour. Flavour is imparted from the mountain of roasted malts used in the brew. Packed full of roasty, toasty, caramel and sometimes coffee notes, with little or no hop aroma. O’ Hara’s Irish Stout – Carlow Brewing Company

Porter

Originating from Fullers brewery in London, this style is similar to stout but made from more unroasted barley. Dark brown in colour with sweet hints of chocolate and often slightly more bitter than stouts. Porter – Anchor

Brown Ale

As the name suggests, these ales are brown in colour; medium bodied with strong malt base and nutty, sweet and slightly hopped flavours Brooklyn Brown – Brooklyn Brewery

Belgian Style

Encompassing a huge range of styles, from blondes to saisons to lambics to Trappist and abbey beers. Although sometimes seen as more traditional, Belgian beers have so much to offer the beer adventurer. Orval – Orval Brewery

Amber or red ale

Covering beers with a slightly redder hue, these beers focus on the malt characteristics. This style is diversifying in craft beer world, as it can have very little or lip smackingly high hop content. 5am Red Ale – BrewDog

Fruit

Well balanced beers that have fruit added for extra flavour. Can include pumpkin beers, grapefruit IPAs, raspberry saisons, and the list goes on. If it’s a fruit, some brewer somewhere will have tried brewing it in a beer. BOMB – Bom Brewery & Beer52

Sour

Intentionally acidic or tart in flavour, these beers use wild yeasts to purposefully sour the beer. A style which has been revived by the craft beer scene in the UK and includes lambics, guezes, berlinner weisses, goses etc. Far Skyline – Buxton Brewery

Black IPA

Although it uses lots of roasted malts in the brewing process, it usually lacks the roastiness and body of a stout and instead makes up for it in strong hop flavours. Usually lots of dry hopping is common. This style represent those who like their beers dark but still search for the beautiful hop flavours. In the Dark We Live – Tempest Brew Co.

for you. The use of oatmeal in a brew gives a full texture plus a porridgy nuttiness, while brewing with lactose, or milk sugar, leaves unfermentable sugars and their subtle creamy sweetness. They tend to be less bitter and have richer, smoother bodies than dry stout.

Must Try: Left Hand’s Nitro Milk Stout is a glass of the silkiest mocha milkshake you can imagine; Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout is breakfasty in the best of ways with oats, raisins and coffee combining; Weird Beard’s Black Perle is a coffee milk stout, roasted and bitter and easy-drinking.

American Stout

Strong stout plus lots of US hops. American Stout and Black IPA overlap somewhere between the brash bitterness of dark malts and the fragrance of fruity hops. The best

are robust and strong, giving all the roasted barley flavour we expect in a stout, plus a hefty hop bitterness and

resinous, spicy, citrus hop aroma.

Must Try: Magic Rock Dark Arts has the depths of dark, roasted malt, then liquorice’s fragrance mixes with spicy, fruity, herbal hops; Williams Bros Profanity Stout is 7% and properly hoppy, throwing out loads of tangy, resinous aromas above the bitter base brew.

Porter

With porter we don’t necessarily expect stout’s coffee-ground and roasted

barley bitterness to dominate, instead they’ll be nuttier, more chocolatey, perhaps sweeter with caramel depth, or smokier (to sway in synaesthesia, they taste brown instead of black), and we might see them as being stronger than dry stouts. Variations include robust porter, richer and more bitter in both hops and malt, while Baltic

I t began in London with porter, a beer formed from the many varied dark ales of the day and

transformed into the world’s first industrial-scale style, once drunk with the same ubiquity as pale lagers are drunk today. It has a history just as interesting as IPA, perhaps even more so (did you know more porter sailed to India than IPA?), and at different times it’s been different things, though at its peak it was a robust, strong, dark beer aged for many months in massive vats.

Stout started as an adjective meaning ‘strong’ and a couple of centuries ago it was used in the same way we might currently use ‘session’ or ‘imperial’, where, for example, stout porter was a stronger version of a regular porter. Over time it came to mean a strong dark beer, then just a dark beer, as it travelled and took on different qualities. It also picked up a reputation as a restorative, wholesome drink, so when World Wars implemented ingredient rationing, the now old-fashioned porters were forgotten for the healthful stouts, causing porter to all-but disappear for two generations, before small breweries brought them back.

When we try to define stout and porter today there’s no simple black-and-white distinction, with much cross-over between the beers (if it’s dark, smooth and roasty then it could easily be either), but this guides you through what you might expect.

Dry Stout

Dry, sweet and American are three circles on stout’s Venn diagram, with a lot of beers found in the middle. For dry, or Irish, think Guinness. Bitter with roast barley and dry in the finish, it’ll be relatively low in alcohol and the best will be lighter in body than their dark colour suggests.

Must Try: O’Hara’s Irish Stout is creamy yet dryly bitter, latte-like and bulging with roasted barley; Camden Town Ink has that nitro-infused texture, coffee, dark cocoa and bitter earthy hops; Buxton’s Rednik Stout is toasty, roasted, nutty, smoky, and bold for its 4.1% ABV.

Oatmeal and Milk Stout

These are the ‘sweet’ stouts (though aren’t necessarily sweet to taste), those once called out as being good

GUIDE TO STOUTS AND PORTERS

“Stout started as an adjective meaning ‘strong’ and a couple of centuries ago it was used in the same way we might currently use ‘session’ or ‘imperial’.


It’s the time of year for the dark beers to reemerge. A Guide to Stouts and Porters.By Mark Dredge

porters are strong lagered beers which have an elegance in their strength.

Must Try: Fuller’s London Porter is rich with malt giving smooth dark chocolate, toffee, nuts and a dry finish; Anchor Porter pretty much pulled the style from extinction, and it’s like dark chocolate-covered caramel; Harviestoun Old Engine Oil is deep with oily-rich complexity and bitter-sweet balance.

Imperial Stout and Porter

Porter was strong, stout porter stronger. Extra stout porter, which became known as imperial stout after its royal recipients, was the strongest. By the end of the 18th century, porters were leaving London and travelling to

places as varied as America, India and Russia, where Empress Catherine the Great’s thirst for strong, dark beers has

created romantic legends of these brews. Today we expect beers deep with dark chocolate, coffee, caramel, and a thick, strong texture.

Must Try: The Kernel’s Imperial Brown Stout is based on a recipe from 1856 and it’s gloriously rich with malts, coffee, dried fruit, chocolate truffles and woody smoke; Siren’s Shattered Dream is thick, bitter-sweet and powerful,

the alcohol hidden until it hits you; BrewDog’s Cocoa Psycho is a brooding beer, deep with cocoa, vanilla and roasted barley, strong and sumptuous.

“BrewDog’s Cocoa Psycho is a brooding beer, deep with cocoa, vanilla and roasted barley, strong and sumptuous.


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I t’s hard to pinpoint exactly when brewery owners, founders and even brewers

themselves began to trip the light fantastic. In craft beer’s modern era, as it tumbles headfirst into the mainstream, its momentum has carried with it a host of engaging personalities. It could well be these shining lights that started this momentum in the first place, and many of them are lofted high onto pearly white pedestals because of it. I’m not so sure this is a good thing.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when this phenomenon began – brewing has always had its heroes, such as Monty Python’s Terry Jones championing CAMRA in the 70’s, but you’d hardly think of him as a ‘beer personality.’ No, the rise of the rock star brewer is much more recent than that and it happened where the Craft Beer market is at its most active, the United States. Back in 1979, Ken Grossman founded the Sierra Nevada

Brewing Company in Northern California. It’s grown to become one of

the largest craft breweries in the US, nay the world, and to this day Grossman remains the face and ambassador of his brand. It could be said that without his presence and influence, Sierra Nevada might not have become the industry force it is today.

More recently, two US brewmasters have seemingly embraced their newly found rock star status: The charming and debonair Garret Oliver of The Brooklyn brewery, and the charismatic and

ebullient Sam Calagione of Delaware’s Dogfish Head. Oliver is no stranger to the limelight, having once been the tour manager for the Ramones (if you ever meet, ask him about the time he took them bowling.) Through his innovative brewing and intimate ‘ghost bottle’ sharing sessions, Oliver has built himself a reputation as a master of ceremonies. It’s through his evocative writing though, that he has

“In craft beer’s modern era, as it tumbles headfirst into the mainstream, its momentum has carried with it a host of engaging personalities.


NO MORE ROCK STAR BREWERS

Why we need to stop treating brewers like Rock Stars By Matthew Curtis

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earned his status as a beer celebrity. From editing The Oxford Companion to Beer, to penning an article about how he cloned President Obama’s homebrew for the New York Times, it’s no wonder he’s thought of as a rock star brewer.

Calagione has written too, only his book focuses on how he built his business – although it was his TV show, Brew Masters, which really catapulted him into the limelight. The Dogfish Head founder has a presence that fills a room and has inspired a generation to take a more innovative approach to brewing. It’s no wonder he’s also considered as a rock star brewer.

Seeing the effects that one person can have on a brewery’s fortunes is already influencing craft beer as we know it. In Europe the Bjergsø brothers have used it to build an empire, even playing the media off each other to gain more exposure. Without laying down a single brick Mikkel with Mikkeller and Jeppe with Evil Twin have grown businesses worth large sums of money that sell their beer all over the world. They have deliberately chosen the path of the rock star brewer in order for this to occur. Similarly, in the UK, almost any beer lover will know the names Martin Dickie and James Watt. As their empire-building enters its next stage with ground for their latest brewery now broken in Columbus, Ohio they are also preparing to film a fourth season of their US TV show, ‘BrewDogs’.

It could be said that without the wide-reaching influence of individuals such as Watt, Dickie and the Bjergsø twins, craft beer in Europe would not have caught up with the US as fast as it has. There is always a danger with moving too fast however; rapid expansion without laying proper foundations will cause even the tallest trees to topple.

Despite this, these business owners continue to use their growing celebrity as leverage, and I’m not sure this is healthy for the industry at large.

As the craft brewing sector continues to grow apace more and more people become aware of it; more are lured into attempting to make a career out of it. The aforementioned status didn’t come about overnight – it takes strong ideas and years of hard work to build careers and influence as strong as they have. We’ve already

seen imitators attempt to cash in on this success and fail, such as Scotland’s Brewmeister, and this will almost certainly not be the last instance we see of this behavior.

The main reason we need to stop treating brewers like rock stars is not just to prevent people from making bad career decisions. No, the real reason is because by turning our attention to the movers and shakers, we take our gaze away from the real star of the show – the beer. Without Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, or Brooklyn Lager, or 60-minute IPA, we wouldn’t have any of the wonderful, modern beer culture we do now. And that’s why beer is the real star of the show.

“In Europe the Bjergsø brothers have used it to build an empire, even playing the media off each other to gain more exposure.


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Twatty Beer Doodles (A.K.A. David Bishop) Follow him on Twitter @twattybeer for all the latest doodles in all their twatty glory!


I was in Jose’s in Bermondsey the other day, a seriously cramped but fantastic tapas bar and the staff, particularly the manager, were amazing.

Nothing was too much trouble, everything was fun, appropriate interaction was had and the experience left my overseas guests sending gushing emails about the place.

Serving top notch beer is not the only criteria that makes a pub great, and everyone who runs or works in one needs to remember that; it’s not enough to just plonk a pint on a bar because it’s from one of the ‘in’ breweries. Service doesn’t always have to come with a smile, but if it stays at home sulking under the covers, sucking its thumb, then you’ve missed the point entirely.

On a brighter note… down in Sussex Arundel Brewery is shaking itself

up. Back in August I went to one of the most pleasurable beer and food matching events I’ve been to in a long time, where I was cooked for by chef Michael Nottman-Watt, whose food was astonishing – I’ll be keeping my eye on him as a future star, you should too.

I also had the sheer joy of what is going to take some serious beating as my beer of the year – Burning Sky’s Cuvee 2015 – Mark Tranter may be a friend but this is said with absolutely zero favouritism: subtle, nuanced, savoury, fresh, lightly sharp but fully-rounded… actually, I can just sum this up as bliss in a bottle and it was so very perfect with the mackerel, crab and samphire dish I was having for dinner.

SERVICE DOES NOT MEAN

SERVILEHowever, having just been in the States, I can tell you we still have a long way to go in engaging the food community with beer over here. What really brought it home to me was an event with New Holland, at its brewpub, where I also had the privilege to brew a collab with head brewer Steve ‘Bert’ Berthel, Chicago-based chef Paul Virant and Brian Motyka.

The excitement both guys showed for the process, the tremendous amounts they learnt about the art of brewing and way a recipe comes together has pretty much ensured that both Paul, who is already a beer champion in his Michelin-starred restaurant Perrenial and Brian, who is already a sous chef at the tender age of 24 at one of Paul’s other establishments, will see beer in a different light going forward – and that’s what we need to be doing here too in my opinion; how we do it is the big challenge!

And, finally, I was also lucky enough to be judging at the Great American Beer Festival and all I can say is that, after having a year off judging, the quantum leap in quality of beer I judged this year is something else we need to be aiming at here; we may not be quite as far down the track as the US brewing community but we need to start jogging a bit faster if we’re going to catch up.

However, to quote the head of judges at the Brewer’ Association Chris Swersey: “This is a marathon, not a sprint”, which is worth bearing in mind.

I don’t know about you, but when I’m eating out, if the person I’m dining with is rude or condescending to

the front of house (FoH) staff I cannot bear it and vow never to dine with them again.

It happened to me recently and I was so discomfited I called a premature halt to a dinner I was looking forward to immensely.

Along with a rather ‘interesting’ presumption of why I was dining with said person (a notion of which they were rather swiftly disabused) it got me thinking, again, about the way the service industry, in general, is viewed and how often the notion of service is confused with the idea that FoH staff should be servile.

So, when a recent Telegraph article called ‘waitressing’ one of a range of ‘menial, thankless jobs’ it annoyed quite a few people – me included – that once again, working in the service industry means you should expect to be treated like shit (or be female, but that’s an argument for another time!).

To run a pub, bar or restaurant, whether as an owner or senior staff member, you basically have to be: HR, psychiatrist, plumber, computer programmer, accountant, cleaner, marketer and… well, I could go on and on and on but I’d rather quote Emma Cole, a former pub manager now working for Cloudwater Brewery, who summed it up hilariously: ‘You can’t call yourself a pub manager until it’s a Saturday night and you’re up to your shoulder in a black bin bag, fisting a U-bend.’

My point being: do you really want to, if you’ll pardon the pun, piss off

the person who goes to these kinds of lengths to make your Saturday night fun and, more importantly, comfortable? I’d suggest that if answer isn’t no, then you shouldn’t set foot outside the door without having a very large attitude readjustment!

However, that said, I am getting increasingly ticked off with poor service in ‘craft’ beer bars. In London the other week, myself and a bunch of various beer people were having a great time. There were six of us from various areas of the world and we were ordering cask and keg, pints and halves, and generally having a great time.

But the overwhelming comment every one of us made at one point was how poor the service was.

Spigots stuck in pints, overflowing glasses plonked on the matless bar top, no eye contact, no ‘what can I get you’ or pretty much any form of conversation… from three different staff members, not just the one.

In fact, if it wasn’t for the fact the company was so excellent, I would have left. I’ve been back since to check it wasn’t a one-off; it wasn’t, and this pub isn’t alone in the ‘craft’ community.

Whilst I stand by everything I say above; I don’t consider it servility if you work in the service industry to engage with the customer – let me give you an example of the flipside.

“You can’t call yourself a pub manager until it’s a Saturday night and you’re up to your shoulder in a black bin bag, fisting a U-bend

MELISSA COLE

12 FERMENT Want more beer? Upgrade at Beer52.com

Brussels Beer Project Delta

ThiriezL’Ambree d’Esquelbecq

Rebel BrewingSurf Bum

Vocation & Beer52Them & Us

O’Hara’sIrish Pale Ale

Rebel BrewingMexi Cocoa

Brussels Beer Project’s first co-created beer, the Delta pours a big frothy off-white head. The aromas take us on a tropical journey of lychee, passion fruit and grapefruit. With a touch of spicy dryness from the saison yeast and its slightly dry bitterness, this is a great thirst-quenching brew.

Daniel Thiriez painstakingly crafts his rustic farmhouse ales in his brewery in the beautiful countryside of French Flanders. This brisk Amber Ale is a really luminous golden-red. It is perfectly balanced, with a soft, fresh hop bitterness playing off a hearty whole-grain maltiness, and accentuated by an entrancing nose of earth and spice that is typical of French farm-country brewing.

A Californian style IPA, which uses distinctive hops from some of the best surfing countries in the world, these combine to make a light hoppy beer. Rebel Brewing named this beer as it is perfect following an awesome Cornish summer surf.

Brewed as an exclusive collaboration between Vocation Brewery and the members of Beer52. Just as you asked, we’ve used loads of Mosaic hops from West Coast USA, kept it to a sessionable strength, and given it a beautiful ruby red colour. Mosaic is known for its tropical fruit character, which we think works really well with the red maltiness of this beer. Thanks to James Harrison for naming this collaboration beer.

A Contemporary style IPA with an Irish twist. Combining the balance of European IPAs with the generous dry hopping of American pale ales (APAs), this beer is everything an IPA should be and more.Zesty and refreshingly bitter, the finish is long. With a copper toned body topped with a lightly carbonated head, the dry hopping brings an intense aroma and lasting array of fruit and floral notes.

Mexi-Cocoa is a devilishly delicious chocolate & vanilla stout. Triple-infused with chocolate and vanilla at every stage of the brewing process, this strong, dark stout is a perfect after-dinner beer to be shared.

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WHAT WE’RE DRINKING...

Exclusive Collaboration

Want more beer? Upgrade at Beer52.com FERMENT 13

WHAT WE’RE DRINKING...

The White Hag Little Fawn

Gypsy IncHidden Gem

First ChopAva

Pang PangTiki Tango

Buxton BreweryWild Boar

The White HagThe White Sow

Discoverd as a child on the slopes of Ben Bulben by the hounds Bran and Sceolan, Little Fawn was a son of Sadhbh, Fionn Mac Cumhaill’s long lost love. Little Fawn’s summers spent foraging forests and mountains for food are reflected in the taste experience, featuring fruity hop flavours balanced with lush Irish malt to create a complex, sessionable IPA.

Hidden Gem is a fresh IPA with a light malt base and strong fruity hop character. The American hops offer a bright taste that gives a complex yet very drinkable experience. Pours golden-copper in colour with faint aromas of tropical fruits and sweet pine on the nose. Balanced flavour of malts and mild bitterness, with hints of pineapple, pine and rich toasted malts. Finish is a refreshing bitterness which lingers and creates a pleasant mouthfeel.

Named after Rik’s daughter, Ava is the baby of our range, coming in at 3.5%. Low ABV it might be, but like its namesake it’s definitely got the flavour! It’s pale but with loads of malty flavour from the floor malted Maris Otter and Hopwise, two lupulin legends – Galaxy and Saaz – bring aromatic spice, citrus, peach and passion fruit to the party. And at that strength the party can go on all night!

An American pale ale with big mango aromas and strong tropical fruits flavours of mango, pineapple, and resinous pine. Mild sweetness with a zesty and bitter finish. A really well balanced, super tasty pale ale.

Wild Boar pours a pale straw colour with a fluffy white head. It has aromas of spicy lime and mango, with distinct flavours of honey malt and fruit punch, followed by a dry bitter finish.

A sweet stout with complex flavours of roast malts, rich chocolate, coffee, caramel and cream, with a background of rich Irish oats, a frothy tan head and a rich velvety mouth feel. Made with locally-sourced milk sugar, and Irish malts and flaked oats.

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W e packed the car with all of the things needed for a nice family holiday – booze,

snacks, a collapsible table and a box of petrified hops. Our first missed turn took us on the scenic route; we swung a left at Sheffield and curved over the Pennines on an educational tour. Our guesthouse was in Burnage, Manchester, and our host was conveniently my mum. It’s drinking season in The North but we had some light catering to do at Indy Man Beer Con.

We’re lifers, locked into the idea of getting pissed for four days in a swimming pool. It’s tradition. Shortly before the first time Victoria Baths got filled with beer in 2012 I married Penelope in Manchester. As young alcoholics would, we followed up with a honeymoon at a beer festival. By our first anniversary of the festival, we found that we barely gave a fuck about anything at all. We were going about asking people for things and seemingly doing whatever we wanted. We were full-time drunks – legitimised, too.

The festival is run by good people, and they quickly approved of our union. I asked if we could get involved and have an area where I could rest and steady the ship with some bar snacks. The Beer Snack bar was easy to curate, I knew some guys. I gathered the best things

I’ve chewed and crunched on in pubs and added in some seeds and spicy nuts . Our first year (3rd IMBC) was a success – the people of Manchester quickly understood what I was on about. For 2015 we’re back and still holding together.

We got to the Baths on Wednesday to deposit useful things and peek around at the bars still being built, lights being adjusted and kegs being moved. People moved in every part of the building – lugging or directing. We saw each room as we walked along the back of the building, picking out Beavertown in the dark room and Squawk in the gymnasium. Thornbridge and Weird Beard were making house in the pool we were to be stationed by – if people could find their way out without drowning, we’d save them with snacks.

This is the place I encountered the best pies I’ve ever eaten. Great North Pies are so delicious that they can pull you out of anything – they hold you together like a mother’s hug. Before we were trading at IMBC we treated it like a music festival – we commited to every day, gathering ourselves each morning and forcing down the easiest beer – dragging each other around, filthy, in search of the next orally ingested entertainment. We’ve

probably made our lives shorter by going to Indy Man, but we’ve also made them suitably richer.

The cast is always the best thing about the production and they’re all being the best versions of themselves. I see

many as integral as the architecture. Jay Krause at Quantum always has something I need to drink. James Buchanan at Thornbridge too. Will France will always turn up somewhere. This year we mainly flirted with London scum like Brew By Numbers, Orbit and Weird

Beard. It never hurts to be friendly with the beer people. An accurate journalist said in the past ‘good people drink good beer,’ – they also make it.

The doors were open when we were still struggling our hop bine into place. The petrified flowers rained petals and pollen as I attached them to a wire stretched above our stall. We made a mess but the thing went up and our place looked good, if a little covered in debris. Thursday passed and we relaxed into the beer; I enjoyed light, delicate things from Cloudwater and Orbit and dark, syrupy things from Northern Monk and Squawk. I decided finally that I don’t like sours - they taste like stomach acid. Pale, pissed faces shone

as the light faded, each session claiming victims here and there – people tempted into total degradation by delicious poisonous liquids.

Last year’s hangovers were a warning – no getting spinny in the carpark with Spaniards this year. We’d always need beer and took the rounds in turns. I’d stretch my business skills and tell Pel to ‘keep the beer sticks looking abundant’ as I left. A friend asked what the mark up was like on something; am I meant to know? Maybe ask in one of the other departments. Send a memo to my PA and she’ll get back to you after talking with finance. I’ve got a story to write.

Into the crowd to find drink, mad faces and old friends – to get caught up in a fuddle with the miscreants of Redchurch. Snacks sell better when I’m not on the stall, so it was to our advantage for me to fuck about getting a transfer from Wiper and True. Production values have soared. Onsite canning, catering vans, endless merch, those glasses. The Cloudwater logo was a ubiquitous presence, their clobber was on everyone – they must’ve sold as many beanies as they did wonderful beers.

As alcohol is such an interesting drug, it was only a matter of time before we got caught exploring its dark corners. The Saturday shift is as long as a fallible

INDY MAN BEER CON 2015

A Busman’s HolidayBy Craig Ballinger

“It’s drinking season in The North but we had some light catering to do at Indy Man Beer Con.


businessman with a perpetual thirst. It’s hard not to drink all day and into the next morning. We should scam a volunteer next year, give us license to surge into the pissed revelry bursting out everywhere. It’s contagious – or addictive. Beards rushed at bars asking for big IPAs or bastard sours.

‘I’ll take mine black.’

Dignity slips down like cold lager on a throat that’s been throwing words around like loud confetti. As the clock turns against the punters, and us, eyes are scanning for numbers, not words.

‘Can I get the imperial stout please mate?’ translates to ‘What’s the strongest thing you have?’

We should be off to bed when the place closes but Saturday took hold and twisted the thing into a total piss up. Brewers bundled into taxis headed to Port Street Beer House and drank deep into the night. Boozing with the best of Brew By Numbers and Weird Beard is easy. A fog descended and words became abundant. I cornered a girl called Ellie from Celt about the problems of the world for some time. She had great patience and took the information in like it made sense. We’ll probably never conquer our evil landlords, but we can at least try to understand what they’re up to.

Sunday’s hangover was strong and confusing. I woke early to find that Pel was gone. I pushed through my headache to remember that she’d gone back to London to greet her parents visiting from Australia. I needed to

restock and get to the place for 1pm. It seemed doable. I took some codeine and drifted back off. I’ll piss next time I’m awake. Eventually the ship was steady enough to steer, but too much time had passed to cluster the fuck out of anything else. I manned a fryer and ploughed on with making, my new offering – corner

shop spiced poppadoms fragments, my finest creation. I needed a hangover cure so I made a bin bag full of it.

Sunday afternoon passed like a surreal dream. It took Sqaure Root’s sodas to ease me back to booze. I was squashing back my demons by huffing an open-topped can of Buxton’s audacious collaboration with Omnipollo, Yellow Belly, when a fine gang of old friends turned up. I told them how I’m essentially an odd-job man and they told me how they’re buying houses. A proper Sunday drifted to an end whilst I flogged my final snacks over a great pick from Orbit Robbie – some Cloudwater kiwi-hopped lager. Fresh as fuck. Each Indy Man Beer Con marks the only anniversary I’m likely to remember, another portion of a challenging but deeply enjoyable adventure has passed in a beautiful blur.

“An accurate journalist said in the past ‘good people drink good beer,’ – they also make it.

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W ith shelves upon shelves, bearing regimented

rows of bottles and cans lined up like jars of sherbet lemons or coconut mushrooms, beer emporiums increasingly resemble a pick ‘n’ mix of nationalities and styles. Brewers are constantly innovating with the flavours they craft and are mastering an ever growing number of styles. The consumer can easily get sucked up in a world of endless IPAs, lagers, stouts and saisons at the expense of the styles of the past.

Cast your net out a little further however, and you’ll discover a new shelf of somewhat neglected styles from across the globe that might just pique your interest. Some are banished to the history books, but others are being resurrected. So haul in your nets and hop aboard a booze cruise not just across the globe in a quest to uncover bizarre beers, but a journey through time as we dust off a lost world of forgotten about brews.

Devon White Ale

Setting sail in the West, our adventure begins with Devon White Ale. A naturally fermented beer, drunk while it’s still fermenting, the beer was popular throughout the West Country up until the mid-1800s, but like the Titanic, it has sunk into the murky depths.

With a recipe more akin to a Mary Berry cook book than a pub bar, Devon White Ale is brewed with a blend of flour, eggs and grout (thought to be a combo of wort and spices), to produce a thick, hearty beverage.

Braggot

Crossing the Severn, a glass of Braggot is up next. Whilst arguably more well-known than a pint of Devon White, Braggot is still a fairly under-

represented brew. A cross between beer and mead, the ancient brew comes from adding grain to the mead making process to create a sweet, malty drink often flavoured with an array of spices, flowers and fruits. It was popular in the land of dragons, where the Welsh Celtic tribes preferred it to the Saxon ale.

A few Braggots are available from a handful of breweries, but one that would make even the meanest of tribal warriors smile is The Clas. Honouring those who brewed before them, it is a collaboration between Caerphilly’s Celt Experience and Leeds’ Northern Monk, and is classed as a ‘Double Braggot’ due to its high ABV.

Sahti

Harvested for gin, the juniper plant has more

to offer the world of alcoholic drinks than just

its berries.

Finnish peasants preferred the branches and would use them to filter the grain; a process which imparted a

fresh, resinous character to the beer, as well

as a tartness due to the wild yeast and bacteria that

cultivated upon them.

Norway’s Nøgne Ø keeps the style alive, as does Dogfish

Head, who worked closely with a leading

expert in archaic drinks to brew a range of ancient ales

that includes their take on it entitled Sah’tea.

Steinbier

A traditional vessel made from stoneware, steins are pretty well known, but were you aware of steinbier?

Stein, the German word for stone, lends its name to this style because the Bavarian brewers of old used wooden kettles and as such would add piping hot granite into the wort to enable them to reach

the temperatures needed, as using direct flame

on wood is about as smart as attempting to long jump the Grand

Canyon. The rocks would cause a rapid boil which would

subsequently caramelise the grain to create a sweet, toasted taste.

Heket

A type of beer wrapped in toilet roll, stuffed in a bejewelled coffin, hidden away in a tomb and protected by a variety of curses, Heket derives from the sandy lands of ancient Egypt. A thick, sweet concoction that wasn’t particularly potent, Heket was enjoyed by adults, children, the rich and the

With the rise of craft beer, it’s easy to get lost in the seemingly endless styles of beers, but Jordan Harris take a trip back in time to discover some forgotten about styles.By Jordan Harris

BEERS FROM YESTERYEAR


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poor alike and was as much a staple in their culture as building bloody great statues of cats with human heads. In fact they even had a designated beer goddess; Tjenent.

Heket was traditionally brewed by the females of ancient Egyptian society and the main ingredient was bread, which was crumbled into the brew before being strained, giving true meaning to the description of beer being ‘liquid bread.’ Dates and honey were also chucked in for a bit of flavour and it was stored, then used not only as a drink, but as currency in the form of workers’ wages. Even I’d be tempted to get cracking on a pyramid if I was paid three times a day in beer like the labourers of Giza; although I’m more likely to sit on the great stones, sipping my heket and topping up my tan than hauling them up the side of the structures.

Chicha

Say hola to chich; another beer traditionally created by women. Brewed throughout Southern American nations for millennia, it is a drink that varies between regions. The word ‘chicha’ is used to describe almost any homemade fermented drink throughout the area, but is more commonly associated with chicha de jora; a type of beer made using corn. In some communities, the corn is chewed then spat out into the water, which doesn’t sound that a-maize-ing (sorry, couldn’t resist), but the locals seem to like it, and after a couple of

pints in Costa Rica, I soon forgot that I was sipping on corn cob gob.

Purl

A mug of tea may be the brew of choice for labourers today, but back in the 1800s, workers seeking a morning pick-me-up opted for a pint of purl instead. A herbal beer, flavoured with wormwood and sometimes served warm with a dash of gin, it doesn’t sound like something you’d want to indulge in too much before a heavy shift of manual labour, but it seemed to get the job done.

Gruit

Hop heads may turn their noses up at gruit, a beer that sounds more like a cave dwelling wildling living within the pages of a GRR Martin novel than a beer, because it was oblivious to the existence of hops. Popular across medieval Europe, gruit was flavoured with the likes of mugwort and horehound, to create a herbal brew that gave the drinker a euphoric buzz.

Today, the Williams Brothers Brewing Company have resurrected the style; as have Sharp’s, who crafted a version using yarrow - a popular gruit ingredient in the Middle Ages.


I n last month’s Ferment magazine I explained how to pimp up a basic home brewer’s canned kit to create

your own unique beers. It’s an easy way to get a good quality pint in your glass while learning about the brewing process but, before long, you might want to step up to making beer using the same methods as the professionals: all grain brewing.

Take a look at an all grain recipe and there’s every chance you’ll give up before you begin: they’re often presented with a baffling array of timings, temperatures and technical terms that will have you reaching for your beer dictionary and wondering if you need to convert your kitchen into a full scale brewery. But don’t despair, because in reality all grain brewing is much easier than it might initially seem. Those precise instructions may be important if you’re trying to replicate an exact beer; if you’re willing to be a little more flexible with the outcome, then your kitchen and a few simple bits of equipment are all you need for brewing success .

To make your first foray into all grain brewing even easier there are now

numerous home brew companies supplying starter kits for the home brewer. These are made up of all the ingredients you need, weighed and measured, with easy to follow instructions for the novice to follow, and can often include any specialist equipment lacking in your kitchen cabinet. One such company is HomeBrewtique, owned by beer enthusiasts Posy and Claire, who started their business precisely because they discovered brewing in their kitchen was easier than traditional instructions would indicate. Being generous, entrepreneurial types, they decided to share their discoveries with the rest of us and now produce kits designed to create a wide range of beer styles.

The key, they say, is to start small. Rather than adopting standard 40 pint brews, their kits make around 4 litres of beer. As Posy explains “the set-up equipment costs £50 versus £300. It is so much quicker to heat and cool 5 litres of water rather than 20, so you don’t spend the whole day brewing, just a few hours. You can do it right in

your kitchen watching a game or taking care of other things around the house, and you can afford to buy the best hops and grains because you’re using smaller quantities.”

It’s the quality of those ingredients, rather than the exact times and temperatures, that will have the biggest effect on the quality of beer, elevating

it above not only kits-in-cans but also many commercial breweries’ output.

Whereas the fresh flavours of your favourite hops will take most of the glory in the finished beer, it’s the grains than will do most of the hard work. Getting the goodness from those grains – known as ‘mashing’ – is the most challenging part of all grain brewing, but working at a small volume means this can be done in the kitchen with minimal fuss.

Grains need to be heated in water within a certain temperature range for a prescribed amount of time, but there’s a fair margin for error – as Posy reminds us, ‘a few minutes difference between each timing and a couple of degrees

Brewing beer like a pro in your own kitchen is easier than you might think. Nick Moyle explains the best way to begin.

in temperature will only slightly alter the taste of a beer, and you may find you like it better that way!’ The grains sit in a fine mesh bag, secured within a large kitchen pan, and the mashing can either be done on the hob, in which case you’ll need a thermometer, or in the oven. My large, old oven is great for cramming in a huge Christmas dinner but the temperature dial isn’t the most accurate. This has resulted in a few burnt turkeys, but has never failed to produce excellent beers.

Once the flavours and sugars have been extracted from the grains the fun begins: boiling the resulting ‘wort’ while adding hops and other ingredients to make the beer uniquely yours. Again, timings are important if following an exact recipe, but the choice of hops you add, and when you add them, is purely down to personal taste and how adventurous you’re feeling. It’s your beer, so you get to be as creative as you want. Once the beery liquid has cooled, the process is the same as with those basic home brew cans – fermenting, bottling and drinking – but this time the end results can genuinely rival the best beers on the market.

STEP UP TO ALL GRAIN BREWING

“The key, they say, is to start small.


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Five top tips for the novice full grain brewer

1. Start small

Brew quantities to fit the equipment you have available – a 4 litre batch is a good volume to start with.

2. Keep it simple

Brewing your own gives you the opportunity to create beers you’ve only previously dreamt of, but before you attempt that imperial Russian stout with marshmallow and rye, get the hang of the process with a simple pale ale or bitter first.

3. Plan properly

Before your first grain hits the water make sure all your equipment is ready and all of the ingredients are weighed out first. Although most of the brewing is done at a steady pace you don’t want to be found wanting when the serious action begins.

4. Take notes

Studiously write down your own notes during the brewing process. Everyone eventually finds their own way of brewing and, should you stumble across a method and recipe that creates the perfect beer, you’ll want to know how to do it again.

5. Keep it clean

Perhaps more important than anything else, make sure you thoroughly sterilise any equipment that comes into contact with your beer throughout the whole brewing and bottling process.


W hen the nights turn cold and the days start drawing in we love to turn to those

warming and comforting dishes. You know the ones; the classics like spag bol; shepherd’s pie; curry; bangers and mash or a good old casserole. Chilli is another dish we love; versatile and rich in flavour, with a little heat to warm your heart on these cold winter nights.

In an effort to liven things up for this gloomier season we’ve reinvigorated our chilli with lots of green zingy flavours. Our dish is light and fresh but with a good kick that will definitely warm you up.

We’ve paired up our chilli with PangPang Tiki Tango as this tasty APA is light and fruity, and compliments the pork and apples a treat.

It’s an unusual take on the more traditional chilli con carne based on mince beef and tomatoes, but it’s a definite winner if you fancy mixing things up and trying something new!

If you give this bangin’ chilli a go make sure you send us a pic and let us know how it tasted!

Tag us on instagram @thehungrybearsblog and @beer52HQ, or send us a tweet @hungrybearsblog and @beer52HQ. For more recipe inspiration head over to our blog thehungrybearsblog.com

Recipe:

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 30 mins Total time: 45 mins Author: The Hungry Bears’ Blog

Ingredients:

For the zingy green chilli

400g pork mince2 large green chillies4 cloves garlic1 large apple, grated1tsp dried sage200ml Pang Pang Tiki Tango2 large spring onions, sliced1tsp light brown sugar2 tbsp cider vinegar1 tbsp olive oilSalt and pepper

ZINGY GREEN CHILLI WITH TORTILLA BOWLS

For the salsa

1 large green chilliSmall handful flat leaf parsley1 tbsp cider vinegar1 large spring onion1 tbsp olive oilJuice of half a limeSalt and pepper

To serve

TortillasSour creamLime wedges

Instructions:

1. In a large, deep sided pan put a good tablespoon of oil and set on a medium heat. Finely slice the green chillies and garlic and add to the pan. Cook for a minute or two to release their flavour into the oil. Next add the pork mince and continue to cook until the meat has browned on all sides.

2. Add the sage, spring onions and grated apple to the pan. Gently fry for around 5 minutes until the onions and apple have softened. Lastly add the vinegar, brown sugar and beer to the

pan and stir well to combine all the ingredients and season with salt and pepper. Cover loosely with a lid and continue to simmer gently for around 20 minutes until the liquid has reduced.

3. While the chilli is cooking, to knock up the salsa place the chilli, parsley, vinegar, spring onion, olive oil and lime juice in a processor or mini chopper and blitz until smooth. Season with salt and pepper as necessary.

4. To make the tortilla bowls set your oven to 170°c and using a muffin tin upside down, fit each tortilla between 4 of the muffin holes to create a bowl. If you don’t have a muffin or cupcake tin you can lay the tortilla over an upside down bowl, using the bowl as a mould but make sure it’s ovenproof! Bake for around 5–10 minutes checking halfway to ensure they don’t burn. When the tortillas are crisp remove from the oven.

5. When the chilli is cooked, spoon into the tortilla bowls and serve up with a large dollop of sour cream and a good drizzle of the salsa. Top with further sliced chillies if you like things hot and sprinkle with fresh parsley and lime juice.

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40FT Brewery are the young guns on the scene. That said they did take their time perfecting their brews before launching in May ‘15.

Currently they are concentrating on producing a pale and a lager in their custom built shipping container brewery in Dalston.

We kick things off with Harbour Brewing Co. It’s amazing to see how far these guys have come in the last 3 years. Sensational, progressive and consistent are a few words on a long list to describe them.

Vibrant IPAs, crisp Pilsners, sumptuous porters. What more could you want? A must try is their 4.3% session IPA and all of their cans! Available in cask, keg, can and bottle.

Finally we have Vocation Brewery. For a brewery that has only been around since May, there is a huge buzz about these guys. All I can say is their beer is as beautiful as their branding!

Dedicated to producing some of the best beers around, they aren’t

From institutions in the craft beer world to the newbies on the scene, all are serving up the perfect beers to get you through the colder winter months.

Email - [email protected] - 0207 378 9461Twitter - @UtobeerTrade

Next up are a few breweries featured in the month of November.

Like all good breweries these days it has a tap room serving up their amazing beers. If you don’t go for the beer then go to check out this feat of engineering! Available in keg and can.

messing around when it comes to good beer. Look out for their Pride & Joy; it really is. A vibrant range of cask, keg, bottles and cans available.


WINTER WARMERS

S o as winter sets in and people start using the C-word, we thought we’d start off by

telling you about a new beer from those stalwarts of the East coast brewing scene, Brooklyn.

Their Insulated Lager is their new seasonal 5.6% dark beer. It’s malty and hoppy and definitely your beer jacket

against the biting winds, and hey; if you still feel the chill just keep adding layers.

It is along the lines of a Schwartzbier, but a little bit hoppier. Has those nice roasty, toasty, winter-y feelings but still remains light and fresh. Available mid November in bottles and kegs.


BREAKING DOWN BEER – ALPHA DOGS

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‘If it’s not hop, it’s not hot’ has pretty much been the mantra for the last 10 years in beer.

Despite the move towards more complex and challenging beers like sours, that even as beer nerds we have to admit are relatively niche, the hop still dominates the UK’s ever-shifting beer palate.

You only have to look at how relatively accustomed we are to a beer like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale these days. When it first arrived on our shores we were shouting from the rooftops about its booming pine and floral geraniols, its bitter heights and nettly bite – but now it’s seen as, well… SNPA.

That doesn’t make it any less great a beer, it’s a fantastic beer, Sierra Nevada is a wonderful brewery, or I should say a wonderful pair of breweries these days, but what it does do is prove a point, and that’s that we’ve become accustomed to its taste.

The ABCs of Beer’s Ingredients:Alpha DogsBy Melissa Cole.

Hop creep, palate creep, cohumulone creep (if you want to be a proper beer bore); whatever you want to call it, beer drinkers are getting more and more used to bitterness in their beers.

Now, fortunately, we don’t come up against too many of the beers that were almost omnipresent in the US a few years ago, where the bitterness was like sticking a pine tree branch up your nostril, out your mouth and then flossing it back and forth, but there is a certain element of going too far for most people at times but, hey, if you don’t try you don’t know.

HOWEVER, I am starting the hop series with a plea; a plea not to use jargon erroneously, and it’s about International Bitterness Units.

Please, please don’t talk about the ‘relative IBUs’ of a beer unless you are a brewer or a homebrewer trying to work out how a beer was made. Why? Well because when it comes to actually

drinking a beer, it’s such a tiny part of a complex picture that it’s really not actually, to quote Bradford Brewery’s way of winding up George Galloway, ‘a thing’.

Why? Well it’s taking one element of a beer in isolation and ignoring the rest of it and, to your tastebuds, that’s not really feasible. In

reality, it’s actually the brewer’s tool to determine how bitter a beer will be, determined on the addition of hops and their relative alpha acid, and to a lesser extent beta acid, content (more on the science of this next issue’s column).

Here’s the best example I can give that many of you should be able to relate to;

“‘If it’s not hop, it’s not hot’ has pretty much been the mantra for the last 10 years in beer.

cask Fuller’s London Pride is 30 IBUs but, perceptually, tastes about 15 IBU higher than its counterpart Golden Pride, which is actually brewed to 40 IBUs.

So what causes this to happen? Well, for starters, Golden Pride is a barley wine; this means that it has a lot more residual sugar, it has a lot higher alcohol, it has a lot more body and complexity and all of those things balance out, even mask, the amount of bitterness in the beer. There are many other subtleties at play too.

So, next time you want to impress someone with your beer knowledge, I’d suggest the words ‘would you like a pint?’ will go a much longer way in keeping the people in company awake/unhomicidal than ‘of course, the IBU level in this beer is clearly…’

D R I N K T H E F R E S H E S T B E E Rfrom brewery to your glass in 4- 6 weeks of being brewed

Join the UK’s No. 1 Craft Beer Club and get £10 off your f i rst box by entering the

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G o t o : w w w . b e e r 5 2 . c o m

ferment // issue 18

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