FERMENTwww.beer52.com / Issue #2 / £4

LOVIN’SUMMER

OUR ROUND-UP OF WHAT’S HOT THIS SUMMER. THIS MONTH’S BOTTLES, BEER FESTIVALS AND MORE.

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EXPERIMENTS IN THE GLOBAL CRAFT ALCOHOL MOVEMENT

LOVIN’ SUMMER

OMG!

THE GREAT BEERS THAT OUR FRIENDS HAVE BEEN BREWING FOR OUR FAVOURITE TIME OF YEAR

This month’s box of Beer52 is all about Summer craft beer and gourmet food. We’re profilling some of the hippest brewers from around the world.

HOW BEER52 HAS GONE INTO OVERDRIVE THIS SUMMER

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FERMENT MAGAZINE

FREE BEERFOR LIFE!INVITE YOURFRIENDS

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A EUROPEANCRAFT BEER ROAD TRIP

COMING UP NEXT:

We share some of our favourite recipes for craft beer picnicing.

With the help of expert chocolatier Lois Barnett, we’ll be introducing you to the flavour adventure of chocolate and craft beer.

Editor: Fraser DohertyPhotography: Kiva BrynaaBeer Taster: Chris Miller

EASY PICNIC LEMON SQUEEZY

AFTER THREE WEEKS ON A HOT SUMMER ROAD TRIP, I’VE TRIED SOME GREAT BEERS.

NEXT MONTH WE’RE DOING A CHOCOLATE & CRAFT BEER PAIRING EVENT

CREDITS

ADD EXTRAS TO YOUR BEER PLAN:SNACKS, SMOKES & SPIRITS

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OMG!

A WORD FROM OUR FOUNDER

This is just the second edition of our craft beer magazine, Ferment and I’m delighted to say that last month’s edition went down a storm.

We’ve been flooded with ideas for future editions and have even started work on a top secret brewing project on the back of some of your ideas.

We love hearing ideas from our members. There are now more than 15,000 of you, which is pretty mind blowing considering we started out on this craft beer adventure only one year ago.

We’re riding a wave of enthusiasm for craft beer and benefiting from Britain’s ever stronger loathing for supermarket beer.

We’re already the biggest craft beer club in the world, by far. But there are still millions ofpeople who haven’t discovered the joy of monthly craft beer deliveries.

I would love for you to help us bring some of your friends into the fold. For every three people you send our way, we’ll automatically ship you a bonus case of beer.

If you have a thousand friends, that’s enough beer to bathe in for months.

To invite your friends, just login to your account at www.beer52.com and follow the instructions in your dashboard.

This month our office has been flooded with samples from all over the world like never before - we literally have hundreds of great beers lined up for you to try over the next few months.

More and more, breweries are letting our members get first dibs on completely new beers. We even have some exclusive beers being brewed as I write this.

But it’s not all work here at Beer52 HQ. I have just got back from a three week craft beer road trip across Europe - I visited some of the coolest (and smallest!) breweries through-out England, France, Spain and Portugal.

You’ll be getting a chance to taste the produce of some of the brewers that I met along my way in our next few boxes.

JAMES BROWNFounder of Beer52

HOW BEER52 HAS GONE INTO OVERDRIVE THIS SUMMER

FREE BEER FOR LIFE

AND YOU GET

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£10 OFFTHEIRFIRST BOX

£10

Our most generous o�er reserved for friendsof Beer52 members. That’s only £1.75 a bottle!

A FREE BOXFOR EVERY3 FRIENDS

If you have 1,000 friends, that's 28 yearsof free beer, ripe for the picking indeed.

DRINK UNLIMITED FREE BEER FOR LIFE

INVITE YOUR FRIENDS

HOW IT WORKS

SHARE YOUR REWARD CODELog in to your Beer52 accountand click Invite Your Friends.

UNLOCK OUR BEST OFFERYour friend will get £10 o� their �rst box and free delivery.

UNLOCK YOUR FREE BOX For every 3 friends that you sendour way we’ll send you a free box.

1. 2. 3.

BASQUING IN CRAFT BEER

TRAVEL

BEER DESIGNER AND BLOGGER MATT BURNS HEADS TO SPAIN IN SEARCH OF GREAT BEERMATTBURNSBEERBLOG.COM

BASQUING IN CRAFT BEER

Roughly five years ago, when my craft beer adventure began, there were only a handful of places where craft beer was accessible. The Local Taphouse in Sydney was my second home. This is where I drank, met friends, made friends and learnt about beer. The Taphouse prided itself not only with an indisputable beer range but also with its kitchen. Awesome modern Australian food cooked with beer to be eaten with beer.

Sydney has for some time had the talent and ability to produce amazing restaurants, serving world class food with sommeliers on hand to match a vast selection of quality wine. However, it started to really bug me when there was so much effort and intent put into the build of a wine menu, and your were merely left with a beer selection that consisted of Peroni and all of its best pals. It didn’t made sense - why wasn’t there a place on the dinner table for a bottle of beer?

Bridge Road Brewery was the first brewery in Oz to address this with their Chevalier range These were beers with big character, unique in style (especially in Oz at the time) and brewed with the dining experience in mind. The Biere De Garde in particular was a special beer. The great thing was that a handful of respect-ible resturants with foresight and courage took these beers on and listed them with equal weight as the wines on the menu.

This was sometime ago and a lot has changed, for the

better, since. These days it’s more common to be treated to a considered beer selection in respectable restaurants. That shift was already taking place when I departed Sydney in 2011 and has continued since then. When I moved to Glasgow, the same culture wasn’t established. Three years on and Glasgow, and Scotland generally, is well on its way to em-bracing beer as a part of the food and drink matching experience.

When I recently discovered that there is a fast growing craft beer movement in the Basque Country in Spain, one of the world’s premiere destinations for great food and wine, there was a few fist pumps to the air. To think that an area renowned for some

of the best culinary ex-periences the world has to offer is open-ing its mind and heart and finding a place for craft beer on the white table cloth is

some victory. Although the craft beer drive in the Basque region is now roughly two years old, over the last few months things have acceler-ated somewhat with two new breweries opening in Hond-arribia (on the border with France), adding to the handful of new breweries opening in this year alone.

I recently caught up with Kevin Patricio, owner of renowned San Sebastian restaurant, La Madame, and co-owner of the Basque-land Brewing Project. At La Madame Kevin started a ‘craft beer program’ that showcased local beer and imports from the likes of Mikkeller, Sierra Nevada and a host of Belgian

breweries - this demonstrat-ed the art of beer and food matching.

A couple years ago you could have great food with great wine in San Sebastian but not good food with good beer. It is/was only industrial lagers. It doesn’t match up.”

Basqueland Brewing Project is co-owned by three like-mind-ed Americans. It is currently a gypsy operation, producing batches between 3,000-5,000 litres.

“Our master brewer Ben Matz (formerly of Stone Brewing and Port Brewing) drives the creativity and elaboration of the beer. We do sit and have sessions talking about flavor profiles, how we can better enhance a beer, get more flavor and so on. Brewing and cooking are very similar. Saying to Ben, ‘I think this beer finished short. Let’s give it more acidity to carry it through,’ and then he delivers to a tee, is an example of great teamwork and a testament to his ability as a brewer.”

If progress stays on track they plan to have their own premises in nine to twelve months time.

“We are in three michelin starred restaurants and the best heavy metal dive bar. The best pintxos bars and traditional restaurants. At the best places, people want great tasting food and great tasting beer.”

“IT’S GLARINGLY OBVIOUS THAT YOU SHOULD HAVE GOOD FOOD WITH GOOD BEER”

“RENOWNED FOR SOME OF THE BEST CULINARY EXPERIENCES IN THE WORLD”

Don’t get me wrong, the Basque brewing scene isn’t try-ing to kick wine off the table, merely its keen to have a seat at the table alongside it. Food is a strong focus and the gents are very mindful of this during the brewing process.

“We love wine too. Our post-brew reward is to go to Rekondo and drink a couple of 50 year old wines. We definite-ly encourage this. Our lighter style beers marry very well with savory food. Our bigger flavoured beers, AUPA Pale Ale, Arraun Amber and Impa-rable IPA, are more stand alone but are perfect for charcuterie and funky cheeses.”

When I asked Kevin about the challenges the Basque brewing scene faces I was struck with a response I wasn’t overly surprised with – quality. It’s a difficult one - a young craft beer movement will always be hit with a quality consistency issue across the scene, with brewers entering the market with varying degrees of skills. You can’t blame the young brewers, who have most likely done all they can to get the brewery off the ground. I think we all agree that young brew-

eries deserve a ‘cooling off pe-riod’ and I only hope they are open to tuition and support, to develop their operations, from their more experienced peers. The problem is you don’t want people to think “this is craft beer from Basque” or “this is what craft beer is ... no thanks”.

Naparbier, from Pamplona, has been leading the craft beer movement in the Basque region for some time now. To begin with, Naparbier had few other craft breweries in the region to align with. Howev-er, it stuck to its art and has built a great reputation, not just within Basque, but across the world. Its producing all the big craft styles we love – American Ambers, Porters, Saisons, Black IPAs, and it also has a respectable repertoire of collaborators from the likes of Evil Twin, Toccalmatto, Nogne O, and HaandBryggeriet.

Another interesting craft brewery to look out for is Ma-teo & Bernabe, a truly artisan brewery with a strong focus on beer and food matching - located in La Rioja and sharing a border with the Basque region. As a designer, I can’t look past their beautiful labels

either.

There is a strong belief that Basque country, and Spain for that matter, will follow a similar beer revolution as that which occurred in North America. With lots of brew-eries entering the market, a strengthened craft brewery alliance has the opportunity to gradually earn its share of the Spainish beer drinking market. Currently, craft beer in Spain holds 1% of the beer drinking market, compared to a more mature share for the craft beer market in the US of 14%. Early days, but craft beer always needs to start somewhere, and it has certainly already started in Basque Country.

With this in mind, Kevin has started the process of setting up a local harvest to give the local breweries the ability to source and utilise local produce in their beer. This is a long term plan that needs buy-in from government and the local farming community, but with continual growth in the industry, that buy-in will surely come.We look forward to trying some Basque beers in our upcoming Beer52 boxes.

SPANISHMICROBREWERIES

TRAVEL

CRAFT BEER FROM CHEESE COUNTRYCHEDDAR ALES

CHEDDAR ALES

Cheddar Ales started life in 2006 when ex-perienced local brewer, Jem Ham, decided to go it alone and start his own artisan brewery. Starting with a 20brl plant was a brave move but 7 years later on Jem is now beginning to wish he had a 40 brl plant.

The lads at the brewery brew 6 permanent beers in cask and bottle for the local pub and off trade market including a Best Bitter, Golden ale, Porter, IPA, Pale ale and Premium bitter.

Awards have come thick and fast over the past few years including medals at regional and national SIBA competitions as well as a Gold medal at International level, enhancing our belief that we are pretty good at what we do.

CHALLENGING CONVENTION

Recent developments have seen us venture into the more daring “Craft” beer market where conventional recipes are thrown aside in favour of newer styles. Whether it be using more hops, different malts or just producing styles not normally seen in trad-tional pubs we will be coming up with one offs to tantalise the taste buds and challenge tradtional beliefs.

Whilst we appreciate that this is being done in adundance already and is being done brilliantly by some well know brewers, we believe that we have the experience, passion and know how to be up there with the best. Bold claims indeed and watch this space.

CROWN AND GLORY» The beer we’re drinking this month.

AWARD WINNING ALES, BREWED ON THE SLOPES OF THE MENDIP HILLS

PRODUCTION» Small scale

production with an

eye for detail.

SUMMER PALE ALE

Our first official foray into the craft market is our Summer Pale Ale at 4.4% ABV and not only sees a massive load of hops during the boil but levels of dry hopping never seen before at Ched-dar Ales. A simple malt background is infused with a huge blend of Brewers Gold, Mount Hood and Chinook whole hops that blocked our copper and then dry hopped at nearly 1kg per brewers barrel in FV after fermentation.

This decision to join the throng of “Craft” beer producing brewers was made after the beer on offer this month, Crown and Glory, proved such a massive success over the past 2 years.

CROWN AND GLORYOriginally brewed to celebrate the Queen`s Jubilee and the London Olym-pics we decided to make something out of the norm, something just a little bit more special than we were already making.

Crown and Glory is made using a cocktail of Pale, Wheat, Crystal and Cara malts to provide a solid, malty background. We then hop it with a blend of fruity English Bramling X whole hops and more aromatic and powerful American Simcoe, Cascade and Summit.

We then dry hop the beer after fermentation for at least a week and preferably two to give the beer even more depth of hop flavour and aro-ma. The result is an incredibly well balanced beer with good malty under-tones and several layers of hoppiness. We sincerely hope you will enjoy it as much as we do.

BREWERY TOURS

Based in one of England’s most beautiful regions, we attract a huge number of visitors to our fun and entertining brewery tours. We love showing people how simple and traditional our production process is - while we use modern equipment, the main ingredient in our beers is definitely the passion that we have for making great beer.

EASY PICNICLEMON

SQUEEZY

IN LAST MONTH’S EDITION, WE SHARED OUR PINIC STYLE TIPS. NOW IT’S TIME FOR SOME RECIPES - WHAT SHOULD YOU EAT WITH YOUR SUMMER CRAFT BEERS?

ONION BHAJIS & BLACK BEAN EMPANADAS

DRINKING IN STYLE

INDIA’S FAVOURITE SNACK

INGREDIENTS

2 free-range eggs3 onions, sliced120g/4oz plain flour1 tsp ground coriander1 tsp cumin seeds3 tbsp vegetable oil, plus extra if required

PREPARATION METHODBeat the eggs in a bowl.

Add the onion rings and mix well.

Add the flour, ground coriander and cumin seeds and stir well to combine.

Heat the oil in a deep-sided frying pan over a medium heat. When hot add a large spoonful of the bhaji mixture and fry for 30-45 seconds, until gold-en-brown.

Turn the bhaji over and fry for a further 30 seconds, until crisp and golden-brown all over. Remove and drain on kitchen paper.

Repeat with the remaining bhaji mix-ture, replenishing the oil in the pan if it runs low and allowing it to heat up again after a new addition.

A TASTE OF ARGENTINA

INGREDIENTS400g cooked black beans100g mature cheddar1 medium onion, finely choppedSmall handful of thyme, chopped2 tbsp Chile de Arbol sauceEgg wash (1 egg mixed with a splash of milk)500g block of puff pastry

PREPARATION METHODPreheat oven to 200C/gas mark 6.

Sweat onions until soft and set aside to cool.In a bowl, mix the grated cheese, black beans, cooled onions, chile de arbol sauce and thyme and mash so that the black beans bind everything togetherRoll the pastry until about 5mm thick. Cut into 8 equal squares.In each square put one to two gener-ous tbs of the black bean mixture in the middle of each square.Brush some egg wash around the filling, then fold a corner of the pastry over to the opposite corner to make a triangle. Press the edges together with a fork.Brush the parcels with the remaining egg wash and prick with the fork once or twice to create air holes. Bake for 20 minutes, or until crisp and golden.

FEST

IVA

LSJOIN US AT ALL THE GREAT CRAFT BEER FESTIVALS THIS SUMMER.

CRAFT BEER RISING (ABOVE)» Glasgow’s first major craft beer event.

» Over 3,000 people expected to attend.

» Hosted by Drygate Brewery, 19-21st Sept

» www.craftbeerrising.co.uk

FESTIVALS

LONDON CRAFT BEER FESTIVAL» 24 breweries will be pouring their wares.

» Local producers as well as international.

» Oval Space, Bethnal Green, 14th-17th Aug

» www.londoncraftbeerfestival.co.uk

GREAT BRITISH BEER FESTIVAL» Organised by CAMRA

» Over 55,000 people expected to attend.

» Olympia, London, 12-16th August

» www.gbbf.org.uk

IMBC - MANCHESTER » Music & food traders

» 47 brewers, 80+ taps

» Victoria Baths,, 9-12th Oct

» www.indymanbeercon.co.uk

FOR A COMPLETE LISTING» Check out beer-festival-calendar.co.uk

B’ING CUBED: 2ND BIRMINGHAM BEER BASH

Things are changing in the beer world.Things have been changing slowly for some time, and the shift in the UK from the idea that good beer has to be “Real” to the acceptance of good beer for good beer’s sake has become tangible.Highlighting this shift is the growth of Craft Beer festivals.I use the word Craft with a bit of a sigh as it’s a word I have a lot of problems with, but I suppose we need a catchall and that’s as good as any.Last Saturday (July 26) I attended the second Birming-ham Beer Bash – or #BCubed – organised by a bunch of beer bloggers who were sick of the tired old formulaic beer festivals on offer around the Midlands and decided to do something about it.

THE BOND CO.Held at The Bond Co., a superb venue at the side of the canal, a central courtyard packed with award winning street food vendors leads left and right into renovated warehouses with racks of casked and kegged beer.Unlike many festivals this is a ticketed event, meaning you don’t find any large queues at the bars and you’re unlikely to find you’ve missed out on any of the beers that you might want to try.It’s a good model – Nobody gets grumpy, everyone drinks what they want and the atmosphere is any-thing but stuffy.There are a lot of beards in the world of Craft Beer though.The Craft Beard Movement perhaps?But that’s for a different publication.So, my day started with a hot and stuffy train journey

into Birmingham with a couple of friends and we arrived in glorious afternoon sunshine to find the Bond Co. buzzing with happy chatter.It was lunchtime and so having grabbed a quick glass of appropriately named Beerd Razor IPA (5.9%) (Just to get my eye in you understand), I stood in a short queue to buy some rather delicious sausages and immediately struck up conversation with the couple ahead of me.They had travelled over from North Wales having read the stunningly positive reports (some of them from me) about last year’s inaugural #BCubed and they were not disappointed with what they found.I caught up with a few friends – both real life and online people I’ve gotten to know through the world of beer writing – and made my way over to the cask bar as I’d heard there was a new beer from Salopian Brewery on offer.

SALOPIAN AND KINETICI’m a big fan of Salopian and Kinetic, a six and a half percent Golden Ale, was a jelly sweetie fuelled sherbet bomb of hoppy goodness.This was going to be hard to beat, and by the end of the afternoon was easily my favourite beer of the day.While I was near the cask bar, and having just had my usual friendly mickey taking conversation with James the brewer, I decided to try New Dawn (4.1%) from his recently established Axiom Brewery.It was a decent Pale Ale, all straw and sunshine, and as a first brew it bodes well for this fledgling concern.It was at around this time that I bumped into Marverine Cole (@beerbeauty), TV presenter and Beer Sommelier, we hugged and laughed and had a quick catch up before she explained to me she is working on an idea for a television show about modern beer.I of course offered my services, never having been frightened of thrusting myself into the limelight, and suggested a beautiful black wom-an and a skinny middle aged white bloke would make for a televisual feast for the massive audience the show would surely attract.We decided McCartney & Jackson’s “Ebony And Ivory” would be a suitable theme tune and danced while humming loudly, much to the confusion of those around us.

GUEST WRITER>> Simon Williams is the founder of the Campaign for Really Good Beer

camrgb.org

Then it was time for Squidy.Craft brewers are always trying to push real or perceived boundaries and Hardknott Brewery seem to find bound-aries to push that nobody else has noticed.

SQUIDYSquidy (3.8%) was brewed espe-cially for #BCubed and is a Pale Ale with squid ink.Yes, you read that right.It’s an odd beer.It plays tricks on you.You see, the squid ink doesn’t add anything to the flavour, but it makes the beer as black as pitch and gives it a perfectly white fluffy head.This means that as you lift it to your lips you’re expecting a big malty coffee and toast Stout experience that confuses your tastebuds because when you get it in your mouth it’s a straightforward crisp and clean Pale Ale.An interesting experiment, I’m glad I tried it but I won’t be rushing back.By now the afternoon session was moving on apace with conversation flowing between friends and brewers, I had to stop for a bit of a sit down.I caught up with my friends over a glass of Off Beat Brew-ery’s Jumping Juniper Rye (5.2%) – I’m a sucker for a Rye Beer and this one was particu-larly good with the junipers

adding a super clean edge to the meatiness of the malts – We discussed how good it was to see brewers at the event.All of them approachable, and all eager to talk about their beer while getting slowly sozzled along with everybody else.Eventually the afternoon began to get so hot that we decided to move from the now stuffy warehouse rooms and out into the sunshine.

HARDKNOTTI decided to take a glass of Hardknott’s Rhetoric 3 (12.5%) with me and it split opinion.It’s a Barley Wine brewed with pink peppercorns and jasmine tea and while I found it delicious, one or two people thought it tasted like cough medicine.(It did a bit, but in a good way).This was followed by a Mik-keller Koppi IPA (6.9%) from the International Bar as I was flag-ging and needed a pick-me-up.Koppi is a big hoppy IPA made with loads of coffee beans and it acted as a rocket boosted kick in the pants.Brilliant.Just what I needed.By this point we had less than an hour of our afternoon session to go and so I grabbed a glass of Magic Rock’s Bourbon Aged Bearded Lady (10.5%) and a glass of Marble’s Decadence (8.7%).

Both similar Imperial Stouts, one barrel aged, one not.It was a simple test f my taste buds after a day’s drinking.The Magic Rock beer won hands down.Bigger, thicker, richer, it had everything I’d want to finish of a session.Before we got kicked out I caught up with one of the organisers.Both David (@OthertonAle-man) and Dan (@mediocre_dan) were hyped up and excited by what they had achieved for a second year.

A GREAT EVENTI congratulate them on an excellent event.The balance of fabulous beer on offer, kept well and present-ed beautifully, the super food available, and the whole easy going atmosphere of the venue itself made for an absolutely brilliant day.your tickets.

With events cropping up in Manchester, Glasgow and London, and with the rise of the #Twissup as an even less formal type of gathering, you can be sure that if you decide to take part you’ll find a bunch of likeminded souls all happy to have a friendly day while they get slowly beery.

CAMRGB.ORG

EVENT REVIEW

The 3 Weiss Monkeys is the firs designed by BrauMaster Ben Ott fusing his German heritage and his love for American craft beer.3 Weiss Monkeys is a White IPA – a fusion of Hefeweizen (wheat beer) and IPA. Using 50% Wheat and absolutely tons on Citra hops, it’s a big bomb of citrus, resin, banana and spicy flavours.

A brand new hybrid style beer rarely seen in the UK. It has a high percentage of malted wheat which when combined with the generous amount of Citra T90s give a beautifully light and citrusy flavour and aroma to our flagship brew. The Hiber-nation is unfiltered, unfined and unpasteurised for great taste and at 5.2% it packs the punch that customers expect of an IPA. We have lowered the front end bitterness to put greater emphasis on drinkability.

The Hackney Hopster is a debonair young chap of a pacific pale ale. Dressed in New Zealand & US hops, the Hopster shows off flavours of grape-fruit, lemon zest and gooseberry, with a dry and fresh finish. Taste: Grapefruit, lemon zest, gooseberry. Finish: Dry & freshDrink with: Citrus Chicken, Spicy Thai

Premium hoppy amber coloured bitter crafted using finest pale, cara and crystal malts and hopped with blend of English Bramling Cross and American Simcoe, Amarillo and Cascade whole hops. Dry hopped for extra ooomph!

“SUMMER ISABOUT LIGHT,HOPPY PALE ALES. THIS SELECTION OFFERS A FULL RANGE”

CHRIS MILLERHead Beer Taster

3 WEISS MONKEYSLondon Fields, 5.5%

HIBERNATION WHITE IPABearHug Brewing, 5.2%

HACKNEY HOPSTERLondon Fields Brewery, 4.2%

CROWN AND GLORYCheddar Ales, 4.7%

londonfieldsbrewery.co.uk

bearhugbrewing.com londonfieldsbrewery.co.uk

cheddarales.co.uk

THE REFRESHING TASTE OF SUMMER

Our ‘Maori Pale Ale’ came to-gether after months of experi-mentation with a very unique hop – Nelson Sauvin from New Zealand. Strong grape flavours are complimented by the sweet Munich malt, making this beer crisp and refreshing.

A refreshing rose wheat beer with a spicy ginger kick. Proving that the hop needn’t be the only flower used in brewing, you’ll notice the unique aroma of roses as you pour this beer. This is balanced by a subtle kick of fresh ginger.

The only authentic Czech pilsner brewed in Scotland. We combine pilsner malts in soft Perthshire waters and ignite this with the enticing aromas of Saaz and Hallertau Hersbrucker hops. We then let loose our yeast, sourced from one of the oldest brewing sites in Prague. The result is an inimitable blend of contentental class and Scottish substance in an infinitely enjoyable lager.

tinyrebel.co.uk

brouwerijdemolen.nl

ticketybrew.co.uk

www.inveralmond-brewery.co.uk

THE FULL NELSON, ,Tiny Rebel, 4.8%

AMERIKAANSDe Molen., 4.5%

ROSE WHEAT BEERTicketybrew

SUNBURST BOHEMIAN PILSNERInveralmond Brewery, 4.8%

BEERS IN YOUR BOX

Now and then it’s time for something different and refreshing. This light amber coloured Bitter with an American touch is a great example. Amerikaans has the best of both the old and the new world.

FOR MORE INFO AND CHAT ABOUT THIS MONTH’S BEERS: BEER52.COM

THE REFRESHING TASTE OF SUMMER

A rich and dark Spiced Eng-lish Vermouth made using English organic wormwood from Somerset, organic thyme from the New Forest, English wine from Three Choirs Vineyard in Glouces-tershire as well as many other barks, peels and spices. Limited availability. 18% abv 70cl. For the ultimate Negro-ni blend with Sacred Gin and Sacred Rosehip Cup! (We also love it 50:50 over ice with a peaty single malt...)

In a house in Highgate Hill, there exists a craft distillery.

In the early days, Ian’s focus was on re-engineering the vintage wine he’d been collecting since the tender age of 18. But one fateful day,

when he’d taken delivery of some neutral spirit and botanicals, he found himself working towards a formula for gin.

Sacred Gin is unique. Each of its twelve organical-ly sourced botanicals are macerated with the highest quality English grain spirit and then distilled separately in glassware under vacuum. This process is responsible for the distinctively lush, fresh character of Sacred Gin.

This means the botanicals, including fresh cut citrus, juniper, cardamom, nutmeg and a type of frankincense called Boswellia sacra.

We have the pleasure of working with one of Cuba’s

most highly-regarded cigar manufacturers, H Upmann. This thin, hand-rolled, ca-dete-style cigar is a really light and easy smoke, with mild flavours that can be drawn out for a good length of time.

Our best advice for any newcomers to the cigar world would be to make

sure you sharply cut the butt, avoid using lighter to ignite your cigar - its best to avoid

for more about this great gin» sacredspiritscompany.com

SPIRIT OF THE MONTH

WHAT’SSMOKING

WE’RE EXCITED TO BE FEATURING A PROPER TINY DISTILLERY IN THIS MONTH’S BOX.

FOR MEMBERS OF OUR SMOKES CLUB, FOR JUST £8 A MONTH, WE ADD A

CORONAS JUNIOR» 115mm, 5,43g, Handmade, Cuban

EAST LONDON’SHIPPESTBREW

LONDON FIELDS BREWERY

LONDON FIELDS BREWERY

24

THE STORY OF HACKNEY’S FIRST MICRO-BREWERY....

Inspired by a drought of craft beer in Hack-ney – one of the most culturally vibrant areas in London – we thought it was about time Hackney had its very own brewery to provide home grown, handcrafted beers alongside the ever increasing amount of craft products being produced here.

In August 2011, London Fields Brewery was born, based in the centre of Hackney, under the railway arches next to the oasis of greenery within the smoke that is London Fields itself. Now a part of a growing number of fine brew-eries in Hackney and London, we are proud to help spread the word of craft beer around the country and put Hackney on the map as a desti-nation for great beer.

Come along and enjoy the sunshine and a few pints of our most recent creations in our courtyard.

SOME OF LONDON FIELD’S OTHER BEERS:

LOVE NOT WAR

First brewed barricaded in the brewery during the London riots. This brooding red ale is an ode to all things peace and love. A true union of malt and hops, with silky texture and soft caramel flavours cuddling up to a rich pear and summer fruit character.sustainable and transparent

BLACK PATH PORTER

Named after a historic trading route steeped in legend and protected by an ancient Templar that runs from Walthamstow to Smithfield’s and passes directly behind our brewery. Our Braumaster likes to think he has heard whis-pers from the ancient Porters who travelled this route. He swears they spoke of a malty black brew, full of coffee and chocolate flavours that warmed the cockles after the long journey.

SHOREDITCH TRIANGLE IPA

Barley Oat and Wheat were sitting by a shady tree out in the countryside when Columbus and a Chinook Indian from the Centennial days of America came into sight. Barley said to Oat and Wheat “how is that possible?”, Columbus and the Indian said something about heading to Shoreditch in London. The rest is history. That’s the short version, for the long version, drink this beer and everything will become clear.

WHEAT BEER

A classic German style Hefeweizen. Lovely and cloudy, highly carbonated and lightly hopped to allow the wheat and yeast to work their magic. Full of spicy notes like cloves and cinnamon and overtones of banana.

WE BREW LOTS OF SEASONAL AND ONE-OFF BEERS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR INCLUDING IMPERIAL STOUTS, DOUBLE IPA’S AND HARVEST ALES. KEEP AN EYE OUT HERE FOR MORE INFO AND OUR LATEST BREW.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THIS GREAT BREWERY:

LONDONFIELDSBREWERY.CO.UK

25

LOUIS BARNETT HAS CREATED A SET OF SPECIAL CHOCOLATES TO COMPLIMENT NEXT MONTH’S CRAFT BEER SELECTION FROM BEER52

we are constantly trying to push the bar (geddit?) in terms of helping our mem-bers to see craft beer in a

new light and we want every Beer52 box to be a completely different expe-rience to the last.

Next month is probably our most exciting ever collaboartion. We have the plasure of working with world-renouned chocolatier Louis Barnett.

After starting to make chocolate as a boy, he has gone on to become a world authority in his field - he travels the world demonstrating chocolate-making techniques and sharing the stories of his own adventures in chocolate.

Louis has created a set of four specially-blended chocolate bars to match each of the beers in next month’s box.

This selection includes:

MILK CHOCOLATE WITH CRUNCHY HONEY COMB PIECES, SEA SALT AND BLACK PEPPER

DARK CHOCOLATE INFUSED WITH SPICY CHILLI

Get your tastebuds ready for what is set to be a unique flavour experience. We’re featuring some extra special beers to mark the occasion

COMING UP NEXT:

CHOCOLATEMATCHED BY ACHOCOLATIER

IN NEXT MONTH’S BOX....

“HIGH QUALUTY CHOCOLATE AND CRAFT BEER MAKE GREAT FRIENDS”

DRINKING IN STYLE» Next month’s issue

will explain how best to

impress your dinner party

guests with chocolate and

beer recipes.

EUROPEAN CRAFT BEERS» Next month sees our

largest number of foreign

craft beers in the box.

Some of them have never

before been see in the UK!

JAMES BROWNFounder

Our magazine has been lovingly put together by our team of craft beer experts.

If you’d like to contribute to our next issue, please get in touch.

WWW.BEER52.COM

BEER52.COM IS NOW THE WORLD’S LARGEST AND FASTEST-GROWING CRAFT BEER COMMUNITY. WE’RE DE-LIGHTED TO BE BRINGING ALL OF THESE NEW DRINKING BUDDIES TOGETHER.

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