The Hop Studio launches
The city of York has many, many pubs within the famous undulating walls – but, as space is at such a premium, only one brewery. However, the flat expanses outside the city provide fertile ground for other beer producers – and just recently another has arrived on the scene. The Hop Studio was founded a few months ago, based on an industrial estate in Elvington. Brewer/Owner Dave Shaw launched his range of new beers at the York Tap a couple of weeks ago – and by a quirk of fortune, I was there to sample them.
Dave has been homebrewing for decades, and followed that eternally envy-inducing pathway of packing in the day job and re-training as a commercial brewer. Using a ten-barrel plant in the new facility, the first thing you notice about the beer is the branding – it’s very modern and clean, almost resembling gourmet olives or a range of bathroom products. I think it really works though – there are enough cartoonish, ‘Chuckleworth’s Old Trumper’ brewers out there with comedy pump clips, as it is.
Four beers were on at the Tap, with Dave and sales manager Jason on hand to conduct tutored tastings. The event happened to coincide with the York races – so the place was absolutely packed. The staff actually held off the beer until the Hop Studio chaps arrived, for fear the casks would be drained by thirsty racegoers before the tastings had even started. As it was, I managed to work my way through a half of each of them (Blonde, Gold, Pilsner, XS).
First impressions are that it’s very much early days with the Hop Studio. The Blonde – hopped with Cascade, Chinook and Nelson Sauvin – had so much NS involved that it tasted like one of BrewDog’s low alcohol offerings. There’s a good session beer in there somewhere, but the overwhelming vinous bitterness really put me off. However, since that tasting the recipe has apparently been re-tuned to be lighter and fruitier (according to their Twitter feed) – which is certainly a good thing.
The only keg beer they had was the Pilsner – a furious whirlwind of carbonation that puffed the head up two inches, ballooning over the top of the glass. As with the Blonde, fairly heavy on the bitter hops – the Saaz run rampant over everything, the bitterness becoming sharp on the finish, and very dry. Next up – the XS – a 5.5% strong bitter. Very nutty on the nose, the flavours are really something – dry roasted peanuts, citrus, raisins, chocolate and even banana bread.
One of the few beers I’ve had that was similar is Tempest’s Canyonero – another packed with unusual Kiwi hops (XS contains Wakatu, alongside Challenger, Target and Northdown). As with Canyonero, you’ll either love or hate the result – I thought it was really interesting, but with a lot of competing flavours crashing against each other. Finally, the Hop Studio Gold – lots of orange and apricot, it was the pick of the bunch. Sweet dried fruit, and a long bitter finish.
Even though there must be over a hundred breweries in Yorkshire, it’s always great to see newcomers arriving on the scene. The Hop Studio beers all show flashes of quality, but three are muddled at this early stage. Once the refinement is complete, I’m sure they’ll have a bright future, and that can only be a good thing for those thirsty people of the walled city.
