The BeerCast

Freshness really sells when it comes to foodstuffs - hence all the adverts for flash frozen seafood and just-picked vegetables. But what about beer? The prime variable in ale - the hops - are most often added dried as they are easier to store and transport following their Autumn harvest. But if you want fresh beer, Harvest Ales are definitely the style to seek out. Green hops are added following their Autumn picking, before they have a chance to be dried. Arguably started by Sierra Nevada with their 6.7% Southern Hemisphere Harvest (which I sampled at the 2009 GBBF at Earl’s Court), these beers have tremendous aromas and flavours from the natural oils maintained in the fresh hops.

But it’s not just the North Americans who have a go at these beers - us Brits are having a stab too. Derbyshire’s Thornbridge Brewery produce some fascinating ales, their Jaipur (check back for our review soon) recently won Gold at the 2010 GBBF, taking their haul of Champion Beer of Britain medals to five in five years. They have recently put out a collaboration with Doug Odell - Colorado Red (5.9%) - and also have the reigning UK Brewer of the Year in Stefano Cossi. So when their harvest ale (7.7% Halcyon 2009) wins best in category at the 2009 World Beer Awards, they must be on to something.

Hopped with freshly picked Herefordshire Target, the 2009 vintage pours a dark yellow with a lazy rising carbonation and a rapidly reducing head. As you’d expect, the primary aroma is hops, with some grass and green vegetables in the background - very much an American-style IPA hop-forward aroma. The taste is wonderful, the high hop bitterness balances with the healthy alcohol really well. As a result, I don’t think a blind tasting would yield a 7.7% answer if I had to guess the abv - it’s incredibly smooth and drinkable. On a par with the best American IPA’s - and certainly on the same level with Southern Hemisphere Harvest, Thornbridge Halcyon pushes close to Sierra Nevada’s other jaw-dropper, their peerless Estate series.

Recently I was listening to an episode of the excellent Craft Beer Radio, where hosts Jeff and Greg were discussing a list that had been published on blogcritics.org regarding the top seven trends in craft brewing for 2010. They make interesting reading, particularly with our interpretation on how those trends are currently being reflected in the UK real ale industry. The article states that in the US, craft beer made up 7.2% of industry output and 4.3% of sales in 2009. Over here, the real ale share of the market was 13.5% in 2009, according to a CAMRA study authored by Pete Brown.

It’s always interesting to compare and contrast the brewing scenes on both sides of the Atlantic, and also the demands of the drinking public on respective sides of the pond. The higher percentage figure of ‘craft ale’ sales over here could well be down to this last point, as the historical importance of the pub would (and hopefully always will) boost the stats as a readily-found source of cask ale. In the US, although probably the 7.2% of the American beer industry would dwarf the UK scene, they are vastly outnumbered by the major brewing conglomerates, even if the Molson-Coors, AB-Inbev’s of the world are suddenly struggling.

1. Nano- and Micro-Breweries

The first trend for 2010 on the list relates to the shrinking in scale of producers, from local and regional brewers to those occupying a smaller space, or even producing only for their neighbourhoods. This has to be a result of several factors – the increasing availability of brewing equipment, the promotion of local producers in the food industry, and the increasing popularity of decent beer prompting more people to ‘have a go’. The aforementioned industry domination by a few behemoth names can only add to this trend.

These examples hold on either side of the Atlantic – over here, more and more individual bespoke breweries are appearing. In Scotland we have small-scale producers brewing for specific pubs (Plockton, Moulin, Ayr Brewing Co) who have started to creep outwards from their base, not to mention dedicated enthusiasts who rent time and space at established breweries to put out their products (Luckie Ales, Knops Beer Company). However, the unfortunate demise of Windie Goat in Failford shows how much of a knife-edge these tiny start-ups inhabit.

2. Sour Beers

This is one that the US currently seems to be going alone – the Belgian-ification of craft brewing. The list highlights a number of American producers who are embracing the sour flavours – The Bruery (San Diego), Russian River (San Francisco), Avery (Denver), New Belgium (Denver), and Cascade (Portland). It’s not difficult to imagine the appeal of sour styles to brewers – the chance to try something different and to pay homage to one of the great underused brewing styles of the world. The problem is that they just don’t appeal to enough beer drinkers to merit more than a seasonal or one-off approach.

This is a shame (and I speak as someone who really tried to like Cantillon Gueuze when in Brussels). The UK doesn’t seem to be willing to embrace the sour revolution first begun in Belgium and now catching on in America. This could be because by and large the US scene already comes up with unusual styles and flavours, whereas the British pub goer appreciates a more subtly balanced session beer. Likewise (but with a few notable exceptions) British brewers aren’t rushing to take risks with their product lines. Also the domination of the pub here means the growing trend there of pairing beer with food gives the American brewers a multitude of outlets for more interesting flavour combinations.

3. Locally Produced Beer in Restaurants

Carrying on with that theme, the US National Restaurant Association found that 79% of restaurants viewed local wine and beer as a hot trend in 2010, and 62% of these surveyed viewed micro-brewed and craft beer as a hot trend. I really can’t imagine what the corresponding figures would be over here – probably more than I would expect, but still nowhere near that level of experimentation. The most common foodstuff consumed with British real ale would be a packet of crisps – restaurants here still don’t get it, there’s just less of a mentality in the UK for pairing beer with food.

Of course there are exceptions, such as the excellent Eat17 restaurant in Walthamstow, which features its own signature beer brewed for them by Brodies of Leyton. Multi-award winning Meantime in Greenwich also pair plenty of food with their beers at the Old Brewery restaurant by the Thames (although of course they own both the restaurant and the brewery). In terms of pubs, CAMRA created the LocAle scheme in 2007 to encourage public houses to rely more on locally-produced cask ale, and this has been a great success, promoting smaller-scale brewers over national suppliers wherever possible.

4. Creative Labelling

The trends list mentions wine producers seeking labels that stand out and that are also easy to remember – and that this is increasingly also true of the craft beer industry in America. It makes good marketing sense to create a niche for your products (provided there’s room to manoeuvre), particularly if there are others trying to share that space. In the UK, it’s more of an issue with wine as anyone who’s wandered around Sainsbury’s trying to pick a bottle can attest to – but beer certainly can follow in the same footsteps.

The traditional saucy cartoon-style pumpclip or label isn’t to everyone’s taste however. The older trend in the UK of wacky beer names really only appeals to the stereotypical bearded real ale drinker CAMRA are trying to move away from. But you could argue that these cheesy examples played their part in making cask ale stand out – even if the price paid was prospective drinkers having to squint at a small oval of cardboard to try and work out whether they really wanted a pint of Owd Jockstrap after all.

British beer labelling today is full of creative efforts that really stand out – the insert photos on this post are details from some of the best current examples. (From top to bottom they are…Humpty Dumpty Reedcutter, York Brewery Yorkshire Terrier, Meantime Chocolate Stout, BrewDog Atlantic IPA, Hopdaemon Skrimshander IPA, Williams Bros Fraoch, Tirril Brewery Academy Ale)

5. Extreme Beer

Surely this is one of the trends that the UK is currently blazing a trail with – and all down to the L’enfant terrible of British beer, BrewDog. The article mentions them straight off, highlighting their 32% and 41% beers (Tactical Nuclear Penguin and Sink the Bismarck! respectively). Of course since then The End of History (55%) has been released, firmly pushing the Fraserburgh duo up into first place in the extreme beer wars. Over the pond, Sam Adams Utopia tops out at 27% - and there are plenty of people who think the record stops with them, as Utopia isn’t freeze ‘distilled’ like BrewDog’s or Schorschbräu’s (whenceforth the argument usually descends into semantics and brewing tech-speak).

The overall trend is that American beer drinkers prefer stronger beers to their UK counterparts. This, again, is down to the role of the pub and the desire for a night’s drinking rather than a bang-for-your-buck mentality. That’s not to say American drinkers are alcohol-primed loners eschewing company over their 12% imperial IPA’s. It’s just that due to the history of relatively weaker beers over here, you could argue that the British ale drinker has a higher appreciation for the subtleties of beer, whereas his or her American counterpart revels in unusual, palate-challenging combinations (which by the competitive nature of craft breweries will contain unusual ingredients).

6. Hybrid Styles

That inherent (if admittedly stereotypical) difference between the wants of an American and UK ale drinker reflects in the sixth trend on the list of seven – the rise of hybrid styles. It gives some fantastic examples of experimental added ingredients utilised by US craft brewers – peanut butter, chillies, spices, tea leaves – most of which I can’t imagine taking off over here. Of course, we do have some examples – Bruce and Scott Williams started off brewing the heather ale Fraoch in 1988, and now have a core range of traditional beers alongside their Williams Bros beers. East Anglia’s Fox Brewery put out Nelson’s Blood, a bitter mixed with spiced rum – and of course BrewDog use plenty of fantastic ingredients in their stronger brews.

Americans generally aren’t interested in 4% session beers, and the rise of ranking websites such as RateBeer (on which you can now find me – BeerCast_Rich) mean that the desire to pigeonhole ales into specific categories inevitably means the addition of a few extra adjuncts will make classification more difficult. The growth areas of the innovative American craft brewers – wood aged beers, souring agents, combining unexpected ingredients – are slowly making their way over here (aged beers being the frontrunner at the moment) – but surely there are plenty of British real ale brewers who have the desire to experiment, and the skill to pull it off.

7. Collaboration Beers

Publicity drives any business, and the rewards for teaming up with another producer can be very tempting. Creating a collectable, limited-edition brand – not to mention the pooling of ideas, experience and equipment are all good reasons to tempt brewers along this path – irrespective of their location. Currently the trend for collaboration beers is strongest in the US, and the list gives such examples as DogFish Head and Sierra Nevada’s Life & Limb series – but over here too there are examples. BrewDog are fairly popular bedfellows, with their excellent Devine Rebel in collaboration with Danish producer Mikkeller, and their Stone brew Bashah also winning praise.

So what conclusions can we draw from this list? It seems at the moment that most of these US craft brewing trends for 2010 can be applied to the UK real ale brewing industry, albeit with several provisos revolving around the differences between their target audiences. As British drinkers learn to experiment more, and American craft breweries run out of ideas, the two will overlap to a greater extent – but are either of those things really likely? Time will tell, but in the meantime all of us are going to be able to choose between an increasingly interesting beer scene (wherever we live), which is surely good news for everybody.

This Year’s Top 7 Craft Beer Trends (Blogcritics)

The famed Whitstable Oyster Festival is taking place at the moment, in the agreeable seaside town on the north Kent coast known throughout the country for it’s slippery bivalves. However, an outbreak of shellfish herpes virus has decimated the cultivated molluscs in the area, further punishing a beleaguered industry already suffering from reduced harvests. In a rather unfortunate piece of irony, the disease won’t directly affect the festival as most sold during the week-long celebration are imported from the Channel Islands – the oyster beds around the town just aren’t sustainable enough anymore. Recently the organisers were having to turn to the Pacific rock oyster beds sited on other parts of the Kent Coast – but these are the ones now dying from the virus. However the contingency plans to import them from further afield have been called into action to supply enough of the salty critters for people to slurp.

Running alongside the main bivalve-related spectacular are other festivals – including one dedicated to beer. A couple of weeks ago I found myself in the town (in 30ºC heat, no less) and managed to pick up a six-pack of Whitstable Brewery ales. Owned by the Whitstable Oyster Fishery Company the brewery is not actually based in the town, but 20-odd miles away near the small (but wonderfully named) village of Grafty Green. As the WOFC owns the hotel and bar on the seafront, they have a great outlet for their range of bottled and cask ales. I was particularly keen to try their 4.1% East India Pale Ale, but unfortunately neither the pub nor the restaurant had it on at the time, and I couldn’t get hold of the bottled version. But I did find a multipack of their other staples to take home…

Whitstable Pilsner (4.9%)
Pilsners seem to be a hot topic at the moment, and are prefect for the hot days of summer that seem to affect Kent far more than Scotland. Whitstable’s version of the style delivers very nicely, pouring a perfectly golden colour with mild carbonation and a brilliant clarity. There’s a slight aroma of hops but thankfully a much more interesting taste as the Saaz push their way to the fore. The bitterness is joined by a pleasing earthiness and a soft finish. As Bohemians go, it’s a pretty accomplished example.

Whitstable Wheat ( 5.2%)
The next style that came out of the box was their wheat beer, made in the Bavarian style. Right from the off it’s a classic, down the lines wheat beer - massively carbonated, with a furiously dispersing head. I counted down two inches of frothing to nothing in twenty seconds, which is quite something. A hazy orange, golden pale colour, the staple wheat beer aromas of banana, citrus and coriander are evident. The taste is bitter at first, with a sweet wheaty aftertaste and a touch of alcohol – almost spoiled by the burstingly fizzy mouthfeel, reminiscent of a sparkling wine. But it’s pretty good Weiss all considered.

Raspberry Wheat (5.2%)
Fruit comes next as the third beer in the box is Raspberry Wheat (there are one of each of the wheats, two each of the others). Pouring a deep cloudy red colour, it smells jam-like, with some sweetness. There are raspberry flavours but it’s pretty subtle stuff, the gentle fruit flavours never really come to the fore like you hope they will. After a slight burst at the beginning, they fade into a dry finish that peters out into little else.

Whitstable Oyster Stout (4.5%)
There’s no way any self-respecting brewery from Whitstable could get away with not putting out an oyster stout, considering the town’s (and drink’s) long association with the bivalves. Oysters have long been served as humble tavern food, and so were often paired with the original darker styles of beer in the UK. After WWII some brewers began adding the molluscs to the brewing process, when the craze for stouts as a health drink (‘Guinness is good for you’ etc) hit it’s peak. Whitstable’s version doesn’t contain the shellfish, they just recommend the pairing.

As you’d expect, it’s very black, totally opaque, and with the attractive tan-coloured head a stout should sport. There’s a dark roasty aroma which follows into the taste, which then moves through into an almost tangy aftertaste, which is very dry. There are hints of coffee, and something almost like salt – making me wonder if there are actually some of the little fellas in there. Without much sweetness to offset these dark, dry flavours it almost becomes a bit much after a while – but it’s worth persevering with, and would certainly complement a plate of oysters very well (if I ate them, that is – having previously studied commercial shellfish parasitology I lost my love for bivalves…)

Whitstable Brewery website
Whitstable Oyster Festival 2010

Oddbins are not usually known for their beer sales, having become an established name on the UK high street due to their wines – but maybe that’s starting to change. The closure of some of their competing chains (Threshers, Wine Rack) has meant it more likely grain fans will turn up trying to find something to their liking, along with all the grape already on offer. Recently what looked like an entire brewery range stared back at me from the shelves of a local outlet, and a previously unknown producer at that – Hobson’s Ales, from Cleobury Mortimer in Shropshire. Four in total, I bought one of each and retired for some sampling, to put them through their paces.

Manor Ale (4.2%)
The bottles look quite classic in style, each one a single bold colour. The first, Manor Ale, is described as a Bitter Amber Ale, brewed to celebrate the Severn Valley Railways Manor Class steam engines. It pours very flat, with a deep dark orange colour. The aroma is extremely bitter, none of the citrus zest mentioned on the label tasting notes comes through at all. Earthy bitterness on the palate, with some hops following. I’m quite a fan of bitter beers, and this is certainly a bitter amber ale as described. There’s a very dry, almost acrid aftertaste, which may put some drinkers off.

Old Henry (5.2%)
This one is a Rich Auburn Ale, and is the strongest of the lot at 5.2%. It’s named after the ex-master brewer Henry Hobson, who liked to sport a bowler hat of the style originally favoured by gamekeepers rather than City gents. It’s an opaque dark red rather then the advertised chestnut in colour, with a malty aroma. Tastewise it’s drinkable but for me was a bit empty and overly sweet. I drank this on a different night to the Manor Ale, so my tastebuds were unaffected! It looks and tastes quite light for it’s malty background.

Town Crier (4.5%)
Golden Ales are ubiquitous now in British brewing, which in my mind is a good thing. Town Crier is Hobson’s offering in that category, and as with their other beers the slight haziness hangs in the glass, but it doesn’t spoil the light straw colour of the beer. The smell is fantastic, crisp fruit – almost a hint of apple in there. As you’d expect, it’s pretty refreshing, and is slightly sweet for a Golden Ale, it leans away from the dry end of the spectrum – I imagine it would be tremendous on cask. My only quibble would be that the bottle has a black label, instead of…

Postman’s Knock (4.8%)
…their porter, Postman’s Knock, which is pinky beige – and therefore maybe more suited to the Manor Ale. Then the Golden Ale could be green! Anyway, that’s by the by – the last one is thick and dark, with aromas of malt and chocolate. The ripe, juicy smell is tremendous, and the taste really follows on well. Rich, treacly warmth and molasses – it’s a great example of a dark ruby porter, with aromas similar to Theakston’s Old Peculier, and that slight smokiness akin to Sinclair Orkney Dark Island, which is one of my all-time favourites.

Our latest podcast revolves around a theme which at first glance may seem tenuous, but actually has a pretty strong connection with British brewing – the railways. The rapid expansions of brewing centres such as Burton-on-Trent were aided by the arrival of the railway to transport barrels to the major population centres of the UK. London’s St Pancras station, for example, had raised tracks to negotiate the Regent’s Canal – creating a huge pillared cellar for storing beer transported from Staffordshire by the Midland Railway. These days, there are heritage railway pub crawls, and many stations have real ale opportunities for the discerning drinker. So our homage to the British railways begins with Wylam Locomotion No1 (5.0%), a pilsner lager named after one of George Stephenson’s Rocket precursors. We then move on to Richmond Station Ale (4.0%) from the Richmond Brewing Company in North Yorkshire, before sampling Wold Top’s train-related A4 Amber (4.4%). Our final beer is a nod to that most famous railway style, as we taste Dent Porter (3.8%) from Dent in Cumbria. Catching a ride on this podcast are driver MrB, ticket collector Grooben, and manning the buffet car, Richard.

1. Locomotion No1 (5.0%abv)
Wylam Brewery, Heddon on the Wall, Tyne and Wear. 500ml glass bottle

Heddon on the Wall is a Northumberland village located nine miles from the centre of Newcastle (the wall being Hadrian’s). Nearby is Wylam - the birthplace of the father of the railways George Stephenson, who built the first public steam railway in the world, the Stockton and Darlington. On this route travelled Locomotion No1, an early prototype of his more famous Rocket steam engine. A few hundred years later, John Boyle and Robin Leighton set up a brewery in Wylam on an old dairy farm in May 2000. They outgrew the original plant in 2006 and expanded to a new facility three times the size in a bespoke barn conversion. They decided to name their pilsner after Stephenson’s Rocket precursor, the ideas for which were formed only a few miles from the brewery site.

What They Say -
“Made with lager and Vienna malts, a lager yeast and with the famous Saaz hop. This continental style beer is traditionally lagered for 3 weeks at1oC to give that distinctive lager style and the flavour of a classic hop.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Richard - Low carbonation with a little dryness at the end 7½
Grooben - Smells quite nice, but I think it lacks a little body 6
MrB - I don’t know where it fits with that low carbonation, to me lager is barbecues or holidays 6

2. Richmond Station Ale (4.0%abv)
Richmond Brewing Co, Richmond, North Yorkshire. 500ml glass bottle

Another railway-related brewery opened by two established brewers, the Richmond Brewing Company are much smaller than Wylam, operating from a six barrel microbrewery in a restored station. On the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, the market town of Richmond (Britain’s Great Town of the Year 2009) recently renovated their old station buildings into a tourist centre, with art galleries, cinemas and restaurants. Also on site is a resident microbrewery run by Andy Hamilton and Richard Bowerman, who have a combined 44yrs experience from such notables as Theakstons, John Smiths, Websters and Tennants.

What They Say -
“Richmond Station Ale is a light golden coloured bitter brewed using ale and crystal malts with English hedgerow hops.” [Official Website]

** On opening this one we immediately found strong indications that the beer had gone bad, despite being ‘in date’. We carried on to score it, but we may have to re-sample to get a better indication of Richmond Station Ale. **

What We Say…
Grooben - No body to this at all, it’s such an underpowered beer 4
Richard - You get bitter oakiness then off-tasting flatness 3
MrB - I don’t like this, it tastes like corked Chardonnay 2

3. A4 Amber Ale (4.4%abv)
Wold Top Brewery, Wold Newton, Driffield, East Yorkshire. 500ml glass bottle

The Wold Top Brewery at Wold Newton near Driffield in East Yorkshire was set up by two farming families, the Mellors and the Grays, in 2003. Both families have been growing malting barley for some time, and eventually decided to cut out the middle man and use the barley to make their own beer, sourcing the water from local chalk-filtered reservoirs. They not only set up this micro brewery but also bought a local pub, The Falling Stone in Thwing, as an outlet for their beers. Driffield is the ‘capital of the Wolds’ – the distinctive low rising hills that undulate around East Yorkshire. A4 Amber Ale was launched in 2007 to celebrate the A4 train festival on the North Yorks Moors Railway.

What They Say -
“Tasting Fruity and light with a dry finish, it is made from a combination of Maris Otter malt with Goldings, Styrian and Cascade hops.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Richard - Genuinely interesting - elderflower, fruit, hedgerows 7½
MrB - Fruity, refreshing, nice and hoppy, it’s good 7½
Grooben - They’re all juicy tonight, got a lovely apricot aroma 7

4. Dent Porter (3.8%abv)
Dent Brewery, Dent, Cumbria. 500ml glass bottle

Nestling in picturesque Dentdale, in that corner of the Yorkshire Dales National Park that is actually in Cumbria, is one of the most remote breweries in the Country. Originally, the intention was to sell Dent beer only at the Sun Inn, but such was its popularity that other landlords in the Dales and Lakes asked for supplies and the brewery was soon operating at capacity. Most of their beers have a sheep theme – their Golden Ale is called Golden Fleece, they do a German-style lager called Rambrau, and past seasonals include Ewe Wants to be a Millionaire, Ewe Let the Dogs Out, and Ali Baabaa. On our last BeerCast podcast, we sampled their best bitter Kamikaze, which ended up with the higest score on the night. Will Dent’s classic British porter do as well?

What They Say -
“A dark classic traditional English porter, with delicate tones of five different malts, a rich smooth head and lingering light bitter after-taste.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Richard - Very well balanced for limited leeway at 3.8% 8
MrB - I prefer my porters to be bitter like this rather than sweet 8
Grooben - Coffee hit at first but it mellows out, although maybe it needs that sweetness in the background 6

Panellists - (clockwise from top left) Richard, MrB, Grooben

BeerCast panel verdict
Wold Top A4 Amber (22/30)
Dent Porter (22/30)
Wylam Locomotion No1 (19½/30)
Richmond Station Ale (9/30)

Stay tuned for our next podcast, as we unleash MrB with the BeerCast kitty as he takes the reigns for BeerCast #49 – the MrBCast. Expect hops ahoy….