The BeerCast

Warwickshire’s Purity Brewing began production in December 2005, based in the attractive surroundings of Upper Spernall Farm near the village of Great Alne. Somewhat unusually these days, they only release three beers – Pure Gold, Mad Goose and Pure UBU. Apart from a one-off in 2008 to celebrate the centenary of the National Farmer’s Union, they concentrate solely on those three brands. Forgoing seasonals is quite a refreshing approach – as is their commitment to the local environment. Purity have created a series of wetlands to recycle the liquid brewing waste, which after nine processes is released into a local river as pure water. On the podcast this week – Richard, Grooben and Shovels. We also include a bonus fourth beer from London’s Kernel Brewery, their mighty Imperial Stout (12.5%). Many thanks to Kirsten at Purity for sending the beers through.

1. Pure Gold (4.3%abv)
Purity Brewing, Great Alne, Warwickshire.
500ml glass bottle

What They Say…
“Pure Gold is a refreshing Golden Ale. Made with English Maris Otter Malt and East Kent and Styrian Golding Hops, creating a surprisingly smooth, easy drinking beer with subtle citrus flavours.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Shovels – Biscuity strawness with a bit of orange 8
Grooben – Better than I was expecting, it’s good 7½
Richard – Some hop bitterness, a classic session beer 7

2. Mad Goose (4.2%abv)
Purity Brewing, Great Alne, Warwickshire.
330ml glass bottle

What They Say…
“Brewed with Maris Otter, Caragold and Wheat Malt with Hallertau bittering hops and Cascade and Willamette aroma hops. Light copper in colour with a great hop character and citrus overtones.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Grooben – Sharp and quite bitter but I’d happily drink it 6
Shovels – For a Pale Ale I expect a bit more citrus 6
Richard – Hop bitterness but no sweetness to punch through 5½

3. Pure UBU (4.5%abv)
Purity Brewing, Great Alne, Warwickshire.
500ml glass bottle

What They Say…
“Pure UBU – pronounced OO-BOO – named after our faithful canine friend and protector of our secrets. UBU 4.5% ABV is a distinctive premium amber coloured beer. Made from English Maris Otter, Crystal & Black Malts with Challenger and Cascade hops, creating a balanced full flavoured beer that is a pleasure to drink.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Shovels – Malty but in a very nicely balanced way 7½
Richard – Tastes like a Northern bitter, really good 7
Grooben – All these beers have been really quaffable 6½

4. Kernel Imperial Stout (12.5%abv)
The Kernel Brewery, Bermondsey, London.
330ml glass bottle

We finish the showcase with a bonus beer – the strongest beer on the books of London’s Kernel Brewery. Any regular BeerCast reader will know how keen we are on Evin O’Riordain’s beers – he really is brewing some of the most exciting beers in the country at the moment. We got hold of his monstrous Imperial Stout and decided to throw it into the mix – our bonus Kernel beer is becoming a bit of a theme (IPA S.C.A.NS. sneaked into BeerCast #54, and IPA Citra into BeerCast #59).

What They Say…
“Simple recipe – massive taste. Dark, dark black. Oily texture. Loads of rich dried fruit and alcohol warmth, rum and raisin.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Richard – So much going on, rich dark fruit coats the tongue 7
Grooben – Oh my, it’s making my chest hurt – too much for me 4
Shovels – Too much alcohol at the finish, it doesn’t sit right in my mouth 4

Panellists – (clockwise from top left) Grooben, MrB, Shovels, Richard

BeerCast panel verdict
Purity Pure Gold (22½/30)
Purity Pure UBU (21/30)
Purity Mad Goose (17½/30)
Kernel Imperial Stout (15/30)

Massive thanks to Kirsten at Purity Brewing for sending the beers through. Stay tuned for our 61st BeerCast, as we assemble a crack team to tackle four Ancient Beer Styles. Big beers, old beers, and strange beers feature in our next podcast, which will be out at the end of the month…

Purity Brewery website

The vagaries of work take me down from Edinburgh to Birmingham a few times each year, and although the travel and crappy hotel are never welcome – the Wellington certainly is. Previously I’ve written two ‘…in praise of’ articles on this fantastic pub (here and here), located on Bennet’s Hill just a short wander from New Street Station. This time I won’t go too much into the pub’s philosophy, only to say I hot-footed it there again as soon as I could, and tried three beers that they had marked as A on their beer board. Perfect for a summer’s evening quaffing, they lie on a scale of A – E, where A’s are light golden ales and E’s roasty porters.

A1. Pure Gold (3.8%abv)
Purity Brewery, Gt Alne, Warwickshire

Purity are the multi-award winning brewery from Warwickshire – their Pure UBU having been voted one of the world’s top 50 beers in 2007. On my last visit to the Wellington I was introduced to another of their beers, the excellent Mad Goose, a zesty pale ale named after an irritable wildfowl that plagues the brewers. This time I went for Pure Gold, an ex-champion beer of the West Midlands. It’s a classic golden ale similar in style to Suffolk’s St Peter’s, dry and midly hoppy, with the dryness continuing into the finish. The lack of sweetness makes it very sessiony and drinkable.

A2. Harrowby Pale Ale (3.9%abv)
Oldershaw Brewery, Grantham, Lincolnshire

Next I went for a new producer to me – Lincolnshire’s Oldershaw Brewery, based in Grantham. Harrowby Pale Ale was just as light and golden in colour as the Pure Gold, justifying the A-rating in the beer list. It was more malty in the finish than the previous beer though, and even drier. Still light in flavour though, with almost the same abv value nudging below 4%. One of the classic characteristics of summer ales is the biscuity aftertaste, and Harrowdy Pale Ale delivered that in spades. It reminded me of Inveralmond’s Homecoming Ale that we sampled at the Stockbridge Tap beer festival a few months ago.

A3. Forti-fived (4.5%abv)
Tower Brewery, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire

The final A-rated offering I tried on this visit to the Wellington was the Tower Brewey’s Forti-fived, a brand new beer from the small-scale producer in the heart of British (and arguably Global) brewing, Burton-on-Trent. They describe it as a ‘very quaffable golden hoppy mid gravity ale’ , which it certainly was. Unsurprisingly it had stronger alcohol notes than the previous two given the abv – although only subtly, as it still doesn’t trouble the 5% mark. It has a basic hoppiness, but to me tasted like a lightish bitter, which was eminently drinkable, and another suitable ale for the glorious British summer. Now if only the Wellington had a beer garden.

In late 2007 I visited a pub in Birmingham with one of the largest arrays of handpumps I’d ever seen – the Wellington on Bennet’s Hill. Well, the other day a similar bit of business saw me return to the second city and I just had to pay another visit. In short, the Wellington is nondescript on the outside, but the fifteen handpumps more than make up for it. The plasma screens don’t show sport – they have the beer menu instead, and as you order by pump number, you can get a pint by simply saying a single word.

On my return, I had a ‘twelve’, a ‘two’, a cheeky ‘three’ and then finally a ‘nine’. As ever with the Wellington, the majority of ales on offer were from the West Midlands – good for me, as living in Scotland we have almost no exposure to the many brewers from that region. But with fifteen to choose from it was pretty tricky. In the end I plumped for a couple of beers whose names relate to our troubled financial times, before trying another two totally at random from producers I’d never heard of. This was my kind of experiment.

12. Credit Crunch (4.8%abv)
Kinver Brewery, Stourbridge, West Midlands

Kinver are a small brewery in the village of the same name on the outskirts of Stourbridge. Begun in 2004 by Dave Kelly and Ian Davies, they have a five barrel plant that supplies the local area. Like many small breweries they first took the plunge at a beer festival – and emboldened by the punters response have gone from strength to strength. Credit Crunch is so new, it doesn’t feature on their website. It’s light in colour, but hoppy on the palate. It loses a bit of flavour near the end, but as a session beer would be good stuff.

2. Re-Session Ale (3.6%abv)
Cottage Brewery, Lovington, Somerset

Immediately disproving what I was saying about the Wellington specialising in local producers, my second choice comes from the southwest. Cottage have a 30 barrel plant and normally name their beers on a railway theme – but like Kinver have produced something new to ‘celebrate’ the worrying climate, although personally I think their financial pun wins out over Kinver’s. The beer sadly does not – Re-Session Ale was a dark amber beer that was unfortunately very flat. As a result, it tasted like Green King IPA from a can, and was really quite disappointing.

3. Mad Goose (4.2%abv)
Purity Brewery, Great Alne, Warwickshire

From the heart of the Midlands, Purity put out some highly acclaimed beers indeed. Pure UBU was named one of the World’s top 50 beers in 2007, and Pure Gold is the current Champion beer of the West Midlands, so will be going on to bid for the national crown at the GBBF in August. As it turned out, the Wellington had the last of these on offer when I was there – but it was another of their wares that caught my eye. Mad Goose is named after the farmyard fowl that terrorise the brewers. A zesty pale ale, it was far and away the nicest of the night, hoppy and light, almost like a slightly more bitter Summer Lightning.

9. Coastal Snowdrop (3.9%abv)
Coastal Brewery, Redruth, Cornwall

Zipping back to the southwest again for the final beer and a totally random choice selected pump 9 – Coastal’s Snowdrop. Head brewer Alan Hinde moved down to Cornwall from his native Crewe and took some of his brewing knowledge with him. Snowdrop is light but had a strong, almost overly powerful hop taste – but as it goes down the hops mellow and the other tastes comes through. As with most of the others tonight there’s no mention on Coastal’s official website – proof that the Wellington is trusted by the producers and gets the newest brews.

The Wellington, Birmingham