The BeerCast

Lagerboy hasn’t had a runout for a while – he tends to spend the winter months hibernating to avoid the plethora of dark beers that appear once the days begin to lengthen. But seeing as the sun has started to peak out from behind the sleety Edinburgh clouds, he set out on a mission to find one of Britain’s newest golden fizzies. Thornbridge Italia (4.8%) has been out for a month or so – and is already winning rave reviews, so it seems like the perfect start to another year of sparkly treats for Lagerboy.

Thornbridge are one of the prime movers and shakers of the current brewing scene, putting out some fantastic beer and routinely winning awards. Only last week Kipling won a Silver at the national SIBA contest, and Jaipur picked up a bronze at the inaugural SIBA Keg awards. Slightly less impressively – but not to us, of course – their Imperial Russian stout St Petersburg was named one of our best beers of 2010. I’m sure if we’d actually issued an award in physical form it would be nestling proudly on a mantelpiece somewhere in Bakewell.

Lagerboy would never dare drink an Imperial Russian stout – Baltika would probably be the choice, should he ever find himself east of the Dneiper. Sticking to the lighter, gassier offerings has stood him in good stead in the past – and seeing as Italia was brewed by Thornbridge in collaboration with lagermaster Maurizio Folli of Birrificio Italiano, it was approached with high hopes. Containing Pilsner malt and Hallertau Northern Brewer, Perle and Spalter Select hops it looks every inch the classic pils – pouring a hazy but vibrant lemon yellow with a inch-high fluffy white head.

The aromas of bitter hop and a slight crisp sweetness are very enticing, with a blast of citrus on the nose for good measure. On the palate there’s some spicy hop and a touch of earthiness, but the biggest impact comes from the citric lemon and lime flavours that erupt over the palate. Combined with an almost creamy mouthfeel, at halfway it reminds you of something like lemon cheesecake. The fruit continues on to the end, when a dry finish rounds off everything. Really very good indeed, if all of Lagerboy’s conquests are like this, 2011 looks like it could be a vintage year.

Yesterday we announced the first of our pick of British beers launched in 2010 – BrewDog Abstrakt AB:01 (10.2%). Today we bring you our second (again, these are roughly in order of release) – and we’re moving south of the border for another UK producer who released a big-hitting series of beers this year.



Saint Petersburg (7.7%)
Thornbridge, Bakewell, Derbyshire
(500ml bottle, released April 2010)

Derbyshire’s Thornbridge Brewery are rapidly becoming one of the most consistent producers in the UK. Their multi-award winning Jaipur (5.9%) is one of those ‘must-order’ beers if the distinctive orange pump clip appears in your local, even before it won a gold medal at the 2010 GBBF. The rest of their cask range is also tremendous – Thornbridge’s two pale ales Hopton (4.3%) and Kipling (5.2%) are also well worth seeking out. Two of their rarer, stronger cask ales are Halcyon (7.7%) and St Petersburg (7.7%), and at the start of the year the decision was made to bottle these two beers for general release.

Fast-forward to the end of April, and the re-badged Halcyon 2009 Green Hop Harvest and Saint Petersburg hit the shelves. The first of these is a mighty Imperial IPA, that quickly won the plaudits from a majority of beer writers (including the BeerCast – our review is here). To be honest, it probably deserves to be in the best new beers of 2010, ranking alongside the peerless Sierra Nevada Estate series in terms of wet hop ales. But our personal pick was the second of the two releases – Saint Petersburg, a fantastic 7.7% Imperial Russian stout.

After pouring, the aromas alone would be worthy of a 2010 ‘best of’ list. Coffee, liquorice and peat are finely balanced by enough fruity hops to give it an amazing nose. Tastewise, it really doesn’t seem as high as 7.7%, the smooth mouthfeel doesn’t give away any punchy bitterness like other Russian Imperials. Instead, dark chocolate and coffee hints give way into a lovely slightly smoky dry finish. Saint Petersburg is one of the best imperial stouts to come out of the UK in a long time, and without doubt one of the highlights of 2010.

Join us tomorrow for the third in our ‘best of new brews’ feature. In November, Thornbridge announced that Saint Petersburg had won a gold medal in the European Beer Star awards in Germany.

Thornbridge Website

The Guildford Arms is a staple of the Edinburgh real ale scene, having ten handpumps which usually offer a range of cask styles. They also have festivals that showcase regions of the UK – and a regular BeerCast Friday night out turned into a lengthy session thanks to their ongoing Derbyshire Beer Festival. Until the 7th of November fifty beers from the East Midlands will be on offer from twenty different producers. Regular readers will know how much we enjoy trying beer from new breweries, so we charged straight in and got sampling, in true BeerCast fashion.

The first decision was a relatively easy one – Thornbridge Jaipur (5.9%). The Bakewell producers make some truly awesome beers, such as their peerless Imperials St Petersburg and Halcyon. Like Halcyon, Jaipur is also an IPA, and is rarely seen north of the border. That’s a real shame, as it’s fantastic – beautifully clear golden colour, wonderfully floral aromas – and a massive citrus wallop from the hops offset by a rising sweetness. Jaipur won Champion strong ale at this year’s GBBF, and deservedly so.

After the Jaipur we moved on to a dark bitter – Priors Well Father Hawkins (4.5%). I love unknown quantities like this, the Worksop brewery only opened in September and would probably be new to the people of the East Midlands, let alone Scotland. Aromas of roasted coffee beans, tobacco and malt are followed by a chocolate malt flavour and dark, chewy roast. Definitely a good change of pace from the hop-led Jaipur. We carried on the theme with Amber Ales Winter Ruby (5.1%) – a deep, dark red ale spiced with Saaz hops. For some reason, it tasted like a chocolate milkshake – rich, smooth and really nice on the palate.

Following that, it was back onto the bitters with the 4.4% Highstreet Bitter, from Derby’s Tollgate Brewery. It poured a hazy dark amber, and really lived up to the billing – it was so bitter it was acerbic and biting on the aftertaste. That was something of a surprise given the front end was quite average on the palate. Anyway, we then went on to something darker, with the lengthily-named Full Mash Steve Ashby’s Locoil (4.6%) from Stapleford in Nottinghamshire. It may not be from Derbyshire, but I’m glad it made the list – a classic dark roasty, easy drinking stout with a nice toasty aftertaste.

By this point, time was ticking, so we finished off with the strongest beer on offer, the 6.6% Apollyan IPA, from the Raw Brewing Company. Another very new producer, Raw started up in the Derbyshire village of Staveley in May of this year. Named after a biblical demon (hence the devil on the pump clip), Apollyan is pretty much brand new – having been created for the Chesterfield market festival held this very weekend. A lovely golden colour, there are plenty of bitter pine aromas coming from the glass, with some flowery notes. Taste-wise it’s really drinkable – hop heavy bitterness with a lasting astringency, followed by a healthy kick of alcohol.

The Derbyshire Beer Festival runs from the 28th October to the 7th November at the Guildford Arms, West Register Street, Edinburgh. For more details, visit their website.

The sometime-groaning BeerCast cupboard is looking decidedly bare as of late – apart from a mighty selection of Kernel Brewery beers for an upcoming podcast, only two bottles remained as of yesterday. Co-incidentally, they were both British imperial stouts over 7% – so a direct comparison sprang to mind, and a grim September night suddenly turns into an unexpected drinking fest. Pitted against each other are Sheffield’s Thornbridge brewery and Fraserburgh’s BrewDog with their respective St Petersburg (7.7%) and Rip Tide (8.0%). There’s a connection between the breweries themselves – BrewDog co-founder Martin Dickie originally cut his teeth in Derbyshire with the fledgling Thornbridge, before moving back North.

First up is the blue corner, and the Scottish entrant. BrewDog need no introduction, particularly on this website as our tag cloud highlights – 14 articles relating to the Aberdeenshire duo, compared with the next highest (Alloa’s Williams Bros) on 8 articles. Rip Tide is a nudge stronger at 8.0%, and – as can happen with BrewDog beers – totally overflows on opening and becomes a gusher. Pourwise it’s the expected deep black, with a thick consistency and a peaked tan head. The aroma is bitter dark coffee, which comes through on the taste – heavy coffee with slight smoky flavours, and a hint of liquorice before more bitterness and the alcohol punch follows.

The immediately notable difference when pouring Thornbridge’s St Petersburg is the carbonation – a very small fizzling head which reduces to a thin lacing. A strong aroma of liquorice and coffee comes off on the nose, and visually there is very little difference between the two – both dark and viscous as expected. Both are also very full, but St Petersburgh has none of the bitterness of Rip Tide, there’s a smoothness that runs throughout. A nice warming finish, with peaty smoke on the aftertaste – plus the overall balance – puts the English entrant on top in this particular comparison.

BrewDog
Thornbridge Brewery

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.