Ferment // Issue 15

E X P E R I M E N T S I N T H E G L O B A L C R A F T A L C O H O L M O V E M E N TI S S U E # 1 5

2 FERMENT Discover craft beer at Beer52.com

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MANTLE BREWERY, OTLEY BREWERY, PALMERS UPLAND CYDER, PIPES, PURPLE MGSE, TROGGI, TUDOR BREWERY, WAEN BREWERY, WILCES, WILLIAMS BROTHERS, AND Y-BRYN

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Discover craft beer at Beer52.com FERMENT 3

WELCOME

A worldwide hop shortage: Has craft beer become a victim of its own success? By Erin Bottomley.

Saison is beer’s Soup du Jour: A guide to saisons and farmhouse ales by Mark Dredge.

How British breweries are taking back the IPA by Matthew Curtis.

By the Two Thirsty Gardeners

Batemans & brilliant beer by Melissa Cole

Tasting trends in West London by Craig Ballinger.

Our top beer picks this month.

Takeaways get a bad rep when it comes to their beer, but why do the majority stick with a boring bar? By Jordan Harris.

Take on pimms by Erin Bottomley.

By Rich & Sal at the Hungry Bears’ Blog.

The ABCs of beer’s ingredients by Melissa Cole.

For al l advertising and contribution enquiries, please contact Erin Bottomley [email protected] or cal l us on 0131 554 5527.Get in touch on Twitter @Beer52HQYou can write to us here at Ferment, 16/4 Timber Bush, Edinburgh, EH6 6QH, UK.

In Hop Pursuit

EDITOR’S NOTE

CONTRIBUTORS CONTENTS

A Guide to Saisons

Mike Hughes is an illustrator based in Aberdeen, originally from Inverness. His work takes influence from skate culture and his own love of illustration. His work often has a natural chaos, blending drawing and colour to give a fresh contemporary look. When he’s not working he is spending time with his girlfriend, out on his bike or, of course, at the bar. You can see more of his work at www.m-hughes.com.

Mark Dredge is the award-winning writer of the books Craft Beer World and Beer & Food, with his third book, The Best Beer in the World, published in October 2015. This month he begins a regular column in Ferment looking at a different beer style each month. You can follow his boozing on Twitter and Instagram: @markdredge.

Melissa Cole Certified Cicerone® and beer & food writer Melissa Cole is one of the UK’s leading beer experts. Author of Let Me Tell You About Beer, international beer judge, collaboration brewer, sommALEier and regular festival presenter, she can be found propping up bars all over the world but she sometimes manages to be home in London.

Matthew Curtis is a London-based freelance beer writer and speaker. In 2014 he co-authored Craft Beer: The 100 Best Breweries in the World for Future Publishing and is currently working on the follow up, Beer & Craft: Britain’s Best Bars and Breweries , which will be self-published later this year. He is the author of beer blog Total Ales and can be found getting enthusiastic about beer on Twitter @totalcurtis.

Craig Ballinger is a writer, caterer and drinker living and working in London. The giant chip on his shoulder is testament to his Mancunian heritage. Writing about beer evolved from a habit of writ-ing on beer: “to some writers, drink is not only a means to an end but often an end to his means.” @ByCBallinger

Lynn Bremner studied at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, starting with visual communication and continuing in photographic and electronic media. Her work extends across a number of mediums, mainly photography and illustration. She now works as the operations manager and resident photographer here at Beer52. Get in touch: [email protected] and @Lynn_Bremner.

Hungry Bears’ Blog is run by Rich and Sal from their little flat in Welwyn. It’s a collection of reci-pes brought together to inspire other people with little kitchens (and little time!) to tuck into good, homemade food. Check them out: www.thehungrybearsblog.com.

Jordan Harris is a recently qualified freelance journalist and beer writer residing across the Severn where he is drinking his way through the great ales of Wales, is the author of The Grill & Barrel blog, dabbles in street food with his hot dog pop-up shop, Drunken Sailor and works in the dark art of PR. Follow him on Twitter: @jordsharris

Charlie Whatley London based documentary and editorial photographer – www.charliewhatley.com

Two Thirsty Gardeners Nick Moyle and Richard Hood digging and swigging their way through the seasons – www.twothirstygardeners.co.uk

Alex Haylock – Beard. Pedant. Proofreader.

It is our turn to say thank you for all of the support we have received for Ferment! We are very proud of the direction that we are heading in and it wouldn’t be possible without your continued support. We have some of the best beer writers and the most talented illustrators in the country working with us and that has helped to make Ferment a great success thus far.

We always like to hear what you think so please do get in touch with any comments or suggestions. We have big plans for the future and are delighted to have you all on board for the journey. So once again I would like to extend our gratitude for your kind words and positive feedback.

Cheers,

Erin Bottomley

Hops in High Definition

Homebrew Recipe – IPA

Down But Not Out

What we’re drinking

Contact

Imbibing Brands

Craft Curry

The Rockstars of Brewing

Onion Beerelish

Breaking Down Beer

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Craft beer has a love affair with hops; we love discovering new varieties or enjoying old classics, but one way or another we just can’t get enough. This obsession with hops has changed the face of the hop industry in both the US and the UK. Due to the rise in popularity of craft beer, hop growers have had to work hard to keep up with the ever growing demand, but has the demand outstripped total supply?

Craft beer now accounts for 11% of the overall beer market in the US. In 2014, craft brewers produced 22.2 million barrels, and saw an 18 percent rise in volume and a 22 percent increase in retail dollar value. ‘This steady growth shows that craft brewing is part of a profound shift in American beer culture – a shift that will help craft brewers achieve their ambitious goal of 20% market share by 2020,’ said Bart Watson, chief economist at the US-based Brewers Association. This growth has in many ways saved the US hop growing industry. In 1990 there were 120 US growers: by 2005 the number had shrunk to just 45. Nowadays, the industry has been growing rapidly with some hop farmers struggling to keep up with the ever growing demand.

But with this rapid growth comes issues, of course. There has been a worry within the beer world of a potential shortage of particular hops which could damage the continued growth of the craft beer industry. Craft beer has greatly influenced the hop industry as more and more growers move away from the high yielding alpha hops to low yielding aroma hops favoured by craft brewers; this has affected the industry greatly and could cause a shortage of some varieties in the future.

Due to the nature of any agricultural crop, it takes time to balance the supply with the increased demand. Keeping up with consumer preferences can

be a real challenge as a freshly planted hop field takes 2-3 years to become established. According to Ann George of Hop Growers of America ‘Nearly 99% of the US hop industry is forward contracted at the grower so very little of the supply is “on the spot”’. This means that if there is a change in beer production

forecasting this can cause there to be too much demand for a particular variety. Brewers then have to be very precise in their projected hop needs to ensure the growers can get the fields established and produce the desired hops. Small breweries have to get in there early if

they want a cut of the hops grown, as bigger breweries will have forecasted well in advance and in some cases will take all of the supply. This kind of forecasting can be difficult in a rapidly growing industry and can sometimes leave brewers without the hops they need, forcing them to find alternatives.

Jim Solberg of Indie Hops has found that since American IPA styles have been leading the way, hop varieties with rather aggressive flavour characters like Centennial, Amarillo, Cascade, Simcoe, Citra, Chinook, Crystal, and Mosaic in particular are difficult for the supply to keep up with. To combat this many farms have increased their acreage to guarantee the crops and get more hops in the ground, as well as investing more in research and development to increase overall yields. Indie Hops have been working with the Oregon State University by funding an exciting breeding program that will result in new hop varieties with greater disease resistance, yields and aroma/flavour profiles that will give consumers what they desire. Fortunately, of late the hop

industry has been given the confidence it needs; due to the increased popularity of craft beer, investments in the area have increased and although supply may be tight for a few years it is likely that it will move closer to an equilibrium

as the industry grows and matures.

But this of course affects the price of hops. As with any industry, if the demand is high and the supply is low prices will inevitably rise. One area that has particularly been affected is aroma hops; due to their increased popularity amongst craft brewers production has increased by 140% in just four years, from 10,000 acres of aroma hops

in 2010 to 24,000 by 2014. According to George, the hop industry has shifted from a 70/30 split of alpha/ aroma to the exact reverse in the past 5 years! These aroma hops are lower yielding so the yield per acre has significantly reduced. As a result the lower producing aroma hop varieties must have a higher price per pound in order to produce the same return per acre. As these hops are now in higher demand and have a lower yield the price rise that has been witnessed in recent years seems set to remain, with aroma hops currently trading at $3.83 per pound, up 13% from just two years ago. Thus the very

“

“As with any industry, if the demand is high and the supply is low, prices will inevitably rise.

According to George, the hop industry has shifted from a 70/30 split of alpha/ aroma to the exact reverse in the past 5 years!


IN HOP PURSUIT

A worldwide hop shortage: has craft beer become a victim of its own success?By Erin Bottomley

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UK hops that have heavier flavour and aroma profiles seem to be the ones coming to the fore. He also sees huge potential in the export market for more traditional hops such as Goldings that haven’t been so readily available in the past.

So the price of some hops is rising and some are becoming harder to get hold of, but do we have reason to panic? Will all our beautiful hop bombs be replaced by hop extract alternatives? Unlikely. The demand may be high and at times outweighing the supply but there is no reason to throw in the craft beer towel just yet. In many cases this just forces brewers to use their ingenuity and knowledge to work out ways to make

their beers with hops that are more readily available, and in the process creating some brand new beers for us to try. They have had to make changes to the hops they use to fit in with supply, which in some cases causes a cycle; as one hop becomes too difficult to get hold of brewers move to another hop which is then in high demand and the first hop

becomes more readily available, which helps to bring some balance to the industry.

It will be an uphill battle for growers to keep up with increased demand but as more varieties come into play and with more research and investment into the hop industry, it should be possible to continue to satisfy our thirst for hops.

popular new flavour varieties that are in short supply are more expensive than more well-established varieties that are in relatively plentiful supply.

But what about in the UK? Although in comparison the UK produces much less hops than the US, the industry has seen significant change in the last few years. Along with the US, in the UK there has been an overall shift from alpha to aroma hops. Because of this there has been a lot of development of new varieties with more aromatic properties; the UK is also one of the largest importers of US hops. The demand for these American hops, driven by the popularity of the American style IPAs and hoppy pale ales has seen more US hops sold per year in the UK than ever before. ‘Growers in the US have had to respond to the increase in popularity by planting more acreage; this year alone an extra 2,418ha (5976 acres) have been planted,’ Paul Corbett says of Charles Faram, one of the largest hop suppliers in the UK. ‘That is a 16% increase in one year, almost unheard of in the past!’.

This competition with the US has seen the UK industry suffer in recent years, but Corbett sees a very bright horizon. Charles Faram’s growers are planting more of the popular existing varieties in response to demand, and they have also developed their own breeding programme to produce new varieties with more intense citrus, fruit and floral flavours. Their first two varieties, Jester and Olicana, have doubled acreage each year in response to demand. The

“Do we have reason to panic? Will all our beautiful hop bombs be replaced by hop extract alternatives?


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A t one time these were beers brewed by Belgian farmers in their farmhouses using

whatever ingredients they had and drunk by their farm workers. How they went from there, via near extinction, to their ubiquity today isn’t quite clear, all we know is that beers in the farmhouse tradition are more popular than they’ve ever been and they’re developing into craft beer’s broadest, most-experimental style.

Traditional Saisons

Saison is beer’s soup du jour. While the context is different today to when Wallonian farm workers needed something to quench their thirsts and provide liquid nourishment while they worked the land, the essential taste qualities remain as they did back then: moderate alcohol (5-7% ABV), well-attenuated (so dry to finish) and relatively bitter (though not aromatically hoppy). The yeast is a defining characteristic and it kicks out pepper, spice and the occasional smoky note, where the beers may or may not contain wild yeast. They have a liveliness in their carbonation, they are appetising yet satiating, they can be complex or delightfully simple, and they have a sexiness that’s partly due to its bucolic past and a little to do with how it’s enticing and exciting in the present.

Must Try: Saison Dupont is the textbook-defining example that’s zesty and dry, firm yet delicate, quenching, satisfying and beguilingly mysterious. Fantôme Saison is a powerful beer bursting with life, with citrus, with an edge of farmyard and funk, then a long bitter finish.

Today’s Saisons

What actually is a saison today? Because as a style it’s opened itself up to more experimentation than any other type of beer. The traditional taste of a saison is ideal as a base for craft beer’s more creative additions, so as this much-loved style pours through the imaginations of brewers it’s coming out with familiar qualities and then getting spun in limitless different directions: loads of citrusy-tropical hops, wild yeast to bring some funkiness, they could be brewed with fruit or spices, could be soured, could go through barrels, could be 3% ABV or

brewing using local grain, water and wild yeast and flowing closely with the seasons. The results are beers uniquely of their place, beers with terroir.

Must Try: Burning Sky beers are brewed in a barn in Sussex and their rolling range of saisons take inspiration from the season, like using elderflower in summer and rosehips in autumn; Texas-based Jester King brew in a farmhouse and make good use of the surrounding land, where their Le Petit Prince is made with indigenous wild yeast, local souring

bacteria and their own well water.

Bière de Garde

This is France’s entry into beer’s style guide. Compared to saison it’s typically sweeter, stronger, fuller-bodied, less hopped and longer-matured (‘garde’ means ‘for keeping’), traditionally developing a cellar-like quality through time, though that musty element is more of a hangover from history than a modern tasting note. Less

seductive than saison though still a fascinating farmhouse style even if few brewers make one.

Must Try: Brasserie De Saint-Sylvestre’s Gavroche (and their 3 Monts) have a richness of smooth malt, some caramel, an earthy depth, some fruity esters, then a warm herbal finish.

Table Beer and Grisette

These would’ve literally been beers for the table, an alternative to water, low in alcohol and refreshing. They disappeared for decades – centuries even – but have come back and they are now light saisons, quenching, dry and with their own depth of yeast spiciness, likely different from years ago but tasty in their own new way.

Must Try: The Kernel’s Biere de Table is a riff on their ever-popular Table Beer using a different yeast to make it dry and spicy, floral and citrusy; Partizan have a range of Grisettes, often with added fruit, spices or herbs, which all help to highlight the natural fruity, spicy and herbal flavours in the beer.

9% ABV, could be gold through black. A saison can be very many things today.

Must Try: Boulevard Tank 7 is an extraordinary 8.5% ABV beer, spicy with yeast, massively citrusy with American hops, sharp like rhubarb; Brew By Numbers make a range of saisons with late-hops added to give delicious juicy fruitiness which is playful with the fragrant yeast; Beavertown’s Quelle Saison is light-bodied, lemony, puckeringly tart then bursts with tropical aroma from being dry-hopped.

Faithful Farmhouse

While some brewers explore the extremities of creativity, so others seek to simplify things and look back instead of forward, recreating styles truer to the originals (or at least to the ideals of the originals). Beers in the farmhouse family are a great fit for this faithful treatment given the intangible romance of

“While some brewers explore the extremities of creativity, so others seek to simplify things and look back instead of forward, recreating styles truer to the originals.


MARK DREDGE’S GUIDE TO SAISON AND FARMHOUSE ALES

Saison is beer’s Soup du Jour: A guide to saisons and farmhouse ales.By Mark Dredge


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I remember my first taste of a modern American IPA as if it was yesterday. There I was sat in Odell

Brewery with a flight of beers in front of me. Each small glass of beer was carefully considered before tasting it. We had worked through pale ales, wheat beers and scotch ales before eventually arriving at its eponymous IPA. The aroma was like nothing I had ever experienced before – heady, dank scents of pine, grapefruit and skunk spray almost overwhelmed my olfactory.

I marveled at how these huge aromas manifested on my palate, the grapefruit was there and it was joined by mango and lychee while all the time being wrapped around a scaffold of sweet, biscuit-like malt flavours. None of this prepared me for the finish. At the time I found it bitter to the point of being almost unpleasant but the more I drank it, the more I got used to it, until it became something I craved.

That glass of beer set me off on a journey that I’m not sure I’ll ever complete. I arrived back from the States in a bind, I was finding it increasingly difficult to enjoy the beers I used to love. Traditional British bitters and pale ales no longer gave me what I needed, I began constantly seeking out beers with more intense and interesting flavours. This search led me to breweries such as Marble, Thornbridge and BrewDog and while I began to fall in love with British craft beer it was the imports from the USA that still got me the most excited.

The first genuinely convincing British interpretation of an American IPA I fell in love with was Magic Rock Cannonball. I marveled at the Huddersfield brewery’s creation, which tasted way more advanced than any beers being produced by many of its peers. There was volumes of resinous pine sap and pithy grapefruit balanced by a stern malt backbone. This wasn’t just an imitation of an US IPA, this was riding across the high plains on horseback, side by side with our American brethren.

The British Craft Beer scene has come a long way in a very short space of time. It moves at an almost breathless pace, constantly evolving in an effort to find new ways to impress seasoned beer lovers. While kettle sours and blended saisons might be the current beers du jour, it is the transformation of the IPA that has been the most significant shift since brewers began emulating their favourite American beers a few years ago.

In the US, brewers tend to favour speciality malts such as Crystal or Victory, which give their beers a darker colour, fuller body and most importantly unfermentable sugars. These sugars provide the balance to the intense bitterness and dank aroma that is the signature of this style. The


HOPS IN HIGH DEFINITION

“This wasn’t just an imitation of an US IPA, this was riding across the high plains on horseback, side by side with our American brethren.

How British breweries are taking back the IPA.By Matthew Curtis

problem with making beer this way is that over time, as hop essential oils evaporate, the beer can become stale. Too often do tired, old imports arrive

in the UK already tasting of burnt sugar and breakfast cereal. When it comes to IPA, drinking fresh is always best.

Many modern British breweries are now almost completely eschewing speciality malts, often brewing with a grist made up of entirely pale malt. This gives the beer significantly less unfermentable sugars, creating a dryer platform that allows delicate hop notes to shine in high definition. Some of the more accomplished IPAs

being brewed in the UK, such as those from Bermondsey’s The Kernel, are a cascade of juicy fruit flavours and taste very different to the dank and bitter interpretations of the style that originated from West Coast USA. Where once British brewers were trying their hardest to recreate the American IPA they are now adapting the style into something new and exciting. It could be said that the IPA is a style that has been done to death and back again but this new wave of ultra juicy and extra pale IPA is proving this theory wrong. With this new interpretation, British brewers are taking the modern American IPA back for themselves and making it their own.

Here are five of the best pale and juicy, modern British IPAs for you to track down:

The Kernel – IPA Various

The benchmark for the style, with the single hopped Citra variant being the daddy of them all.

Thornbridge – Halcyon

You’ll wonder how they manage to pack so much citrus and tropical fruit flavour into a beer so pale. Majestic.

Buxton – Axe Edge

Be spellbound by the depth of pithy, resinous citrus in this wonderful beer from the Peak District. Be warned it’s impossible to have only one.

Pressure Drop – Pale Fire

Not necessarily an IPA and cloudy from a high protein content – don’t be put off by its appearance, this tastes just as incredible as its stronger counterparts.

BrewDog – Born To Die

This lager pale double IPA has now sadly died, you’ll have to wait for the next release to taste one of the most accomplished beers the Scottish brewer has ever produced.


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I ndia Pale Ale (IPA) was born out of necessity in 19th century England. By ramping up the

alcohol content and using extra hops for their preservative powers, brewers were able to supply beers that were more likely to make the long ocean journey to India without spoiling. Until recently IPAs had drifted from their original hoppy heights to become nondescript, bland bitters. But American beer revivalists latched on to the style and used it as a base to play with new, intense hoppy flavours. Now the choice of IPAs is huge, which suits Rich, who makes a beeline for every new variant he finds – but even he reckons this recipe is one well worth coming back to.

RECIPE:

Making time: 2¼ hours Fermenting time: 1–2 weeks Maturing time: 1 week

100g/3½oz/¾ cup crushed crystal malt100g/ 1lb 9oz/4 1/3 cups extra light dry malt extract1 handful of bittering hops (20g/¾oz) – eg Goldings, Target, Columbus1 handful of aroma hops (20g/¾oz) – eg Cascade, Nelson Sauvin, CitraAle or brewer’s yeast½ tsp white sugar per bottle, for priming

TWO THIRSTY GARDENERS’ HOMEBREW – IPA


Nick Moyle and Richard Hood are better known as the Two Thirsty Gardeners, who are designers by day and brewers by night. The pair’s obsession with home brewing started as kids of the 70s, growing up with parents who regularly made their own drinks from homegrown produce. In 2008, fuelled by a desire to get away from their computer screen,s they made a bid for fresh air and freedom and built their own cider press and in 2012 launched their digging and swigging website Two Thirsty Gardeners. The site has inspired thousands of loyal followers, many of whom are eagerly turning their homegrown food and foraged goods into booze.

For all their homebrew recipes check out their first book Brew it Yourself – out now.

1. Put the crushed crystal malt into a pan with 2.25l/79 fl oz/ 9 cups water (use a grain bag if you have one). Heat until the mixture reaches 65–72°C (150–160°F) then cover with a lid and steep for 15 minutes at this temperature, stirring occasionally.

2. Remove the grains and add the malt extract. Bring to the boil until the liquid rapidly foams, then turn the heat down to keep it from boiling over.

3. Add the bittering hops and continue with a steady boil for around 45 minutes. 15 minutes before the end of the boil, add half of the aroma hops to the pan.

4. When the 45 minutes are up, add the remaining aroma hops and remove from the heat. This will preserve the intense, fresh hop fragrance and add a level of complexity to the ale.

5. Add 2.25l/79 fl oz/ 9 cups pre-boiled and cooled water, to help bring the overall temperature down. Give it a good stir to aerate it, and when it has sufficiently cooled to below 24°C (75°F) strain the liquid into your fermentation vessel of choice.

6. Add the yeast according to the instructions on the packet and leave to ferment somewhere warm – around 15–24°C (60–75°F) is ideal.

7. When fermentation has finished, usually after 1-2 weeks, you’re ready to bottle your brew. Sterilize the bottles and drop half a teaspoon of white sugar into each one. Carefully fill with beer using a siphon, stopping before you reach the sludge at the bottom of the fermenter.

8. Cap the bottles and gently shake to dissolve the sugar. Put them somewhere warm for a couple of days to kick-start the conditioning fermentation, then move to a cooler spot and allow at least 1 week for the beer to mature in the bottles before drinking.

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‘PBD was introduced to encourage new entrants to the market who could invest in new plant, employment, training and marketing... It wasn’t designed to be used to undercut brewers who would struggle to compete due to receiving less or no duty relief or significant economies of scale.

‘Brewers brewing below 3,055 barrels a year pay half the total duty, which equates to a saving of around £64 per barrel or 27 pence per pint at the bar when VAT is taken into account.’

Twenty seven pence at the bar, just think about the future price of beer from the smaller breweries you love now and how much more it is going to be as they expand, and it’s not difficult to come to the conclusion that this has got to be the next battle with the Chancellor if the UK beer industry is to maintain its current momentum. If a wonderful family brewery like Bateman’s struggling isn’t enough of a call to arms then I don’t know what is.

North-Western & Eastern Promise

On a happier note, I had the great privilege to try some superb beers in the last few weeks from London to Liverpool right the way across to Slovenia!

Let’s start with our Slovak friends at Pivovarna Pelicon, just being made available in the UK from Imports Scotland, the El Dorado pale ale brewed with experimental Slovenian Cascade

DOWN BUT NOT OUT

BATEMANS & BRILLIANT BEER.

and US El Dorado was officially a ‘juicy banger’ (©@ChrisHallBeer!)

lissom tropical fruits on a plumptious body that reminds me of the syrup from canned fruit cocktail; it made me smile and wish I had more than two bottles, which I think is the best recommendation I can give and the Coffee Stout is a lightly acidic coffee chocolate joy.

At the budding but brilliant Food Meets Beer at Borough Market, London Brewing Company wowed me with its Wham bar-esque Tap East collaboration pHuscia – a Morello cherry and raspberry berlinerweisse, paired with Richard Haward’s oysters – I was in total heaven.

And finally I got to visit Mad Hatter Brewery in Liverpool and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Creating cracking beers on ramshackle kit, damn these guys can brew. The rhubarb & custard made me sigh with childish delight and I can’t wait to crack into the Salted Caramel Quadrupel with my friends at Norfolk Brewhouse as we make our audit ale to celebrate Maris Otter’s 50th birthday (see my new ingredients column on page 22) for more details.

And a bit of excitement was added to the day by having to take brewer Marc to A&E with a finger half hanging off, fortunately it was on the way to the train station so I could just chuck him out of the moving cab at the door, I’m all heart you know…

D isturbances in the beer matrix all over in the past few weeks and my oh my it’s been an

interesting study in watching fanatics turn on a dime yet, as so often happens, missing the bigger picture by a very long string of code.

First off, Firestone Walker takes some sort of investment from Duvel Moortgat and hardcore knuckle-heads the world over start screaming that they aren’t ‘craft’ any more, but there was nary a whisper over here about Batemans downsizing because they can’t compete with the swathe of new businesses benefiting from Progressive Beer Duty (PBD).

Personally I don’t think it’s just PBD that’s going to cause problems for breweries like Batemans. Businesses like this rely extremely heavily on supermarket sales and they’re now under insane amounts of pricing pressure as companies like Tesco take out their accounting ‘discrepancies’ on suppliers and everyone else wants to price match.

And you can’t discount that whilst there are smart regionals out there like Fuller’s and St Austell, with visionary brewers at the helm, it’s hard to point to a really robust New Product Development (NPD) programme that’s aimed at the modern drinker from a

lot of the mid-size brewers or, to be honest, they just don’t seem to ‘get it’.

Taking Batemans as an example: outside of its fantastic and much-loved traditional range of beers the brewery has a fabulous beer in Yella Belly but the inconsistent branding and disconnected NPD programmes beyond this seem to have just equalled confusion for drinkers.

And whilst I’m sure they hoped non-beer drinkers and the younger generation

alike would embrace things like the flavoured Bohemian range, it would appear it kind of fell between both stools, hence why, I imagine, it’s for the axe… and whilst I quite liked them and used them in quite a few tastings I was honest with the brewery about what I thought was their lack of longevity.

However, I don’t want to beat Bateman’s with a big stick here, not only because I like both Stuart and Jaclyn a lot personally but because they are certainly not alone

in finding this new market difficult to navigate, I could give you much worse examples of a failure to ‘get’ modern beer but the less said about Wadworth and Greene King’s ‘craft’ ranges the better…

Before I leave this subject though, there is a very serious and much wider point here, as Stuart Bateman points out when talking to Roger Protz for his website Protz on Beer, who seems to be the only person to cover this story so far.

“Creating cracking beers on ramshackle kit, damn these guys can brew.

“If a wonderful family brewery like Batemans struggling isn’t enough of a call to arms then I don’t know what is.


MELISSA COLE


GosnellsMead

CloudwaterSession IPA

LervigLucky Jack

Beer Project BrusselsDark Sister

BrØnherThe Drunk Hop

Now for something completely different...Gosnells is inspired by the heritage of traditional mead, but created with a modern twist. Best served chilled, Gosnells can be enjoyed either straight from the bottle or gently poured into a glass. Floral and fresh on the nose, the mead leads with hints of citrus and gentle carbonation on the palate with the sweetness of the honey rounding it out to a full, crisp and refreshing finish. Brewed in Peckham from a base of honey, water and yeast. The perfect drink for a hot summer’s day – give it a go!

A robust and powerful session IPA from one of Manchester’s hottest new breweries. Cloudwater make beers to go with the seasons so this session IPA suits a summer’s evening perfectly. It has a strong hoppy aroma with notes of fresh pine, citrus fruits and slight earthy undertones. For a session IPA this packs a punch with big flavours of grapefruit, spiced blood orange, lemon sorbet and resinous pine. A dry pithy bitterness towards the end will keep you coming back for more. Also drinking Grisette and Cream Ale.

Lervig’s Luck Jack is an unfiltered & unpasteurised American Pale ale, From the west coast of Norway- brewed with Amarillo, Chinook and Citra Hops. Although the hops are the dominating flavour and aroma, the beer is easy drinking due to its light body from the pale malts and caramel malt. It offers a golden colour with 45 IBUs, grapefruit, tropical fruit and floral hoppy flavours & aromas.

With the Dark Sister, our Belgian Saison yeast esters disrupts what one can expect of a classical Dark IPA. It is a mahogany-black pour with a light beige moussy head. Attractively perfumed bouquet of milk chocolate, spices, blood orange, grapefruit peel, coffee grounds and caramel. Medium body and carbonation with a dry finish and well balanced bitterness. Enjoy her dark soul!

Drunk Hop represents an innovative the lager style and is considered by Ratebeer as one of the best Pale Lagers in the world. 100% malt Pils-Lager with an additional dry-hopping at the end of the process that provides the beer with a really particular character, and the unmistakable mark of our Brønhër´s dip in the brewpot. Easy drinking and malty beer, it embodies an approach to the fashionable southern Europe IPA style, but dressed in a lager character.

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WHAT WE’RE DRINKING...


6° NorthHop Classic

Vocation BreweryHeart & Soul

BrØnherDrink Me Alive

The White HagTuireann Bán

BrewfistCaterpillar Pale Ale

This is 6° North’s Belgian IPA style and easily BrewBob’s favourite! It was the first beer they brewed 2013 when they opened the brewery with inspiration for the brew coming from De Ranke’s XX-Bitter. The nose is bursting with super juicy aromas of fresh, bitter citrus fruit and dried apricot. They use European hops so the character comes through a little grassy and leafy then moves on to a full-flavoured, well-integrated, balanced and thirst quenching palate. Pair with spicy foods and charcuterie with green olive tapenade.

First canned batch exclusively for Beer52 members.This is Vocation brewery’s Heart & Soul. Created to have all the hoppy goodness of an IPA, but brewed to a sessionable strength. Its intense fruit-salad character comes from generous additions of US West Coast hops. A full bodied and fruity beer, with notes of passion fruit, grapefruit, gooseberry, pineapple & mango.

A blend of two different lager and ale varieties of the same recipe fermented separately and matured together. Smooth, medium-bodied and with a very refreshing character. Brewed with hops directly brought from the Americas by Christopher Columbus aboard his ship La Pinta de Cerveza, this is an experimental Cream Ale in the Brønhër style: extra malt, extra hops and our Cascade of Columbus dry hopping.Featured in this month’s 10 pack.

Tuireann was renowned for being the Gaelic God of Thunder, and Bán is the Irish word for white. Tuireann and his family were well capable of brewing up a storm, so it’s appropriate that this cloudy White IPA carries his name. The Irish lovechild of a Belgian Witbier and an American IPA. Similar colour, body and esters as a Witbier with noticeable hop aroma, flavour and bitterness. Featured in this month’s 10 pack. Also drinking Bran & Sceolan, Irish IPA.

Caterpillar Pale ale is a rye pale ale, brewed in collaboration with Christian Skovdal Andersen from Beer Here. It uses Columbus and Motueka hops. Caterpillar’s aroma is big and bold and bursting with oranges, lemons and floral notes with a hint of spiced apricots. The addition of rye gives an earthy backbone with flavours of malty toffee and burnt sugar that flows into a long, fresh and tart finish.

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WHAT WE’RE DRINKING...

‘New ways to increase profits from drinks sales.’

The bus lumbered through the traffic, tossing us gently as it stopped off everywhere on it’s way to somewhere near where we needed to be. It must’ve been at least 40° on the top deck of the 390 but we were determined to get to the Kensington Olympia. It was early afternoon on the hottest day of the year, a bad time to be travelling from North London to the depths of West.

We were moving very slowly, a couple of morning joints putting jelly around our feet and cotton wool around our heads. Still, our minds were sharp, alive to the details. Melting into the contour lines of the scarlet seats of a modern London bus I tried to take note of the scenes that passed, to piece together how this world was intrinsically tied to the terrible drink that was being touted at the Imbibe Live booze trade show.

Charlie Whatley, the photographer, had his eye to his camera and his lens to the window. In this time of rapid economic empire building the only thing being built is luxury flats. People love buying expensive, worthless things.

‘small batch’ beers. They seem sure that all it takes to sell craft beer is to add some artwork and ‘funky’ fonts.

Greene King would be at the show hopefully highlighting their craft line, with its designs that look like bizarre clip art illustrations and more fonts than is ever necessary. Crucially, the beer tastes bad too. Their Yardbird Pale Ale isn’t “full of hops with a lasting fruity flavour”, it’s an over-carbonated irrelevance that tastes like they’ve just taken some old batches of their cask IPA and blasted gas into it.

‘Pick up a convenient, perfectly mixed drink from the brand you love.’

We’d prepped badly for the torturous bus ride. Generic London corner shops all sell the same stuff. The only things worth drinking are the strong drinks - Gold Label, Dragon Stout, Kestrel Super,

Wray & Nephews. To avoid looking rowdy we went for cans of mixed drinks; if you’re rich, drinking at breakfast its seen as sign of your excess in success but if you’re poor, day-boozing is

confirmation you’re a fucking tramp. I was taking my research seriously – our subtle beverages were horrors from Jack Daniel’s and Malibu. Judging by the weird flavour of Jack Daniel’s Honey Lemonade, the brands were serving us the shit we deserve. Baked off in the Great British summertime, trying to avoid the risk of fines from uniformed jobsworths, I endured the JD weirdness. It tasted like chilled chunder sourced from a 17-year-old’s birthday party.

If we wanted honey drinks we should be drinking Gosnell’s mead from Peckham, but we’re in big boy territory - no artisan sparkling mead, no real honey. Everything must be made cheap. Get the high fructose corn syrup in and think nothing of it. Hide everything behind branding and rhetoric. We know what’s going on here but in the name of journalism, it’s always worth trying the shit before you trash it.

‘Enriching people’s lives with the very best savoury snacks.’

We escaped the bus intact, only slightly sagging around the edges. We needed food and liquids quickly. It was much cooler in the streets but the sun was still

Deep in the commercial centre of the city #ChooseHappiness passed in my eyeline every few minutes. The new Coke slogan is on the side of most buses, reminding us the scum are winning.

‘Brisk, hoppy and not too strong.’

In our aggressive capitalist economy small brewers and distillers are seen as competition to the giants. In Germany, where ‘craft’ isn’t nearly as important as the Reinheitsgebot purity law, Becks have taken strange steps to keep up. They’ve come up with a brave but tepid ‘English’ pale ale, an Aussie-inspired bland amber and an apology-note of a pilsner ‘inspired by [their] foundation in 1873’.

If InBev are clawing about in the dark in Germany looking for the microscopic market share they’ve lost, then this explains the scenes we’ve seen over here. Beyond the meaningless sale of Meantime to Miller, we’ve had big breweries like Brains, Greene King and Guinness try to charm us with their

“They seem sure that all it takes to sell craft beer is to add some artwork and ‘funky’ fonts.


By Craig Ballinger

IMBIBING BRANDS: TASTING TRENDS IN WEST LONDON

pounding us into the concrete. We were mad to have been on the bus for over an hour. It was 3:00pm and there was still a walk ahead. Two and a half hours of the conference to go.

We settled in a shiny pub with pints of Frontier lager. I stared at my glass. ‘New Wave Craft Lager’ stared back. These are the words chosen by the good people of Fuller’s to sell us their subtly disconnected lager brand, but what do they mean? Fuller’s is a good brewery, I’m fond of ESB, but their lager is nothing beyond ‘refreshing’ and will be a hit with those who don’t like beer but want to look like they do.

My thoughts were cut short by the arrival of crackling and hot wings. The chance to have my life enriched by KP snacks at Imbibe was slipping away but I was about to eat perfect buffalo wings and sensational crackling so all wasn’t lost. I felt suitably immersed in beer culture – I’d turned over more thoughts on a sweaty journey than I would have in a few hours of marketing and sales talk.

‘An unmissable event for anyone who wants to improve their drinks IQ.’

We followed the map and staggered about in the heat. Charlie snapped the journey as my mind swam about. I’d been tilted all day. I chased shadows, trying to stay out of the sun, alternating between saving my balding head from the sun with my hat and removing it to stay cool. We were in the thick of Kensington High Street when I realised my hat was gone; I’d dropped it, fuddled and beaten by the heat.

I thought about what the people would be like at the conference – sales reps cutting loose on company accounts, leaving business cards and miniatures on the bedside tables of Travellodges. We should go about asking if anyone’s got any gear and watch as the horror unfolds, as everyone begins to slope and melt before slipping off to fuck the award-winning

“It doesn’t matter how big a brand gets so long as the booze is good; that the way to win people over is by making great beer, not by bullshitting.


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marketing campaign out of each other.‘Are we even going the right way? I swear we should already be there.’ We were heading towards the spot on the map, but the spot was all wrong.‘We are going the wrong way. But only slightly. We’ll be there in 10 mins.’‘I’m not sure that’s true.’ The road stretched for miles directly into the heat, the pavement white with sunlight, not a shadow in sight. ‘I know where we are and it’s not near the Olympia.’‘My head can’t take this sunshine.’‘Shall we go back, find your hat, go back to that pub and sit the fuck down?’

‘A sherbet-like tingle on the tongue.’

My hat was never found, we probably walked the wrong way again. We sat

down to pints of Estrella and felt a cool sense of failure. On the neighbouring table a man talked loudly to a suit about the view from the fairway and the money-in-the-bank nature of London property. His slicked hair glistened whilst his body tried to burst out of his white shirt. Another financial bastard made himself clear into his phone. It was time to escape West London.

Oddbins saved the return journey – I blasted cold cans of Beavertown like they were juice and ignored the blazing

heat. Charlie was back at his camera. I looked around the top deck of the bus. The only other person up there was a Hispanic Hunter S. Thompson lookalike. Staring blank-faced from behind tinted aviators, the guy was sucking a Capri-Sun and leaning forward onto the vacant seat ahead of him. His face didn’t twitch.

Maybe this was a sign. I’d failed as a journalist. I couldn’t get us to the place, I couldn’t get the story. Or maybe I knew the story before I left – that essentially it doesn’t matter how big a brand gets so long as the booze is good; that the way to win people over is by making great beer, not by bullshitting. That there will always be terrible booze and the terrible people who drink it.

of BrewDog. ‘It’s bland and uninspiring,’ she continued.

‘For the most part, I leave Indian restaurants on the hunt for hops,’ she said, but why is it that restaurants serving food inspired by the country that lends its name to perhaps the most popular style of craft beer, offer such poor lagers?

‘The majority of Indian restaurants stick to the most popular beers such as Kingfisher and Cobra,’ explained world-renowned Indian chef, Pramod Nair. ‘The smart marketing by these breweries has achieved success with a formation that is less gassy than its competitors like Bangla, Lion and Lal Toofan,’ Nair, who has a collection of accolades, including Wales’ Best Indian Chef, continued and he’s not the only one in thinking so.

‘I think that the proprietors of these curry houses usually opt for a safe beer and are unlikely to try and talk to their patrons about different beer offerings,’ suggested Jonny Tyson, an Accredited

Beer Sommelier and Certified Cicerone®, who blogs under the name Beer Wrangler.

But stereotypical lagers aren’t solely confined to Indian restaurants.

Walk into a Mexican cantina or burrito bar and you’ll be faced with the likes of Corona, Modella and Pacifico or try a Tapas joint and you’ll more than likely be stuck with Mahou, Alahambra or San Miguel.

‘Indian lagers make an obvious choice for Indian restaurants,’ Sarah continued, ‘however, they’re only an obvious choice insofar as Carling would be the ‘obvious’ choice for pairing with a British dish.

‘Just because it’s the nation’s most consumed, it doesn’t mean it is the best pairing, it just means it is typical of the origin of both food and beer,’ she continued.

‘These breweries all make a mass produced, low cost beer that has a flavour profile that is the least off-putting to the greatest number of people,’ argued Gregory Kroitzsh, the Managing Director and Head Brewer at Mumbai’s first microbrewery, The Barking Deer.

‘That is what makes it successful,’ he continued. ‘But it doesn’t make this beer very interesting for people who love craft beer. Craft beer is a very different product serving a different demographic,’ and it’s an opinion echoed by the Beer Wrangler.

‘I think in recent history, the local curry house has been the domain of the late night hungry drinker, and as


“India is in the very beginnings of its own craft beer boom.

Takeaways get a bad rep when it comes to their beer, but why do the majority stick with a boring bar, what beers go best with a curry and where can you find a decent craft curry house?By Jordan Harris

G one are the days of the customary curry house offering. Indian cuisine is no longer just a

quick and easy option after a Saturday night out on the tiles or a lazy Friday evening in. Indian restaurants have upped their game, they’ve stepped up to the plate and filled it with an innovative array of dishes, but whereas their food has gone that extra mile, their beer game has remained static, stereotypical and sub-standard.

Menus are being renovated to go beyond the kormas, the masalas and the vindaloos. Today you’ll see regional Indian favourites and creative culinary delights, such as spiced soft shell crab or Keralan fish curries, on which to feast, but walk into the vast majority of curry houses and you’ll be faced with the same zoo-like draught offerings of Cobra and Kingfisher, perhaps a Tiger if you’re lucky.

‘The beer sucks,’ exclaimed presenter and Certified Cicerone®, Sarah Warman

CRAFT CURRY

the majority of beer sold in the UK since the 1970s has been pale lager, it has been a ‘no brainer’ for them to offer an Indian branded lager to refresh the palate when ingesting copious amounts of rich, fatty and spicy delights,’ Jonny argued.

A mindset has been created therefore, with both the customers and the restaurateurs alike, that lager, or country-specific branded lager, are the best to pair with any meal from said country and thus, innovation, as far as the beer menu is concerned, dies.

Such a stance is understandable, but a shame as it far from mirrors India’s blooming beer scene, where the whispers of a craft beer revolution are getting increasingly loud in the ears of the slithering Cobra (if snakes even have ears).

‘India is in the very beginnings of its own craft beer boom. There are approximately 45 craft brewers in India today,’ Gregory, whose own range includes a Bombay Blonde, continued.

So what should you be sipping whilst tucking into your curry?

Well, it doesn’t have to be a lager and it certainly doesn’t have to be from India, because let’s face it= a pint of Barking Deer IPA may go swimmingly with a Goan Fish Curry, but it may take you a while to track it down.

‘Indians love wheat beers,’ explained Gregory, whose bestseller in his pub is Barking Deer’s Belgian Wit, and there’s no surprise why.

Zesty orange peel and coriander seeds are often used in the brew, which

perfectly complement the common flavours in many a curry and the lightness of the beer balances the richness of the dish well.

Or try an India Pale Ale and not just because the name implies it. The hoppy bitterness of an IPA balances the sweeter curry sauces but can also amplify and accentuate the spicier dishes. It also makes a perfect palate cleanser with the likes of a bhaji and other deep fried dishes.

Or you could go a totally direction altogether and pour yourself something

a bit darker.

‘There’s a reason the Jamaicans love stouts with their jerk,’ exclaimed Sarah. ‘Spice and smooth malt richness work well together,’ but a chocolate porter also goes hand in hand with the sweeter curries, naans and sauces that use coconut in the recipe.

So whatever the reason for poor pints and a lack

of craft in curry houses themselves, whether it be a lack of knowledge, demand or willingness to change their stereotypical ways, the joy of ordering a take away is that you can bring your own booze to the party. So push the boat out and fly a little further than a Kingfisher to explore the vast array of pairings that an Indian menu lends itself to.


“It has been a ‘no brainer’ to offer an Indian branded lager to refresh the palate when ingesting copious amounts of rich, fatty and spicy delights.

Our Top Craft Curry Houses

It’s not all doom and gloom at the bars of takeaways, as a handful of venues are actively going against the grain to enhance their craft offerings, and here are our top craft curry picks that are leading the pack. VDeep – Leith

Featuring a range of rotating and house drafts, bottles and cans, VDeep is the love child of Scotland’s Williams Bros Brewery and the culinary genius, Hardeep Singh Kohli with Ruairidh Skinner at the helm in the kitchen. But they don’t just stop with their own bar, they’ve brewed a cardamom infused IPA called VindaBrew that will be the first in a range of beers available for trade purchases designed to give restaurants and takeaways a craft option to Cobra.

Bundobust – Leeds

Born from a handful of successful and sold out food and beer pairing events, Bundobust was launched in July of last year and offers an eclectic range of beers, from the likes of Saltaire, Magic Rock and Mikkeller to their own Coriander Pilsner on tap, to accompany their Indian Street Food.

Dishoom – London

A Bombay Café with restaurants in King’s Cross, Shoreditch and Covent Garden, Dishoom not only seeks out beer to pair with its signature dishes, it has brewed its own aromatic rye IPA with London’s poster boys, Beavertown.

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Logan Plant (L), Jos Ruffell (M) and Jasper Cuppaidge (R) perfecting their brewer’s boyband pose.


THE ROCKSTARS OF BREWING TAKE ON PIMMSCamden Town Brewery hosted a collaboration brew day with Jos Ruffell (Garage Project) and Logan Plant (Beavertown). Three brewers at the top of their game brewed up a storm to make a beer inspired by the British classic Pimms. Brewed with juniper, peppercorns, citrus fruits, and, of course, cucumber, mint and strawberries, this ‘fruit cup’ beer is bound to impress. New Zealand, British and Australian hops were used to represent each of the brewers and make it a full cross country collab

We were treated by Camden to a lunch with the brewers and a brewery tour as well as getting to try out some of Garage Project’s finest beers, some of which are the most experimental beers the Southern hemiphere has to offer.

Delighted to try Garage Project beers on tap: Tournesol, Sauvin Nouveau & Bossa Nova were all beautifully complex and delicious.

Camden’s exciting barrel aging department.

‘Jos is the best executor of crazy. I have always marvelled at Jos and Logan for their extremely experimental style. Here we have the

extremities of beer; the British and the Kiwi versions ’ Jasper Cuppaidge


‘In brewing, culture and community are the most important thing to maintain a positive environment and the same

mindset. It is very powerful stuff.’ Logan Plant

Newly launched – Triple Day of the Dead: an 11% black lager brewed with chipotle chilli, cocoa and agave and aged in tequila barrels and Hellbender: an 11.2% barleywine, a leviathan of a beer made with over a tonne of malt and a mountain of American hops.

‘Craft brewing is such an open environment that you can learn so much from seeing how other people work. This is why collaboration is key’ Logan Plant

‘The only way we can sell more is by selling more together‘

Jasper Cuppaidge

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W ith the BBQ season firmly upon us we’ve gone in search of the perfect

accompaniment to those sizzling sausages and bulging burger baps.

Hot, sticky and gone before you know it. No, we’re not talking about the British summer, we’re talking about Beerelish (or Beer relish for those not looking for an interesting name for it). This saucy number will give your bangers that extra bang! Now, we’re no strangers to the love pairing that is beer and onions – our beer onion soup is testament to that – but this relish ramps up the sticky, sweet beery combination that we adore so much. It’s simple and easy to make but the key to it is to take your time with the onions, as they love a bit of special attention. Our mantra? Keep them low and slow.

What you should end up with is a wonderful jammy, sticky onion sauce that carries the beer flavour too. IPAs

are our beer of choice for this relish and we recommend using the Vocation Heart & Soul IPA, as its veritable mix of fruity flavours add complexity to the relish. It’s a winner with sausages but you can pair it up with any BBQ meats like chicken, burgers or maybe kebabs. It even goes well with jacket potatoes and sweet potatoes mixed in with some cream cheese and spring onions.

If you’re getting the BBQ on why not whip together this relish whilst the coals are heating up? We promise it’ll be worth it.

If you do give this recipe a go make sure you send us a snap, we would love to see what you try it with! Tag us on instagram @thehungrybearsblog and @beer52HQ, or a tweet @hungrybearsblog and @beer52HQ

ONION BEERELISH BY THE HUNGRY BEARS’ BLOG

Recipe:

Prep Time: 5 minsCook Time: 35 minsTotal Time: 40 minsAuthor: The Hungry Bears’ Blog

Ingredients:

2 Large red onions2 Large white onions11⁄2 tsp Light brown sugar1⁄2 tsp dried thyme150ml beer1/2 tsp butter 1 tsp olive oil Small handful of fresh chives

Instructions:

1. Slice your onions into rounds about 1cm thick. Add to a large saucepan along with the olive oil and butter and set on a medium to low heat. Cook gently for 15 minutes to soften completely.2. Add the beer, sugar and thyme to the saucepan and stir. Turn the heat up until the pan is simmering gently and continue to cook for 20 minutes or until the mixture reduces to a thick sticky consistency. The relish should have darkened in colour to a light brown, as the onions soak up the beer and sugar and caramelise slightly.

3. Take the mixture off the heat. Finely chop the chives and stir through. Serve warm on top of your favourite BBQ meats. If you want to store the relish use a clean glass jar and refrigerate. Use within a month of making.

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W e may all like to think we are approaching black belt in beer drinking but how much

do you really know about beer making? To answer all those burning questions about brewing you never knew you had, we’ve got beer writer Melissa Cole to break down the ABCs of beer’s ingredients and, because it’s the heart and soul of any brew, she’s decided to start with pale ale malt, so grab a cold one, kick back and prepare to be edumacated.

Are you sitting comfortably, beer in hand and ready for a science lesson? No?

Good, because the science of malting is insanely complicated and I’m not remotely qualified to write all the equations; however, I can tell you quite a bit about why it’s important and what the different varieties actually do… so, if you’re still with me, your first question should probably be ‘Melissa, what the hell IS malt?’.

I could just put it simply by saying: ‘It’s watered, germinated, dried barley kernels that are used in the brewing process to create sugary liquid called wort that yeast feasts on and creates CO2 and booze’, but I think I’m being paid by the word so I’ll string it out a bit!

And I can’t think of better words to start the deeper explanation of how malt is made than those used by John Mallon in the Brewer’s Association Malt book.

‘Malting consists of three relatively simple steps: steeping, germination and kilning.

‘This process transforms a plant into a brewing resource; a ready natural source of nourishment for the yeast.’

So, how does that happen? Well, once the grain is harvested and checked for disease or damage, the maltster starts the steeping process, which raises the barley grain’s moisture content to allow for germination under controlled conditions.

This is then followed by the kilning process, which brings down that moisture content to a point where growth is halted. This can then be used to develop flavour and colour characteristics that are imparted to the beer – from white bread to brioche and through to raisins, toffees and caramel and out the other side to milk chocolate, dark chocolate, coffee and burnt.

This means that those humble grains, that aren’t even the size of a little fingernail, become these magical packages of starches and preserved enzymes that brewers convert, in the mashing process, into the sugary liquid that is the very basis of beer – wort.

So that’s the basics of malting dealt with, so now we need to address what the importance of pale ale malt is? Basically, it’s the heart and soul of most ales. British grains in particular, because of our temperate climate, are well suited to this form of malt and the UK’s way of ale brewing, which is single step mashing (basically, putting hot water in with the grains and leaving it to stand).

These grains are kilned relatively lightly, resulting in biscuity, toasty flavours, very little potential for vegetal off flavours, and a deep gold colour but, most importantly, they have excellent enzymic potential, which basically means you can get a lot of sugars out of those grains which also means you get a lot of booze!

So, hopefully you now have a kernel of knowledge about the subject of pale ale malt... until next time my nerdy buddies!

Breaking down beer: the ABCs of beer’s ingredientsBy Melissa Cole

This year Maris Otter, the first ever barley variety bred specifically for malting, is 50 years old and brewers from all over the globe (and some beer writer or other...) are brewing one-off beers for a festival in Norwich which is on from September 17-19 details can be found here: www.h-banham.co.uk/marisotter50/

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DRINK THE FRESHEST BEER f rom brewery to your glass in 4-6 weeks of being brewed

Join the UK’s No.1 Craft Beer Cluband get TWO FREE beers in your first box

Go to: www.beer52.com/ferment

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Ferment // Issue 15