The Slip Inn Battle of the Breweries Photoblog

Here are a few photos from the excellent Battle of the Breweries at The superb Slip Inn, Clementhorpe, York. A great event surrounded by great people & great beer made for a memorable day & credit to Paul & his staff at The Slip for ensuring the beers were all available via handpull & all on fine form too.

This pub is a real hidden gem just outside the City walls. The photos tell a little of the story but if you'd like to read more check out Nick's post about the day over at The Beer Prole.

I'd just like to say thanks once again to everyone who attended & made this great concept a real winner, lets hope others replicate it too!

Southern Hemisphere Green Arrives

I thought I'd do a quick post as were taking a delivery of new season New Zealand hops on Monday. I'm excited about the new season Nelson Sauvin & Riwaka varieties.

Nelson for its unmistakable fruity hop punch with almost a white wine zing & Riwaka for their pungent citrus grapefruit quality, superb for aroma.

We also have some NZ Cascade arriving which I have never brewed with before, but I'm expecting a similar outcome as US Cascade that we all know & love.

Can't wait to stick my head in a bag of NZ's best.

Also in another exciting development the 'Galaxy' variety from Australia is due to arrive next month, another punchy high alpha variety with an amazing aroma. Some of you may have been lucky enough to try this hop in a Thornbridge special 'Galaxia' a few months back. It's the first time this variety has become commercially available in the UK so expect some new exciting beers debuting around the country.

Cones brimming with Lupulin

As yet I'm still undecided on what to brew with these goodies but you can certainly expect some tasty low abv pales with a NZ influence & a big South Pacific IPA or two, will have to get my creative cap on & come up with some innovative southern hemisphere inspired stuff.

As for this week we've got a full brewing schedule which will include our new session pales 'Polestar', 'Ensign' & 'The Benz'.

'The Benz' is going to be different to say the least, it's a pitch black mild come stout at 5.2%, a soft roast bitterness, low hop bitterness profile finished with an insane amount of dry hopping just to mess with your head.

I've decided to describe this beer as an 'aromatic black ale' & as ever I look forward to hearing your feedback once it hits the pumps.

Beer is Trending

Over the past few years the craft beer world has developed a way of expressing itself in the here & now, it has taken to creating trends & then seeing them explored by brewers UK & worldwide. There is a top layer of brewing in the UK & US at the moment which is bubbling away with creative & innovative brewing.

No drink in the world comes close to offering the diversity beer does, something for everyone!

Where the next big thing comes from is a mystery, sometimes an iconic beer spawns others in it's image & style as I think Brewdogs Bashah Black IPA did a few years ago, in the resultant few years brewers throughout the UK have explored the Black IPA phenomena with a heavy hand, we ourselves can be included in this bracket with our 'Heretic Black Imperial IPA & our extremely popular single hopped Black IPA series 'Nerotype'.

I think we are coming to the end of exploring this interesting style & some high quality permanently brewed lines have appeared in the UK like The Kernel Black IPA, Buxton Black Rocks, Thornbridge Raven & Windsor & Eton Conqueror, but the market is now inevitably moving onto other styles & ideas. Other ideas we have explored are hoppy red ales with 'Red-Eye' & 'Rouge -Hop', another that comes to mind is Thornbridge 'Colorado Red' however I think this style has still got legs yet.

The Periodic Table of Beer Styles, there's space for a few new hybrids yet...

We announced our 'Summer of Saison' last month our plan to brew four naturally flavoured Saisons, it will be interesting to see if we'll see other brewers trying their hand at Saison, Dark Star have been producing a Saison for a couple of years & it seems to have a cult following when available, so it may be a style that has legs under the 'a la mode' heading over the next year.

In the coming six months we are planning a Milk Stout & a Cranberry Wheat beer, amongst others.

The beauty of brewing is that there are so many styles to explore, not to mention the grey areas in between which can be the most fun!

There are ever present styles that will always attract the masses in particular 'IPA's' seem to be THE style that shows no sign of going away, thankfully. IPA is a style we love to brew here, in fact our flagship beer 'Diablo' is an IPA & our recently brewed '7C's IPA' has also proven popular.

Where are we destined for next on the beer atlas?

Sometimes hops come along & cause a style wave all of their very own like 'Nelson Sauvin' hops did a few years back, this year the heady 'Citra' hop variety which has created a smorgasbord of new 'pale ales' in the UK.

What styles would you like to see explored this year? I use the word 'styles' in the loosest sense as I'm not one for working to set style guidelines, some of the best ideas are cross pollinated from each other...

If you have seen the 'I am a Craft Brewer' video you will know there is a line in the video saying 'We don't don't follow trends, we create them!' This adage has never held more water in the craft beer scene as it does today.

Who knows what styles are about to take the limelight, I all can say is we'll be there riding the crest of the wave...

The Odell Thing...

I came across this video on CraftBeer.com it is a video by the guys at Odell Brewing Co. Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.

In the video they talk about their ideals & ethos & about making beers that engage people, beers that aren't just novelty but beers with originality & uniqueness. If I had to try & sum up craft beer as an ideal, as a way of life, as a passion, as a life's work, I really couldn't do better than this video. Brewers like this continue to influence the craft beer scene & long may it continue. Odell's beers are supremely balanced & classy & the good news is they're becoming widely available in the UK now. Mr Foleys on the headrow in Leeds has Odell IPA on draught right now, so get down there & taste what they're all about. Odell don't try to define craft, they embody it!


Craft Brewing - Odell Brewing Co. from Odell Brewing on Vimeo.