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.

Marble vs SWB The Slip Inn, York. June 25th.

Saturday June 25th sees a new phenomena in the beer world roll into York. Rest easy there trooper, it's not a continuation of York's historic battle ridden past, it's the beer equivalent! Except this time round it will be a much more benevolent affair, a jovial afternoon with a bar full of ours & the legendary Marble beers from Manchester.

With at least seven beers from each brewery individually paired off in competition & it will be your job to choose the winners in the face a off. On the day I can tell you the beers from us will be:-

SWB: Zenith, Gambit, Odyssey, Polestar, Rouge-Hop, Barista, Diablo & our new West Coast IPA '7 C's'.

Thus far the Marble beers confirmed will be:-

Marble: Pint, Manchester Bitter, Best, Lagonda, Chocolate, Utility 3 & possibly the Marble & Fullers John collaboration ESB.

There may also be a few other little goodies but you'll have to come & see us to find out!

We will be there on the day from noon & will be joined by Colin & from Marble, so come & enjoy a day in our company, we look forward to seeing you there.

You really don't want to miss this day, it is sure to be a cracker especially if the weather plays ball, a summer afternoon in the historic city of York with some of the North's finest beers, what more could you ask for...?

See the The Slip Inn events page for more info.

Beer, we drink it round here!

Beer Song by ElbowSkin from Alister Robbie on Vimeo.

Glyn Roberts aka @rabidbarfly  posted this video here last Saturday, it hasn't had half as much coverage as it should, so here it is for your amusement, a work of genius! It's in aid of Melbourne Good Beer Week 16th - 22nd May.  Thanks to Glyn for putting this one out there!

Summer of Saison

So we've had it good weather-wise & this has focused our attentions on the impending summer months. Last summer was devoted to 'Project 6' our series of 6.6% IPA's which were very successful, following that was the ever popular 'Nerotype' black IPA series, the current one being #3 hopped exclusively with Bravo & hitting the pubs & bars round about now, this will be concluded next month with the final in the series #4 hopped exclusively with 'Herkules'.

So you've probably guessed we like to explore styles thoroughly before moving onto the next project so this leads us nicely into our SUMMER of SAISON, we are going to brew 4 gyles of saison at 6.0% abv. each with differing dominant flavours, Nettle & Ginger, Lime & Coriander, Lemongrass & Fennel & Orange & Rosemary. As for the hops we are to use, we have lined up some noble goodies in the form of 'Perle', 'Sterling', 'Saaz', 'Bobek' & 'Tettnang'  other varieties used will include 'East Kent Goldings' & 'Liberty'. The selection of hops are designed to compliment & work with the range of ingredients were using.

It is the plan to have these beers ready almost simultaneously. Available in Keg & Bottle format only as we feel saison as a style is best suited to an elevated level of carbonation to bring out that zesty, spicy, estery freshness of this rustic farmhouse style. Hopefully the good weather will continue throughout the coming months & you'll get to try these limited saisons which we hope will really capture the essence of the summer.

There will be other goodies flowing from the brewery through the summer, with the popular 'Rouge-Hop' sticking around for a while, the very limited imperial stout 'Cossack' & new specials such as 'Polestar' & '7 C's' our 7% seven 'C' hopped IPA making appearances in due course.

All in all it's shaping up to being a great summer!

Looking for Clarity...

In the UK we still have an annoying hang up when it comes to beer, something that goes no further than our shores & something never crosses the mind of the continental beer drinker. This is the search for perfect crystal clarity in beers. In the UK outside of the esoteric beer scene there are lots of regular drinkers who still associate haze in beer with the beer being bad, off or not well made I have to say folks, it's absolute bollocks, infact entirely the opposite is usually* true.

This pic was taken by @alcofrolichap on Twitter, the beer on the right is our Diablo IPA & it is dry-hopped quite aptly to hell!

I have been in pubs in close proximity to drinkers who have ordered a beer, the beer hits the bar top the bar staff turn to the till & the beer begins to settle from the bottom up, the punter glances down & waits for their change to be returned. As half of the beer loses it milky appearance they hold the beer aloft & peer through the beer in the glass, & without a moments thought the immortal words trip off the tongue 'this beer is'nt right' 'it MUST be off, its cloudy'.

STOP! Stop right there!

How about taking a sip & taking in the aroma first? You fell into the awful trap of drinking with your eyes! Why? Because you are vain, your car shines, you have 20-20 vision, your windows have just been cleaned & you have HD TV! Bad practice sunshine, stop, stop right there & have a word with yourself!

People in the UK have been conditioned on macro uber filtered, lifeless, hop-less crap for 30 years, beers with incredible gleaming polish & in their mind anything from there on in with a haze is automatically associated with having something wrong with it this is not usually correct.  I'm not for one minute saying pin bright beer is a bad thing on the contrary, beer produced to specification with good brewing processes should drop bright. Clarity starts to change when brewers use differing techniques to achieve certain flavours & aromas either through adjuncts like wheat, different yeasts, dry-hopping & non use of finings.

The new wave of intensely dry hopped beers sweeping the UK for example can have a 'hop-haze' when serving in this case this is usually a sign of quality & that the brewer has used an extreme amount of hops for dry hopping in trying to wow you. Smell the beer & you will know instantly if that's the case & appreciate the fact that the brewer is trying to give you an experience with flavour and aroma. Take a sip & forget you can't see your hand on the other side of the glass, the beer is great, enjoy it.

BrewDog pack in the dry hops, it's all about the flavour baby.

In europe there are thousands of bars where a customer would be more alarmed if served a crystal clear beer rather than a hazy one, for this kind of drinker it is about FLAVOUR, they have never yearned for the vanity of their beer & they love it all the more as quality, flavour & aroma trump clarity every, single, time!

So as the wheels start to turn ever faster in the hugely exciting UK beer scene & as we as brewers strive to amaze your senses, take the vanity of your beer & put it at the bottom of your list right now! Open your mind,  take the mantras of  flavour, aroma & quality with you wherever you go & you will be amazed by what you find!

You can read what Justin, the head brewer at Moor Beer Company thinks about clarity in beer here.

This blog post barely scratches the surface about the science of beer clarity, but I wouldn't want to bore you with pages & pages, the post is intended to create debate & provoke thoughts.

*Occasionally you may find a beer that is hazy & off, or poorly made, taste it, smell it & you will know.