Dr. Paracelsus' Bombastic Indigo Elixir

"Every little hair on my neck knows more than you and all your scribes."

After the huge success of KopiKat it's time to turn our attentions to a new project, this one is an idea we've had swimming around since October, another unique off-the-wall offering from our grey matter.

Here's the story. Dr. Paracelsus born Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, 11 November or 17 December 1493 – 24 September 1541 was a German-Swiss Renaissance physician, botanist, alchemist, astrologer, and general occultist.

A man credited with much in his short life, he had an extremely self confident manner often labelled arrogant & verbose, a few of his quotes included:-

"It's the dose that makes the poison"

"Every little hair on my neck knows more than you and all your scribes."

Many books mentioning Paracelsus cite his often arrogant speaking style, which the following passage illustrates:

I am Theophrastus, and greater than those to whom you liken me; 

I am Theophrastus, and in addition I am monarcha medicorum and I can prove to you what you cannot prove...

I need not don a coat of mail or a buckler against you, for you are not learned or experienced enough to refute even a word of mine...

As for you, you can defend your kingdom with belly-crawling and flattery. How long do you think this will last?...

Let me tell you this: every little hair on my neck knows more than you and all your scribes, and my shoe buckles are more learned than your Galen and Avicenna, and my beard has more experience than all your high colleges.

In some schools of thought it is said the the word 'Bombastic' originated from his middle name 'Bombastus'. A word that would carry the facets of his character.

So how does this the relate to what we're going to brew?

Dr. Paracelsus' Bombastic Indigo Elixir.

Yep, I'm hoping it will be a mouthful in more ways than one.

To stay true to Paracelsus' character the beer with be outrageous with a raging personality with influences of alchemy & botany.

The beer will be 8% & will involve the following ingredients:-

-Special B Malt
-Blackberries
-Liquorice Root
-Black Cardamoms
-Turkish Pepper
-Bramling Cross Single Hop

Think a rich deep reddish ale , deep dark forest fruits, dark malts, liquorice, sweetness & fruity hops.

And just to make things interesting some of the brew is destined for a 1997 Bowmore Whisky cask for ageing.

We'll be bringing Paracelsus to life next month...

*Brilliant artwork above done by our brewery assistant, Tom.*

KopiKat - The Back Story

So you're probably aware we brewed an Imperial Vanilla Coffee Stout six months back & many of you have tried the un-aged version in a bottle of which we only have a few remaining.

It's time to give you the full lowdown on this beer brewed back in October as it's time for the aged version to emerge from their catnap in two Scotch Whisky barrels where they have been purring away for six months. One a Caol Ila & the other a Clynelish barrel. Tomorrow they are being packaged for bottling & keg for our launch of the aged versions at our ambitious MTB at Cask on May 5th.

The beer brewed back in October with the help of avid London beer & food guru's @rickfurzer & @danielvane the beer took shape in the form of a double mash brewday, which involved a very early start, a monster grist & a few kilo's of world class coffee.

The idea for the beer was born back on IPA Day last year when we had an epic 'IPA Dinner' at the Dean Swift in London, designed by Rick, Max Chater (now Head Dog at BrewDog Nottingham) & Momo their talented head chef.

Some KopiKat wort with a Madagascan Vanilla Pod.

The malt bill was made up of 9 different malts, ranging from Pale Maris Otter to Roasted Barley & almost everything in between, the hops used were Chinook for backbone & Brambling Cross for flavour (no need to over-complicate big stout hopping) added to the boil was a good weight of Muscavado sugar, we had a mammoth four hour boil on this beer to make sure we hit all our numbers.

Lunch.

At flame out we eagerly waited for the temperature to drop sufficiently as not to damage what we were about to add. In went a large bunch of Madagascan Bourbon Vanilla Pods & as soon as we hit the desired temp in went the mammoth blend of world class coffee.

Civet Cat.

Kopi Luak or Civet Cat coffee taking pride of place after all it did provide the inspiration for the name, this coffee is the famous variety who's beans pass through the digestive tract of the Indonesian 'Civet cat', the enzymes in the gut of the cat change the nature of the bean making it less bitter & giving it a smooth flavour. The Kopi Luak, blended with Jamaican Blue Mountain, Old Brown Java & Kenyan Peaberry made up the rest of the blend.

The Kat before being tamed for 6 month

After a carefully timed steep to extract just the desirable flavours of the coffee's we began the transfer of this huge thick coffee fueled wort over to the FV where we used a well known Chico yeast strain as we wanted as full a fermentation as possible so we wouldn't end up with a huge sticky cloying partially fermented mess. I wanted the beer to have huge complexity yet lots of drinkability & the yeast achieved that.

The day in itself passed quickly with Rick & Dan being so enthusiastic mash tuns were dug & cleaned quickly, beer racked, hops were weighed & different blends of the coffee where passed around for our approval, the conversation flowed & verbose opinions exchanged over many quality beers Rick & Dan brought along.

Barreling day.

It was a great day & in the days after, communications were eagerly exchanged on the progress of which had become affectionately known as 'The Kat' we got a real sense that this was more than just a beer but a story, especially as Dan very kindly agreed to commission the artwork for the finished aged versions as he is a very talented artist. Huge thanks to Rick for securing the freshly emptied oak barrels for ageing the beer in & for his attention to detail & his well renowned super human palate capable of deciphering sauteed squirrel bollocks from twenty yards.

Great beers shared amongst friends.

They sometimes say beer is about the people who make it & drink it & I couldn't agree more in this case. It is just such a pleasure to share something we had such fun, creating & nursing, with you. If you can't make it to Cask on May 5th, the two aged versions will be available in May.

Here's to many more beers like this we can share with you, because when you drink them you are a part of the story too!

We can't wait to hear your feedback on the barrel aged versions as of tomorrow the Kat is out of the bag...

Dan's Artwork.

SWB Comes to London Town.

On Saturday May 5th, we roll into the capital with our biggest & most ambitious tap takeover yet, only possible thanks to those wonderful people who bring you the Cask/Craft estate in London & Brighton.

We are bringing TWENTY exciting beers to town, 10 Cask & 10 Keg, we plan to showcase the huge variety of styles we brew & how they can suit varying dispense methods.

On the day there will be anything from a cask Dark Mild to a Keg Double IPA & EVERYTHING in between. There will also be the opportunity to compare & contrast Diablo & Mokko on cask & keg which should make for an interesting talking point.

KEG:

KopiKat Imperial Stout - Clynelish 14yr - ABV TBC Barrel Aged 6mth***Exclusive Launch***
KopiKat Imperial Stout - Caol Ila 27yr - ABV TBC Barrel Aged 6mth ***Exclusive Launch***
Saison Duport - 6.0% (Collab Brew with Magic Rock, Redwillow, Dark Star & Quantum on Saison Dupont yeast strain)
Mokko Milk Stout 6.0%
Diablo IPA 6.0%
Kahuna NZ IPA 6.0%
Surfing Monk 6.0% (NZ & AUS Hopped on a Belgian Yeast)
Reaper Red IPA 7.4%
Cohort Belgian Black Rye PA 7.5%
Maelstrom DIPA 9.0%

CASK:

Resistance Dark Mild - 3.7%
Zenith Pale Ale - 4.0%
Gambit Pale Ale - 4.2%
Barista Espresso Stout - 4.8%
Teleporter - 5.0%

Rouge Hop - 5.0%
Diablo IPA - 6.0%
Upstream Pale Ale - 3.8%
Oregon Pale Ale - 5.5%
Mokko Milk Stout - 6.0%

So if you can make it to SW1 on May 5th @ 5pm we look forward to having a beer with you & talking you through who we are, what we do & where we're going.

See you there!

Beer Duty - Time to Stop the Escalator

Some simple graphics which the BBPA published earlier this week to to visually highlight the positive things our industry does for this country & how successive hikes in beer duty (Beer Duty Escalator) are causing irreversible damage to the beer industry in the UK & how you the responsible UK beer drinker are contributing 40% of ALL the beer duty receipts in Europe.

The Beer Duty Escalator has been increasing Beer Duty 2% above inflation since 2008 & has added 45% extra duty to your pint & it's set to continue until at least 2014.

In the UK we are only second to Finland in the amount of beer duty we pay per pint, but if the escalator continues we will be highest taxed nation on beer in all of Europe.

 

The beer industry creates jobs, but successive governments seem to ignore this. At at time of economic stagnation over taxation is causing more job losses when a sensible tax policy would actively create them.

Beer is the lifeblood of the UK pub industry, the Beer Duty Escalator is systematically dismantling the industry forever. "From the towns all inns have been driven; from the villages most….change your hearts or you will lose your inns and you will deserve to have lost them. But when you have lost your inns drown your empty selves for you will have lost the last of England." - Hilaire Belloc

Don't forget all this is in ADDITION to High Strength Beer Duty (HSBD) introduced last year.

Pete Brown penned a piece about the Beer Duty Escalator recently, it is most certainly worth a read.

Alcohol consumption in the UK has been in marked decline since 2004, ministers 'health' rhetoric is wearing thin, time to do your duty citizen, help save our national drink.

Sign the E-Petition & pass it on via email/facebook/twitter to everyone you know. It takes minutes & you really are doing something worthwhile.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/29664

The info-graphics above were taken from this:  http://bit.ly/AmPHaY Tells the whole story in a nutshell.

Thanks for your time.

Playing Catch-Up

I haven't had much time to blog since the turn of the year due to the ever increasing level of demand were experiencing, brewing/racking/bottling most week days & now most weekends it seems.

We are in a steep growth curve at present & to be honest I'm struggling to keep up, but I'm relishing the challenge. We're now brewing our core flagship IPA 'Diablo' at least once a week amongst other favourites like Zenith, Gambit, Barista & Teleporter whilst also developing new lines for bottle like our forthcoming new permanent Double IPA 'Maelstrom'.

Specials have included our new 'Bravura' Pale Ale 5.5% which will be hitting the bottle soon, a well hopped pale ale brewed with exciting hops such as 'Super Alpha' & 'Motueka'. New session cask pale ales such as 'Origin' & 'Portside' hit the trade throughout January to be replaced with 'Galicoe' & 'Santo' during February.

Highlights in January included brewing Port Street Beer House's 1st Birthday Anniversary Saison, with Jonny, Will & JP (Port Street) Toby from (Red Willow) Jay from (Quantum) the Magic Rock guys & Mark Tranter's (Dark Star) superb Saison yeast strain made for a great day.

A 'Flocc' of Brewers & Publicans

Happy Birthday Port Street Beer House

Then followed a trip to the hop merchants to talk through our ever increasing hop requirements for the year, a trip down to see the guys in the shadow of the Malvern hills was always going to be a treat for hopheads such as myself & Andy. Some old favourites were rubbed along with some interesting new & lesser known varieties which we will put to good use throughout the coming year.

Green Gold

Yellow handed

By the end of the month 'Bravura' & 'KopiKat' will be available in our online store & look out for some new exciting keg beers making their way around the UK, including a Milk Stout & others.

Saturday 5th May SWB Showcase Cask, Pimlico, London.

Also a date for your diaries is Saturday May 5th when we will be taking over the pumps & taps at the famous Cask in Pimlico, London. This will be our first meet the brewer in London & will be the official launch of the aged versions of KopiKat.  The Caol Ila & Clynelish versions will be available on keg along with Cohort Double Black Belgian RyePA, Maelstrom Double IPA, Anniversary Saison, Milk Stout, Diablo & more! Not to mention a large array of cask ales from our considerable range.

I will be making more of an effort to keep you guys in loop of what exciting new things we've got up our sleeves, but for now time to get some shut eye as an early brewday is on the horizon.

Cheers!

A Year In the Life of Beer.

2011 has been a whirlwind of a year in the British beer scene, a raft of new bars, many styled as 'World Craft Beer Houses' showcasing the best of beer the world has to offer, continental styles, US kegged beers & the best of British in both cask & keg, alongside hundreds of bottled beers from all over the world, these new wave bars are proving to be meccas for beer connoisseurs nationwide.  

Fizzing beside these new bars has been a staggering new array of creative brewing from BRITISH brewers, new styles created, old ones re-styled & classics remade.

When I look back at SWB's 2011 it has truly has been a blur in places the rate of progression with the beers, brand & our new bottling & kegging facets of our operations which have become considerable parts of our business in no time at all.

Bottle, Cask, Keg & Aged Beers, 2011 the year dispense diversity took off.

Highlights from our year include, launching Diablo IPA at NWAF Manchester unbelievably just 12 short months ago (hard to believe it's only been around a year, feels like forever the amount we've brewed of it!).

Various meet the brewers, Port Street Beer House & The Free Trade Inn's first MTB's amongst others were highlights.

Brewing the Nerotype series of Black IPA's the 7C's beers, The Benz, Rouge Hop, Kahuna, Cohort, KopiKat & the Saisons. Establishing beers such as Diablo, Barista & Teleporter to become popular nationwide favourites.

Who could forget International IPA Day back in August? A coming together of Brewers, Bars & Beer lovers to celebrate the world's most iconic beer style.

The launch of our bottled beers & online store just 3 short months ago...

And an acceleration of brewing & ideas towards the end of the year saw us finish with a record quarter. 

All in all an amazing year, all of which would not have been possible if it wasn't for all the amazing people in & around this industry.

Brewers, licensees, bloggers & drinkers alike,

I salute you all,

You are the BEST kind of people,

You are BEER people. :)

Happy New Year to you & yours, here's to an exciting, prosperous & opportunity filled 2012 with many beery treats from us in store...

Barrel Bounty

So this past week we laid down our Imperial Vanilla Coffee Stout 'KopiKat' into whisky barrels for ageing until spring & it's got me thinking about barrel ageing in general & the huge difference individual barrels can make to beer in them, whisky, bourbon, sherry, wine etc...

It's something we really would like to get into to ensure we've always got something very special to release throughout the coming years.

So I've started to look for inspiration & ideas & it seems that US brewers are leading the way in experimentation in this field, none more so than the Avery Brewing Company who have released this video where Andy Parker, Chief "Barrel-Herder", talks about his passion & hard earned expertise in this field.

Our barrel aged research has just begun, but see the stack of barrels behind Andy? That kind of space is already on this head brewers plan for the new place...

KopiKat's home for 6 months & the start of our barrel aged odyssey.