Original Gravity% magazine - issue 9 by Don't Look Down Media

9 issue

GOOD NEWS FOR PEOPLE WHO LOVE GOOD BEER

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F R EE

CRAFT BEER REAL ALES GOOD PUBS TASTING NOTES ARTISANAL SPIRITS + other nice stuff

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WHEAT & SOUR Sharp lambics, tart goses, acidic wheat beers: why it’s time to get wild with the brews and surrender your palate to the beers with bite

+ How to make a stove-top APA & BrewDog’s Elvis Juice + Cooking with beer

NZ BREWS / 59 BEERS FEATURED / SMOKIN’ BEERS / BRIGHTON TAP TAKEOVER

craft BEER, wine & spirits FROM BRITAIN & across the WORLD VISIT OUR COMPLETELY refurbished shop WHICH includES A NEW ‘GROWLER’ SYSTEM FOR FRESH take-home KEG beer, PLUS 8 FRIDGES

SHOP: 371 RICHMOND ROAD, TWICKENHAM TW1 2EF 0208 892 3710 REALALE.COM

MONTHLY ‘FREE TASTINGS’ & ‘MEET THE BREWER’ EVENTS

Issue 9 | Contents

Cover design by Judy Kneen for Original Gravity%.

The Mash /p04 • Homebrew /p9 • Sour beers /p11 • Homebrew Club /p14 Cooking with beer /p16 • Tasting Notes /p19 • East Sussex /p20 • Your round /p23

IN SEARCH OF... beer brilliance ORIGINAL GRAVITY Contact daniel@originalgravitymag.com 01323 370430 Advertising originalgravitymag@gmail.com 01323 370430

Four years ago a friend of mine returned from Belgium with a bottle of Oude Gueze. “You’re into beer Dan,” he said. “You’ll like this.” I didn’t. I hated it. But my interest was piqued. I started learning more about its history, about the wild strains of yeast that bring lambics like this their ‘barnyard’ flavours and spiky acidity. About the skill of blending. And then I wanted more – and more – giving bottles to friends who also hated it at first, until I relayed the story,

added context and explained why it had such depth, such style, such glorious flavours. A few weeks ago at Beavertown’s fourth birthday celebrations I gave a beer to Phil, a great mate of mine. It was the Phantom Sour, and it changed the way he drinks beer. The next day he bought every sour from Beer Hawk, and then Ales By Mail. Lambic beer has become his personal cause. And in this issue, it’s ours too. Adrian TierneyJones looks at the beauty and history of this

remarkable drink. Also, unexpectedly, we’re continuing the homebrew theme from the last issue and turning it into a regular section. I say unexpectedly because it was going to be a one-off, but hearteningly it seems brewing’s return to the kitchens of the country is bigger than we imagined. We’ve a simple American Pale Ale recipe you can do on your stove-top, as well as a Brewdog recipe. Get brewing! Daniel Neilson, Publisher and Editor

Website: originalgravitymag.com Twitter: OGBeerMag Facebook: /originalgravitymag Instagram: ORIGINAL_GRAVITY Page visuals: @adamonsea

Which sour beers are you most fond of? © 2016 Original Gravity is published by Don’t Look Down Media. All rights reserved. All material in this publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without the written permission of Don’t Look Down Media. Views expressed in Original Gravity are those of the respective contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publication nor its staff.

BUY THE BEERS You’ll notice we mention our partners who supply many of the beers mentioned. Ales By Mail (alesbymail.co.uk): ABM Beer Hawk (beerhawk.co.uk): BH Real Ale (realale.com): RA

Daniel Neilson

Gareth Dobson

Alan Hinkes

Adrian Tierney-Jones

Matthew Curtis

Daniel is the editor and publisher of Original Gravity%. He’s edited several magazines and books, including Time Out guides and national mags.

You may know Gareth Dobson as Tenichwheels from Twitter and his blog. He’s also the specialist beer and brewery photographer / beershots.co.uk

Alan Hinkes OBE is the only Briton to climb the world’s 8,000m peaks. He lives in Yorkshire and enjoys walking mountains and discovering beers.

Adrian TierneyJones is a journalist who writes about beer, pubs, food and travel and how they all intersect. / maltworms. blogspot.co.uk

Matthew Curtis is a London-based freelance beer writer, speaker and editor of Total Ales. Follow him at @totalcurtis / totalales.co.uk

“It’s obvious, but the Boon Oude Geuze was my first sour. I hated it, and now I buy it in bulk.”

“Duchesse De Bourgogne. Tart with heart. Not for everyone, and not for everyday.”

“Sour beer is gnarly but nice. Newbies try mildly tart I Love You Will You Marry Me by Thornbridge.”

“At the moment I yearn for Barcelona-based Garage’s Merlot Sour, the ghost of a wine barrel haunting the glass.”

“Rodenbach Grand Cru, it’s tart, vinous and majestic. A beer I come back to again and again.”

THE MASH

The ART OF BEER CAMDEN TOWN/BEACH EXHIBITION

Wheeeeeeeeee. That is the sound of your happy yeast sliding into the wort like kids on a swimming pool slide. At least, it is in the head of artist Grace Helmer. Elsewhere in the surreal scene, bad bacteria look on frowning while the happy yeast splash around safe in the knowledge that they’ll be making something beautiful: beer. Grace told Original Gravity%: “As usual I started by doing a bit of research online, but by chance I ran into a friend who used to work in

a brewery, and he told me that it’s important to ‘keep the yeast happy’. That kind of sparked the idea of the yeast having a party, and that bacteria wouldn’t be allowed in.” The work was jointly commissioned by Camden Town Brewery and design gallery Beach London as part of a show that during London Beer Week. They invited a diverse range of artists and illustrators to visually explore each stage of the beer-making process, from mashing to maturation. Alec Doherty, whose amazing

Partizan labels we featured in the first issue of Original Gravity%, tackled the subject of ‘whirlpooling’ [pictured above left] by making “a kind of toy/sculpture out of wood, a bit like one of those optical illusion spinning tops. People can spin them around on the wall.” Pete Sharp attacked ‘Filtration’ [pictured lower right], portraying happy robot cleaners sweeping up spent hops, while the fermentation stage was depicted by Cachete Jack [pictured top right] who drew the ridiculously appealing image of

someone happily bathing in a foaming fermenter. Rob Flowers clearly had fun, focusing on happy hops being fired out of a hop cannon [above right], although Maria Ines Gul’s work [pictured above left] is perhaps the most beautiful, showing the maturation period. We’d like to be maturing in that bottle. And we certainly won’t look at the beer-making process in the same way again. When we’re pitching yeast into our next homebrew, we’ll see them merrily swishing into the wort – perhaps with snorkels and rubber rings to hand. / camdentownbrewery.com | / beach.london

THE MASH

The 6 PACK NEW ZEALAND BEERS

Beer meets... CAMPFIRE Before the 1800s, most beers would have had a smoky flavour as a matter of course. After the introduction of indirect-fired malt kilns, however, these aromas and tastes made way for something cleaner… unless, that is, you prefer your beer with a hint of cinders. The addition of smoked malt adds depth to a variety of beer styles: Schlenkerla’s rauchbier is the classic, but others put it to great use too.

/ Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier, 5.1% Schmokin’. No one forgets the first time they drink this famous beer. ‘Liquid bacon’ and ‘campfire’ have both been used to describe it. It’s powerful stuff : intensely smoky, but with a hint of malty sweetness that attempts to balance it out, and just about succeeds. This is a world classic beer, its origins wrapped in fables of flaming medieval Bamberg cloisters and inventive spirits. / schlenkerla.de / Buy as BH, RA

You know that can of Punk IPA you finished the other day? Well, some of that rich, tropical, passionfruit hoppiness comes from the wonderful Nelson Sauvin, a hop that speaks with a distinctly Kiwi twang. The same ingredient is also used in Thornbridge’s delicious Kipling, while Montueka is another New Zealand hop emerging on more beer

labels. But what of the breweries themselves? Well, wow. It’s no exaggeration to say that 8 Wired’s Tall Poppy was instrumental in getting Original Gravity% up and running. It was a beer that we thought everyone needed to try. 8 Wired’s compatriots, Yeastie Boys, also have great widely available beers, while the likes of Renaissance, Tuatara, Three

Boys and Moa are pretty special too. It’s little surprise that New Zealand Craft Beer Collective events are often oversubscribed in the UK – often with help from the Kiwi-owned south London bottle shop Hop Burns & Black. The future for New Zealand breweries? Decidedly bright – anything but (ahem) all black, in fact. DN

/ Tuatara, APA, 5.8% Coming in a quasi-reptilian bobbled bottle with a spying-eye bottle cap (tuatara are NZ lizards), this ‘Aotearoa Pale Ale’ offers a confident strike of hops, showing a muscular side to NZ brewing. A huge beer. More!

/ Three Boys, Wheat, 5% Geologically there’s not a lot to distinguish between the Alps and New Zealand’s South Island, making the latter a fitting place of origin for this faithful wheat beer. The added coriander and lemon zest lift it like salt on a steak.

/ Yeastie Boys, Gunnamatta, 6.5% It didn’t take long for beer-lovers to start paying attention to the excellent Yeastie Boys, and with beers like this super-floral Earl Grey IPA it’s clear they’re pushing worldwide boundaries at every turn. A beer like no other.

/ 8 Wired, Tall Poppy, 7% Rich, oily, full of malty goodness, refreshingly balanced and with a spiky hop cut. But all talk of flavours, aroma and mouthfeel overshadows what this is: one of the best beers we’ve ever had. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Buy. Now.

/ Moa Brewing Company, Sour Blanc, 6.4% From the Marlborough region comes this lively Belgian-style lambic. It’s sour for sure, but lightly so, leaving space for a deep wheaty flavour. It’s aged in oak barrels and fermented with wild yeast. The resultant clean, dry finish reflects the famous wines of the region.

/ Renaissance, Stonecutter, 7% Now here’s a style of beer you don’t see too often, least of all from New Zealand: a Scotch ale or Wee Heavy. This is a whopping, 7%, full-bodied, malt-forward beer, with a subtle smokiness to balance out the dried fruit and toffee flavours. Refreshing to see it in the brewery’s core range too. Hats off.

/ Thornbridge, Beadeca’s Well, 5.3% The silky richness of a porter lends itself to the addition of a smoky depth that adds a savoury, umami delight. It is well showcased in Beadeca’s Well, Thornbridge’s smoked porter. Here the smoked malts make it highly drinkable and in no way overpower the intricacies of the malt. / thornbridgebrewery.co.uk / Buy at BH

/ Beavertown, Smog Rocket, 5.4% And this is what this wonderful craft beer movement has brought us: Beavertown’s Smog Rocket, a smoked porter, in a core range. It’s more smoked than Thornbridge’s version, but Smog Rocket is balanced with a milky sweetness, and the addition of US hops cuts through the smoke like cornichons in a charcuterie. / beavertownbrewery.co.uk / Buy at ABM, BH, RA

THE MASH

Like wheat and barley, rye is one of the world’s miracle grains. Perhaps unfairly, it’s often considered a poorer cousin: rye breads such as pumpernickel might be a little heavy but they’re hugely tasty, while rye whisky, popular in the US and Canada, is similarly enjoyable. This is a

RYE

BEERS

robust grain that grows in poor soil conditions. It’s a workhorse – the John Deere or Tonka of cereals. And what happens when you put that in a beer? Well its monster wheels are often in danger of rolling over more subtle flavours but, like salt, it also heightens the punch. You

won’t generally find malted rye in delicate beers, but when it’s used it adds to the mouthfeel with a flavour that often tastes nutty, a hint of oiliness and a lingering savoury fullness. The Germans knew all this a long time ago, with their roggenbier using up to a whopping 60% of rye

/ Arbor Ales, Boomtown Brown, 5.3% Boom indeed. This is a powerful American Brown Ale, an increasingly popular style (in our fridge at least) which takes a malty sweetness and hops it up to 11. The rye adds a spicy savoury note. / arborales.co.uk / Buy at ABM

/ Five Points Brewing Co, Hook Island Red, 6%

/ Buxton Brewery, Red Raspberry Rye, 4.9% This is a Berliner weisse, a mildly sour beer packed with puckering raspberries. The fruit shines with a vibrant tartness and a tangy suck on the mouth, before nutty rye wades in urging another sip. / buxtonbrewery.co.uk

RYE BEERS

/ Beavertown, 8 Ball Rye IPA 6.2% If you want to taste rye loud and clear, this is the drink to try. It’s almost a modern classic, a supremely tasty beer full of lively hops and raspy rye. / beavertownbrewery.co.uk / Buy at ABM, BH, RA

Packed full of nutty rye, this red beer is one of those balanced masterpieces that leaves you wondering how they did it. Each sip layers flavour upon flavour, and the hops smell amazing. / fivepointsbrewing.co.uk / Buy at ABM

/ Black Market Brewing , Rye IPA, 7.5% A new beer and a new brewery on us – but what a delight. They’ve squeezed fantastic amounts of flavour from the ingredients, which include 20% rye. We’re blown away, frankly. / blackmarketbrew.com

Beer

BOOKS “It’s a reference book at its core, but opens up a new world.”

The History, Stories and Craft of Japan’s Artisanal Breweries

Sake / Elliot Faber & Hayato Hishinuma

(beers are rarely more than 20% rye these days). The style has returned in the past few decades after a 500-year near-hiatus – inevitably, there’s now even the ‘Rye-P-A’. But instead of rolling your eyes, celebrate this humble little grain that adds a vertiginous depth of flavour to beer. DN

/ Wiper & True, Abbey Rye, 6.5% This is a fascinating beer (with an amazing beer label). It’s a Trappiststyle ale, but gives shots of citrus, then stone-fruits, then a Belgian yeast sweetness. Who knows where it’s going next? / wiperandtrue.com

CAMRA’S Yorkshire Pub Walks / Bob Steel

Cooking With Beer / Mark Dredge

日泡焼本盛酎酒

This book is subtitled: The History, Stories and Craft of Japan’s Artisanal Breweries. And breweries is indeed what they are – the process of making sake has far more in common with beer than wine. Rice provides the starch it needs to ferment, and making it requires great skill. Admittedly I knew next to nothing about sake, but this beautifully written and photographed book explains the fundamentals with style and clarity. It’s a reference book at its core, but opens up a new world. “Sake has its simplicities, paradoxes and history”, it states – and they’re all here. / gatehousepublishing.com

God’s Own Country is the latest subject in CAMRA’s excellent series of pub walk books by Bob Steel. There are 25 fully illustrated walks across the county, each accompanied by Ordnance Survey maps and, of course, a great selection of pubs to hit along the way. Bob Steel is an amicable and knowledgeable guide touching on the human and natural history of the area, as well as the pubs. There are also five city walks in York, Sheffield, Leeds, Beverley and Hull. As regular visitors to Yorkshire, we see this becoming a constant companion. / camra.org.uk

There’s little not to like about this brilliant book from the prolific beer writer Mark Dredge. “We have limitless options and possibilities when cooking with beer, whether it’s a simple stir-fry or an impressive dessert,” he writes in the intro, and with no less than 65 recipes on offer it appears he’s right. Expect everything from coffee stout pancakes to Oktoberfest cheesecake and from IPA and honey cornbread to curried butternut squash and porter soup. We’ve published some of his excellent recipes on page 16. / pencilandspoon.com

THE MASH

The Q&A

Event FOCUS

Nic Donald, Head Brewer, Laine Brewing Co.

Brighton Tap Takeover April 8-10 Combine ten breweries with ten of Brighton’s best pubs you’ve got the makings of a pretty special weekend in this seaside city. The breweries are top-notch too: they include Fourpure, Cloudwater, Celt Experience, Mad Hatter and Brighton’s Laine Brewing, which is part of the outfit behind the event. We’ll be there with two sour tastings on the Saturday. See you there. / taptakeover.co.uk

There are four brewpubs in the group – does each one have a different vibe? We have a different brewer in each site, from Acton to Brighton, Battersea to Hackney, and no one beer in each is the same. There are some similar styles across the four sites, but each brewer puts their own spin on them. Each brewpub also has its own core beers and their own seasonals too. It is just as important for us as it is for the customers to be able to try such a wide variety of beers. What is the driving factor for Laine Brewing? Experimentation. We have such freedom to brew what we believe would make a good beer, and a support network behind us that believes in our vision. If one of my brewers has an idea for a beer, be it a change in methods or something weird and unique recipe-wise, we work on it and give it a go. We never lose that spirit of adventure, and that’s what makes beer fun, whether you are making it or drinking it.

What can people expect from Laine’s beers? An example of some of our beers this year, across the sites: Pink Grapefruit Sour, Black Rye IPA, Brandy Pudding Porter, various Saisons, IPAs, Stouts and anything else you can think of probably. All of the brewpubs serve our beer in cask, and on top of that we have just started putting a couple of beers into keg as well out of the People’s Park Tavern.

Anatomy of... BIÈRE DE GARDE When we mentioned on Twitter we’d be featuring Bière de Garde there was clearly a lot of fondness for this strong French pale ale, and the comments were loaded with memories. It’s a reasonably rare style, but one that’s firmly rooted in a sense of place: it’s weekend trips to Lille, it’s camping holidays in Northern France.

6-8

STRENGTH

Bière de Garde tends to be a reasonably consistent 6-8.5%, but it doesn’t generally taste that strong.

FLAVOUR The style has a rich complexity, often defined principally by the malt profile that gives it a toasty warmth.

APPEARANCE A beautiful amber and gold colour with a confident head on it. Best served with a plate of charcuterie – ideally in a French farmhouse.

HISTORY Bière de Garde means ‘beer to store’, and it was originally brewed in the Nord-Pas-deCalais region during cold months to allow the yeast to remain stable.

It’s also a wonderful beer. As you’d imagine, coming from a region that shares a border and to some degree a culture with Belgium, it tends to be strong and malty. This is an honest, amber, spicy farmhouse ale; a beer with a subtlety to savour. No wonder it inspires a lot of affection. Hopefully we’ll see more of it.

AKA... Any French ‘blonde’ or ‘ambrée’ might resemble this style. It’s sometimes similar to a Belgian saison, but generally less funky.

FOOD It goes well with the hearty and often rich food of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, particularly stews and roast pork. WHEN TO DRINK It can be drunk at any time of year, but on a cold day its toastiness and peppery flavours are especially warming.

WEIRD FACT Two world wars and a wavering border did nothing for the Bière de Garde style, to the point that it almost died out in the 20th century.

What are you most looking forward to from the Brighton Tap Takeover? Having such a great group of breweries in a centralised area can only mean one thing; one hell of a good party! Everybody is looking forward to this, and with good reason. Music, entertainment, food, Top of the Hops, Island Records party, Have I Got Brews For You, not to mention the main event; some of the best beers that have been produced this past year! / taptakeover.co.uk

THREE TO TRY

/ Jenlain, Ambrée, 6.5% This is a classic Bière de Garde. A golden, sparkling brew with a toasty malt profile and a crisp-as-awinter’s-day finish. / jenlain.fr

/ Brasserie Des Sources, Bellerose, 6.5% Oh my, this is a flavourpacked beer. Its peppery, warm, hoppy briskness lifts it above many of its contemporaries. / facebook.com/BelleroseUK

/ Brasserie Thiriez, Ambeer d’Esquelbecq, 5.8% A brilliant little brewery making an amazing range of beers. This is the classic – but try any of theirs. / brasseriethiriez.com

THE MASH

Perfect 10

Letter from... BEIJING Call me ignorant, but I didn’t arrive in Beijing expecting great beer. I expected great food, naturally (it had been twelve years since my last visit, and I was still getting pangs for the city’s pillow-soft pork dumplings), but beer? Nope. The Chinese lager I remembered was generic, drinkable, end-of-a-hot-day type stuff. I’d previously been here in the stifling humidity of a fierce summer. But Beijing was icy now, gripped by winter, the crowds on the street huddled in scarves, the moat around the Forbidden City glacial and solid. So I was glad I learned about the Slow Boat Brewery.

We couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw these fabrics from A Bushel Of Hops (abushelofhops. co.uk). They came about when Kent-based hopgrower Dorothy Hollamby decided she wanted to source some hop-inspired fabrics and found – well, precisely none. She resolved to design some herself, and these are the result. She’s made use of historical hop-picking scenes, as well as the detail of the cone itself. To see the full fabric range the link is via either the website page below or from wovenmonkey.com/designers/a-bushel-of-hops

COMPETITION We’re also giving away this wonderfully hoppy apron. Just visit abushelofhops.co.uk/ogcomp/ for details.

On that first evening, it took me half an hour to find. The brewery doesn’t seem to go in for signage, and it’s not easy wandering pitch-black hutong alleyways, jetlagged and trying to avoid being mown down by lightless cyclists, in search of a small door behind which someone apparently serves vanilla stout. When I finally located it, it opened onto a small but toasty tap-room, half-filled by a dozen drinkers and with twenty taps on show. The barman-cum-manager was from Somerset, in the manner of these kind of ventures in these kind of destinations. I took his recommendation, starting with a pint of Tigers Fist IPA – a 5.7% beer with a deep mango aroma – before moving on to The First Immortal, a fresh, copper-coloured double IPA at 8%. My tasting notes from the evening extended to the scrawled words

5 questions for...

Great Leap Brewery “both are bloody good”. The night was freezing when I left, but I was warmer. The brewery has been up and running since 2011. It imports its hops and malt mainly from Australia and the US, I was told, although makes use of local ingredients where feasible: organic honey from Yunnan, for example, and even Sichuan peppercorns. It’s not the only innovative microbrewery in the Chinese capital. Two nights later I found myself at the Great Leap Brewery, located in an old courtyard building tucked away in another underlit maze of winding backstreets. This is the original: the

city’s first brewpub, in place since 2010. Here, again, were twenty taps, a Chinese-influenced beer menu and a thirsty clientele. There are plenty of memorable things for overseas visitors to do in Beijing. Stroll through the Temple of Heaven Park. Head out to the Great Wall. Climb the Drum Tower. But if you want my advice? Take time too to wander through the chilly hutongs until you find the Great Leap Brewery. Pull up a stool, settle into a pint of smooth, chocolatey East City Porter and reflect on the fact that a city of 21 million people always has the capacity to surprise. Ben Lerwill / @benlerwill

MEANTIME

Mondo Brewing co-founder Thomas Palmer What do you think sets Mondo apart? We’re a brewer driven company. Our decisions about what to brew, how to brew, when to brew, are all based first on our experiences as homebrewers, then our professional brewing experience. We were attracted to the idea of creating a company based on our combined 15 years brewing beer in the kitchen at home, in professional settings, and participating in the ongoing discourse about the state of brewing around the world. It’s a way of thinking that puts quality, taste, depth, character and ingenuity first.

/ See originalgravitymag.com for loads of beer events.

What was the ethos you set out with? Our ethos was and is to produce great beer, make the styles we want to make, and do so in a way that reduces the carbon footprint of brewing in general. We also set out to contribute to our local community in a positive way, both financially and ethically.

language, and style from around the world. This is heavily reflected in our approach to making beer. We take the collective experience of London’s beer culture and apply the styles we know and love from around the world, and then we brew what we like, what we think is good, what we think can be improved upon, and what we think is missing.

Does London influence the beers? Absolutely. London is a melting pot of culture,

How do you see Mondo developing? We want to explore more traditional

English styles of beer, barrel aging, and more participation in our local community over the next year. Which other brewers are you enjoying? At the top of the list in England has always been Thornbridge for us. We’ve grown fond of Cloudwater in Manchester too. Read the full interview online at originalgravitymag.com. / mondobrewingcompany.com

THE MASH

Home BREW RECIPE CARD

DIY Dog It’s an unprecedented move for a brewery: to publish homebrew recipes for every beer they’ve ever made. More than 200 beers from BrewDog’s back catalogue have been scaled down to 20-litre recipes, everything from Punk IPA to the 32% ABV Tactical Nuclear Penguin and published on a downloadable PDF. BrewDog co-founder James Watt said: “Many of the classic BrewDog beers were developed during our homebrewing days, and we still use a homebrewing 50L system to develop new beers and recipes. Home brewing is ingrained in our DNA, and is a cornerstone of the craft beer industry. We have always loved the sharing of knowledge, expertise and passion in the

Elvis Juice V2.0 IPA

craft beer community and we wanted to take that spirit of collaboration to the next level with DIY Dog. The more people that home brew, the more craft breweries will pop up and help us in the fight against global mega beer corporations, making the future brighter for craft beer.” The canon is an utterly compelling prospect for any homebrewer – we happily wasted a couple of hours browsing the beers and finally setteled on publishing the recipe for one of BrewDog’s most recent beers: Elvis Juice V2.0. As James Watt says: “Copy them, tear them to pieces, bastardise them, adapt them, but most of all, enjoy them!” OK then… DN

101 Homebrew 101

5 gallon

This beer is: “Punchy resinous hoppy aromas blast from the glass; light floral and citrus notes riff against huge piney character. Showcasing Citra, Simcoe and Amarillo at their absolute best. A huge dose of grapefruit peel brings swirls of fresh pithy zest, accentuating the dry hops and building on the dry, biscuit malt base. Elvis Juice V2.0 Citrus Infused IPA ABV: IBU: -VOLUME: BOIL VOLUME: TARGET FG: TARGET OG: EBC: SRM: PH: ATT. LEVEL: -MASH M A SH T TEMP TEMP: EMP

6.5% 60 20L, 5gal 25L, 6.6gal 1010 1060 25 12.5 4.4 83.3%

65 65°C 65°C 149 149°F 1149°F, 49°F, F 75mins 75 75mins FE FE FERMENTATION: ERMENTATION RMENTATION: 19°C 19°°C 19 C 66 666°F 6F

Ingredients: MALT Extra Pale 4.50kg 9.91lb Caramalt 0.88kg 1.92lb HOPS Magnum 2.5g - Start (bitter) Simcoe 12.5g - Middle (flavour) Amarillo 12.5g - Middle (flavour) Mosaic 25g - End (flavour) Citra 25g - End (flavour) Amarillo 12.5g - End (flavour) Simcoe 12.5g - End (flavour) Citra 50g - Dry Hop (aroma) Amarillo 50gg - Dryy Hopp (aroma)) Siimcoe 50g SSimcoe 50 50g - Dry Dr y Hop Hop (aroma) (aroma) YEAST Y E EAST AST Wyeast W yea t 1056 1056 American American Ale Alle A

Brewer’s Tip Shave of the surface of the citrus peel to unlock the highly aromatic compounds into the beer. Avoid putting any white pith into the brew as it will create an intense and unpleasant bitterness. Twist Add as much grapefruit and orange peel as you dare and FV for extra citrus twist

Not N ot to to be be reproduced repproduc d ffor or commercial comm rc al ppurposes purposes. urppose

RECIPE CARD

Equipment Stove-top APA

1 gallon

Essential advice from the Home Brew Depot So you wanna brew, but aren’t sure where to start? Many people are hesitant to get stuck in because they believe the initial start up costs of home brewing are prohibitive. Also specialist shops where potential brewers can browse and get some good advice are still sparse. Not to worry. One of my favourite aspects of brewing at home is how easy it is to get going with minimal gear. Then you can build up your arsenal of brewing paraphernalia as you build up your own experience. For simple extract kits of concentrated wort all you need is a five-gallon fermentation bucket, with or without tap. A thermometer and a siphon for bottling are good additions, and throw in a hydrometer if you wish to calculate the ABV of your beer. If you’ve dabbled with extract but want to try all-grain brewing then consider starting with a one-gallon kit. These kits, like our Microbatch range, brew a smaller quantity of beer and are great for experimenting. They make use of household items, saving on costs. You’ll need a 6-8l pasta pan (I’m half-Italian so I’ll assume everyone has one of these, no?) to mash your grain, a large sieve or cloth bag for

sparging and a 5l jug or mixing bowl for transferring the wort. One-gallon kits usually provide glass demijohns with bubbler and airlock for fermentation. Once you’ve brewed a few recipes and have caught the bug then you are ready for five-gallon all-grain brewing! First off you’ll need a ‘Hot Liquor Tank’, something to heat 30l of water. A tea urn, or Burco Boiler, does the job splendidly. With your water, or liquor, sorted you’ll need a ‘Mash Tun’. These are specially modified coolboxes with filters to separate the spent grain from the wort. After the mash you’ll need a third vessel, your ‘Kettle’, where you will add your hops while boiling the wort. You can use your HLT for this step. After the boil you’ll want to reduce the temperature of the wort quickly so a ‘Wort Chiller’ is vital. This is a simple coil of copper pipe circulating cold water that extracts heat from the wort. These few pieces of gear can set you back £I00-£150, worth every penny for a lifetime supply of beer. And then? Well, how big do you want to brew?! A whole exciting world of stainless steel vessels and a crash course in home engineering lies ahead.

In the second of a series of very easy stove top homebrew recipes that can be brewed in a demi-john, Brewtorial offer up this simple, but delicious American Pale Ale recipe. Ingredients: Pale malt 750g Munich 60g CaraPils 40g Cascade hops (40g total) Cascade pellets (20g total – optional) US-05 Yeast (Quarter of a packet) IBUs: 44 ABV: 5.5% You will need: • Large, stainless steel pan with lid 7 litre capacity (your brewing pan) • Cloth bag • Another pan to heat water in • Bucket • Thermometer (probe/gun ones are best) • Demijohn with bung and airlock • Siphon tube • No-rinse sanitiser (star san is best)

STEP BY STEP: 1. Fill your large pan with 3l of water. Bring to 66 degrees Celsius. Mix the crushed grains together in the cloth bag. Fold the edges of the bag over the rim of the pan, suspending the bag and submerging the grains. Place lid on pan, and leave the grains steeping at 66 degrees for 75 minutes. 2. In the second pan, heat 4l of water to 76 degrees, ready for when the 75 mins end. Remove lid and bag with steeped grains from brewing pan. Start to bring the contents of the brewing pan to the boil. Put the 76 degree water in your bucket, then submerge/ suspend the grain bag in the liquid, like a tea bag. Let the grains steep for 15 minutes, then remove the grain bag and discard grains. Add the liquid in the bucket to the brewing pan before it boils. 3. Once the boil is reached, start timer for for 6600 m nute A fteerr 1155 a timer minutes. Aft minutes m inutes, add add dd 5g 5g of of Cascade Cascade hops hops. minutes, hops. After A fteerr 45, 4455 50 50 and aan nd 5555 m minutes, inutes, aadd dddd Aft anotth her 5g 5g ooff Cascade Cascade h hops. op . At A another

the end of 60 minutes, add another 20g of hops, and place lid on pan and leave for 30 minutes. 4. In the meantime, boil a kettle, and rinse out the demijohn with boiling water. Pour boiling water through the siphon tube, to sterilise. Fill demijohn with 1 litre of cold water, and add 2ml of star san. Swish the liquid around in the demijohn, then discard. Fill up a sink with cold water and ice. Using oven gloves, submerge your brewing pan in the cold, ice water in the sink and chill to around 26 degrees. 5. Using the sterile siphon tube, siphon the now cooled wort from the pan into the demijohn, leaving a small amount of headspace. Add a quarter of a packet of S-04 to the liquid. Seal with bunger/airlock, and pour a tiny amount of sanitised liquid in the airlock. Gently shake the ddemijohn mijohn to to aaerate erate tthe he lliquid. quid qu Put P ut demijohn demijjohn in de in a warm warm area area ((20 20 ddegrees gree C) C) and and leave leave for for 1 w week eek ttoo fferment. erment

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From home brew to pro brew

F E AT U R E

ULTIMATE

Why it’s become the brewers’ brew, plus nine great sours. By Adrian Tierney-Jones.

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F E AT U R E

This beer is bad. This beer is sour. This beer has no redeeming features. Chuck it away or put it down the drain. Or we could rewind the conversation and hear things in a different way. This beer is sour. This beer is beautifully elegant in the way it balances a gentle dissonance of sourness alongside the melody of sweetness and the percussion of bitterness. This beer has the influence of time and acidity and whatever micro-flora the brewer has decided to let in. This beer is sour and all the better for it.

Sour is the new IPA (unless it’s a sour IPA); it’s the new black; it’s the new kid on the brewing block, kicking a can down the road with the guile of Ronaldo; and in the wildest moments of fantasy it’s the new wine (Wild Beer’s Squashed Grape is a psychedelic mash up that includes grape must, the result is a lambic-like intensity of tartness with a vinous swathe of fragrant grape cutting through its middle). Breweries such as Wild Beer, Burning Sky, Chorlton, Brew By Numbers, The Kernel, Beavertown and even dear old Elgoods are all happy in making sour beers of one description or another. So much beer, so much invention. Burning Sky’s Monolith, according to founder Mark Tranter, is ‘a stout like recipe but not a stout beer. It is fermented with ale yeast, Brett and lacto and aged in oak foudres for nine months. I guess it’s a black sour’. Brew By Numbers’ 3 Is a Magic Number was a sharp, palate puckering, tart and fruity sour while their Gose Classic is a traditional gose with just coriander and salt (thank heavens for that, I’m fed up with this wonderful beer style being stretched in all manner of directions). Meanwhile Chorlton has gone the complete sour way, with their mission statement being: ‘We’re mostly concentrating on sour beers as we’re on a mission to expand the possibilities of what’s possible using

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the four ingredients of water, grain, hops and yeast.’ So why is sour such a call to arms, a burst of bugle notes for every new (and not so new) brewer, a companion to the tattoo and sharp graphics? I would say, for a start, that there’s an element of experimentation and discovery, a what-would-happen-if-Ido-this when it comes to making some of the best sours. Of course, those who expect their beer to taste like the beer that fuelled Uncle Albert don’t like this sort of thing. Good luck to them. This voyage, this journey, is also directed by the digging up of ancient brewery archives by home-brewers and bloggers around the world, Indiana Joneses such as Ron Pattison who have championed archaic (and often dead) beer styles such as Lichtenheiner, Grodziskie, Berliner Weisse and Leipziger Gose. On the other hand sour is a difficult word to sell when it comes to beer — a beer that is sour by default is a recipe for gurning. We all know sour people. Milk turns sour when the boggart plays its tricks. On the other hand, sweet and sour sauce with pork, sour cream whisked into borscht and whisky sours add a lustre to life and the same goes for sour beer, when it is done right. Not being a brewer, I prefer to leave the explanation of how a sour beer is

made to someone who knows about such things, so here’s what Wild Beer’s co-founder Andrew Cooper had to say when I spoke with him last year. ‘You can see the influence from the US new wave of sours especially with the kettle sours in the UK. We don’t believe in that approach, we’re trying to add layers of intrigue and complexity with time spent barrel aging and the beers are ready when they are ready. We definitely take inspiration from Belgium but we are in Somerset and we make Somerset sours with yeast and bacteria that is local to us. ‘There’s massive mileage in sour beer because it’s so exciting on the palate. I drink more and more of it. I want to taste beers with layers of complexity and intrigue. We did the London Wine Fair in 2014 and had people coming up to us to taste beers like our sour dough beer; wine lovers get it.’ Ah America. I suppose you could say that it’s American brewers who are responsible for setting up sours as a style. As Cooper suggests, some are opting for the kettle sour way of doing things, a quick instant fix of souring perhaps, though time is just as important to many of them. Last summer I visited a baker’s dozen of breweries in Oregon and Washington. All of them did IPAs, though many were making sour beers with time as the extra ingredient.

At Harmon Brewing in Tacoma, I sat down with head brewer Jeff Carlson and tasted Super Samurai, a 12% wood aged sour monster that Carlson said was ‘changing all the time’. It was winey and rich and umami-like, complex and fiery, and possessed by the ghost of balsamic vinegar on the nose. We also tried a sour that had been aged in red wine barrels for two years. ‘It’s a Berliner Weisse with apples in the mix,’ said Carlson as I sipped it. It had a cider-like nose with hints of banana and Gewürztraminer and was dry and tart on the palate. Making sours is brewing as exploration. Besides, palatable sour beer is nothing new — vatted porter in the 18th and 19th century would have had an element of sourness in its makeup. It’s just that for many years brewers forgot what they used to do, they lost the art of aging beer, they dismissed from their minds memories of how they used to blend old and new, how to let the right microbes in, keep the wrong ones out; they forgot that beers could be left to ripen, to grow old and elegant, ready to be embraced and engaged by a younger generation of beer. Sour beers are just one way in which this fog of forgetfulness has finally lifted and enabled brewers to rediscover and improve on the past. Sour beer? I embrace it. Will you? AJT

F E AT U R E

Burning Sky / Monolith, 7.4%

Chorlton / Amarillo Sour, 5.2%

Wild Beer / Redwood, 5.8%

Earthy and acidic notes on the nose, with a bittersweet, delicately acidic palate, plus hints of mocha before a tart and rich finish.

A thirst quencher of the highest order with an engaging acidity and Amarillo hop aromatics on the nose.

Bretty and berries on the nose with vanilla, acidity, tartness and acidity on the palate, refreshing, quenching and dry.

Buxton Brewery / Red Raspberry Rye, 4.9%

Magic Rock Brewing / Salty Kiss, 4.1%

By The Horns / Sour To The People, 4.8%

Fruity version of their Berliner Weisse: tart and stimulating with a glorious swoon of sharp raspberry notes.

Normally I frown at tinkering with Leipziger Gose, but this version (with added gooseberries) is immense: vinous, delicately sour and lightly salty with a background hum of sweetness and a finish that is dry, tart and crisp.

A sour mash beer, developed from the second mash of By the Horn’s Vintage Ale 2014. Lightly soured with a distinct sweetness.

Thornbridge Brewery / Sour Brown, 7%

Crate Brewery / Sour, 4.9%

Elgoods Brewery / Coolship Lambic, 6.7%

A grand old master of a Flemish brown, which is tart, vinous, earthy, sour and sweet, fruity as in cherry, currant and plumsweetness and all wrapped up in a cedar wood dryness.

An amber and rich sour with added passion fruit and hibiscus. It’s a delicious beer, with deep malts and floral sprightliness. DN

The Fens meets Flanders with a tart and softly acidic beer, grapefruit-like in its embrace, daubed with a soft sweetness and gifted with hints of sherry.

Moncada Brewery / Notting Hill Sour, 3%

Fourpure / Hoptart, 3.7%

There are huge amounts of flavour and super sharp sourness despite This started life as a Berliner Weisse, mildly sour, but it has been the typically low Berliner Weisse ABV. Like. A lot. DN dry hopped adding a citrus depth. Super refreshing. DN

Kernel Brewery / London Sour, 3.2% Bermondsey’s take on Berliner Weisse produce a refreshing, tart beer. Versions have had raspberries and sour cherries added.

Oh and don’t forget Greene King’s Strong Suffolk, which has its origins in 19th century blending with some claiming that the Rodenbach family got their inspiration from a visit (well that’s what I was told on my visit to Roeselare last year). Sadly it’s a beer that they don’t seem to be that interested in. I wonder why.

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P H O T O E S S AY

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P H O T O E S S AY

HOMEBREW HITS If you’re reading this, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve flirted with brewing your own beer. Almost everyone starts with a kit, and then often progresses to full mash. For some people, it’s a gateway into commercial brewing. So what do you do if you’ve outgrown your kitchen? London Beer Lab is one of a number of open-source breweries where you can make your own beer on their impressive range of equipment. The Lab runs competitions throughout the year where the winning homebrew gets to be produced on the club’s larger pilot kit and then sold on keg at the King & Co freehouse in Clapham. They also host workshops and talks. Original Gravity% was invited down to hear a talk by Beavertown supremo Tiago Falcone on the North London brewer’s experiments in barrel ageing. / londonbeerlab.com Images: Gareth Dobson (beershots.co.uk)

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F E AT U R E

1. RAW SOUR In his new book, Cooking With Beer, Mark Dredge plunders the fridge for lagers, IPAs, Stouts and Belgian beers to use in cooking. There’s a wildly diverse range of uses (ice creams, soups, breads and much more) for every occasion. Here are a couple of our favourites… Mark Dredge writes: “Cooking with beer is growing in popularity around the world, assisted by our increasing knowledge of beer and food and general culinary curiosity that naturally prompts us to use the huge variety of beers now available in the kitchen. Countless bars and brewpubs use beer in different dishes; Michelin-starred restaurants cook with beer; and there are restaurants specialising in beer-infused food. There are also websites and YouTube channels dedicated to beer cooking, and it’s going way beyond old classics, such as pies and stews, and creating a new evolution of what beer cuisine is and what it can be. And that’s exciting. Cooking with Beer features some of my favourite methods for cooking with beer; I’ve generally overlooked the classics and sought to find some new ways of using beer in the kitchen.”

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F E AT U R E

SOUR BEER CEVICHE Recipes don’t get much simpler than this and yet its simplicity belies the excellence of this acidic, refreshing, Peruvian-inspired dish. The fish—a white fish like sea bass is best—is quickly cured using the acidity of citrus and sour beer, where Gueuze will give a tangy, peppery edge; modern “quick” sours (the BerlinerWeisse style) will give a tart, lactic edge; and a fruited sour adds in a nice bonus burst of flavor. Just make sure the fish is the freshest you can buy.

• ½ RED ONION, FINELY CHOPPED • 250G FRESH WHITE FISH, CUT INTO ½ IN (1CM) CUBES • ½ RED CHILLI PEPPER • JUICE OF 1 LIME • 50–100ML SOUR BEER • ½ TEASPOON SEA SALT • ½ TEASPOON GROUND CORIANDER • 2 AVOCADOS, SKINNED, STONED, AND SLICED, TO SERVE • HANDFUL OF FRESH CORIAANDER, TO SERVE

DIRECTIONS 1. Soak the onion in some iced water for 10 minutes to take the harsher edge off the flavor. 2. Meanwhile, place the fish in a large serving bowl. Add all the other ingredients, apart from the avocado and coriander, and mix together gently. Leave to cure in the refrigerator for 30–60 minutes. Check the seasoning (adding more salt or citrus, if you prefer). 3. To serve, place the fish on top of the sliced avocado and sprinkle with coriander. EAT IT WITH The sour beer you cured the fish in works best, where something such as Girardin is a nice choice for its balance of acidity and subtle sweetness. A good alternative is a cold dark lager—try something simple like Negra Modelo or a classic German version.

Beer style:

SOUR

FRAMBOISE LEMON CAKE Lemon cake is delicious and this made me think: how could I possibly make it even more delicious? It wasn’t a big step to go from sour fruit to sour fruit beer. Let me modestly tell you that this is a brilliant cake to bake. The beer gives fruitiness and acidity, working so well with the lemon juice.

• 175G BUTTER (AT ROOM TEMPERATURE) • 200G SELF-RAISING FLOUR • 175G CASTER SUGAR • 3 EGGS • ZEST AND JUICE 1 LEMON • 50ML FRAMBOISE*

• 200G RASPBERRIES FOR THE GLAZE • 50G CASTER SUGAR • JUICE OF 2 LEMON • 50ML FRAMBOISE* (*OR ANY SOUR RASPBERRY BEER)

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C/Gas 3. Butter a deep loose-bottomed cake tin (around 8in/20cm in diameter).

cake tin. Bake for around 50-60 minutes (using a skewer to check that the cake is cooked through—it may need less or more time depending on how deep your cake tin is). Place on a wire rack.

2. Use an electric mixer to cream together the butter, flour, sugar, and eggs in a mixing bowl until thick and smooth. 3. Mix in the remaining ingredients the gently stir in the raspberries before pouring the batter into the

Beer style:

COFFEE STOUT

4. While the cake is still warm, make the glaze by mixing together all the ingredients. Take a skewer and pierce small holes through the cake, then brush over the glaze.

EAT IT WITH: The raspberry beer you use in this naturally works really well, though it can be a bit too much sour-on-sour with the sugar just muddling it up. The lateral-thinking option is to go for coffee and the roasted bitterness and subtle acidity of a Coffee Stout. To Øl Goliat Imperial Coffee Stout, Dieu du Ciel Péché Mortel, or Siren’s Broken Dream are the top choices.

COFFEE STOUT PANCAKES This is a brilliant, boozy brunch recipe: the kind you can mix up and cook quickly, before taking it back to eat in bed. Use the strongest Stout you have, ideally one that’s brewed with coffee, where a shot of espresso boosts the roasted richness. I like to serve it with some sliced banana on top. Makes 6-8.

• 225G ALL-PURPOSE (PLAIN) FLOUR • 1 TEASPOON BAKING POWDER • ½ TEASPOON SALT • ½ TEASPOON GROUND CINNAMON • 3 TABLESPOONS SUGAR • 1 EGG, BEATEN • 2 TABLESPOONS NATURAL YOGURT

• 150ML MILK • 100ML IMPERIAL STOUT • 1 SHOT ESPRESSO (OPTIONAL, BUT GOOD) • 1 PUNNET BLUEBERRIES • BUTTER OR VEGETABLE OIL, FOR FRYING (I LIKE TO USE COCONUT OIL) • MAPLE SYRUP, TO SERVE

1. Combine all the dry ingredients (apart from the blueberries) in a bowl and all the wet ingredients (except the maple syrup) in a second bowl. Combine the dry and liquid ingredients, mixing well until you have a thick pancake batter.

3. Heat a small amount of butter or vegetable oil in a large frying pan before pouring in some pancake batter. Cook the pancake for a few minutes before flipping it over and cooking it on the other side.

2. Add as many blueberries as you wish—a small handful per pancake is about right.

4. Once cooked, eat the pancakes straight away, drizzled with maple syrup, or stack them up and keep in a warm oven until needed.

Beer style:

IMPERIAL STOUT

EAT IT WITH: The rest of the Stout you cooked with. Or open another bottle of Coffee Stout. You might as well treat yourself to something good if you’re drinking beer with breakfast so look for Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel, BrewDog Cocoa Psycho or Founder’s Breakfast Stout.

Cooking with Beer by Mark Dredge, published by CICO Books (£16.99). Out on April 14. Photography by Alex Luck © CICO Books • FOUR GREAT DRESSINGS: See originalgravitymag.com for these extra recipes

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Burning Sky

TA S T I N G N O T E S

Cloudwater DIPA V2 [9.2%]

Ilkley Brewery WESTWOOD STOUT [6.5%]

Ridgeway IMPERIAL STOUT [4.5%]

C5 SAGA BLANCA [6%]

Is Cloudwater Britain’s most exciting brewery right now? With beers like this, could be

A white chocolate stout that works.. well

A romancer of a stout as they used to be

From Mexico’s cinco de Mayo brewery is a beer that defies the styles and still shines

So here we are with Cloudwater’s latest and most melodious expression of their Double IPA. It’s a bruiser of a beer, big and bold, yet light on the palate and incredibly drinkable. The nose is savoury, leafy, pungent (asafoetida perhaps?) alongside the aromatics of a carton of fresh orange juice emptied into the air; there’s a big mouth feel, with orange, pineapple, papaya, tea and even spice making their presence known before the lush and sensual finish. With one sip I returned to the mini road trip I took along the Pacific coast in Washington and Oregon last year and half expected to hear sea lions making a right royal noise as I continued drinking this magnificent beer. Cloudwater are making some of the most appealing beers in the UK right now. ATJ / cloudwaterbrew.co

This is a stout as in strong rather than the darkness of a killer’s thoughts moments before they strike; it’s copper coloured, veering towards burnished gold, and the brewery calls it a white chocolate stout, which seems to make sense on tasting. It’s silky sweet and luscious, lubricious and lucid in the way that the flavours and sensations (sweet chocolate, milky mocha, creamy mouth feel, spiky bitterness) all work together. It’s a homely and luxurious beer, comfortable and a bit of a treat, though not without some steel in the way the bitterness at the back of the throat keeps a balance amidst all this smoothness. The Milky Bar Kid of childhood legend just grew up and swapped his pop-guns for an AK47. ATJ / ilkleybrewery.co.uk

Now here’s a treat, an Imperial Russian Stout, a dark dancer of liquorice, coffee beans, hazelnut, cola, stewed plums, chocolate and roastiness gyrating away on the tongue. Hark to the sprightly carbonation, alongside a chewiness, a and a lubriciousness, all of which combine with the complexity of flavours and aromas to create a magnificent beer. This romancer of a beer harks back to Courage Imperial Russian Stout, one of the great lost beers of Britain (even though Courage first brewed it in the 1960s it still acquired a mythological status in its shortish life), and it’s entirely appropriate that Ridgeway’s Peter Scholey worked on Courage’s final version at John Smith’s in the early 1990s. Buy two, lay one down: my bottle of 2014 was even more luscious. ATJ / ridgewaybrewery.co.uk

Belgian-style Ale apparently, but I reckon it’s closer to a witbier given the coriander spice and pepperiness on the nose, accompanied by a fresh spritziness. A sip and my certainty is cast-iron as evidenced by the juicy oranginess, white pepper, a full mouth feel and a dry and juicy finish. What I really love is that the edge-of-palate sourness somehow brings out the juiciness, making this beer a gulper, a beer not to tarry over, and with a brief glance the glass is once again in need of replenishment. This beer style is very much ignored these days unless of course it has loads of hops thrown at it, but it’s a beautiful Belgian style that this Mexican brewery has captured the very essence of. ATJ / cc5.mx

Brouwerij Boon OUDE GEUZE BLACK LABEL

[7%]

Boon is restrained and elegant. Black Label takes these qualities to extremes

If you ever have the privilege of meeting Frank Boon you’ll soon realise that he craves the same universal success for lambic and geuze as we’re used to with liquids such as Champagne and Prosecco. It’s logical why he covets this status for the beer his brewery produces. Geuze is nuanced and crisp, with a cradle of flavours evoking green apples, barnyards and freshly bundled bails of hay. It’s the true Champagne of the beer world. For me Boon geuze is considerably

Hawkshead Brewery NZPA [6%]

Magic Rock SALTY KISS

Packs a fruity, flavoursome, alcoholic smack to your taste buds, with tropical undertones The first time I supped this golden beer was on draught in the Hawkshead Brewery Pub, which is now in Staveley, near Kendal, Cumbria. I remember thinking wow – as my taste buds imploded with a rich fruity hoppiness combined with a deep mellow maltiness. I wanted to sink a few pints but knew that the 6% would see me off. Since then I’ve tried the 330ml bottled NZPA, which seems to be unpasteurised. This excellent beer is the creation of Head Brewer Matt Clark, who hails from New Zealand. So no surprises there then, it does what it says on the bottle: bursting with the flavour of New Zealand hops. See page 5 for some Kiwi beers. Alan Hinkes / hawksheadbrewery.co.uk

more accessible than some of the geuze from other producers such as Drie Fonteinen or Cantillon. Where these can be intensely sour or funky, Boon is restrained and altogether more elegant. Its latest release, Black Label, takes these qualities to their extremes. Oude Geuze Black Label is bone dry, with a sourness more like fresh lemon juice than the funk found in a lot of

spontaneously fermented beers. The crackling effervescence prevents this sourness from becoming too sharp and aids the beer in maintaining its subtle tartness. Black label is certainly a complex beer – but the real beauty of it is that enjoying it requires very little thought at all. Matt Curtis / boon.be

Purity SADDLE BACK [6%]

Wooha Brewing Co WHEAT [6.4%]

This slightly sour, slightly salty gooseberry gose was one of last year’s highlights

This ‘hoppy black beer’ is an excercise in balance, and better for it

A confident wheat beer from the Scottish Alps

Magic Rock’s Salty Kiss was in my top five beers of 2015 – perhaps even my top three. It’s a gose, a top-fermented beer originating in Germany and notable for its saline sourness. Magic Rock’s take on the style adds subtle spikes of gooseberry. It’s also got sea buckthorn in it, which I admit is not a taste I readily recognise. Either way it’s a beer that keeps on giving, developing continually sip by sip and throwing in unexpected flavours: salt, a strike of wheatiness, and of course that gooseberry. The best news is that this is part of Magic Rock’s core canned range being shipped around the country. Yep, a gooseberry gose, in a can, all over the UK. The gods of beer are spoiling us. Rejoice! DN / magicrockbrewing.com

We admire Purity Brewing. Everything they do is very carefully considered and their product is consistently excellent. In the hop wars that are taking place (OK, it’s not a thing, but you know what I mean), Purity remain admirably restrained. I think they used to call it balance. Saddle Black is a black IPA, or ‘unfiltered hoppy black beer’ as they bill it, and it’s now in a can. It is, predictably, wonderful. The Cascade and Chinook bring an orangey spike to the toasty malts and the dryness of the rye, while the canning means that those hop flavours remain fresh and alive. In an era of big hops, this ‘hoppy’ beer strikes the right balance. You could argue they are ahead of the game with this. DN / thornbridgebrewery.co.uk

We don’t want to get buried in definitions of beer styles too much, but a wheat beer, hefeweizen or weissbier should have a spiciness of cloves, a fruity hit of bananas and a dry grainy balance. It should also transport you to the Alps, whisking you off to that mountain hut you once ended up in after a long climb. In other words, it’s important that a wheat beer is evocative as well as tasting wonderful. Wooha ticks the beer style boxes with confidence, admirably leaning on the drier side. And evocative? Being no stranger to the Munros of Scotland, we’re often wishing for a hefeweizen after a day of peak-bagging. With luck we’ll see this beer in the mountain towns of Scotland too. DN / woohabrewing.com

[4.1%]

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BEER

T R AV E L L E R

BRIGHTON

The Snow Drop Inn

Brighton Bier

Gun Brewery

Harveys

Laine Brewery

Two Tribes Brewery

Gadreners Arms

COUNTRY

LEWES

360 Degree Brewing

The Ram Long Man Burning Sky Plough & Harrow

EAST SUSSEX

Three Legs Brewery

COUNTRY

The Sussex Ox

EASTBOURNE

BEXHILL

HASTINGS

FILO Brewerey & Pub

The Eagle The Dolphin Beer Me Brewery

The Crown Franklins

BREWERIES 1. 360 Degree Brewing A fairly new brewery that has their sights set on moving serious amounts of beer, and with brews like this, why not? Unit 22, Bluebell Business Estate, Sheffield Park, Uckfield, TN22 3HQ (01825 722375) / 360degreebrewing.com TRY: West Coast #50 2. Beer Me Brewery Impressive Belgian beers made on a 2.5 barrel kit in a Belgian restaurant in Eastbourne. 11-23 Grand Parade, Eastbourne, BN21 3YN (01323 729967) TRY: Blonde 3. Brighton Bier Company This brewery just keeps getting better and better. A Japanese collab with tea a recent highlight, as is the namesake award-winner. Grab it at the Brighton Bier Dispensary pub. Unit 10, Bell Tower Industrial Estate, Roedean Rd, Brighton, BN2 5RU (01273 567374) / brightonbier.com TRY: Brighton Bier 4. Burning Sky Well, isn’t East Sussex lucky – this has been voted one of the best breweries worldwide. National accolades keep coming too for the brewery focussing on hop-forward beers, saisons and barrel-aged beers. Superlative. Place Barn, The Street, Firle, BN8 6LP (01273 858080) / burningskybeer.com TRY: Saison à la Provision

way) with New Zealand-hopped pales and rye beers among the traditional favourites. Pebsham Farm Industrial Estate, Pebsham Lane, Bexhill, TN40 2RZ (01424 731066) / franklinsbrewery.co.uk 7. Gun Brewery We first visited this brewery as they were starting up and now we’re seeing them everywhere. Rightly so, these beers are packed with flavour. Nice work guys! Hawthbush Farm, Gun Hill, Heathfield, TN21 0JY (01323 700200) / gunbrewery.co.uk TRY: Scaramanga Extra Pale 8. Harveys Brewery The heritage of Harveys of Lewes began in 1790, and the beers they make are masterful and utterly unique. The Best is the best example in the world and the Imperial Stout just an incredible brew. Bridge Wharf Brewery, 6 Cliffe High Street, Lewes, BN7 2AH (01273 480209) / harveys.org.uk TRY: Anything

5. FILO Brewery Hastings stalwarts still brewing near the pub where they started, and still turning out some great beers, including a superb Best. First In Last Out pub, High Street, Hastings, TN34 3EY (01424 425079) / thefilo.co.uk TRY: Crofters

9. Hastings Brewery We’ve a lot of love for Hastings, their powerfully hopped beers powered early issues of Original Gravity%. There’s an inventiveness too – try the delightful Slovenian Brown. Unit 12 Conqueror Industrial Estate, Moorhurst Road, St Leonards-on-Sea, TN28 9NB (01424 572050) / hastingsbrewery.co.uk TRY: Mosiac Pale

6. Franklins Brewery Franklins turn out thoughtful caskconditioned ales (kegged beers are on their

10. Laine Brewery Known to most Brighton-dwellers, this brewpub turns out some some wonderful

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beers and we’re looking forward to trying more at the Brighton Tap Takeover in April. North Laine Public House, 27 Gloucester Place, Brighton, BN1 4AA (01273 683666) / drinkinbrighton.co.uk TRY: Brighton Pale Ale 11. Long Man Brewery We’ve been following the fortunes of Long Man for a long time, enjoying their APA, but it’s the Crafty Blonde lager-like pale ale that really caught our attention. Church Farm, Litlington, BN26 5RA (01323 871850) / longmanbrewery.com TRY: Crafty Blonde

Hastings Brewery

EASTBOURNE 16. The Dolphin A pleasing selection of carefully-curated beers, mostly from local breweries, including Downlands and Gun Brewery. 14 South Street, Eastbourne, BN21 4XF (01323 746622) / thedolphineastbourne.co.uk 17. The Eagle Always a good vibe at the Eagle, partly thanks to the diverse selection of beer. It’s nearby sister pub, the Dew Drop, is famed for its burgers. 57 South Street, Eastbourne, BN21 4UT (01323 417799) / theeagleeastbourne.co.uk HASTINGS

12. Three Legs Brewery It was the stunning labels that first caught our attention but these guys are producing a tight range of lovely beers. Burnt House Farm, Udimore Road, Broad Oak, Rye, TN31 6BX / thethreelegs.co.uk TRY: Dark 13. Two Tribes Brewery A collaboration with Island Records showcased the quality of this Sussex brewer who favour collabs and we’re looking forward to more at the Brighton Tap Takeover. Jubilee Estate, Foundry Lane, Horsham / twotribesbrewing.com TRY: Island Records Session IPA

PUBS LEWES

18. The Crown A very highly-regarded pub in Hastings, that serves craft beers, real ales and good food. 64-66 All Saints St, Hastings, TN34 3BN (01424 465100) / thecrownhastings.co.uk 19. First In Last Out Spiritual home of the FILO Brewery (it’s still very close) that is ultra fresh, plus guests. 14-15 High St, Hastings TN34 3EY (01424 425079) / thefilo.co.uk COUNTRY 20. Sussex Ox Beautiful country pub, incredible views of the South Downs escarpment, with an everimproving selection of beer on keg and cask. Milton Street, BN26 5RL (01323 870840) / thesussexox.co.uk

14. The Snowdrop Inn Our favourite East Sussex pub outside of Brighton. Burning Sky on tap and in the fridge, plus plenty more to choose from. Lovely place too. 119 South St, Lewes, BN7 2BU (01273 471018)

21. Ram Inn A cosy country pub in the same village as Burning Sky, which is often on tap. Walkable from Lewes or via the nearby Glynde station. The Street, Firle, BN8 6NS(01273 858222) / raminn.co.uk

15. Gardeners Arms A wide selection of ales, mostly local, in this cosy High Street pub. 46 Cliffe High St, Lewes, BN7 2AN (01273 474808)

22. Plough & Harrow Lots of Long Man beers that travel less than half a mile, plus Burning Sky and other guests. The Street, Litlington, BN26 5RE (01323 870632) / ploughandharrowlitlington.co.uk

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