Drink Beer of the week You’ve heard of black IPA? Prepare to make more space in your beer styles handbook and welcome stout IPA, or double black IPA. Add to the list Verdant Brewing Co’s Uto (9.5%). It’s stout but hopped by a heavy handed lupulin addict. It should be a discord, like a cat strolling on piano keys; instead, it’s a symphony of wellbalanced rich dark malts and pungent, resinous hops.
Darren Norbury
talks beer east. Where would we be without it? We can’t see it, yet it’s all around. “It’s in the air,” as Kate Bush said in 1985. Oh to have been there on that historic day thousands of year ago when they discovered that liquid could be magically turned into something that made you very happy and would eventually cause you to fall over. Yeast very cleverly manages to take in sugars and excrete alcohol, while also making more yeast – an endless cycle! It’s like divine intervention, hence its name “Godisgood” during the days before yeast science was understood. Yeast was front of mind when I paid a visit to Verdant Brewing Company’s new brewhouse on the Tregonniggie Industrial Estate, Falmouth, recently. It was a hot summer afternoon and I could easily have been at a new-wave London brewery, such as Beavertown, such was the vibe. It was a real family occasion, with children and dogs running around, and a table tennis table set up. But the focus was, of course, on the beer. Verdant’s thing is American-style keg beers, and they’ve enjoyed great success with beers like
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THE FINNISH LINE Heard of Sahti beer? It’s a traditional Finnish style of rye beer and Totnes Brewing Co has come up with one of its own with juniper also in the recipe. Sounds delicious – I always think juniper is a great flavour in beer.
tropical fruit-noted pale ale Headband and juicy some one-off brews. IPA Bloom. But it was New England Pale which Flavours that yeast impart during the fermenwas intriguing me because of the yeast story tation process can vary hugely. Some are desirabehind it. While many brewers in the UK use a ble, some, like the cabbagey or butterscotch notes standard strain, such as Nottingham Ale Yeast from dimethyl sulphide and diacetyl respectivefor instance, Verdant experiments with more unly, not so. But a range of fruit flavours – such as usual strains, trying two in difapple, strawberry or banana – ferent brews of the same recipe, can manifest themselves, as can to compare and contrast. cough medicine hints, which I Yeast very While the yeasts Verdant are find sometimes pleasant in aged, cleverly manages using will arrive at their brewdarker beers. ery in packaging, up in SomYeast makes brewers into as to take in sugars erset, the Wild Beer Company much chemists as chefs, and and excrete harnesses the wild yeast that is various individuals’ expertise alcohol, while all around us. As a consequence, with these micro-organisms can their beers can have funky, make or break a good brew. For also making more sour, farmyard notes that wild instance, Guillermo Alvarez, yeast – an endless yeast delivers. Wild yeast, by its brewer at Electric Bear in Bath, nature, can’t be harnessed, so came to brewing via a yeast specycle! the beers have infinite variety. cialism, having worked in the lab At the other end of the specat St Austell at one time. His spetrum, St Austell Brewery mainciality is shining through in the tains and propagates its own strain of yeast, Electric Bear brews – well worth checking out. which is meticulously looked after to maintain Darren Norbury is editor of beertoday.co.uk consistency. Special yeast is used, however, in @beertoday
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FULL STEAM AHEAD Real ale and steam engines on the track. If that’s your sort of thing, then you need to get down to the Bodmin and Wenford Railway next weekend (September 9-11) for the Steam and Ale garden. You’ll find a range of beers on the platform.
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