Thornbridge Brewery

Monday 10th April 2017 saw the worldwide launch, in bottle, of Thornbridge’ s Mango Halcyon. Halcyon Imperial IPA has been a successful core beer within the Thornbridge range for a number of years and has gained a committed and loyal following. So why brew a mango version? Rob Lovatt, head brewer at Thornbridge, tells us why. “One of the main fruit aromas I always get from Halcyon is mango and so it seemed a natural choice to use mangoes in trying to develop a fruit version of this IPA. To produce a beer like this is not without a challenge to ensure that when using real fruit, as we have done, that the sweetness does not clash with the bitterness. We want a harmony of flavours but in a drink that is still unmistakably a beer despite us using over a tonne of mangoes into 20,000 litres of beer during the secondary fermentation process. ” Rob and his team recognised that haze in a beer of this type was always going to be evident but that was part of the challenge. “It’s pointless even considering trying to get it bright,” says Lovatt “so we centrifuged the first third of the beer and then transferred the rest of the raw beer back on top. This results is the perfect level of haze and yeast count whilst still retaining bags of juicy mango flavour.” So a challenge yes but, one we think we have met and are delighted with the finished beer.” The marketing campaign surrounding this beer launch included the opportunity to win the experience of being a ‘faux Lord’!