August is our birthday month! We turn 29 this year – it’s a privilege to have been here doing what we do for almost three whole decades and we’re so excited for what the future holds in our new chapter of being 100% employee owned. Thank you for joining us on this journey!
Anyway, enough of the emotional sentiments, here’s what we’ve got coming up this month. Live, Laugh, Loch Lomond (4.2%) is the return leg of our collaboration with Scott, previously part of our brewteam and now at, as the beer name suggests, Loch Lomond Brewery! A light biscuity base meets uniquely flavourful Krush hops to create a fruity little number with a luscious impact!
From the imaginarium of Doctor Morton we have the return of Proper Gander (4.1%), Get up really close and get a long, careful look at this Chinook and Pacific Gem hopped pale. Another returning beer to our line up is seasonal special Harvested, a 4.1% pale with Galaxy hops. Expect a fruity beer with refreshing tropical character alongside a clean, grapefruit bitterness and a subtle spiciness in the finish.
And on the Brewers Emporium side of things look out for Hazelnut Frappé Stout (5.2%) from our Salvation series, in collaboration with Castleton Coffee Co. Smooth and silky, with a bold coffee character balanced by sweet, nutty overtones and notes of chocolate and vanilla. And finally we have vibrant, juicy pale ale Trailblazer (4.4%) riding into town, with Amarillo, Simcoe and Galaxy hops.
Thornbridge Brewery and Garrett Oliver collaborate on a special release to support The Michael James Jackson Foundation
Thornbridge Brewery is proud to announce a special collaboration with Garrett Oliver, Brewmaster of Brooklyn Brewery, to create a unique beer brewed on the world’s only operational Burton Union set. Proceeds from this limited-edition release will benefit The Michael James Jackson Foundation for Brewing and Distilling (MJF).
In 2024, Garrett Oliver played a pivotal role in assisting Thornbridge with the rescue and restoration of an historic Burton Union Set – a legendary system once central to British brewing. Now operational at Thornbridge’s brewery in Bakewell, it stands as the sole functioning example of its kind anywhere in the world.
Since its installation, Thornbridge has used the Union to explore heritage styles and innovative collaborations. This new release marks the first beer brewed on the system with Garrett Oliver himself: a Strong Dark Mild crafted with Maris Otter, premium Crystal and Chocolate malts, and West African Fonio, an ancient grain that contributes creaminess and subtle fruit character. Dark brewing sugars further enhance the beer with complex layers of caramel and richness.
In addition to its historical and technical significance, the collaboration supports a vital cause. Garrett Oliver founded The MJF, a non-profit organisation that funds technical education and career advancement for people of colour in the brewing and distilling industries. For every pint and can of this beer sold, 10 pence will be donated to the foundation.
“We were incredibly excited to brew with Garrett using the Union,” said Simon Webster, Co-Founder and CEO of Thornbridge Brewery. “To combine this brewing milestone with the opportunity to support such an important cause makes it all the more meaningful.”
Garrett Oliver continued …. “I’m 36 years into my brewing career, and yet this still counts as one of the most personally significant beers I’ve had the opportunity to brew. My journey into brewing started with British cask beers at the pub, and to brew on this singular and wondrous beast is a great privilege.”
This unique beer will be available in Thornbridge bars and Free Trade pubs around the UK.
CAMRA’s 39th National Breweriana Auction; Saturday 25th October 2025
Have you ever fancied owning a slice of brewing history? Then this Auction is just the thing for you. Run by the Campaign for Real Ale, the National Breweriana Auction returns to Burton on Trent’s Town Hall on Saturday 25th October. It will have circa 150 interesting auction lots; everything from mirrors to trays; advertising signs, water jugs, flagons, bottles, books and pump clips as well as a few more unusual items. Plus there will be a number of stands selling brewery memorabilia adding to the atmosphere in this wonderful Victorian venue.
There are all sorts of items from all over the country to decorate your home. What about a Guinness clock or a delightful plate from Lincolnshire’s Batemans Brewery. The plate was issued to their employees after the brewery was saved from closure in 1987 when the sister and brother of George Bateman wanted to sell. One of the key components to saving the Brewery was their XXXB winning CAMRA’s Champion Beer of Britain, resulting in full order books.
As always, there are a number of advertising display cards including two from London’s Barclay Perkins (set up in 1616 and merged with Courage in 1955) and one from the less known Simpson’s of Baldock, Hertfordshire. The brewery was founded in the 1730s and renamed Simpsons in 1853 when it was bought by Joseph & Thomas George Simpson. To avoid death duties, the business was sold to Greene King with 130 pubs in 1954 for £525,000 and closed in 1965.
Another item from Barclay Perkins is a corked bottle of Imperial Russian Stout, probably 70 years old. Other items from past London brewing giants are two Toby jugs from Charringtons, who were famous for its Toby Jug logo. They were founded in 1770, merging with Bass, Mitchell & Butler, to form Bass Charringtons in 1967, which made them the largest brewery in the UK at that time. The London brewery was closed and brewing moved to the Midlands in 1975.
Two items, you can either use or more likely display, are trays from Wadworth of Devizes (founded in 1875 and still in family hands) and the less known Tennants. This is not the better known Scottish Tennents Brewery but a brewery established by two brothers in 1840 in Sheffield. They were acquired by Whitbread in 1961 with 700 tied houses becoming Whitbread East Pennines but closed in 1993.
These are just a few of the items on sale, each with a history to tell. You don’t have to be an expert to attend the National Breweriana Auction. The Auction is great fun to take part in (or even just to watch) and it’s an opportunity to get some great bargains plus many of the items on sale can appreciate in value. And, of course, like any CAMRA event, there is some good beer on sale all day (from a local brewery).
Burton on Trent is less than an hour by train from Shefield and the Town Hall is just a short walk from the railway station. The event starts at 10.30am with the opportunity to view the lots and browse the breweriana stands that will also be there. Bidding starts at noon and is normally finished by 3pm, giving a chance to have a final perusal of the stands before visiting some of Burton’s iconic pubs and heading home.
Entrance is by catalogue (£3.00), available on the day, or in advance by post: £6.15 (first class) from Bill Austin: 07831 688276 or baustin1951@btinternet.com. If you can’t get there, postal bids are accepted, just contact Bill. Similarly contact Bill if you have Breweriana items you would like to enter into the Auction. Wheelchair accessible. For more details see: www.gandc.camra.org.uk.
CAMRA chooses July to promote real cider but what exactly is that? – Vice Chairman (Cider) of CAMRA’s Real Ale, Cider and Perry Campaigns Committee, Ian Packham talks traditional cider and perry and CAMRA’s campaigning.
Real cider and perry are long established traditional drinks, which in certain parts of the country were supplied as part of the payment for farm labour up until 1887.
Traditional Cider and Perry are completely natural products, unlike most of the cold fizzy commercial products we are used to seeing, which are far from the real thing. Real cider and perry is produced naturally from apples (cider) and pears (perry) and is not normally carbonated or pasteurised. The harvesting of the fruit normally happens around October although this can vary dependent on the weather throughout the growing season.
The basics of traditional cider and perry production have remained the same for centuries – simply pick, wash, mill and press the fruit, place into a suitable container (in many cases oak barrels in the older days), allow to ferment and enjoy, although a number of producers do use separate yeast rather than that which naturally occurs on the skin of the fruit. Either way production uses virtually no energy at all, from picking of the fruit to the product being ready for sale, meaning that the production process is very environmentally friendly. Many of these natural ciders and perries tend to be dry as they have largely fully fermented using the natural sugar within the fruit. Some of them are sweetened by the addition of fresh apple juice, sugar, or other sweetener but perry tends to be naturally sweeter than cider.
The popularity of real cider and perry is rising as more people discover how deliciously mellow and aromatic the flavours of naturally produced cider and perry can be. A glass of real cider or perry represents generations of production dating back hundreds of years. There are also many new producers of cider and perry who are using the traditional process – albeit in some cases with more modern equipment – which still creates the traditional product.
Real cider was traditionally produced from cider apples which are different from eating or cooking apples. These typically have high levels of tannin which lead to a very bitter taste. There are many varieties of cider apple which have different characteristics and vary in levels of tannin and acid. They tended to grow in the Three Counties (Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire) as well as the West Country, especially Devon and Somerset. Cider is also made in many parts of the country with producers using eating or cooking apples instead, which leads to a different taste profile again. Similarly, perry pears are different to desert pears in that they are smaller in size and are high in tannin which tends to give an astringent taste rather than bitterness found in cider apples. They tend to dominate in the Three Counties which is where the majority of real perry is produced.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for many of the well-known ciders and perries sold in the UK that are not produced using the natural process from apples and pears but have been produced artificially using concentrated juice, chaptalised juice or syrup, some involving many processes prior to being ready for sale, that makes them far less environmentally friendly than the traditional product.
Concentrated juice is where the fruit has been pressed and then much of the water content has been removed to reduce the volume for transportation. It is then rehydrated prior to starting the fermentation process. Chaptalised juice is where the fruit has been pressed and then large amounts of sugar are added to the juice. This is then fermented to a very high ABV where it can be stored prior to being diluted with water in order to achieve the desired alcohol content for sale.
The use of these methods, plus the changing methods of dispense for traditional cider and perry, often from polypins to bag in boxes, led to CAMRA reviewing its definition for real cider and perry.
The wording of the new definition states ‘CAMRA defines Real Cider or Perry as being fermented from the whole juice of fresh pressed apples or pears, without the use of concentrated or chaptalized juices’. The definition document also includes a number of pointers to best practice which identify the preferred options for cider and perry. These identify fruit or flavoured ciders as a separate category, as they are for HMRC purposes, ensuring that any added fruit or flavourings are pure and not from concentrates, extracts or essences. A full copy of this document can be found on the CAMRA website.
Following this, CAMRA contacted as many cider and perry producers as possible in order to confirm their production processes and generated a list of producers complying with the definition. This is available as a map showing cider and perry producers as well as producers of fruit and flavoured ciders and perries, or as a downloadable list. These are available via the CAMRA website or directly at producers.camra.org.uk and the map is a living document that is updated on a regular basis.
One of the areas that CAMRA has concentrated on in the last year is information for people who are interested in learning more about cider and perry. The Learn & Discover platform can be found at https://camra.org.uk/learn-discover/ and covers the Basics for beginners – available to everyone – as well as Learn More for enthusiasts and Discover for connoisseurs – which is available exclusively for CAMRA members. You can learn about what real cider and perry are, and where to find them, an introduction to tasting cider and perry, cider and perry styles, cider terminology, how cider and perry is made, food pairing, cider apple and perry pear varieties and much more.
If you are keen on learning more about the product, enjoy drinking and supporting real cider and perry, and discovering a wide range of tastes and flavours then go have a look at the CAMRA website. Cheers and Wassail!
WHERE TO FIND CIDER IN SHEFFIELD
Unfortunately whilst Sheffield is a really good place for beer, the options for decent cider is somewhat limited! Here are a few suggestions but the list isn’t comprehensive
Since 1979 we’ve awarded pubs and bars that consistently serve good quality real ale in a friendly and comfortable environment.
At our recent AGM we agreed some changes to the nomination and voting process for Pub of the Month (POTM). These will be published in more detail on the website, but from now on we’ll be giving a POTM award 11 times a year – so you can expect to see one in each issue of Beer Matters. A POTM award will be given to the pub with the most votes each month.
How to nominate
You’ll have 3 weeks after a winner is announced to nominate a pub to win the next award, You can nominate using the form on the site, or in person at one of our meetings or events.
How to vote
A shortlist of nominees will be confirmed at the branch’s monthly committee meeting, after which you’ll have a week to vote.
Changes you’ll see
As we’ll have to work fast to get through nominations and voting within a month, you won’t see a list of nominees in Beer Matters. When the final list is available to vote on it will be published on the website, and members will also receive an email. Full guidance and rules will be published on the POTM page in the coming weeks.
Salzburg is in Austria, situated in a mountainous area close to the German border. The city centre is a UNESCO world heritage site with a rich history. It was the birthplace and residence of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and the river Salzach was used to export salt from the surrounding salt mines. More recently, the film The Sound of Music, starring Julie Andrews and Christpher Plummer was filmed at many locations in the salzburg area, and bus tours of these can be booked by enthusiasts.
I visited Salzburg for the third time with my husband James at the end of May 2025. We arrived in a drizzly city centre with one hour before checking into our apartment. We decided to head to nearby Zum Zirkelwirt. This is a lovely bar/restaurant serving traditional Austrian dishes and beers on Keg taps from the Hirter brewery. They have a Beer of the Month but this had sold out, so I opted for a Hirter weissbier (5.4%). This was very refreshing after travelling and had a soft taste. A great start to our trip.
On our first evening, I had booked Zwettler’s restaurant for dinner. Here, they serve beer from the Kaiser Karl brewery on draught. James had the Kaiser Karl dark beer (5%), which had a very malty taste and coffee aroma. My choice was the Zwickle unfiltered beer (5%), which had a refreshing and clean taste. Both beers went very well with our Austrian meal of beef soup with pancakes, Zwettler Schnitzel and mixed dumplings.
On day two, we visited Salzburg Zoo, which is a short bus ride from the city centre. Here, there is a bar serving meals, coffees and bottled beer from the Stiegl brewery. I chose the refreshing Stiegl-Hell lager (4.5%), which was very tasty and full bodied and great for a sunny day. James had the Steigl-Wiessbeer (5.1%) This tastes malty, and has a beautiful golden colour and a banana aftertaste. We had the Stiegl-Weiss beer again later on in our trip, when we visited Hofwerfen fortress, which is a filming location for the film Where Eagles Dare, and also includes a falconry display, guided castle tour and an exhibition on witchcraft. Stiegl-Weiss beer is commonly served at tourist attractions.
On our second evening, we visited the central Coffee and Booze micropub, which serves a range of international beers. I tried Starobrno (5%) on draught. This is a Czech beer with a deep golden colour and toffee notes, James drink of choice here was Weizenbergal Shwartzbier, served in a bottle (4.8%), which was a tasty dark beer. Accompanied by a 1980s soundtrack, this bar brings a fun and relaxed vibe. Later on in the same bar, i tasted the Edelweiss Hofbrau (4.5%). This is a rust coloured beer with banana notes.
Day three saw a visit to the Celtic Spirit Irish Bar. Here, I tasted the Obertrumer zwickl beer (4.8%). This was the hoppiest beer I had so far. It was a pale colour and slightly fizzy with toffee notes. James had bottled die weiss dunkel here (5.4%). This was a smooth, malty beer with a banana taste.
My favourite drinking establishment in Salzburg is Augustiner Bräustübl. This is a monastry situated at the foot of the Montsberg hill, and is close to thecity centre. Here, there is only one choice of beer, Märzen Bier (4.6%) that is brewed on site by the resident monks. It is served on cask by the litre and half litre. You begin by buying a beer token for the size of beer you would like, collect a stein from the shelf, rinse your stein in the water fountain, then hand your token and stein to the bartender who will fill it up for you. The beer can then be enjoyed either in one of their beer halls or in the 1000 seat beer garden. The beer is very easy drinking and refreshing authentic Austrian taste. Soft drinks and snacks are also available from various stalls. We visited here on multiple nights of our trip.
Me and James had a great time visiting salzburg. It is an excellent destination for a city break, with opportunities to visit the mountains too. The majority of draught beer served here is brewed on site or close by. This, along with the beer culture, has made it a good choice for us. Goodbye Salzburg, until next time.
July already! And that means it’s time for the release of our annual charity beer, which this year is supporting the work of wonderful local cause Ben’s Centre. Ben’s Bazaar will be a classic, cask only, hop forward 4.1% pale ale. Please do visit our website to read more about this partnership, it’s such a unique and worthy charity and we’d love to raise as much awareness and funds as we can.
From our travel poster themed collaboration series, we’re looking forward to welcome our friends at Brampton Brewery to Abbeydale HQ to brew Inspired in Chesterfield (4.3%), with hints of pine and gentle pepper alongside punchy passionfruit citrussy notes from the combination of Columbus, Centennial and Vic Secret hops.
Dr Morton’s Demon Drink 4.2% is making a reappearance to our selection, a tasty and refreshing golden beer with aromas of berry fruits and citrus overlying a caramel and biscuit malt character. And new to the stained glass series will be Invocation (4.2%), melding Citra and Pacific Gem hops for a refreshing beer with notes of zesty citrus and blackberry, rounded off with a clean cutting bitterness in the finish.
From the Brewers Emporium, look out for the return of Dry-Hopped Deception, an amped up iteration of our familiar Nelson Sauvin hopped NZ pale which was incredibly popular last time we released it. And from the Salvation Series we have a smooth and inviting Oatmeal Stout (4.5%) on the way too.
Although I have lived in Sheffield since the late eighties, my formative drinking days were in Bristol, and I go back for family and friends fairly frequently.
As such I’ve followed the beer scene in Bristol along side that of Sheffield. Bristol is of a similar size to Sheffield, and has in common the loss of the breweries that I knew well from my younger days, Courage and Smiles in Bristol’s case, Wards and Stones here. The Bristol beer scene is however vibrant, and has a surprising number of breweries, so much so that there is a biannual East Bristol brewery trail weekend, encompassing 6 venues. The trail covers Little Martha, Moor, Good Chemistry, Left Handed Giant, Wiper and True, and Arbor, with it possible to walk the trail with a little planning (follow this order, or do in reverse!).
This years first event was on Saturday and Sunday, May 3rd and 4th. My wife and I were down and on a surprisingly sunny day for a bank holiday weekend and arrived in Bristol Temple Meads railway station just after midday to start the trail.
Just round the corner from the station is Little Martha Brewing, their taproom situated in a converted railway arch. Originally primarily a bar, and less than four years old, the brewing operation has expanded to the point they could offer 12 beers on draft, all keg. In what would become a theme on a hot sunny day I chose a lighter option called “Halo Orbit”, a 4.8% session IPA, and my wife “Chasing Pulsars” their lager. Both lasted no time at all, always a good sign, and we set off too the next venue.
Moor brewery started in 2007, and has always been a favourite of mine. They pride themselves on unfined, unfiltered and unpasteurised beer in all dispense forms – cask, keg, can and bottle, which makes them more CAMRA friendly than most “craft” breweries. I can recommend Old Freddie Walker, a 7.4 % old strong ale, but that was too much for the early stages of the trail, so we tried the “Illumination” 4.3% English pale ale on cask, and “Kellerbier lager”. They take the lager seriously, such that the storage tanks for the “lager” stage are installed on their side to improve the process. It works, because we ended up having a second, so impressed were we. Worth noting that Moor taproom is a music venue too, with a strong emphasis on rock and punk in all forms, which we would have been happy to listen to, but hadn’t started in the early afternoon of our visit. Quick shout out to Stoked Mexican street eats, for some delicious loaded nachos.
Next a short walk to Good Chemistry brewing, the only taproom that is not frequently open. As was the case for most of the breweries there were cask options, and I tried the “Marmalade waves” 4% pale ale. Described as having “marmalade floral biscuit” flavours, this was exactly how it came across, and probably the most memorable beers I had on the trail. The orangey taste was spot on for a sunny afternoon.
Half way in, and on we went to Left Handed Giant. Now a larger brewery on the Bristol scene, with another large taproom in the city centre. At this stage it was apparent that the trail was a popular option, with a queue for beer, and no seating until people moved on. We had “Go On Then”, a 4.2% cask pale ale, and “Alpina” lager. Both perfectly pleasant, but the crowds and the first instance of the Bristol staple Drum and Bass through the sound system meant we just had the one. I will give them additional credit as the only taproom serving in glass, despite the large crowd.
Wiper and True surprised me, in that it was at a new large brewery location, not the smaller one I’d visited on the trail previously. They do brew some Stouts I love (Milk Shake, Hard Shake, Espresso Martini Shake), but none were on draft, so we had “Today” Munich Lager and “Kaleidoscope” a 4.2% Pale, mainly because they were on a smaller bar with much shorter queues than the main one. Call me old, but it made sense at the time!
So on to the final brewery, and another favourite of mine, Arbor. I choose “Mosaic” 4.0% pale to start followed by “Citrus Maxima” a 4.0% lemon and lime pale, and my wife “Helles” lager. All very drinkable on a sunny afternoon, and highly recommendable. Again it was now very busy, and the Drum and Bass was in full effect, but at that stage we didn’t care so much. I love a black IPA and “The Devil Made Me Brew it” is a great example, but it wasn’t on draft, so I bought a (pint) can of it, plus a can of “Rubber Dingy Rapids” 10% impy stout, not least for the Sheffield connection……
A short walk to the Laurence Hill station and back into town at the end of a highly enjoyable session.
I can’t say the trail is picturesque, think Attercliffe industrial units, but six breweries in close proximity is impressive, with a wide beer choice (there were options other than pales and lager!) and I recommend it if you are interested, with the next weekend trail on the 23rd and 24th August.
CAMRA’s Members Weekend presented a problem for those of us who volunteer for the Discovery Bars: How to show what we do without coming across as patronising.
For those who don’t know them, the Discovery Bars are part of CAMRA’s Learning & Discovery arm, the area of the campaign that sets about to educate people about beers, ciders and perries, pubs, pints, people, and the industry as a whole. There’s lots of different things that it does, but I only really deal with the Discovery Bars that go to beer festivals around the country; getting people to think more about what they’re drinking and in turn appreciate it more.
We usually do this with our partner breweries for the day, guiding festival goers through a theme. The themes are quite diverse but always fun and always involve free samples of beer. Comparing cask and keg versions of the same beer side by side is always an interesting one where we get to explain how the packaging differs and what that actually does to the beer as it comes to the drinker. Hop varieties are another great one, having hops on hand to get the drinkers opening them up to see the lupulin, to rub and sniff the cones and pellets to get the direct aroma from the oils, and then tasting beers made with those varieties to see how those oils come across in the final beer. And malts too always make for an interesting chat with people, getting them to chew some Maris Otter for its biscuity flavours and then some Chocolate malt for its taste of old ashtrays (I’m not a fan), before pouring them samples of beers made with those malts so they can see how the flavours of the malts can come through, and how they all affect the colour of the finished beer.
But the problem with CAMRA’s Members Weekend is that the attendees will most likely have done those things before. Several times. So how to showcase the effectiveness of the Discovery Bars and get people interested in hosting them at their local festivals in a way that’s more than just a slideshow full of photos of people enjoying themselves?
Well, the team excelled themselves with a new theme: Settling The Sparkler Debate.
Let’s be honest, people have views when it comes to the use of sparklers on their beer. And their views are usually very ingrained and never going to change. It’s either Sparkler Good or Sparkler Bad, there is no middle ground.
But what sort of sparkler? And what do they actually do to the beer? And how do they actually work? These are just some of the questions we thought we’d try and get people to think about and we needed a way to achieve that. We don’t teach people at the Discovery Bars, we don’t lecture them. We try to get them to think, we provide them with the information they need to educate themselves. It works better.
So how to achieve that?
It turned out to be quite simple, we attached a single cask of beer to a gravity tap and four hand pulls. It looked a bit bodged together, and being honest it was. We had no idea going into this if it would be popular or if we might do it again, so a bit of behind the scenes bodging was perfectly fine for this one occasion, and if it was popular, we could then invest in the more expensive kit to do it again.
This allowed us to present attendees with five samples from the same cask: gravity, hand pull with no sparkler, with a “flat” sparkler, a 1mm sparkler, and a vortex creamer. All five samples poured one after the other and set out in a line on the bar.
We were then able to talk people through the beers, getting them to focus on the mouthfeel of each, and on the bitterness and flavours that they picked up. As we went through the samples we talked about how the hand pulls worked, a simple beer engine that pushes the beer into the glass, quicker than just opening the gravity tap. How the flat sparkler has an internal cone and two large holes, forcing the beer out and to the sides of the glass. How the 1mm sparkler had lots of little holes (all 1mm in diameter, hence the name) and squirted the beer through at a higher pressure onto the bottom of the glass, and how the vortex creamer had even smaller holes and then a cone on the outside of the nozzle that caused the beer being poured into the glass to form a swirling vortex as it hit the bottom.
As we did this we got people to give us their thoughts on the difference between the beer they were sampling and the previous one. In general these were small increments, slightly less flavour and bitterness, slightly more body and smoothness. Then when we’d sampled the fifth one, we got them to try the first again, the gravity pour. Each increment between samples may have been small (which is why we chose those sparklers we were using), but the difference between the first and last samples was “like night and day” and “you’d not believe it was the same beer, let alone the same cask” according to those who came and chatted (and drank) with us.
By talking with people, and getting them to understand how sparklers work, and what each type of sparkler actually did to the beer, we got them to form their own opinions and come to their own conclusions. And the conclusion they came to wasn’t sparkler good or sparkler bad, but was instead whether they preferred their beers with more or less of a smooth body to it or more or less bitterness. The sparkler is just a tool to achieve that.
We then followed on our chats with people, going into how breweries can add extra hops to their beers so that when the sparkler strips out some of those hop flavours and bitterness, there’s still enough left to achieve what the brewer planned the end pint to taste like. About how it’s not just hop bitterness that the sparklers remove, but also malt astringency making them good for stouts. And also how they can remove the “tired” flavours of ageing beer, giving them a new lease of shelf life.
We didn’t know whether our little stand tucked away in the far corner of the Members Bar would be popular, but it was. We went through our entire cask in the first afternoon. Two and a half intense hours and we’d run out of beer. We had to “borrow” a second cask from the main bar itself just so that we’d be able to do it all again the following day. That one lasted three hours and we finished early. It seemed that the decision to present five different types of sparkled/unsparkled beers side by side was incredibly popular, something none of those who came to us had ever had the chance to try before. Amongst the chat about the sparklers we got to chat about the Discovery Bars and festivals, and there is a definite desire for them amongst the CAMRA branches, so expect to start seeing them around more.
Perhaps for me though the best comment of the weekend was from one member after we’d gone through the samples: “I have to admit, I came over here really sceptical but it’s been great and I’ve learned something.” And that’s all we can hope for, that people enjoy what we do, and that they go away a little bit more knowledgeable about what they’re drinking.
As for what people preferred, it’s really down to personal tastes.
First up this month we have Linden, a 4.1% pale ale single hopped with Most, our first time using this hop. Most are a new variety grown due to a collaboration between our hop suppliers Charles Faram here in the UK, and growers based in the Czech Republic – the word “most” is Czech for bridge, so the name represents this union. Expect an aromatic beer with notes of tropical and berry fruits, and a clean, sweet finish.
Next in our Mythical Creatures inspired series we have the mighty minotaur! Asterion (4.0%) is a fruit forward and floral pale ale with the delicious combination of Amarillo, Nelson Sauvin and Galaxy hops. And It’s all systems go with the Dr’s latest stellar sup! Dr Morton’s Rocket Surgery (4.1%) is crafted with UK grown Olicana and Bullion hops to straighten tail fins and reorient your nose cone, all without any disruption to your flight path or launch window.
From our collaboration range with artwork inspired by vintage travel posters, look out for Heading into Harrogate (4.6%). We’re honoured to be hosting fellow UK beer pioneers Roosters Brewery to create a West Coast style pale ale, piney and resinous with Centennial and Citra hops.
And from the Brewers Emporium we’re excited to be releasing our first ever Kölsch! Top fermented like an ale but cold fermented like a lager, this hybrid beer (4.8%) is clean and crisp with a light hop character and a soft crackerbread sweetness. Plus, it’s a welcome return for Tranquility, a 3.8% soft and pillowy New England style Session IPA, and finally a sweet treat in the form of a Coconut Macaroon Stout (5.4%), a new addition to our dessert inspired Indulgence series.
