Tuesday 10 November 2009

Correction fluid.

Thanks to Pete Brissenden for alerting me to the Taste of Kent Awards current top ten nominations. You may notice that Dark Conspiracy is (as of this day) in there. You may also note that competition rules state that Kent's best beer should be "beer made from hops predominantly grown in Kent at a brewery based in Kent". Whilst I'm extremely grateful for all votes received for GADDS' beers, I feel that I must point out that DC is brewed with hops grown beyond these shores and that these transatlantic lupulin badboys are responsible for a significant portion of the beer's flavour and character. From that perspective it is certain that this beer is totally unqualified to be nominated as 'Kent's Best Beer'. To that end I've alerted the organisers and asked them to remove Dark Conspiracy from the list. But many thanks for those votes regardless, hope you don't feel you've wasted yours.

As regular readers will appreciate, hops are used for flavour and bitterness in beer. Now it is perfectly possible to use hops predominantly grown in Kent and produce a beer whose flavour is essentially, and fundamentally, non-Kentish, by timing the hop additions cleverly. For example - brew an IPA, bitter it with East Kent Goldings (say 60% of the total hops) and flavour with an American citrus variety. This way you end up with a beer that would qualify under the present rules yet the flavour is Stateside, rather than Garden of England. Perhaps the rules ought to state 'brewed with hops grown exclusively in Kent'.

However, you know by now that all of GADDS' regular beers are brewed exclusively with Kent grown hops so vote in confidence for either #3, #5, #7, Seasider or Dogbolter. Better still, rather than split the vote, simply choose GADDS' Number 3 Premium Kent Pale Ale - the true taste of East Kent.

Thanks.

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