Yule approaching.

It's fruity (though there's no fruit in it) & a little spicy (and there's none of that in it either) with a good rounded body & a pleasant hoppy flavour. I have attempted to craft a festive character without the usual nuts, fruits & spices (just the usual malted barley, rye & hops) and I think I've done ok. Judge for yourself: the Yule Special is available on draught in good pubs throughout east Kent and direct, from the brewery, for the entire month of December & early January.

Seasonale.

Yule tide fast approaches and we're very much in the mood for a festive brew to help spread the good cheer (look, yeh, I know it's only November and all that but we have to plan ahead, OK?). A cunning combination of pale ale malt, malted rye, crystalised rye and organic chocolate rye was mashed this morning and the resulting wort boiled with a union of fruity, spicy hops including one of this house's regular favourites, Bramling Cross, grown by Tony Redsell in Canterbury. Used judiciously, crystalised rye can add a wonderfully festive and opulent temperament to a brew already invigorated with the spicy, dry, pale malted version of the cereal. As for the organic chocolate malted rye? Well, we'll see. Or smell. Or taste. I only used a teeny bit this year, not knowing much about it*.

Little Cracker, 5%, ruby, fruity and spicy. Available throughout East Kent on enlightened handpumps and also from our own shop, just here, in polypins, firkins, kilderkins, barrels and hogsheads. Until late December.

*See, sometimes we can just throw stuff in nonchalantly.

The Year in Beer 08 - December

Little Cracker.

It's cold, it's wet and it's dark. And it stays like this for a couple of months. What better to do than keep good company, eat well and drink good cheer? That's what Yule is all about and I approve thoroughly.



The last of our 08 monthly specials is a bit different; though sweetish, from the relatively high level of residual sugars left unfermented, the use of a small portion of malted rye in the mash lends a lingering dry aspect, toning down what would otherwise have been cloying. The unusual mixture of unusual malts in the mix creates a distinctly 'spicy', 'other' kind of flavour that I've accentuated with green Bramling Cross hops. All this sits in front of a backdrop of traditional English bitterness.

It's certainly different. And I think it's Yule. And you'll be able to judge forself at most decent hosteries in East Kent in the coming weeks. And in the Monty (yes, the Montefiore Arms, Ben) tonight.

And I was taught English grammer in traditional fashion, but love nothing better than breaking rules.