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.

Changling

'Mild Ale' - a dark, weak and sweetish brew enjoyed in gallons by men wearing clogs and cloth caps after a grueling and dangerous shift on t'face? Well, yes, that's the way it were and completely appropriate it were too; the heavy industries of Britain during the 20th century drew every joule of energy from many thousands of strong, hard men running on enormous volumes of revitalising (and very well deserved) ale that could be consumed in haste and gay abandon.

Examples of this style are relatively rare today - you'll fondly remember GADDS' Dark Ale, a 4% version that reached the finals of the Champion Winter Beer of Britain a few years ago - but generally speaking this kind of ale is left without an audience: the mines have shut, the factories mechanised and the mills have been knocked down. Modern man seeks not a belly full of Mild to slake his thirst after an 8 hour shift in front of his computer - he quite rightly heads home for tea and nips out for a quick and tasty pint later on.

Now Mild was not always dark, weak and sweet. The name referred to any beer that was suitable for drinking soon after brewing. You see, way back, brewers would have two classes of beer: Keeping Ale and Mild Ale. Either could be dark, pale, strong or weak but the difference would be one of bitterness - in brewing Keeping Ale many hops were used for their preservative qualities.

So what is today's Mild like? There's little point in brewing miners ale so lets reinvent, hoping perhaps to rejuvenate. Darkness is out; lets go for an amber colour, that way we can use a mixture of malts with none too overpowering. Hey, if we use a little amber malt with its faintly roasty aroma we'll have elements of dark flavour in a pale(ish) ale! That'll surprise. We can use aromatic and juicy malts too and hop diligently not for bitterness, but for flavour and balance. We'll end up with a bit of the past and much of the future.

Available from next week across the finest of East Kent's hostelries.

The Bells of St Helen's

Flavour, and I deliberately include that organoleptic duo of olfactory and oral, is a strange and fascinating area of study. Last week I crushed a few handfuls of coriander seeds and hunted down random citizens in search of feedback: 'orange', 'lime' and 'lemon' were the perceived aromas, along with the to be expected 'spice', 'curry' etc etc. But that first citrus family is what I found especially intrigueing - do try it at home, preferably on a saturday night whilst cooking curry. It doesn't work with powdered coriander, only freshly crushed.

So, along with some grated zest of fresh orange (I'm still working my through the residual fruit) I tossed the coriander into the copper and followed this mixture up with some very fruity Perle hops from Hallertau. The morning mash had contained an unusually high proportion of wheat and the hope was that these four flavours would meld in some beneficial way.

Well, the beer is going into cask as I write (thanks Steve) and I've had a sneaky little taste - yup, we have a lovely and refreshing wheat ale redolent of citrus spice and soft vanilla. There is a firm but welcome fruity hoppiness in there too and a mellow maltiness unfettered by bitterness - the whole is a rather balanced and tasty beer, very much reminding me of sunny afternoons sitting outside cafe bars watching the world go by.

From May 1st, everywhere in East Kent.

The bi-monthly series drags on.

Dragon's Blood
Extra Special Bitter

I can't remember what I wrote last year about this brew but I'm not about to reread it - onwards and upwards and don't look down and all that.

Anyway, Extra Special Bitter (ESB) is just what it says on the er, cask. Much more malt, many more hops and far more attention to maturation than go into a regular bitter. That's the 'extra special' bit.

The resulting brew is a heady one, rich of colour and flavour and stout of bitter, spicy, hoppiness.

And although it is a St George's Day bevvie, it's availability stretches all the way from March 1st through to the end of April.

Treat yourself and raise a glass to England and decent beer.

Califermentation

“One day if I do go to heaven...
I'll look around and say, 'It ain't bad, but it ain't San Francisco.'”

Herb Caen.

I went there (SF, not heaven) for a week back in the nineties and I sort of understand the sentiment; it's the only city I've ever remotely pined for (most pining is reserved, of course, for Blackpool which is a town, not a city).

Even further back though, during the mid-nineteenth century gold rush, necessity (mother of invention) forced thirsty bavarian migrants into fermenting beer with lager yeast at the slightly higher ale-yeast temperatures due to a lack of refridgeration. The result was known as 'steam' beer or 'common' ale. It was quickly brewed and therefore cheap and plentiful.

'Anchor Steam' ale, brewed at the Anchor Steam Brewery is the defining example of the style and since I, US Steve and Young Phil have all visited this brewery (albeit a decade apart) we decided to pay homage to the famous ale/lager beer with our very own interpretation.
'Common Conspiracy', true to style, is an amber ale with a gentle, sweet hop aroma. It starts of beautifully malty before the German grown 'Northern Brewer' hops kick in and lend a refreshing long bitterness. It really doesn't know, or care, whether it's an ale or a lager - I don't think you'll care either.

It'll be available from next week at all decent East Kent ale houses.

The 2009 Bimonthly Series - Jan/Feb - 'Great Scot!'

I get very enthusiastic about some things and they tend to dominate for a period of time - golf, letter writting and blogging are just three examples - then for reasons unknown I can't bring myself to continue with the activity and move on to something else or just do nothing for a while.

Thankfully, brewing isn't like that. I'd be poor indeed if it were. And thirsty.

Last week we delivered the first of the year's 'Great Scot!' - a very pale beer redolent of hops with a firm bitterness and dryish finish. And with smoke. Not as much as last year but it is there never the less. Why? Because I can and as far as I know no-one else does, well, not in a pale ale anyway. I use malted barley dried over peat fires, properly done in Islay where they use it for whisky. The smoke is quite different in character to the hardwood smoked malt of Bavaria - the phenolic peat is more complex and demanding. It's very Scottish. I do like it, but I recognise it isn't everyones' cup of tea. Marmite beer, as they say. Thankfully, 80 Shilling Ale is also available for the non-peat lover, such is the beauty of this year's bi-monthly special program.


You'll find it on every decent bar top in East Kent until the end of February. If you can't get there then try the usual haunts on Burn's Night where it ought to create an interesting counterpoint to Macsweens finest.

There you go - I blogged again at last. It's quite enjoyable.

The 2009 Bimonthly Series - Jan/Feb - '80 shilling ale'

It's Homecoming Year and there's a decidedly Scots edge to some of my brewing in January-February. I kicked it all off a couple of weeks ago by brewing an 'export' style ale, full of malty sweetness with a smidge of underlying hoppy goodness. Wanting all those wonderful flavours that my maltster creates, without overdoing some of the more the demanding ones, and, of course, keeping the 'traditional' butterscotch notes to an acceptable minimum (not my favourite beer atribute) kept me focused in the design and delivery of the beer.


It's already out in a couple of pubs, with more set to recieve deliveries when we go back to work next week, and since it is available for two months, you all ought to get a good chance to try it. Failing that, ring us at the brewery and we'll do our best to ensure you get what you want.

When you do get your hands on a pint of this deep brown coloured ale, and as you slurp back the first mouthful, close your eyes and remember Rannoch Moor.

The 2009 Bimonthly Series

Last year was fun wasn't it? Our 'year in beer' series was a great success, keeping me busy and creative and keeping you lot in varied and interesting flavour sensations. The beauty of having a small production run is that I can take the risks where others perhaps fear not to brew. And the risk taking is ever so slightly addictive.........

So we continue the game into 2009, changing and adapting the plan to advantage. Thus, instead of 12 x 1 monthly specials I'm offering, for your delectation, 6 x 2 bimonthly specials, retaining some of the old favourites and allowing space to find new ones.

Details of the full series have been drawn up will be sent to the printers next week. In the meantime, I can confirm the Jan/Feb offerings of an all new '80 Shilling Export' and a return of the ground breaking peated pale ale that is 'Great Scot!'.