Naylor's Premium Brew 1000 (10%)

I'm a frequent visitor to my not so local bottle shop in Headingley, Leeds.  Sometimes I can be driving and then find myself parked outside said shop.  I tell myself that it's more a calling than a compulsion.  That makes it all OK.  At my last 'calling' I asked the obligatory question, the question that you know you shouldn't really need to ask when faced with wall-to-wall choice: "what's new in stock?".  There are usually a few, but on this occasion I was presented with just the one, Naylor's Premium Brew 1000, 10% abv Strong Ale.  I quiped on Twitter that the beer sounds more like a futuristic kettle, but that's because I'd just finished a 10% beer and was feeling giddy.  This beer was brewed to celebrate Keighley (West Yorkshire) based Naylor's 1000th brew and was aged for two months before being bottled.  Naylor's began brewing in 2005 based at the Old White Bear pub in Crosshills (near Keighley), but sold the pub in 2006 to concentrate on brewing their hand-crafted ales.

Upon opening there were some roasted malt notes and it poured deep amber in colour, the roasted aroma  had moved on after pouring.  The initial taste was light and sweet and incredibly smooth, which then gave way to some bitterness and then a lingering fruity after-taste.  At 10% you won't be surprised to read that this was a warming beer!  I'm probably safe in assuming that this beer would lend well to ageing, if you are that way inclined, but why wait?

Thornbridge Versa (5%)

As summertime didn't bother to show up I find myself with more than a couple of beers sat solemnly in the fridge waiting for their moment in the sunshine. Thornbridge Versa is no exception to this rule, and by rule I obviously mean drink it when you please, but I love a cold weisse beer after a hard days work.  This 5% abv weisse is every bit the classic and is a new beer in the impressive Thornbridge range.

Bavarian yeast strain with Tettnanger hops
& Bavarian wheat, pale, cara and crystal malts.

The bottle tells you all you need to know, and while not everyone would agree, I for one like it when the brewer helps you out with a few tasting notes.  It's not always easy to pick out the hints and hits of flavour that they intend for you to enjoy - go ahead connoisseurs and seasoned beer geeks, roll your eyes if you will, but if we are all honest here, it's not always possible to describe every beer we try. Also and rather importantly, Thornbridge have recently started selling their beers through Waitrose and surely its a good thing to help the punters choose their beer, as they would their wine?  When I am selecting an unfamiliar bottle of beer or wine, I often want to know what I'm in for, especially if there isn't a beer sommelier on hand to see you right. Well, in this case even my cardboard palate enjoyed the banana, clove spiciness and pleasant bubblegum after-taste.  It poured a hazy orange colour and the abv was spot on which made it easy to drink and very refreshing. Weisse beer may not be everyone's tipple of choice but if you see this on tap or while doing your weekly shopping, then I'd say try this at least once and then make your mind up.

Hardknott Infra Red (6.5%)

Hoppy as a bucketful of frogs!

I've been aware of Hardknott for about six months, roughly the time I have been exploring the world of beer. Sure, I'm new to this game but I'm also susceptible to influence and I was told that I should be drinking Hardknott beer, so I have.  "Hardly a ringing endorsement!" I hear you say, but in fact it's quite the opposite.  If you're being advised by those 'in the know', that is to say; people who have absorbed enough malt and hops to be in danger of  spontaneous fermentation, then you can be confident that they will know a thing or two about beer.

To date I have tried Hardknott's Queboid (Belgian Style Double IPA), Dark Energy (Stout) and Granite (Barley Wine), [check out Beersay for some notes on these], as well as some Æther Blæc in the cupboard, but for some reason I had bypassed the Infra Red....an IPA!  Now, I like an IPA but this one is out of the ordinary, it pours a deep ruby red, far from pale, but hey black IPA is all the rage so what's the problem here? none!  So, if the colour is an issue to you, then close your eyes and you are smelling and tasting an IPA, with berry fruits aplenty.  It's malty mouth-feel is down to the crystal malt and the Cascade and Centennial hops deliver the satisfying bitterness you would expect from the style.  This may not be the strongest of Hardknotts beers, but it's just as loud as the brewer!  In short, this is a really good beer.

The 1st CAMRGB AGM Minutes

Last night saw the inaugural CAMRGB AGM.
Or, to describe it another way, a nice evening in a good pub having a natter and a few beers.

We met in my favourite pub, The Wrekin Tap (mentioned previously in this blog and probably to be mentioned again in the future) sits on the Holyhead Road in the heart of Shropshire.
The evening opened with an extraordinary pint of 3 Tuns Clerics Cure (5%). The high ABV really works with this well malted, crisp hoppy golden ale.
And it certainly got our heads in the right place to begin CAMRGB business.

Firstly we talked in general about what CAMRGB is all about and drew up a shortlist of important points:

1. Good beer is something to be enjoyed.
2. CAMRGB must maintain a lightheartedness and not become overly serious about itself.
3. Everyone is welcome as long as they a) enjoy a good pint and, b) are willing to have a bit of fun.
4. Brewers are like modern day magicians who should be celebrated and supported.
5. Mmmm....beer (we may have moved a few pints in by this point).

Paolo (pictured right) is CAMRGB Member Number 2 and as such has taken it upon himself to create a CAMRGB Twitter Group. We'll direct you to it once it's up and running.
Then he went to the bar.
He came back with a pint of Sadlers Thin Ice (4.5%) for himself and a pint of Cotleigh Owlzatt (4.4%) for me.
The Cotleigh was well kept (as all the beer is in this pub), had a lovely citrus aroma and a sharp crisp bite. Needless to say it didn't last long.
The Thin Ice I'm told was equally good.

Talk moved from CAMRGB business to music, family, and various amusing anecdotes before it was time to return to the bar.
While having our drinks poured I got talking to the landlord who, as the patron of CAMRA's Shropshire pub of the year for about the last million years, loved the idea of CAMRGB and agreed wholeheartedly with many of the now slightly slurred points we touched on.


Then he took my money and handed me two pints of Hobson's Town Crier (4.5%).
Hobson's are a local brewer who are the only constant in The Wrekin Tap's ever changing range.
Town Crier was long and deep, with a decent malt and a hop that reminded both myself and Paolo of a good cup of tea.
Yum.
Towards the end of the evening while waiting for Paolo's taxi I wanted to end with a stout.
I'd noticed on the board that Gertie Sweet Dusky Maiden was on.
Now, I love a dusky maiden and went to the bar to order one.
Sadly it had just come to the end and the Wrekin Tap's beery boffins were busy cleaning pipes so there would be no stout for me.
Instead I returned to our opening beer. Another pint of Cleric's Cure was a powerful way to end the night and a wonderful bookend to a very constructive and fun evening.
Our final decision for CAMRGB?
No more AGM's.
Instead we will be holding Bi Monthly General Meetings (CAMRGB Bi-MGM).
We'll let you know where and when the next one will be.
You're all welcome.
Cheers.

Beer Hunter on The Wrekin Tap.
The Wrekin Tap at The Cock Hotel.

The CAMRGB Mini Interview #2: The Revolutions Brewing Co.

A little nepotistic maybe, but Revolutions Brewing Co. are tremendous beer-makers as well as friends in the real world.
I'll let them introduce themselves.

Hello, could you please introduce yourselves.
We are Andrew Helm and Mark Seaman and tonight, Matthew, we're going to be The Revolutions Brewing Company.

What was the moment that made you think, "I know what we'll do. We'll brew beer."?
Andrew: I've been homebrewing for over 20 years and moved on to all-grain brewing about 4 years ago. Put myself through the 3-day BrewLab course in Sunderland (birthplace of my father so there must be something fatalistic about it) in 2007 to find out more about the commercial side of micro-brewing and to learn how to improve my homebrew. Put things on the back-burner until last summer when a combination of push (consultancy business squeezed) and pull (light-bulb moment about how to theme a brewery around my other passion - music) kicked things off. Hooked up with Mark, who I'd met in 2009 at a business seminar and we developed the ideas through the late summer and early autumn of 2010 to a launch in November 2010.

Mark: I lived and worked in Bahrain for 14 years, with a distinct lack of access to decent beer – I’ve had my share of Heineken, Amstel, Singha and Kingfisher! On returning in 2008 I was toying with the idea of a microbrewery independently. After I met Andrew, a few other issues conspired to remind me that life is short and that you regret the things you don’t do, rather than those you do, so I did not take much persuading to dive headlong into it.

You're making beers that accompany music or are influenced by music you like. How different are your musical tastes and is there any arm-wrestling that goes on when one of you has an idea? I mean, what would happen if one of you said, "Let's do a Yes style concept beer that has to be enjoyed over several pints"?
Andrew: Interestingly our historical tastes are subtly different but with quite a bit of overlap. The music I was really into in the post-punk/new-wave era was electronic and synth-pop (Heaven 17/Thomas Dolby/OMD etc) but I also liked the more guitar-based stuff around that time. I think now our contemporary music tastes are quite different! Can probably be summarised as me liking stuff in minor-keys and Mark liking major-keys!! A Yes concept beer ain't gonna happen - our year zero is 1978. We've started referencing albums from 33 years ago i.e. 1978 and it's a pretty fertile period for music. We've so far done a Parallel Lines beer and have just launched an Elvis Costello special called This Year's Model. We have one, maybe two, classic album brews coming before the end of the year.

Mark: I’m just a few years older than Andrew (old enough to have bought Yes albums with my paper round money!) – Back in ’78, “year zero”, I was heading for college with ears full of The Clash, The Stranglers and my favourite band then or since probably, Siouxsie and the Banshees. Fortunately I haven’t got stuck in any era and enjoy contemporary music. As Andrew says, our contemporary tastes are a little different, though there is plenty we both appreciate – hurrah for Interpol, Richard Hawley and The XX!

With regard to ideas / beer names etc. it has to be consensus, luckily we’ve found plenty of common ground, so no problems so far. We’re actually very happy with our core range names, I mean “Clash London Porter”, what’s not to like?

Hopefully people will enjoy seeing what new ideas we come up with, we’re excited about the 33rd anniversary stuff, This Year’s Model is just being delivered to pubs. The next one in a couple of months will be fun too – look at 1978 album lists for clues as to what it will be!

Where are you brewing? How big is the operation now?
Andrew: We've recently commissioned a 8BBL plant near Castleford, West Yorkshire. We're brewing once a week at the moment but expect to have doubled that before the end of our first year. We have 5 core beers at the moment with plans for a couple more. With those on rotation in the brew cycle we will probably do a special around 8 times a year and we'd expect those to be references to classic albums, brews to tie in with album launches or whatever collaborations we come across along the way. We have a very exciting collaboration in October which I'm not yet at liberty to divulge but keep an eye on our blog pages and website for more details.

http://revolutionsbrewing.blogspot.com/
http://www.revolutionsbrewing.co.uk

We're inviting people (via our Facebook page) to name one of our fermenting vessels after an 80s Leeds band. I hope your readers will visit our page and vote!

https://www.facebook.com/questions/236829866347853/?qa_ref=qd


Mark: Why did we pick Castleford? Competitive rents, no existing brewery, one of the country’s finest maltsters is there, excellent transport links, it’s about halfway between our homes in Leeds and Selby – all those things are relevant. We also became attached to Castleford after our first serious meetings on the brewery idea were held in the town’s Shoulder of Mutton, a place for anyone who appreciates what a traditional pub could and should be.

You recently did your first bottled beer for an album launch. Will there be more bottled beers coming our way?
Andrew: The bottled beer we did for Sarandon's Age of Reason album launch was a good experience for us to understand the economics of bottling. We do want to have a permanent bottled product and the two future core beers we have in mind probably lend themselves to bottling more so than the existing five beers so watch this space.

Mark: We definitely want to offer a bottled range and continue to research the best way to go about it to ensure commercial viability. This is likely to be a project for early next year.

How do you see the future shaping up for Revolutions Brewing Co.?
Andrew: Ultimately we will be judged on the quality of our beer. If we get that right then I think we will attract people to us who share our love of beer and music and then who knows what will happen. There are so many doors that might open that it makes the whole business really exciting.

Mark: Absolutely, it has to be about the beer. So far, so good on that count. But realistically we have only done 6 brews on the Castleford plant. When we achieve consistent quality over 60 or even 600 brews we can be happy. The music tie-ins are the fun part – fun for us and fun for our customers – but it is all under-pinned by tasty beer. Hopefully the readers will seek our beers out at pubs, clubs and beer festivals – if you do, let us know what you think!

The Durham Brewery Magic IPA (7%)

As the bottle tells us, The Durham Brewery Magic IPA (Gyle 2176) is an original replica India Pale Ale.  It uses lots of East Kent Goldings hops which provide a rich spicy bitterness against pale maris otter malt.

Poured hazy and orange in colour.  The haze could have been due to the excessive chilling! although most likely due to the fact that Durham do not filter or pasteurise to ensure that all the flavour and quality is retained in the finished beverage. A good haze if you will, so drink on!  It is a well carbonated beer and quickly formed an impressive head which did not fade, in fact it looked much like the krausen on a happy fermenter...did this indicate a great example of a well looked after bottle-conditioned beer? hell yes!

The aroma wasn't really leaping out of the glass but it did smell fresh and spicy.  I would say its aroma was reminiscent of a Belgian beer.  First taste delivered good hop bitterness and then a fudge or dairy toffee flavour coming through.  I wouldn't describe the overall flavour as complex, but this is no criticism as its so well balanced.  There is a lingering bitter/sweet aftertaste which I found to be moreish and most satisfying. Finally, considering its potent 7% abv (50cl bottle) this was an easy-drinker and one I will be buying on my next trip to the bottle shop.  Good work guys!

CAMRA says this is real ale, we say this is really good beer!

More on Magic IPA over on The Good Stuff.

(Having just been in touch with Durham Brewery, I now know that Magic IPA is in the process of being re-launched as Bombay 106, as well as the bottle labels, their branding has also undergone a facelift. More information here The Durham Brewery.

St George's Paragon Steam - 4.0%

When I fancy a pint these days it's not straight down the pub at 5pm for me (although there are exceptions!) but I prefer shuffling down to the local around 9pm onwards to sample one or two pints from the ever varying six handpump selection.

It also has other benefits too. For example a beer may just come on one night and initial tasting suggest er, a big no thanks. But a quick one or two pint visit the following evening may suggest otherwise once it has settled in the barrel.

That certainly was the case with Paragon Steam, a 4% beer from Worcestor micro St George's Brewery. First impressions were that it wasn't too unpleasant with fruitish hints which may have been lychee or melon for all I know such was the confusion wrecked upon my tastebuds. Suffice to say it lacked a certain something and didn't warrant another.

However the following evening I gave it another go after a disappointing encounter with O'Hanlons Firefly. It had cleared up beautifully and the hoppy citrus taste was as clear to me as this golden American style steam beer was in the glass. It also had that sulphur smell I associate with beers whose recipes are based on yeast and hops which are used for lager. That may be off putting for some but to me that's the sure sign of an thirst quencher. Oh. Did I say two pints?

St Georges Brewery has a website but there is nothing to see. This is more interesting.