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| Shiny stainless FVs |
This weekend I've had the pleasure of drinking my favourite UK beer this year (so far) and one of the best I've ever had. It was a special edition Double IPA to mark 1 year of having a brewing premises (most people will know of which brewery I'm talking about now) which we were lucky to be able to secure some bottles of for the local market via Prohibition. The Winerack sold out of their allocation in less than a day. Of the other beers that were delivered, three were amongst the favourites in the tasting session at mine on Friday night. How does a brewery reach such stellar heights in less than a year? Read on to learn more about Cloudwater.
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| Paul Jones in front of their brewhouse. |
The first point in their favour is of course the team they have. Down to earth, normal people, talented people. The brewery is as much about the team of people as the beers they produce, each brings their own life experiences to contribute to how the brewery moves forward. Take co-owner Paul Jones for example
(an interesting interview with him here), he's fascinated by skill and craft wherever it may be found, documenting every stage of the brewhouse kit out on social media.
"when the floor was finished I went to the far corner and turned on the tap and just giggled as it ran off perfectly down the building and in to the drain". The team has doubled in size in this past year. Their long history in the business has enable them to build up a network of contacts to ensure they have a ready audience for their beers around the UK, with a buzz about them before even the first beer had left the premises. Luckily the quality of the beers has generally lived up to the hype and we've been benefitted in the UK as a whole by an addition of a brewery at the top of their game to the mix.
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| High-tech steam heating plant |
But in addition to that they certainly have plenty of money behind them. A bunch of us writer types were invited to have a look around the brewery (see also
Rich and
Andy's takes), the set-up is above and beyond anything I've ever seen for a new start-up brewery and the team are very fortunate to have such a flexible kit to work with. (Those gadgets though, the brewery sound system can be controlled from a phone!) They also have space for additional tanks as required as demand for their beers continues to grow. They were also able to secure a room for themselves at the recent Indyman festival, pouring a slew of their seasonal range and a slew of barrel aged specials.
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| What's that in FV7?! |
That's an interesting point about their beer range: it changes every season based on what ingredients are available and what takes the brewers' fancy. This pleases the ticker mentality because there's always something new to be going at. I asked if there were any beers they'd like to rebrew - no plans at the moment but of course they'd rebrew something if there was sufficient demand. The idea of really honing a recipe and making it a best in class example does appeal, but the lure of the new is even more powerful.
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| The brewery already short of space! |
"Is there anything else you'd like to try your hand at brewing?" I enquired of the Paul.
"I'd like to try making some proper aged saisons and truly wild beers" Of course these are a la mode in 2015; but when done well can be amongst the best beers in the world. Luckily for Cloudwater and for us they have already located a premises in which to mess around with wild beasties (to prevent them causing havoc in the main brewery) a railway arch nearby in which they hops to showcase all things wild fermentation, pickles, cheeses, yoghurts and of course natural wines and beers. Sounds like a fantastic concept.
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Even the best equipped
breweries have wishlists! |
Of course its not all been plain sailing. Their original location choice fell through due to impending network rail improvement works resulting in road closure which would have necessitated hand transport of everything in an out for 9 months! Their current premises is ideal, but overly conservative landlords restrict pretty much all attempts at connecting with the local community, no large brewery tour groups, no on site brewery tap and no music sessions. Being located in the red light district the unfounded fear is that the brewery will become part of a one stop shop, get boozed up there then avail of other "services" nearby...
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| The vienna lager spooled up for labelling |
But despite these set backs the brewery is there, its producing fantastic beers and will continue to and we're going to benefit. Their beers are mostly destined for keg and bottle, the latter having striking white labels replete with all the necessary beer geek info
(you can see that most brews are double-brews for e.g. and the different yeasts they employ). Take those beers I mentioned at the start of the post for example, a lager, a porter a hopfenweisse and a double IPA all top-class examples of their styles. The vienna lager is biscuity, clean and fruity easy drinking and moreish. The porter is rich, chocolaty and smooth a great dessert beer. The hopfenweisse showcases new season antipodean hops in all their tropical glory, full bodied and spicy and that winning
DIPA, a clean malt bill, well hidden alcohol and a fresh burst of juicy fresh hoppiness, moderately bitter but overall fun and enjoyable to drink. That beer still in FV7 when we visited the brewery a month ago, bottled a week ago and in glasses up and down the country this weekend is a triumph. We need more beers like these in the UK.
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| A few beers from the Autumn range |
Thankyou to Paul for giving up his Saturday morning on a busy weekend to show us all around and deal with our incessant questions. As always I love visiting breweries as there is always something new to learn about brewing alongside learning what makes the team tick. As I mentioned cloudwater is now available in my local off-licence Wine Rack in Stewartstown and various other locations in and around the Belfast area. Please do try them if you come across them; you won't be disappointed.
Cloudwater Brew Co
@cloudwaterbrew
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But first a beer launch by a novel approach - a You Tube livecast. A chap called Fergus (the managing director of Inveralmond, the brewery in focus) introduces us to the concept "Inspiration" - a series of beers showcasing the best styles the world has to offer, in respect of the greats if you like. Four have so far made it through the tasting stage and tonight sees the first of those released in bottle - Sunburst Bohemian Pilsner.
Involving all levels of brewery staff from Kirsty in marketing to John the van driver, nevertheless head brewer ken's fingerprints are also all over this, its his personal homage to the traditions of the Czechs. Ken's fascination with Czech language (and more lately beer) came about when his mum convinced him to sing in a production of the Bartered Bride - learning to sing Czech about bears and beers. "Strangely enough years later this is revisited...without the bears!" Ken has visited the Czech Republic in the years since, drinking Světlý Ležák in the Golden Tiger (U zlateho tygra) in Prague and the Old Brewery (Na Spilce) in Plzen.
Its an all malt beer, so it needs " a reasonable amount of bitterness to balance the sweetness" (25 IBU fact fans) and a hop aroma "like the atmosphere after a thunderstorm...lightning creates ozone and its that freshness you get from this beer's aroma. Its beautiful on the nose, soft maltiness down the throat with a gentle soft lingering finish that wants you to take another sip. An absolutely perfect balance of sweetness with bitterness". Its crisp and clean on the palate due to its 10 day fermentation with Břevnovský Pivovaryeast and 8 weeks (56 days) lagering at -1°C.
Fergus recommends oversized glasswear to allow a decent foam "I like a big head without getting my feet wet". Its about maintaining presentation and having respect for the beer. That foam also helps capture the essence of those lovely floral Saaz and Hallertauer Hersbrucker hops. Those flavours would work well with whitefish or salmon, or perhaps as Ken recommends with a salad of fresh finely sliced courgette with plenty of lemon juice and pepper.
So, enough about the genesis, how does it taste? Clean sweet malt and fresh herbal nose gives way to medium bodied floral nettle bitterness well balanced by the malt with a dry snap in the finish inviting another gulp. A 330 ml bottle certainly wasn't enough, I'd have cracked open the second if I'd chilled it. Instead I have a bottle for another day when I may do a taste test vs Pilsner Urquell, Budvar and some others. Like Pilsner Urquell I'm sure this beer would be even better in its unpasteurised, unfiltered nefiltrovany form. I'll leave you with a Ken montage and a thought for the day “my mission whens it comes to brewing beer is to improve the
human condition through the medium of brewing beer...its my way of trying to
make the world a better place”. I'll drink to that, na zdraví!
Five Lamps craft lager has a bit of secrecy surrounding it, but after some digging was able to confirm it is currently brewed at Eight Degrees. Its pleasant enough for a pale lager, pouring pale gold with fluffy white head. Sweet grainy nose crisp, dry maltiness, biscuit moreish finish. I'm hoping they branch out to a few other styles as there have been a lot of lagers and golden ales released recently.
Starting off with the (relatively) lower 5.8% ABV is Oxman, brewed at Dancing Duck brewery in Derbyshire. Pours opaque cola brown with thin beige head. Rich chocolate, cocoa and
prunes with a touch of sweet spices. Medium body and carbonation, milk chocolate, burnt toast, some menthol, dry red berries, some leather
giving a long dry finish. Some licorice and burnt paper on warming, a
porter dunkel hybrid? 
Graduating onto Dr Rudi a single hop Belgian ale, this new version is brewed by veteran contract brewers De Proefbrouwerij in Belgium (Previously at 8 degrees). Pours hazy mid amber brown with fluffy beige head that soon collapses.
Spicy coriander, yeast esters, tangerine and kiwi on nose. Full bodied,
light carbonation. Sweet sticky malt tempered by juicy satsuma and spicy
black pepper. Belgian yeast to the fore, building hop bitterness and
pithy citrus with a touch of astringency and ling sweet malt finish that
you can feel on your teeth.The first iteration was dominated by the yeast esters but this time the hops have been invited to the party too, good stuff.
Up first, the Klosterbier. It looks appealing with a traffic-light amber with fluffy snow-white head. Its flinty, dry, fruity and toffee on the nose, so far so good. Unfortunately its too
highly carbonated and harsh in the mouth, dry, bland and astringent with no finish. I had to ditch it after a few gulps. Not a very promising start.
The Erdinger didn't really raise the standard. Normally I'm fairly impressed by Erdinger beers despite being mass-produced they still have a fair amount of flavour. Not on this occasion though,i n fact the mouth feel was about the only thing going for it, with none of the traditional weizen esters in attendance I may as well have been drinking barley water.
Spaten was a bit of a surprise, pouring the palest of golds, not so much marzen as kolsch-style. There are some pleasant lemon and banana notes but again a harshly astringent finish with a touch of aspartame-like sweetness. Perhaps the use of hop syrup had something to do with it?!
Hacker-Pschorr is a beer I enjoyed on draught at National Winter Ales Fest this year. I say enjoyed, I meant I tolerated it. I say tolerated I meant I fobbed it off onto Daisy. In bottle it seems to have held up a little better. It has some of that alleged doughiness that I've hitherto failed to find and a pleasing mouth feel. The first beer I didn't feel needed chucking.
Finally; the Ochtoberfest from Eight Degrees reprised its debut at the Dublin beerfest in bottle form. Immediately the contrast was stark. There's an aroma this times-light cloves on nose with orange & licorice. Medium carbonation, doughy,
marmalade, a bit thin bodied, booze, sweet, noble hop finish. Its the best of the bunch, but would I go out of my way to try it again? Probably not. As to whether it successfully mimics a German Oktoberfest beer I can't really say, but going by the evidence of the preceding beers maybe not.
In the heart of central Glasgow is a green park area with various monuments and the People's Museum and Winter Gardens. There's also a splendid building that hosts a secret - a German microbrewery and restaurant. WEST (for that is its name, whether it stands for anything I know not).
Pricing concerns aside, how were the beers? The St Mungo's was bright as a pin with a crisp flavour, some biscuit malt and very drinkable. The hefeweizen was preferred by my other half. Hazy dark blonde with a yeast ester nose and a touch of citrus. They certainly both looked the part in their branded glasses. We also tried the Munich Red (pint split between two glasses...) which was a sweet toffee apple and malty caramel affair and a taste of the Wild West confirmed it to be a lightly hoppy blonde which didn't particularly interest me at the time.
The lager is clean with just the right level of carbonation and a refreshing beverage by itself. The fruity and gentle sulphur of the leeks is really allowed to come to the fore and the saffron adds a sweet note. This plays well with the honey notes I can detect in the beer. Served with bread there's even better overlap as the two fermentation products come together, with malt notes to the fore. The crisp lager refreshes the palate between sips. Lager doesn't just have to be an accompaniment for curry...
The pale ale is just as good in bottle as I recall the draught version, first sampled last Autumn in the Sheffield Tap. Orange fruity hops and a bitter finish, but no in your face hopping here. The glass was emptied in no time!
The wheat beer has plenty of banana yeast character on the nose, with a clove spiciness coming out in the flavour. That 5% ABV is hidden, drinks like a session beer but with a sting in the tail, be warned!
