To Stewartstown from Manchester Picadilly

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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...

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.

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
Facebook

Brewing By Numbers

Certainly one of my favourite "Best of London" discoveries from ales by mail is Brew By Numbers. I first tried their Berliner weisse about a year ago and knew they were on to something. They now rank alongside their Bermondsey brethren of Kernel and Partizan among the elite of London brewers and I'm on a mission to try more. In early February I spent an enjoyable afternoon following the now obligatory beer pilgrimage around the rail tracks and spent a few hours in the good company of Andy @tabamatu in the packed BBNo brewery. I later got hold of some bottles to try; so here are my thoughts.

A couple of porters up first, one with liberty and one dubbed traditional. Liberty first then at 5.7% is hazy dark brown, fluffy beige head, piney hop notes and cocoa. Full bodied, low carbonation, v easy drinking, rich dark malt with cocoa, toasty malt and well balanced by leafy herbal hops

The traditional porter is even better at 6.5% dark loamy brown with frothy tan head. Cocoa and toast. Robust and rich, earthy roast barley, coffee and toast. Superb, reaffirms my love of porters. This is sparring against Anspach and Hobday as my favourite porter of the year.

Coming in a smidge higher is the export stout at 7.4%. Pours opaque ebony brown with pillowy tan head and earthy rich roast barley nose. Full body with spritzy carbonation, coffee and chocolate. Rich, hides its strength well. Umami dry toast., touch of lemon peel. V drinkable. Rich cherry notes.

Saison seems to be an area of expertise for the brewery and in addition to a fantastic motueka & lime and wai-iti and lemon sampled at the brewery I picked up a Nelson Sauvin saison. Now antipodean hops pair brilliantly with the fruity Belgian yeasts and again there's no exception here.Pouring hazy pale blonde with pillowy cream head. Rich gooseberry and passion fruit on the nose, redolent of a sauvingnon blanc. Fairly soft medium mouthfeel with a gentle carbonic tingle, fruit peel bitterness at first, then creamy wheat and plenty of fruity gooseberry with a pause for Flinty yeast before progressing to a fruity dry finish. Excellent stuff.

Another style that's (perhaps controversially) all the rage is session IPA. I'll save my thoughts on the genesis of this style for another post and just talk about the beer here. This one combines citric Amarillo and more Nelson Sauvin. opaque golden beer with fluffy off white head. Mango rind aroma. Full bodied pithy bitterness with juicy satsuma and slight sweaty feet. Amarillo running the party here and doesn't quite hit the spot for me. A prime example of "London Murky".

Finally we have a full blown IPA, this time with simcoe and chinook. BBNo redeem themselves here, yes still hazy but  with a much more inviting lime peel and passion fruit nose. Medium body, gentle carbonation, "ruinously drinkable". So sessionable for its strength. Juicy fruit, gentle bitterness, peach, tangerine, verbena. Delicious, best ipa I’ve had in a while. Perfectly balanced.

So with an average score of 4/5 (and only the session IPA letting the side down slightly) Brew by Numbers have comfortably entered my Top 5  UK breweries alongside the likes of Redchurch, Siren, Buxton and Wiper & True. I urge you to seek them out and try for yourselves. I certainly feel vindicated including them in my ones to watch, with more fun on the way in the shape of barrel ageing.

Brew By Numbers

@BrewByNumbers

Facebook

London Brewers: A Depression

The beer which alerted me to Pressure Drop was Stokey Brown, delivered via an Ales By Mail Taste of London Case (think smoky chocolate smothered fruit cake).  It sufficiently impressed to cause me to seek out others of theirs to try, reviews below. They're now at almost 30 releases and going strong and were the tenth best new brewery in the world for 2013, no mean feat when there were more than 2600 new openings last year!

Up first is Wu Gang Chops the tree, named for the Chinese legend about the man banished to the moon to chop down a tree that regrows every night for eternity. Its a "foraged herb" hefeweisse, but we're not told whats in it. Hazy burnished gold with fluffy white head collapsing to a mere lacing. Spicey, slightly tart aroma of cloves, black pepper and lemon peel. Medium body and full of flavour for its fairly diminutive strength (3.8%). Interesting peppery tingle and a woodsy sage like herbal note, slight szechwan like tongue tingle in a dry finish. Its like a grisette saison.

Builders Tea is a 4.3% porter with added tea. Dark burgundy tinged brown with rich bourbon biscuit aroma with some vinous port notes and tart elderberry. Lacing of dark head, tingle of carbonation. Full bodied, dry and earthy, burnt toast, a sweet lactose middle section then tanins kick in. Finishes pretty dry with a bit of plum jam and plenty of burnt toast.

Slightly stronger at 4.9% is Street Porter, a take on a traditional London Porter. super dark brown with fluffy muddy mocha head. Burnt roasty barley with a fruity undercurrent. Extremely dry and toasty coffee barley, long dry finish. A little one dimensional and disappointing given the delight of the Builders Tea. Will have to give it another go next time.

  

Finally Bosko is Pressure Drop's signature IPA weighing in at 6.5%. dark amber brown with lacing of cream head with rich sweet malt and pithy mango nose. Full body, quite creamy mouthfeel, juicy fruit forward, low bitterness, slight acridity in finish. Its competent but not in the top league of UK IPAs.

 

On the strength of these beers I will definitely seek out others of theirs, particularly Freiman's Dunklelweiss which sounds particularly tasty.

Pressure Drop

@PressureDropBrw

Facebook

Founders

A brewery that's had a lot of buzz around them recently, especially for their dark beers and "session IPA". I picked up the bottles from Alesela, thoughts below. Reuben's thoughts here.

Founders Breakfast Stout is superb, and at 8.3% not particularly boozy for an imperial stout. Bottle at home courtesy of shrubber85 on Ratebeer, cheers Roger!

Rich lactose milk chocolate and fruity roast coffee. Rich, full bodied, medium carbonation, fruity coffee, smokey coffee, dark chocolate milk, long roasty finish. A touch of alcohol brings it all together. Fab.

Founders porter is also a fantastic dark beer at the strong end of the spectrum 6.5%, par for the course for US porters though.

Extremely dark brown, fluffy tan head, unctuous, thick bodied, dark malt, rich, hidden abv, chocolate, smooth. Dry finish

 All day IPA is also super, 4.7%

slightly hazy burnished gold with cream tinged head passion fruit and orange pith on nose. Subtle malt to allow the juicy passion fruit and pink grapefruit of the hops to come through. Medium length finish with a gentle bitterness. Good to see an American brewer go a bit lower, though stil not quite session strength.

 Centennial IPA is 7.2%

Hazy mid amber with offwhite lacing. Pithy tangerine and mango nose. Full bodied, sticky caramalt, pithy citrus peel, dry finish. Its aged well but would be fantastic fresh.

 Curmudgeon Old Ale 9.8%

hazy amber with yeast floaties and cream tinted lacing. Fairly sweet toffee apple nose. Full bodied, low carbonation, sweet toffee, slightly creamy mouth feel. Well hidden alcohol, slightly malty. Sticky weetabix short finish. A bit too heavy going and sweet for me

 Dirty Bastard 8.5%

Yet another scotch ale dark garnet red with dark beige lacing. Rich sweet malt, Turkish delight, sticky caramel. Sweet, astringent notes, full bodied and not helped by the low carbonation. I didn't like this one.

Against my better judgement I decided to try Backwoods Bastard Founders other Scotch Ale, this one barrel aged and 10.2%. I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy it, probably because of the high amount of bourbon character hiding the maltiness! Still quite heavy but with coconut, vanilla and sticky sweetness it would make for a good dessert beer. Certainly my favourite of the American Scotch efforts to date.

Founders

Facebook

@FoundersBrewing

"Irish" ales

Despite the wave of decent new breweries in Ireland, some don't always get it right and today we have two breweries that reflect that well. I almost considered not bothering to write these up but people need to know what to avoid as well as what to seek out!

The labels of the first have already caused much controversy; so I won't dwell on it here though I'm not a fan of the "characters" and their associated paddiwhackery blarney. They're also curently brewed in England; so not even Irish! (BeerNut thoughts here)

 

First up Gravy Maevy's Pilsner...the controversially labelled one...also what kind of a name is Gravy anyway...just named that way so that it rhymes probably. As you can see it looks nothing like a pilsner, being closer in colour to a Vienna and tasting like neither. Sweet cereal grain nose. Sweet, 1 dimensional buttery biscuit base. This went down the sink after a few sips.

Granny Mary's Red Ale is another with style above substance. It all starts well pouring an attractive dark ruby with fluffy tan head collapsing to a lacing but goes downhill thereafter. Wet cereal grain and cardboard boxes, metallic mouldy berries. Medium body, sweet, caramalt and burnt toast, acrid finish...another drain pour.No one needs to brew red ales!

Rye River Brewing Co

Next up a brewery who quite impressed with their lager but not so with the rest of their range. Again, strong branding but nout else.

The Liberties up first. Dusty caramel, sweet malt and butterscotch on the nose. Buttery biscuit, quite dry bitterness, touch of red berries. Another beer not given long enough for the yeast to mop up diacetyl...or just a poor choice of yeast.

Honor Bright is your typical Irish Red  - Slightly peppery cereal notes, malt led. More diacetyl and caramalt.Almost as bad as the McGargles and again straight down the sink.

Best of the bunch was Black Pitts Porter dark cola brown, roast barley and molasses on the nose. Medium carbonation, dry brown malt, some residual chocolate sweestness, very dry burnt toast, slightly astringent and red berries in finish. Its missing on the hop balance, being mostly malt led but at least it didn't end up being poured away.

5 Lamps
Facebook
@the5LampsBeer

Dining at the White House

by Peter Griffin

No, not that one, this one!

Something that neither of us had ever done was experience a tasting menu; so I picked a likely suspect from the NZ Cuisine awards and we rocked up there for dinner after visiting the Wellington Museum of City and Sea.

The tasting menu has ten dishes, and there's an optional wine pairing for $85 more. Of course I chose to accompany mine with beer and Daisy had a couple of cocktails. There was an okay selection of styles from local brewers, though nowhere near as extensive as the wine list.

To start I chose Mussel Inn Captain Cooker, a manuka beer whose sweet and savoury flavours i thought would pair well with the amuse bouche, a chicken liver parfait macaroon. The texture of the dish was perfect and the herbal manuka notes in the beer paired well to the chicken liver.

The sweeter oatcake and caramel flavours worked well with the next course, which brought a smile to the face. Arriving in a terracota flour pot with a "soil" of rye crumbs and very fresh lemony goats cheese was a freshly transplanted radish from their rooftop garden. A great simple starter.

  

Dish number three was octopus sushi with a crayfish roll and konbu. Three Boys Wheat chosen here which turned out to be a wit, rather than weisse I was perhaps expecting. Slightly too much clove in the finish to be a really good match. Whilst I like the branding of three boys, I found their beers to fall in the fair to middling category, which meant I didn't go out of my way to try any of their others.

The dish itself was very pretty with edible flowers, again taken from the rooftop garden, though not enough crayfish to really get a taste of it. The flavours all melded well and the dish would be good as a full sized starter.

Another fish course after that and another local specialty, whitebait. This suited the beer choice more, but i still think a weisse would have been better, especially with the hollandaise and asparagus.

After another amusing dish, a palate cleansing apricot sorbet shaped like soap we were brought a duck dish which I paired with Tutara's porter. 

This was a tasty dish and the pairing worked well. Tuatara also impressed with their Ardennes Belgian strong ale the previous day and I feel like i should have tried their larger format pale ales that I spotted in regional wines. I only had limited carrying capacity however!

 

The porter gives chocolate, red berries and caramel on the nose. Fairly dry with smoky malt and same flavours as aroma and this brought out more meatiness from the duck and intensified the sauces. Still not a fan of hoisin though!

A lamb dish followed this which was particularly tasty, the berry flavours in the beer being intensified, certainly a good pairing. I particularly liked the pea puree and dehydrated pea. this would probably be my choice for main course if just eating the regular 3-course menu.

 

Moving onto dessert I chose to finish on a cocktail as none of the beers sounded like they would pair quite as well. The first dessert was perhaps the most disappointing dish however. We were served a perfectly competent creme caramel thatwas justa bit dull after all the fantastic preceding courses.

Another favourite was the 9th dish, chocolate canelloni with different textures of raspberry. I'm a big fan of raspberries but couldn't help but yearn for a good frambozen or kriek to pair with it.

 

We finished with a selection of petit fours and an espresso. The passion fruit marshmallows were particularly tasty.

It was a good experience of a tasting menu and use of local speciality ingredients. I particularly likedthe fact they had a rooftop garden, but would have liked a slightly longer beer list! Nevertheless the fact that they had anything outside of the usual mass produced lager selection was a positive in itself.

We'd certainly try a tasting menu again in the future if we were feeling flush with cash!