***ONLINE ORDERS: DUE TO HOLS NEXT POST IS MONDAY 28TH. BARS OPEN AS USUAL***
It’s grim up north, so they say. So when lockdown eased recently, I did something odd.
I left behind my small beer shop down in Penge for a quick pilgrimage north. Y’know, just to check. And the rumours are false!
There are plenty of delightful open spaces up north, many of which prove the perfect backdrop for idling. You can chat to passers-by without being reported for harassment. Most important of all, the north is choc-full of wonderful breweries churning out some outstanding beer right now.
Tucked up in the North East, By The River Brew Co. is one such example. It’s part of an amazing and brave concept. The brewery is actually part of the company’s independent container settlement beneath the iconic Tyne Bridge (on the Gateshead side). And that makes it quite a bit more than a brewery. Amongst the fermentation tanks you’ll find Backyard Bike Shop fulfilling many an idler’s custom-built two-wheeled dreams. You’ll find Träkol, a restaurant serving up seasonal grub cooked over an open fire. You’ll find a trendy coffee house. There’s a cocktail bar. At weekends, there’s even a vibrant hawkers market going on. The locals will surely have missed the fun during lockdown – and I’d imagine the brewery most of all.
Fortunately, you don’t need to head to Gateshead to get hold of By The River beer. The brewery distributes its wares pretty much nationwide. Treat yourself to one of their Heedbanger IPAs. The monster can’s bold design houses a classy and clean IPA that’s double-dry-hopped with futuristic-sounding hops like Citra Cryo and Amarillo T90. They could be a new Terminator. Heedbanger is all the better for it.
Wylam Brewery is another great example. The brewery occupies the Palace of Arts in Exhibition Park, Newcastle. It’s a Grade II listed building Wylam rescued back in 2010 in an effort to get more Wylam beer into the hands of beer fans nationwide. Ten years on, it’s safe to say the plan worked. You may well have tried Wylam’s flagship beer Jakehead IPA at some point or another. It’s their mainstay, and fast becoming a stalwart in the craft beer scene. But if you ask me, it’s their seasonal brews that are really worth looking into. Geordie Beer Geek Coffee Oatmeal Stout is a collaboration with Copenhagen-based giants Mikkeller, and it’s a clean-roasted cold-brew coffee in a can. Fans of lager can also do no wrong with Wylam’s Cold Condition Lagerbier, a lager with notes of white grape, gooseberry and lemongrass that the brewers conditioned at 0°C for 12 weeks straight.
Over in Manchester, Track has long been one of my favourite breweries. The brewery focuses on pale and hoppy numbers and Track’s passion for adventure runs through everything the brewery puts out.
If you’ve heard of Track, you probably know of their Sonoma Pale Ale – widely regarded in the craft beer scene as one of the best pale ales out there, especially when served on cask. The brewery’s work and reputation is starting to seep into mainstream consciousness. Track won’t be a secret for long.
If you’re feeling a little more adventurous, tuck into their amazing range of sours. Track’s IPAs, too, are something to behold. Intrinsic Space is one such incarnation; a single-hop IPA that highlights ‘it’ hop of the moment Strata. If you want to seem clued-up at dinner parties (even if they are on Zoom and you’re all eating different things), it’s one to try. Smacks of grapefruit and ripe orange. Insanely drinkable.
Manchester’s Pomona Island Brewery is also of note. The team here seem to spend less time telling their backstory than most, which presumably frees them up to think up evermore outlandish names for their brews. My Toe Hurts Betty. Style, Control, Damage & Aggression. Strong Men Also Cry. Bonbonbonbons. They’re all fantastic, of course, but my personal favourite is the DDH Session IPA named Pigs…..In There? A glass full of soft, tropical fruits. What’s not to like?
Each Pomona Island brew has a hidden story and all come cloaked in a minimalistic, purposely naive can design. You’ll know a Pomona Island brew when you see one. Or taste one, for that matter. And I recommend you do.
My final hat tip goes to a Leeds-based brewery that’s cemented itself as a master of both hoppy beers and sours. But really, it’s a lot more than that. North Brew Co. claims to have created the UK’s first ever craft beer bar, North Bar, back in ’97. Either way, as one of the Founding Fathers, the brewery has indisputably had a staggering influence on modern beer. Trailblazers since before ‘craft’ was trendy (or anyone was even buying it), it took North nearly two decades to move from their first bar to their current brewery… and a few years further on knocking out aromatic sours and murky pales has become second nature. If you get a chance, try their latest mango and passionfruit triple-fruited sour. This has so much zing and pulp it’s almost a smoothie – but it’s light enough to sink in record time.
You can, of course, order many of the above online in our Northern Beast Box. But before you do, consider a northern outing. None of us needs a real excuse to head north. See the lockdown escapades of political aides.
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Without wanting to dwell on the obvious, summer 2020 feels like no summer before. Hopefully as you read this the sun is shining and, while your industrious neighbours busy themselves revamping gardens and installing patios, you’re lazing around in true Idler style. You’ll need good beer to compliment your summer lounging, of course. So I have one or two suggestions to make.
If you can, hunt yourself out a can or two of DEYA’s Steady Rolling Man. It’s difficult to put into words what makes this beer so alluring. It could be the whimsical musician on the can. Even more likely is the seemingly careless extra 60ml of the stuff you get, pushing the volume up to half a litre. Perhaps it’s the uncompromisingly subtle yet floral liquid inside? Or all of the above and more packaged together?
Whichever way you look at it, DEYA have nailed the summer pale ale here. Many claim it’s the best in Britain. It’s proved so popular via the Craft Metropolis website I’ve had to impose a limit of two cans per order. It’s not all that easy to come by. If you get the chance, grab a can, light a roll-up and prepare your uke for an evening in the garden, man.
If either of the next two recommendations have made it onto your radar already, congrats. You are truly a beer king. I say as much because, for me at least, both are what I’d call “I told you they would be amazing back in summer 2020!” beers. If you too are so insecure that you also try to impress strangers with frightfully useless beer knowledge, then take note, first of all, of S43 Brewery. S43 has been kicking about since 2012 but has made a serious impression in the last six months. After rebranding (the brewery was formerly Sonnet 43 – a nod to the local Durham poet Barrett Browning), S43 has focused on getting its beers out into the wider world. Previously, S43 brewers were cask champions. Today they make the kind of modern and hazy juice-bombs advancing markets applaud. Fortunately, the new focus seems to be more than a marketing ploy: the brewers themselves admit that their tastes have evolved as modern beers have emerged.
Keep half an eye out for S43’s Snickers-themed You’re not You When You’re Thirsty (a 9% peanut butter fudge stout), but go ahead and seek out Juice Cannon this summer. The latter is one for the sunshine. As the name suggests, the beer is tropical and fruity with popular notes of passionfruit and mango. Somehow, it’s also smooth and creamy. Best enjoyed from a deck chair.
The second of my “new breweries to look out for” is Pentrich Brewing. Thinking about it, you’d be forgiven for mixing these guys up with the reborn S43. The cans themselves are similar. But that’s hardly where the similarities end. Again, Pentrich is another “long standing” craft brewery that has been chugging along since before the true craft beer boom. The tale is a familiar one: pre-2013, home brewers Joe and Ryan had eyes on something more. We hear it time and time again in the industry; beer lovers hoping to make a buck from doing something they enjoy. And it’s fair to say the (growing) team has smashed it since inception. They’re hardly retiring just yet, but the beers here are so damn good that, assuming they end up garnering half the attention they deserve, it won’t be long before the founders will have the freedom to do so.
Pentrich’s name comes from the Derbyshire town where the beer is made, the best of the bunch being the aptly named Birthdays in Isolation. This is a 10% Imperial IPA made with a smash-bang-wallop of citra, simcoe and nelson hops. Don’t be afraid of an overpowering ABV. Birthdays in Isolation will blow more than your socks off on the flavour front.
My last recommendation for summer 2020 brings us back full circle. We started with a much-talked-of must-have in DEYA’s Steady Rolling Man. Arise by Burning Sky snuggles into the same corner.
Without wanting (or at least intending) to create a theme here, Burning Sky is another brewery that straddles the “old” and “new” beer worlds. Still incredible cask producers, Burning Sky’s brewers aren’t afraid to both embrace the traditional and plough on with the modern. It’s a philosophy that ensures all Burning Sky beers deliver, cask or keg. With Arise, the brewery has a flagship pale that’s hard to fault. It’s as bright and hoppy as you’d hope. It’s just the right side of ripe and flowery. At 4.4%, it’s far from a monster, and the fruity notes from the hops sit in perfect harmony with the malt bill. Glorious and easy-drinking, it’s a perfect summer pale ale.
Grab yourself one of the above. Or grab them all. Then sit back and let the bees buzz (note: Bill Anderson’s column will likely have more appropriate advice) and the long evenings whisper on. Happy drinking and stay safe out there.
Kveik, Mild, Helles and Brut. At first glance you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d stumbled into the travel section of the Idler and were exploring potential retreats to a Scandinavian island. Thankfully not. Kievek, Mild, Helles and Brut are all in fact beer styles, and with brewers gearing up to showcase their takes on rather more challenging and on-trend styles during this year’s festival season, now is a great time to explore each. Pale ales and stouts are two a penny – the beers below are beers not to be missed.
Northern Helles by Donzonko Brewing
With every year in craft beer labeled as ‘the year of lager’, it’s important to never dismiss the classic and understated style of beer. Helles beers tend to have a sweeter and lighter edge – hell meaning ‘light’ or ‘bright’ in German. Unfortunately, it’s rare that anything actually lives up to the billing. Donzoko’s Northern Helles, however, does. Quite simply, if you don’t like this, you won’t like modern craft lagers. That’s a bold statement, I know. But Northern Helles is just about as good as it gets for a UK-based brew. Slightly malty and dark with a sweet edge, it’s a beer that flows down and one you can turn to time and time again. It’s so well executed you’d expect it to come out of Germany rather than Donzoko’s base in Hartlepool. It’s no surprise that Donzoko harbours a fixation with German brewing. The brewers label this “our version of a Bavarian Style unfiltered lager. Sweet malt, subtle floral hops and a crisp refreshing finish. Inspired by lazy days by the river Eisbach, this is our flagship beer that will change what you think about lager.” We can’t argue with any of that and, if Northern Helles is anything to go by, this really IS the year of the lager. Until next year, of course.
Haakon by Drop Project
Kviek is certainly riding a wave in the brewing world at the moment. It’s a type of Norwegian Farmhouse Ale yeast and, when used to ferment at certain temperatures, it “provides plenty of fruity esters and tropical top notes.” That’s basically a pale ale with a bit of funk, and it’s showcased wonderfully in Haakon, a full-flavoured pale ale by the new startup brewery Drop Project. The yeast is a little more sour, more acidic and more raspy (all in a good way, you understand), which leads to a more powerful beer. You still get all the classic pale ale notes but what you tend to get at the end of the sip is an interesting bite. Normally breweries would use bittering hops to give their brews a lingering flavour, but here Kviek takes over, making for something slightly different to your average brew. One to try from a brewery worth watching as they grow.
Zero Gravity by Lost+Found
Onto Brut. This little known beer style is exactly what you think it’s going to be… although if you’re thinking of an 80’s talcum powder you’ll be disappointed. Brut beers have risen in popularity over the last year as breweries seek out a sweet spot somewhere between a lager and a pale ale. This style bridges the two well and at the same time brings an air of sophistication to both. The name comes from brewers using champagne yeast or similar to drive the dryness of a beer down to near desert levels.
In the case of brut IPAs, all the wort’s sugar is converted into alcohol during fermentation thanks to a special enzyme called amyloglucosidase. With no sugar left to caress the palate, the resulting beer is totally dry. This all sounds rather specialist but in Zero Gravity Lost+Found have created a brut beer that’s as drinkable as the day is long. Too dry to be a beer but not winey enough to be wine, brut styles have historically been something of a flash in the pan. New styles keep popping up though, and with summer just around the corner you’ll be sure to find some somewhere near you.
Dark Mild by BOXCAR
When you think of a pint of mild, most minds conjure up an old midlands boozer with uninspiring cheap beer piled on every table as smoke lingers in the air mid-afternoon. “What’s wrong with that?!” I hear you cry. Admittedly not much… but the point remains that mild has long been in need of a resurgence, and it’s happening! BOXCAR are one of the most up-and-coming breweries in London (which itself houses a great many up-and-coming breweries), and they’ve taken on the challenge of making an exciting mild. The result is mild, yes. But not as you know it. Dark Mild has all the classic mild flavours but dialled up a level or two. It’s slightly sweet, brown and delicious. It’s about as far from a working men’s club as you could get – but, thankfully, still not a million miles from mild’s true roots. Look out for this – and a whole raft of other experimental beers – in good beer shops near you.
Sour beers were once the preserve of Belgian specialists and hardcore beer nerds only. Gloriously, in recent years, the style has burst into the mainstream – and it’s recruiting converts with commendable pace. With the sun threatening to shine once again this year, what better time to look at some of the best brewers of sour beers in existence right now?
Vault City
Like the name suggests, Vault City brews were once hard to come by – almost as if they were locked in crypts accessible only to beer-seekers armed with bumbags and tasting notes booklets. Fortunately, relatively recently, someone unlocked the gates: the Scottish sourmeisters are increasingly popping up in bottle shops and specialist online sites (including craftmetropolis.co.uk) with their weird and wonderful wares. One thing that should draw your attention towards Vault City is the brewery makes nothing other than sour beers. Little wonder, then, that their sours always stand out. At the very heart of Vault City Brewing lies their house mixed-culture. A bit like a sourdough starter yeast, a sour beer’s culture is really its foundation. It needs to be relatively special to create something unique.
Vault City use a blend of Kveik (a Norwegian yeast we’ve talked about before in this column) and Lactobacillus strains which impart delicious tropical esters and a tart acidity. The esters are added to the pulps of real fruit in whacky concoctions to make Vault City’s smoothie-like brews. “Straight up” versions like strawberry and apricot exist – as do amplified counterparts typically reaching 11% ABV. If you fancy something a little more wild, Vault City have dabbled with spiced pumpkin, tayberry (it’s a bit like a redcurrant, I’m told) and vanilla. Their latest fun releases include a Cheeky Vimto Sour and a Havana Special.
I don’t think there’s anyone UK-based that’s better at using natural ingredients to invigorate sour beers. This is one Vault very much worth unlocking.
Maltgarden
I first stumbled across the Polish brewery Maltgarden when one of our customers rushed in in a frenzy to tell us all about the brewery’s rather special hoppy beers, a few of which he’d apparently managed to liberate on a recent specialist beer-swap night. Knowing our hero as a top-end beer nerd, I swiftly began pestering contacts and, eventually, sourced some Maltgarden to try. The oracle was not wrong; Maltgarden make some very special hoppy modern beers. I explored further and discovered the brewery’s dark beer range was even better – full of peanut adjuncts with lashings of coffee, toffee, banana and chocolate (there’s even a wax-topped can… but that’s another story). Criminally late I learned that Maltgarden make some outstanding sours too; sours that really push your palate’s limits. Maltgarden’s newest sours include combinations as unusual as dragonfruit, lime and mango.
Maltgarden brewers like to play wizard so don’t be surprised to see odd juxtapositions of nuts, spices and sours that captivate and confuse your tastebuds in equal measure. If a warm can of Tyskie is your only experience of Polish beer, change that right now!
Pastore
Everything about Pastore Brewing and Blending hints at the exotic. The name itself conjures the image of a small Spanish village. The can artwork and font drag your thoughts over to a sleepy Moroccan fishing town. Perhaps disappointingly, Pastore are actually based on an industrial estate near Cambridge. Regardless, Pastore sours are outstanding. Where Vault City are likely the UK’s best makers of fun sours, Pastore are a refined and subtle compeer. The emphasis here is an accessible, modern take on mix-ferm brewing (that is, brewing using multiple yeasts, including wild strands) and Pastore deliver every time.
Although the basis of all Pastore sours is old school sour brewing, novel ingredients and flavours make Pastore sours accessible to non-expert fans. The newest concoctions on the Craft Metropolis shelves are perfect examples of this. Torta Di Morello, for example, is a cherry pie pastry sour conditioned on morello cherry puree, cinnamon, vanilla and almond.
Pastore are a brewery we love supporting. Not only do they make some of the most well rounded sours about, they’re also a tiny operation, even by craft beer standards. Their story is made all the more sweet by the fact the brew team are the father and son combo of Ben and Chris Shepherd. Seek the brews out.
Pomona Island
Here at my bottle shop in South London, we get new Pomona Island beers delivered pretty much every week. And with good reason! Again Pomona Island are a brewery that seem able to nail all styles of modern beer in existence. It’s testament to their quality that I can wax lyrical about their sours just as I could their dark offerings or hoppy monsters in the same breath. It’s also testament to their brew quality that I tend to cherry-pick Pomona Island beers to include in the fifty or so new beers I get to try each week (yes it’s one of the world’s best jobs!).
Pomona’s sours catapulted the brewery to the relative mainstream. The sours here are tart-but-not-too-tart which, in sour context, is simply flavoursome. The brews are also out-there without being messy. Almost all are easy drinking. Combined, that’s an exacting set of standards to live up to repeatedly but, somehow, the Pomona brewers manage it. Despite being a relatively small operation, Pomona seem to put out a new pale, IPA and, of course, a new sour each week, so there’s always something interesting to seek out here.
Welcome to winter! Chilly nights and falling leaves… I kind of like it. The headline news is we are 4-6 weeks away from the first Craft Metropolis bar in SE20 London! More info to follow on the newsletter but first a quick bit of news about what’s new this month:
Our top news for beers this month is the Introduction of mega-brewery Cloudwater to our shelves. With the forthcoming bar and shop the time to update the site and the type of beers is upon us starting with one of the best! We covered most corners from a Small Pale (which just shows what a sub-3% beer can taste like without the big booze) though to a Belgian Bitter. We also made sure Lager fans had their hit as well a a brilliant DDH Pale and a classic juicy IPA. Limited as hens teeth on dodo, grab ’em quick!
Second up we grabbed a whole load more Redchurch brews. Lots more experimentation coming out of the brewery thins month including an Apricot Pale (with Vibrant Forest no less) and an Experimental IPA. Both excellent. There’s a movement and trend towards brewing German marzen beers and we’ve added this to the roster too.
Next up one of London’s finest and who says summer is over (other than me at the start of this newsletter)?! Pina Colada from BBNo brings back a glimmer of that summer sun in the gloom of the darkening evenings. It’s full of pineapple and coconut and is a cracking brew. Another nod to summer is also introduced in the form of a limey Mexican lager and a cracking three hop DDH Table beer. Our pick has to be the Pina but a close second is the Sour IPA. Loads of hops but still lots of pucker from the sourness. Great beer as always from BBNo.
We have two new breweries up next (for CM) in the shape of Forest Road and Rock Leopard.
While Forest Road are bring a top lager in Posh and a classic pale in Work Rock Leopard bring big soupy hoppy brews. The imaginatively titled Distant Cousin of a Mu Mu Cat IPA is our pick!
Last but not least we some partizan (can you tell we love them yet?) and new cans beers from One Mile End. The 4am Juicy sold out in record time last time and is our pick from them but there’s a ton to go at from Partizan too.
Old favourites like Raspberry and Lemon Saison return and the mega 8% Stout too. But there’s new and intriguing brews like L’Intensa and Beer? If you’re looking for flavours you’ve not had before grab a Partizan or two!
I hope you enjoy picking and trying these brand new craft beers as much as I enjoyed hunting them out for you/me!
Cheers in beers!
Oli
Wow August was hot! I hope you enjoyed the summer sun and are ready for a slightly more chilled September? Here’s a quick bit of news about what’s new this month in the world of craft beer online:
Our headline for this month is the return of Siren brewery with a load of their beer including staple core and specials. Ten Dollar Shake is an old favourite and its’ so good to see it in a 330ml can for more people to grab hold of. As good as that is (and it really is very very good) it’s somehow pipped by Oats on Oats which has all the oaty creaminess and all the hops too! Try both maybe? Of the core range you know what you are getting; easy drinking hoppy and fresh delicious beer. Our pick of them has to be the dry-hopped lager Santo. If you think lager is boring think again this is brilliant and choc-full of flavour.
Second up the kings are back. We’ve not had many pales from Kernel recently so a little treat for you right from the beautiful basics up. We start with Table (always brilliant, this time with El Dorado hops) through very different pales to two IPAs and a much sought after Beiré de Saison! Our pick would be the Amarillo/ Cascade/Vic Sectret pale and the Saison but they are all worthy of anyones attention.
Next up….we’ve been chatting to Affinity Brew for 3 years so we guessed them releasing 4 big cans for of delicious beer was as good an excuse as any to grab them and ping them on the site for you to get your chops around. A really small set-up and well worth supporting we bring you a session IPA, a sour and a saison. Our pick of the bung has to be the single hop Glass of Drink centennial IPA. Very floral and full of punch.
OK, not a month goes by without some new Brick beer right? Yeah, sorry about that! I blame them for making amazing beers and I’ve told them as much. “You stop making great beer, I’ll stop buying it!” haha.
From the light end of zippy to the big end of dark and moody we have two sours and their easy-drinking Pils to the mega-dog that is Scroggin’. Needless to say if the suns out the grisette is our pick but as the leaves turn yellow we are reaching for the nutty dark 10% impy. Enjoy!
Last but not least we have our first cans from Mondo. Mondo have always been well represented on these virtual shelves because of their drinkabilty and fun approach to brewing. This has continued through their new series and it looks like there will be no stopping them now. Lots of styles, plenty of experimentation and bags of flavour. The Mango Pale is probably the pick of these but they are all well rounded and well executed brews.
I hope you enjoy picking these beers as much as I enjoyed hunting them out and trying them for you/me!
Cheers and keep smiling
Oli
Our headline for this month is the return of Anspach and Hobday. A Bermondsey beer mile mainstay and a brewery that are really hitting the right notes with their core range as well as specials.
We took the whole range on so you can try as many as possible. The Porter is their flagship and first beer and extremely well executed. For more summer drinking the Citrus Sour and the Noble Saison are real thirst quenchers….along with a Session Porter which goes down a treat well chilled.
Second up we have some of the best beers in London this year. BBNo – as you probably already know – are a firm fav of ours but these beers blew us away. Of the three I was expecting to love the Session IPA and like the others but the Blueberry and Lime Berliner Weiss and even more so the Triple Fruited Gose were out of this world. Highly highly recommending both of these or I will drink them all quite happily!
Next up are a few old favourites. We have restocked on some classic core from Weird Beard. The hoppy trio of Trench, Little Things and Shadow are some of the beers that started the craft beer adventure for me. All well worth a stock up or revisit if it’s been a while. We’ve also added their new hopped pale ale Gravelands too.
OK, an absolute treat for you next. Not only have we stocked up on one of our favourite beers from Hammerton (Crunch Peanut Butter Milk Stout) we’ve grabbed some Fudge Cake too! Wow, talk about indulgence in a glass! Fancy something lighter? We have their 440ml cans of their NEPA and Concrete Jungle. The latter is our pick of the brews – it’s criminally easy to drink.
Last but not least we have added another brewery that’s been away from our shelves since last year in the shape of Bianca Road. They have so many summery beers brewed at the moment it was hard not to. The stand out brews for me are the LA Bloods orange zest and the new table beer Costa Mesa.
If you are on a 2 or 3 month deal don’t miss our new Outsider brewery Wild Beer and their eclectic range. A long-time favourite of mine it’s a pleasure to welcome them to the site with their brilliant mix of experimental ingredients and well rounded core beers.
We also had loads of new stuff from Weird Beard, Redemption and Seven Sisters to name a few.
I hope you enjoy picking these beers as much as I enjoyed hunting them out and trying them for you/me!
Cheers and keep smiling in the sun!
Oli
Brick Brewery, the craft brewer from South East London, is taking a unique approach to the Three Peaks Challenge by launching a limited-edition charity series of beers in collaboration with brewers local to the three highest mountains in the United Kingdom.
While most event attendees make do with a map and a generous bar of Kendal Mint Cake in their rucksacks, the crafty team at Brick have taken the challenge to another level by creating the Three Peaks Beer Series in collaboration with Fallen Brewing Co. (Ben Nevis, Scotland), Hawkshead Brewery (Scafell Pike, England) and Wild Horse Brewing Co.(Snowdon, Wales).
Ian Stewart, Brick Brewery Founder, said: “We love the areas in which the challenge takes place and have long admired the work of some of the local breweries there. It was a no-brainer to team up with like-minded beer folk and concoct this series inspired by the three peaks.”
Each of the breweries has a similar ethos and shares a number of common values to Brick Brewery. They each combined their skills to create a series that reflected the cultural surroundings of the local breweries while maintaining an element of Brick’s signature South East London style. They also selected local charities to benefit from the collaboration.
Ian Stewart added: “The process has been really memorable; friendships have been made and show-stopping beers produced that both locals and fellow climbers can enjoy. Now we just have to complete the challenge itself!”
Created with curious beer fans in mind, “Starting on Heaven” Session Helles, “Scroggin’” Imperial Stout and “Summit Fever” East Coast IPA will be available to purchase in 440ml cans and on tap at each brewery from 13th July onwards. A percentage of each sale will be donated to breweries’ chosen charities, giving back to local communities.
People taking part in the Three Peak Challenge will also be encouraged to try all three beers via a social media competition which will run in July.
In keeping to its normal style, Brick has worked with artists local to each brewery to design the can labels to further strengthen the community connections.
The breweries’ teams will all take part in the challenge starting on 12th July 2019 and the beers will be available from 13th July on Brick’s website, The Tap Room in Peckham and at each of the participating breweries – Starting from £4.00
Starting on Heaven, Session Helles – Fallen Brewing Co. x Brick Brewery – ABV 3.8%
This delicate beer is a crisp, clean and refreshing German-style Helles lager using Weyermann malt, Mandarina Bavaria and Idaho 7 hops. Mandarina Bavaria brings tangerine and citrus notes while Idaho 7 hops adds subtle tropical aromas with a sticky forest pine and earthy black tea character.
Scroggin’, Imperial Stout – Hawkshead Brewery x Brick Brewery – ABV 9.0%
Inspired by ‘scroggin’, a mixture of dried fruit, nuts and other food eaten as a snack by hikers, this beer has rich ingredients and flavours. Aromas of chocolate, nuts, raisin, pecans and peanuts can be tasted with the addition of lactose for a decadent and creamy mouthfeel that complements its high ABV.
Summit Fever, East Coast IPA – Wild Horse Brewing Co. x Brick Brewery – ABV 6.6%
A bold, hop-forward East Coast IPA using Azacca and Nelson Sauvin hops. Staying true to the typical yeast profiles of the New England style, Summit Fever combines North and South hemisphere hops giving it heavy stone fruit, melon and white grape aromas and has a soft and fluffy mouthfeel coming from additional oats.
BIG BEER alert! DEYA are one of the most popular breweries at the moment and when they teamed up with one of our favourites it was a no-brainer to get in some Pressure Drop beers. This DIPA is all things DIPAs should be. Syrupy but light, hoppy yet not overly raspy. It’s a cracker. Two Weeks in Florida is strictly limited to 1 per box folks – sorry! Grab it while you can!
Redchurch are a brand new brewery to the site. They were one of the first breweries we talked to way back in 2015 but for one reason or another they never appeared on the site – until now!
Their style is accomplished and consistent and they are past masters of the sour. Our highlights are their IPL can and the Paradise Pale. Expect more sours and seasonal lagers from them after this first batch.
Another month another set of amazing Brew by Numbers cans. Boring. Haha. These beers can never be boring when they are so good. The 55 Citra, Simcoe & Ekuanot is easily one of the best DIPAs (double IPAs) on the market right now and a series of beers I have a soft spot for. It’s always evolving and never disappoints. Big hops and smooth drinking make this a must-pick. Personally I was thrilled to see 23 Keller Pils make it into their new range this months as I rate this as one of UK’s best Pils by some way. I’d drink it all day (if I could!) and is always on the radar for the first beer of a session.
We move onto Partizan who have literally sprung into spring like a springy thingy with a host of seasonal beers and rebrews.
Lots here to challenge even the most hardened of craft beer drinker including a beautiful Belgian pale Atomium and exceptionally easy drinking White Noise white IPA. We are loving this beer right now! This all comes alongside the usual brilliant offering of IPAs like including the best selling black coffee version (you went mad for this so we had to bring it back ASAP) and a new four hop drop thats fresh as a daisy. My favourite of these new pairs is certainly the white IPA, it’s rare that these come out as well as this and it would be the first bottle in my subscription box if I was picking.
Two breweries up next up who we haven’t seen for awhile. The first is Howling Hops with refreshed the core range and also added a big special can. This would be the first place I’d go but they really do nail the core range so you can’t go far wrong. Also back on the shelves are a load of new flavours of mead from Gosnells. If these don’t get you ready for summer nothing will!
Still with me? Good, because Canopy brewery have some big cans on the virtual shelves. We added their core but also took in the lager cans as it seems everyone is on a summer drive. If Rhubarb Weisse and Goosberry Gose don’t make you smile then nothing will.
I hope you enjoy picking these craft beers as much as I enjoyed hunting them out and trying them!
Cheers and beers!
Oli
December. When did that happen? It seems only yesterday we were basking in the summer sun and enjoying the festival season. But worry not the dark nights and festive vibes bring presents, joy, happiness and festive beer!
This month we’ve gone Christmas can crazy. A brewery local to us are absolutely destroying it in the can are Gipsy Hill. 3, 4 or 5 specials each month we couldn’t resist there latest offerings and bring you 6 new specials in can. They are all spot on but our pick of the bunch is the Christmas Kriek. Not just because it’s festive but because GH are nailing sour/fruited beers at the moment. This follows hot on the heels of their mixed berry sour and this is just as good, if not better. We’ve never had a cherry beer with the flavour of real cherries so prominent behind the tart sour front. An excellent winter companion to any fireside evening. Pure Christmas. You don’t see enough White IPAs these days so Momotaro is a lovely addition to their range and Baller, Swamper and Codebreaker are big, juicy fantastic brews – but all very different. Welcome back Gipsy Hill – pop these in your craft beer subscription box now!
We’ve also badgered the breweries at Seven Sisters, One Mile End, Big Hug and BBNo for some wares old and new and there’s some excellent picks in can from them all. Juice is the main player here and, let’s be honest, you can’t beat a bit of Brew by numbers. Soft, sessionable and now in alu 27|01 is outstanding. Don’t miss out one of the most interesting two beers this month in the shape of the Amaretti Impy from Canopy and Buddha’s sour ale. Both something for the adventurous.
Don’t worry we haven’t gone all can-mad. In bottle we have two smashing hop-beasts from Mondo. Both showcase different hops in very different ways but both very modern and different enough to stand out in a crowd – Green Monstah and Hongi are fresh in.
We also have some of the last bottles from BBNo including an IPA 05|01. One of the original craft beers from them and one that is already selling fast. A month can’t go by without grabbing some utterly excellent Pressure Drop beers. Every month they just get better and better and three new brews from them this month scream hoppiness. Try one, maybe two, definitely three. Not to be missed.
We’ve rounded up this months new beers with a bit of pudding too. Who doesn’t like ice cream? Weird Beards Choco Azimut is a mint choc ice cream pale. Yum indeed.
Step 1
We trawl the globe tasting great beer
