At this time of year lower ABV beers come into their own so as part of a look into innovation in craft beer I sat down with one of the UK’s most exiting no/low alcohol craft beer brewery Mash Gang to find out more about their 0% beers and how they make them. Here’s what the owner and brewer Jordan had to say…
Why did you start all this?
I just found a lot of alcohol-free beer off-putting, not because it was bad, or because it was boring – which it was – but it was the approach that sucked the most. The worst thing was there was a lot of the apologetic style marketing about the whole thing, all a bit cringe-inducing like everything seemed to be saying; “I’m sorry for making this product.”
The vibe was all about making the product passable if you’re driving or unable or unwilling to drink alcohol, but it just felt like it was compromising itself before even started. Not only did I think that was rather sad but also the range of beers leaned heavily towards just lager or, at best, pale ales and seemed scared of doing anything else. I wanted to make really weird alcohol-free beer inspired by breweries like on Omnipollo or Amundsen who were making pastry stouts and fruit sours with wedding cake or whatever thrown into it! I wanted to do that but keep it alcohol free.
That means you do make some pretty crazy stuff, is that still a challenge to get it accepted?
I still get asked: “what’s the difference between a heavily fruited sour and just a fizzy smoothie?” and while its frustrating but I don’t care any more. I’m here to make beverages and it doesn’t really matter whether it’s this or that, you know? I‘ll get a comments all the time where it’s, “I don’t know if it’s a beer at all.” Does it matter? I like it. Do you like it? Yeah? That’s good enough isn’t it? Sometimes you feel like it’s not and that’s weird to me.
Whats the science – how the heck is it done?
I literally can’t tell you. I’ve worked so hard on making this thing a reality there’s no secret inside info, sorry!
What I can tell you is when it comes to it removing all of the alcohol from a full ABV beer it is very expensive and time consuming as well as energy consuming. So we started looking at things like modified yeasts to create these beers to start with. These types of yeasts make very little alcohol from from the sugar in the brew but although it worked we found that those beers tasted sludgy or just sugary, so we started to design a new process that that was almost the reverse of making an imperial stout. We saw this over and over all the times when we’re around cuckoo breweries that work with a lot of Imperial stouts so we did just that – reverse it. Obviously there’s more to it but we wanted to make sure that everything we did worked. We were very vigilant and exacting but it seemed to click more times than it didn’t so we executed it until we were happy and then scaled it up.
Who is your audience, your target customer?
Anyone really. We didn’t just want to market to people who were sober or were trying to look for some kind of dietary hack like cutting calories or losing weight, that was never the idea. We wanted to market to people like us, we want to market to people who wanted to actually not drink less and be able to drink more! I also wanted to make sure that it was available in pubs and bars where you have to drive to. People are only are able to stay around and drink as long as the driver will stay. So if you give them a genuine craft beer experience where they can have four pints, then people are going to stay at the bar longer. It’s better for the bar and better for the customer. The time of going into a bar at lunchtime from your office sink three pints and coming back to work in the afternoon is for the most part over. I was doing that 10 years ago, I was having pints at lunch and the evening too. It’s not healthy or sustainable so we’re looking at helping anyone that still wants to enjoy beer but wants to regulate it better while still trying exciting beer.
What next for the brewery?
It’s no secret the overwhelming success and thirst for Mash Gang has left us having to learn fast and we’ve make mistakes along the way. We’re very open about it on our mailer to both customers and trade. Sometimes getting beer made on schedule, delivered to the right people and in one piece has failed for one reason or another. But you reset, learn, and keep moving forward. We have already improved as much as we’ve grown so we’re in a happy space.
As part of our expansion plan, we have taken the decision to restart production of kegs. We have never experienced a demand for draught beer at this level before so the timing is right. This means the phase moves from cans in hands to pints in pubs through the festive time and into 2024 until we are represented in a bar in every major and minor UK city. There’s even plans to crack America but one step at at time. Needless to say we’re excited for this year coming and appreciate every order every day, it’s still a thrill.
In craft beer circles, every year that unfolds eventually becomes the year of something or other. Certain yeasts, for example. Or certain varieties of hops. More often than not, certain beer styles take the annual ‘year of’ crown – like back in 2018, when everyone seemed excited about brut IPA. I’ve reported before that every year seems poised to become ‘lager year’ (and every year, it never is). This year, there’s a clear title winner already: 2020 is the year of the triple IPA (TIPA), a beer style characterised by an intense hop profile and an ABV that regularly climbs beyond 10%. This year, everyone’s been brewing them. Who wore it best, you ask? Here are three of my personal favourites.
It’s hard to not start with the easiest drinker in the category. Let’s be honest, when you’re dealing with beers that regularly come with double-digit ABVs – especially when they aren’t fireside sippers like imperial stouts – then ‘easy-drinking’ is quite a sought-after quality. Brew by Numbers have always delivered great beers with higher ABVs than the corresponding flavour profiles suggest. Anyone that’s ever tried one of their 55 Double IPA series will almost certainly agree. Would their new 85 Triple IPA follow suit? And what particular nectar variety might it bring us?
Sweet fruit juice is the answer! The current version in the BBNo’s 85 series is a beer that pours very hazy and delivers wave upon wave of ripe (and overripe) stone fruit like peach and mango from the trio of hops BBNo’s brewers use. What really sets the beer apart is the smoothness from the oats the BBNo team add to the brew’s malt bill. It’s a quality that dials down the bitterness (that’s just about lurking) and makes 85 Triple IPA insanely drinkable. It’s complex, juicy and scarily easy to drink! From DIPAs to TIPAs, I’m not sure there’s a UK brewery that consistently delivers high-ABV, hoppy beers better than Brew by Numbers.
With Brew York, you always know they’ll take on a challenge. You can also be pretty certain they’ll serve up on-trend brews, so it was hardly a surprise to see them brewing a triple IPA as soon as it looked like it may be flavour of the season. Brew York is the brewery that brought us delights like Tonkoko – a coconut and tonka bean stout – and Extra Brownie Pints – an absolute chocolate slab of an imperial monster. To put it mildly, the brewery has the darker stuff nailed. But lighter stuff always receives more scrutiny; it’s tough to hide suspect subtleties in lighter beers. With their new triple, however, Brew York have not only cracked the of-the-moment style but have gone and scored bonus points by using of-the-moment yeast kveik while doing so. Brew York’s TIPA couldn’t be more on-trend if it tried (which, thinking about it, it probably did). Go Big & Stay at Home uses the famous Norwegian yeast strain that imparts an added earthiness and spice to the beer that could be overpowering – but isn’t – and leaves Go Big & Stay at Home slightly drier than other beers of its style. The tweak balances brilliantly the booziness of the TIPA and compliments the slight hop-burn you get from the 10.5% ABV. It’s certainly a combination that works. If you’re looking for a beer that throws together everything new that 2020 brewing has to offer, then this is pretty much it… all in one glass.
Polly’s doesn’t really brew a bad beer. The team also knows plenty about getting the best out of the hops they use. Still, until the latter part of 2020, Polly’s had been serving up soupy IPAs and pale ales only. Obviously keen to join this year’s hop-race with a triple of their own, Polly’s have now brewed not one but two TIPAs in the space of a few months. The result has been nothing short of phenomenal, with a lot of people calling their fist triple – Spur – the beer of the year. Spurred on by this acclaim (sorry), the team set about brewing their sophomore TIPA to quell the calls of those clamouring for more. The result is Patternist. Just like Spur, Patternist has a supercharged hop bill responsible for the bucketloads of flavour on show here. Apparently, Polly’s poured over 60kg of El Dorado and Simcoe hops into Patternist (I’m told that’s a LOT for one Polly’s brew). The hefty hop helping makes this beer – despite its 10% booze levels – pure unadulterated juice! There’s next to zero bitterness in the body and the hit on the tongue is straight up mango, passionfruit and papaya. It’s a joy to behold, and it may be my personal favourite of the three.
Beers of the TIPA strength, of course, have long been the drink of choice for certain park bench gentlemen. But natural brewing evolution has escorted us to a wonderful place, where 10% beers are no longer something to be endured rather than enjoyed while wincing in Belgian-beer-house bravado contests.
Stand alone, hefty TIPAs are genuine beer of the year contenders and any brewery worth their salt should be adding one to their catalogue – assuming they’re up to the challenge of brewing something drinkable despite such high alcohol content. Enjoy TIPAs responsibly. And whatever you do if you sample them, don’t go pouring these three back to back to test my tasting notes – it might be the end of you!
Craft Metropolis is an online beer shop and taproom stocking Triple IPAs, amongst brews of a more sessionable strength!
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.
—————————————————
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.
Step 1
We trawl the globe tasting great beer
