– Eurotoberfest / Monday 30th September – Sunday 6th October 2013
Winter, as they say, is coming. Well, we’ve autumn to get through first, but you get what I mean.
As the end of September draws near, so too does our annual ‘Eurotoberfest’. It is, as the name suggests, a celebration of all that is tasty and exciting in the world of brewing across our fine and varied continent of Europe.
We’ll be launching it on September 30th, with one of the most exciting Meet the Brewer events we’ve had (especially for those of us with a love for Belgian beer!). Yvan De Baets, from Brussels’s self-styled ‘boutique’ brewery Brasserie De La Senne will be joining us to introduce some of their beautiful modern Belgian beers including Taras Boulba and Zinnebir. A handful of tickets are still available for this event, priced at £14.
Staying in Belgium, we’ll also be getting, for the first time, some rather splendid Viven beers. Viven, set up originally in 1999 by Willy de Lobel, and brewed just two beers, Chapel of Viven, a blonde, and Monastery of Viven a brune, both brewed at De Proefbrouwerij, a well-known brewer of beers for third parties in Lochristi in the East Flanders region of Belgium. In 2003, Willy decided to hand over the Viven reins to Tony Traen, the son of a local liquor dealer. Both Chapel and Monastery of Viven were quickly rechristened Viven Blonde and Viven Brune respectively. Six years later, Tony felt the desire to expand the range with Flemish takes on non-Flemish beers. Out of this desire were born Viven Ale, hopped with English Goldings hops, the delightfully smoky Viven Porter, and the incredible Viven Imperial IPA, heavily hopped with Tomahawk and Simcoe. Of the range, we’ll be stocking the Blonde, Porter and Imperial IPA, which really has to be tasted to be believed! Look out for the bottles in the Belgian fridge.
Finally for this little preview – we’ll be profiling other breweries nearer the time – those of you who attended the Toccalmatto Meet the Brewer back on June 10th will be pleased to know that we’ll be having plenty more beers from them during Eurotoberfest and beyond. Bruno Carilli and his team make some of the most exquisite beers ever to come out of Italy, and are spearheading the ‘craft’ beer revolution currently taking place in this famously wine-loving country. Few who have tasted their remarkable ‘Zona Cesarini’, showcasing the peculiar but amazing Sorachi Ace hop, developed by Sapporo brewery in Japan, will ever forget its citrusy delights.
And there you have it. There is too much going on to mention everything, but suffice as to say, we’ll be stocking special beers from Belgium, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and beyond. We’re working on some last-minute additions, too, so watch this space!
Cheers/Salute/ Proost,/Skål/Santé!*
*Delete as appropriate.
Words by Jamie Hancock / Artwork by Steve Hockett
– # IPA Day / Thursday 1st August 2013
It’s that wonderful time of year again when a whole day is dedicated to one of the best styles in the craft beer world! IPA Day! We’ve decided to celebrate this day in our usual fashion-by drinking beer! Obviously in order to be fitting in with the day we’ve got lots of nice IPA type beer to drink! We’ve got some Kernel IPA, To Øl Buxton collab IPA, Alpha State IPA, Northern Monk IPA, Magic Rock IPA, To Øl DIPA…and those are just the ones off the top of my head!
We like IPA and so are looking forwards to having a special day to drink and talk about it…other people may come along but if we start running low on anything please remember staff have priority. Happy IPA Day.
Food will be supplied by the ever excellent Barnhouse Bistro – serving tasty burgers and more from 6pm.
IPA day logo by @EmilyRagle (Yea I know the date is the wrong way round, but we’ll let the Americans off this time, as the logo was so nice!)
– American Beer Festival 2013 / Even more highlights
Less than a week until the launch of our fabulous American beer festival and it seems about time to give a bit more of a tantalising peek at some of our selection, watch out for further up dates…
Southern Tier – 2x Stout – 7.5% / Lakewood, New York
A double milk stout, which as everyone knows is twice as good as your standard-roasty, chocolatey and pretty darn smooth.
Maui – Lahaina Town Brown – 5.3% / Maui, Hawaii
A light, crisp and very drinkable brown ale with the malt balanced nicely by some scrummy cascade.
Flying Dog – Imperial IPA – Citra Single Hop – 10% / Frederick, Maryland
A classic American style IPA with a healthy dose of bitterness from a sizeable chunk of citra, be warned it is slightly deceptive!
Sierra Nevada – Torpedo Extra IPA – 7.2% / Chico, California
One of Sierra Nevada’s best and brightest has made an outing over here in cask. Yum.
Against the Grain – 70K – 13.1% / Louisville, Kentucky
Bourbon barrel aged imperial stout-extremely roasty, chocolatey, creamy, so basically another fabulous treat from the ATG guys.
SKA – Special ESB Ale – 5.7% / Durango, Colorado
An excellent combination of tasty and quaffable for those who want to get into the beery zone at a sedate pace.
– Kent and Beyond – Caveman, By The Horns and Foundry / by Euan Summers
Kent? What do you think of when you think of Kent? Clark Kent? That’s what I think of, only because I have no frame of reference for anything in the real world. But if you love beer you might think of the WORLD FAMOUS hop variety East Kent Golding.
This week you might also think of something else. Over the course of the next week or so we are going to be having a large amount of beers that are all from the Kent region! The good folks over at Caveman Brewery have organised a mixed bag of local beverages that, on paper sound good and in a glass taste fantastic (Don’t try to drink out of paper, it’s difficult to not make a mess and the beer loses a lot of aroma).
Beers from Caveman themselves including Palaeolithic and their Prehistoric Amber. Based out of the George and Dragon in Swanscombe, Caveman Brewery is brand new on the scene, starting earlier this year with a few cavemen employed for heavy lifting and regular men for handling hops and sterilizing where the cavemen leave their musty trace, we hope and expect big things for these guys!
Foundry, or Canterbury Brewers, have sent along some interesting stuff including a Belgian IPA in cask called Galactic. Based out of a Pub in Canterbury, Foundry are fantastic at simple stuff made well and complex stuff made amazing.
Kent Brewery, whom you might have seen around the north before have sent a few treats including a cask black IPA named Enigma and Beyond the Pale, an EXTREME PALE ALE!
And lastly, By The Horns Brewery. Not quite from Kent, but down south is all the same in my brain (my sweet ignorant brain) By the Horns are from London and proud of it. Beers such as Diamond Geezer, a double red ale, and Lambeth Walk, A Dark Porter.
So much good stuff, are you excited? I’m pretty excited. Although I’ve known about this for a while, I guess that’s why I’m not all like “Oh my god! You just blew the sweet ignorant brains right outta my head! Woaaaaah” but you are right? Right?!
Words by Euan Summers