– Verdant Tap Takeover review by Cameron Steward
On Wednesday 17th May 2017 we held a Verdant tap takeover at Port Street. We asked Cameron Steward to come down and taste his way through the hits. Here are Cameron’s words and photographs…
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One of the most striking articles should you choose to visit the Verdant Brewing website is a blog post entitled ‘High Level Sink’. The declaration from January 2017 begins, “Today was a bad day” and outlines how Verdant had to dispose of a staggering 800 litres of their Pale Ale High Level Kink (4.8%), due to contamination issues.
You may think this an odd confession; why announce such a colossal failure? What good can come from planting that seed of doubt regarding the level of professionalism in such a highly competitive field? On the other hand, it’s refreshing to acknowledge such a calamity and certainly reassuring to see that Verdant demand only the highest quality, ensuring the product they put out is their best.
Sadly HLK isn’t present at the Port Street Beer House tap takeover, but their Pale army is solidly represented with Light Bulb (4.5%), Headband (5.5%) and the brilliantly titled Roy, I Want A Hilux (5.5%). They’re reassuringly hazy, bitter and very fruity – just what you’d expect from a brewery whose manifesto is a hop-forward reaction to a lack of juicy, bitter bombs from this side of the pond. It’s evident Verdant are heavily inspired by the New England IPAs and Pales, which have gained more mainstream recognition in the UK over the past couple of years. They cite Treehouse, Trillium, Monkish and Hill Farmstead as influences and this comes across with crystal clear clarity (although in reality, they’re pretty murk-tastic) in their IPAs, Putty (8%) and Even Sharks Need Water (6.5%).
Both these beers are showcased at the takeover and Sharks is a damn-near perfect example of a smash-able, juice-splosion IPA. It’s packed with tropical lushness and plenty of bitterness. That NE profile is equally palpable from the soft mouthfeel that head brewer James clarifies “comes from wanting to meld yeast, malt and water profiles to enhance the hop experience”. It’s also worth mentioning that these beers pair fantastically with the sticky and sweet Pork Bao buns provided by the master chefs at Common Bar.
It’s not hard to tell that these guys have worked hard, each of the offerings at the takeover represents the tastes and demands of Verdant’s tireless brewers – there are just the 3 of them. This didn’t happen overnight of course, they began piloting brews in 2013 before moving to a 1bbl kit in a shipping container in 2014. “Test, assess, change and test again” James tells me and by August 2015 the beers were ready for public consumption. A mere 10 months later they moved to their current premises in Falmouth, Cornwall, equipped with a 10bbl kit that went live in September 2016. From there on it’s all been a haze (pun intended), with popularity seeing Verdant become increasingly more visible in the north of England, having already infiltrated the South West, Northern Ireland and London. Their next target, Scotland, is so direct in their crosshairs that the day after their Port Street takeover, they’re invading one of Edinburgh’s finest, The Hanging Bat, to bring the hop pain.
Future aspirations include obtaining their own canning line and opening their tap house for summer sessions. They also hope to extend their Christmas card list with a range of forthcoming collaborations that may be classified “top secret” but definitely include Manchester’s own Cloudwater, which is definitely worth getting excited about.
It’s not hard to see why Verdant have grown so exponentially; they’re fun and personable gents who offer time to answer my questions and it’s clear they’re brewing beers they crave, which happens to coincide with a reinvigorated interest in the modern IPA – see Hop City for further evidence. Their pump clips and cans glow as vibrantly on bars and shelves as the contents do in the glass, and if they’re not happy with those beers being saturated with “lush, juicy and moist hop flavours”, then they’ll reassess and try again.
– IMBC 16 review by Cameron Steward
The night before Independent Manchester Beer (and Stuff) Convention (better known to you and I as Indy Man Beer Con, or IMBC for maximum abbreviation) is always one of skittish anxiety and this year was no different. What would be my first beer? Should we get a table first or tokens? What happens if Cloudwater run out of DIPA V8?
My anxieties aren’t helped by turning up to the Saturday Day session at 11:30 on a hilariously tropical October morning only to join the snaking queue some 500 people deep. I’m convinced everyone will be ordering that DIPA first and my strategic master plan will be thrown into disarray.
Upon arrival the Cloudwater team assure me there’s enough V8 to last the whole weekend, allowing my nerves to cease their shredding. Now I am a man with the world at my feet and it’s high time I drank that world, so I start with IMBC virgins Jester King and their smoked malt, juniper-infused and sweet gale Saison, Gotlandstricka (6.6%). It’s as totally mad as that sounds and perhaps defines my whole approach to Indy Man. Y’see, I haven’t attended this festival every year since its inception (5 years) to taste beers I can sample any-bloody-where. I’ve come here to exercise my weird and wacky taste buds, to let my freak flag fly, and as I walk around the festival plenty of beers that fit that description catch my eye and beckon me in.
As always the bar staff are super-helpful, friendly and always up for a chat. Stockport’s Thirst Class have cleverly put a bee in my bonnet and enticed me to their stand with a funky little pun of a title. I exchange some They Might Be Giants witticisms with Brewer and Proprietor Richard Conway as he pours me a thick ‘n fruity third of Farmhouse In Your Soul (5.3%). Later I also regale an unsuspecting bartender that I’m ordering Jester King’s Le Petit Prince (2.9%), as just last week I read the Antoine de Saint-Exupery novella of the same name. She doesn’t even look like she’s humouring me. I’m definitely in my element here…
The food is always outstanding at Indy Man and the tacos from Al Pastor Paul pair stupidly well with the aforementioned table beer. The mole with avocado, chocolate chilli spiked sauce and cheese variety particularly blew my tiny mind!
Other beers of note include Brodie’s Mocha Milk Stout (9%), To Øl’s Roses Are Brett (6%), Wild Beer and Indy Man‘s BA strawberry sour Strawblender (5.5%) and of course Cloudwater’s best in the series so far DIPA V8 (9%). Even better than all of those however may have been when Buxton Brewery decided to out-raspberry themselves with the limited edition Double Raspberry Rye (5.2%) with a soft serve topping. Picture it if you will; the Mediterranean sun causing your delicious raspberry ice cream to melt before your very eyes, your only chance of cooling down, nay, survival, is to whip off your trunks and go skinny-dipping in sweet raspberry coulis. Yes, it was that good…
This year also marked the first time I got to experience a talk – I’m usually too slow or drunk, or both. My fellow blogging chum Matthew Curtis of Total Ales was doing a live tasting of Fourpure and Cloudwater’s Optare (a 6.6% Black Belgian IPA) and of course whilst wanting to see and support Matt, I also really wanted to participate in something as completely nerdy as live beer blogging! The crowd took a while to warm up to both the concept and the beer but I assisted in contributing a few adjectives including “a palate like Victorian wallpaper”, which a gentleman took to so kindly he found me after the talk and shook my hand, still chucking… Fourpure’s Rob Davies even liked my Mo Farah analogy so much he rewarded me with a delicious slice of Shape Shifter IPA (6.4%). Top lad!
And therein lies the key to Indy Man’s continued success; that friendly, free-spirited, open armed, big fun environment, which keeps me (and many, many others) coming back year after year. So, I’ll see you all in 2017 then.
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Words and photographs by Cameron Steward of All You Need Is Beer.
