Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
If there is a place more aptly named for a brewery than Old Brewers’ Yard, well I can’t think of it.
Guinness will be moving into that location in Covent Garden where beer was brewed back in 1772 and will house not only a brewery but restaurant, store and event space.
Now I have to visit Baltimore and London for the Guinness trinity.
Our last stop in June is at A&H, Anspach & Hobday. They have three beer categories on their website so let’s pick one from each for this virtual taster tray.
from the Classics
The Cream Ale – “Landing somewhere between a pale ale and a lager, The Cream Ale is brewed using Sorachi Ace hops. It’s flavour profile ranges from dill to coconut to pineapple. In fact, a throwback to Prohibition America, it’s so full of flavour, it won’t fit in the fridge.”
from the Experimentals
The Brother Sean – “Bold, rich and complex, this continental twist on our classic Stout Porter is fermented using a Belgian strain of yeast. Brewed only once a year, Brother Sean rests in the bottle for 12 months before its release. The result is well worth the wait.”
from the Collaborations
The Sacc. Trois IPA – “We used a blend of Mosaic and El Dorado in the boil, and Ekuanot and Ella in the dry hop, along with a small amount of CaraAroma malt in the grist. This recipe was designed to give us plenty of fruit from the hops, and just a touch of sweetness from the malt (Sacc. Troi is a high-attenuating yeast, so we wanted to make sure we had some body left in the beer once it was done).
As for the yeast, its certainly had an impact. The nose is full of fruit, specifically ripe fruit, very ripe fruit for that matter. Ripe mango and juicy tropical fruit dominate, along with some dank and herbal notes from the hops. The body is smooth, with light touch of bitterness to balance, and a dry finish.”
The second English stop is at Boxcar of London. A somewhat trippy destination if their motto is any indication, ” Transporting you to a place of rainbows and hops, dreams of barley and oats, ideas about yeast and water, hallucinations of colour and light.”
Now on to the beers that I would sample first…
starting hoppy with PAL-019 BRU-1 DDH Pale then moving on to a Belgian BIG-001 Mosaic & Vanilla Tripel then to a Dark Mild, DRK-004 Dark Mild and then finishing with an IPA, IPA-005 Ekuanot IPA.
This brewery has a cool design look, very color filled outer space plus the bottles are odd shaped for my eyes. And you can get more Boxcar info from this article in Pellicle
Our first brewery in London to visit is called Affinity Brew Co. and one of the reasons that I selected them is this statement on their website, “We do not filter or pasteurise our beer, allowing the yeast to produce a natural carbonation within the can.”
Now lets get to what I would try first…
Breeze – “A sparkling golden Saison brewed with Lime Zest and crushed Coriander Seed.”
Social Seduction – “A big, bold, west coast I.P.A brewed with a rotating selection of U.S hops.”
Toowoomba – “A Lamington inspired, coconut and raspberry stout. Toowoomba’s complex malt bill produces a rich, dark, chocolatey Stout. It is fermented on fresh Raspberries and conditioned with toasted Coconut.”
What am I talking about? The IntelligentX Brewing Company, in Britain which is a weird (even for beer) collaboration between two not-breweries, a machine learning startup Intelligent Layer and creative agency 10x.
In a world first, IntelligentX is creating beer using a combination of data science and Artificial Intelligence. So far it’s created Golden, Amber, Pale and Black variants — and it is using some cutting-edge technology to do so.
Basically, IntelligentX’s has a decision making algorithm with the boring name of ABI that customer feedback data from a Facebook Messenger program to spit out what should be brewed next. Typical British styles like Golden, Amber, Pale and Black have been done so far. They also have “wild-card” ingredients that can be added and as more beer is produced, supposedly, a clear picture is seen as to what should be brewed more.
What it doesn’t seem to take into account is popularity of style in a city or region, the weather forecast or weather there is a holiday or big football match going on. Those being three data points that could affect whether a person picks up a pint or not. And that leads to the other missing data, those people who DON’T order your beer.
Will it succeed in London? The beers are available and there are brewery tours and events on their schedule.
This is the stylized British tabloid sized beer paper that will come in handy for anyone that either lives over there or is planning a visit or just wants to keep up on the current trends of British Craft beer. And let’s face it, most American no F*^% All about what is going on with British beer. I was sold when I saw the recommendation for the Brew Brittania book. Plus they have a music and beer piece from the esteemed Pete Brown.
Check out the internet issue HERE. You will be glad you di.
Our second stop is at Five Points Brewing Company. But not the historic neighborhood in NYC but in London. It is a small, neighborhood brewery in Hackney. Their flagship is a pale ale and their labels are simple but really effective. Very Kernel like and I like that a lot. But enough about labels. What beers would I put in my first taster tray?
OK. They have three mainstays and those are what I would get first. The pale which is a 4.4% session beer with Amarillo, Centennial and Citra hops then the Hook Island Red which is a rye beer and then finish up with the Railway Porter, a London classic.
Another plus they subscribe to the London Living Wage inititative. Good to see that.
If you find Almond Street in London and you happen to notice you are in South Bermondsey, then you are probably pretty damn close to Partizan Brewing. One of the new wave of English craft breweries that are sprouting up.
You can’t miss their distinctive label designs or how they spin new beers off of one particular style. They have multiple IPA’s with different hop combos (and one coffee version that sounds intriguing from the hops and coffees include, or you can get a Styrian Golding Saison or a Sage version or a lemongrass version. You will have to plan ahead though because they are only open on Saturdays.
Now may not be the time to head to London to get a peaceful pint in a historic pub. There might be a few other people around. But with the Olympics in town is does afford me the opportunity to talk about British beer and lo and behold the New York Times beat me to the punch with this article</strong>.
But that is OK because it introduced me to the website for Des de Moor. Who has literally a ton of information (and up to date information) about craft beer in London. It is required reading for those planning a beer trip to London. Plus he makes the occasional Doctor Who reference which makes me laugh.
In case you missed it like I did, BrewDog Camden opened in December of last year expanding the reach of the Scottish renegades beer crusade south.
Or as BrewDog puts it, “Just a stone’s throw from Camden Tube Station, the BrewDog bar at 113 Bayham Street adds a much needed craft beer injection to an area that’s typically associated with a twisted mix of indie drinking dens, chic VIP venues and mental aslyums.”
So now there are 3 locations to get your BrewDog on.