Happy New Year!

And Best Wishes for 2020!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2020, it can't be as bad as 2019, fingers crossed, cheers!

December: Visiting the Dark Side!

Over the last couple of weeks I have tasted 5 excellent darker beers, stouts, porters and Christmas Ales, what you expect to flourish at this time of year. Two of them, sampled a week apart, come from Kent Brewery of Birling in Kent (website), a consistent brewer of fine ales, mostly pale ales provided where I drink regularly, but they can brew excellent darker beers too, as these 2 prove. First, their Comfortably Plum (4.9%), described as a 'plum stout' on the pumpclip, but, although there is a hint of roasted barley in the taste, more like a porter to me. Now I have gone on about the difference between porters and stouts before (eg International Stout Day 2 years ago blog), and some stronger dark milds too, they tend to be interchangeable depending on the brewer. This was a deep dark red colour, dark fruits in the aroma and taste, smooth and velvety with plenty of body, and a nice dry bitter finish; my notes say "pretty damn good!"

Just a couple of days ago I drank the Kent Yule Log, a 4.5% 'chocolate cream stout' and what can I say, other than more of the same, I certainly summed up with a very similar comment to the Comfortably Plum! A big aroma of chocolate with a hint of molasses, a dark dark red colour again, tasting of chocolate and with plenty of body, certainly does what it says on the label!

Before I forget, I mentioned in my last blog that I had a few halves of Harvey's of Lewes, East Sussex, Christmas Ale, a mere 7.5% (I'm sure it used to be stronger?), described as a 'traditional barley wine' (website). A wee bit sweet to begin with, though a nice bitterness is produced by the hops at the finish, a bit of a Christmas Pudding of a beer!

OK, there's a hint of where I'm going with my next blog in this image above, but there are also 2 more excellent darker beers I drank on Wednesday, and both from further away. First, from Goffs Brewery in the Cotswolds (website), Black Night, a 5.3% 'ruby red porter' and it really is a deep dark ruby red colour, okay a hint of roasted barley in the aroma, but Bramling Cross hops provide a dark fruity flavour, plenty of body, rich and flavoursome, another excellent dark ale.

You will also be able to see, at the far right/back in the photograph above, from West Yorkshire's Saltaire Brewery (website), the 4.8% Triple Choc, an 'indulgent chocolate stout.' Brewed with Fuggles hops, and with a hint of chocolate in the aroma which belies the stronger chocolate flavour to the taste, a deep dark, almost black colour, though not as heavy as you would expect, pretty easy to sup actually, another excellent black ale.

Which was best? I'd hate to judge, I loved drinking all 5, particularly the 2 chocolate flavoured beers, maybe the Black Night 'shaded' it, but no, very happy to drink any of the 5, cheers!

Harvey's Brewery Visit

Harvey's Brewery 

The other evening a bunch of us visited Harvey's Brewery (website) at The Bridge Wharf Brewery, 4 Cliffe High Street, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 2AH, and a thoroughly interesting, informative and fun evening was had by all. The lad who guided us around the premises, a 'tower brewery' with the brewing process starting at the top, and using gravity rather than pumps to move the process on, was a bit of a laugh too, at first he appeared very 'straight' but this was part of his act which progressed as did the brewing process. The lad knows his stuff, brewing and the history of the brewery, which dates back to the late 18th century, Harvey's being the oldest brewery in Sussex (more on the history and the story of Harvey's at the website).

Hops

We had started at the bottom of the tower, but after his introduction, we were taken up to the top of the tower to a room storing hops and malt, and where the water (liquor in brewers' parlance, and drawn up from their own artesian well below the brewery after 30 years of filtering through the Sussex chalk downs) is stored in the liquor reservoir (website). This unique water/liqour supply, and the use of their own yeast variety, maintains the consistency of Harvey's beers and their unique flavours. In this room the ground malt or grist is dropped down to the mash tun with hot liquor creating the wort, the mash, which allows enzymes in the grist to convert the complicated starch of the malt into sugars to be turned into alcohol.

Malt

Harvey's prides itself on being environmentally pretty sound, with its own water supply, and using gravity rather than pumps to move the grist and wort down to the mash tun, then copper, then for racking off at lower levels. They also source locally as much as possible, use exchange paraflows to heat up the liquor, reusable bottles and casks, and 544 solar panels on the depot roof, and much more (website). Spent grain from the grist, and spent hops, go to local farms and agriculture, grain to feed cattle and hops to be used as mulch and fertilizer, indeed, Plumpton Agricultural College, who take some of the spent grain, estimate 1.4 million litres of milk a year is attributable to spent grain, and this feed also reduces methane emissions by 30%!

Mash Tun

Anyway, back to the brewing process, so the grist and hot liquor enters the mash tun (they have 2) on the next level down, creating the wort, which contains the sugars that will be fermented into beer (website). Once the sugars have been released by enzymes into the wort then it is released further down the tower into the 2 coppers or kettles to be boiled.

Copper or Kettle

During the boiling in the coppers hops are added to the wort, early on for bittering and preserving, later on for flavouring and aroma, and other ingredients may be added for special beers too. Once the boil is over, the temperature of the wort is quickly lowered via exchange paraflows and dropped into the fermenting tuns the next level down, where yeast is added, feeding on the sugars and creating alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation, developing taste and creating beer for the drinker.

Our motley crew

Then, when the fermentation is complete, the beer comes down into the room where we sampled some different beers (photograph above), where it is racked off into casks, or kegged, canned or bottled. We were first offered a blind tasting of halves of Harvey's Sussex Best (4.0%), which most of us recognised, and then allowed to help ourselves to a choice of 6 different beers, my favourite being the rather exceptional 7.5% Christmas Ale, more of in my next blog...

With many thanks to Harvey's and their workers, much appreciated, cheers!

For more about the Harvey's 'story' go to the website.

For more about the brewing process at Harvey's go to the website.

For more about their fine green credentials go to the website.

Petition to Cut Beer Tax

Sign the petition to reduce beer tax, unless you enjoy paying too much, here: Petition.