The New Boys (1): Bexar County

The conveyor belt of new brewery start-ups shows no signs of slowing. 'The New Boys' (title stolen from Private Eye) is intended to be an occasional series spotlighting new brewers I've encountered which for various reasons sound interesting. Of course, your own mileage may vary. First up, an American in somewhere beginning with 'P', but it isn't Gene Kelly...

The US Brewers' Association say there are now over 2,000 breweries operating within the 50 states. The seeds of a revolution sown when Jimmy Carter repealed the overlooked bit of Prohibition that prevented home brewing, has reaped a vibrant harvest which in its turn has cross-pollinated across brewing nations everywhere. Now, before I overextend the dodgy metaphor, the reason for this post.

Head 80 miles north of London, and you'll reach Peterborough, heartland of Oakham (will you ever finish The Mansion House, Oakham?) and now home to a new brewery. Stewarded by a former teacher from Texas. Bexar County Brewery (the 'x' is silent) is named for Steve Saldana's home county. Steve, who taught in San Antonio, is one of the new generation of homebrewers who continue to fuel the growth in US craft brewery start-ups. The difference is that he has decided to do it here.

“There is a great history of beer being made in this country. There is great passion about beer here, as it should be seeing as though it is ingrained in the British culture. This is an exciting time for beer in the UK. For me, there is no better place to brew beer,” he says.

Steve homebrewed for some five years, and spent two years helping at San Antonio brewery and distillery Ranger Creek. “I was fortunate enough to get commercial experience helping out at Ranger Creek. I would consider it my internship.”. Once he decided to go commercial, Steve found premises in the Fengate area of Peterborough, and did a deal with the former Digfield Brewery for their 7 BBL plant. The brewery kit was installed and commissioned in October, and now Steve is developing recipes and brewing his first batches for release.

His philosophy is simple. “There is no box”. Straightforward and oft-heard among the new wave of craft brewers, but from an American brewing here, there's a twist. “Back in the States, the trend to brew aggressive beers is old news, while here, beer drinkers are finally learning to accept something more than “traditional” beers. I will not be looking towards style guidelines to tell me what to brew, instead I am going to brew what I feel will work. If the finished beer falls into a category, that is one thing, but I don't aim to brew any style in particular.”

Steve's first four beers make the point. 'Come and Get It' , a 7.3% Imperial Red with a strong malt backbone holding up a whack of hop bitterness; 'Texas Pecan Coffee Mild' (3.9%), a non-traditional mild with a cold-pressed coffee addition in the secondary; 'B4' (4.1%) surely an old Goon Show joke, but in this case a blond beer with a restricted hop addition. Steve has designed this as a session beer for the local clientele, and it's now on the bar at The Ostrich Inn in Peterborough. Finally, 'Lone Ryder' (5.1%), is a hoppy rye beer where the hops play second fiddle to malt and rye spiciness.

Initially all Steve's beers will be casked, but as things move along he hopes to explore bottling. London drinkers will have their first chance to sample Bexar County beer at the Pig's Ear Festival next week, where the Texas Pecan Coffee Mild will be featured.

Here's wishing Bexar County all the best.

Free Who?

There's breaking news today that the Freeminer Brewery, located at Cinderford in the Forest Of Dean, is about to change hands.

Many beer lovers around the UK beer scene will know their larger-than-life head brewer Don 'Demon Brewer' Burgess, but might have wondered where his beer was. The answer, these days, seems to be mostly in Cooperative stores, but it's less than a decade since he was winning plaudits for Trafalgar IPA and, my favourite, Deep Shaft Stout, a bottle-conditioned beer that stood several years of ageing. I left my first bottle for over 4 years, and Don had been known to stash the odd case to see what happens. I had a 10 year-old back in 2009, and it was superb.

Don Burgess - Half Man, Half Badger

Don was interviewed by Roger Protz some years back after Freeminer won the business to brew Co-op's ethical bottled beers, while a year or so back, if you'd bought a bottle of Sainsbury's Taste The Difference Ginger Beer, that tiny signature on the label was his. But of Freeminer beers, there has been little sign.

However, with new ownership, I hear that there should be a new lease of life for the brand. Deep Shaft Stout will hopefully be making a welcome comeback, and I'd be interested to see where Trafalgar sits on the spectrum of hoppy golden pale ales. I wonder if Don will update the recipe? There's also whispers of a collaboration with one of our larger brewers.

I think that's good news for Freeminer, and good news for UK brewing. I think the scene will be more lively with Burgess and Freeminer back in it with serious presence.

Fullers Vintage Ale

"It's good."

So sayeth Fullers brewmaster John Keeling in response to a tweet about the 2000 Fullers Vintage Ale. I've been hanging on to a few different vintages of these beers, and thought I ought to get cracking on them. A vertical would leave me hospitalised, so I'm aiming to work through them over the coming weeks. I attended the Vintage Ale tasting John did at LoveBeer@Borough a couple of years back, and I recall his description of the changes the beer undergoes over time. As I remember it, he compared it to a sine wave.

I'm partial to the odd pint of Fullers, but my pint of choice isn't London Pride. I like Chiswick, and, when I can find it, the cask London Porter is lovely during the winter. However, this whole bottle-conditioned range of beers is most intriguing. Vintage has been produced for almost 15 years, but Fullers seem to get overlooked by the crafterati at large in favour of big and hyped imported beers. I'm usually as guilty as any other beer geek, but in this case it'd be nice to see Fullers get some love.

For me, I've also been sitting on some Brewers Reserve No. 1, and still need to get myself acquainted with these Past Masters beers. Nothing wrong with a regional brewer experimenting with this sort of thing, and I think I'm correct is saying Fullers have been pathfinders in getting English brewers sorted with HMRC on the matter of using spirits containers in their brewing without being reclassified as distillers.

So, to the 2000 Vintage Ale. The bottle I had was labelled for the US market, so there's no ABV. It's described on the box as 'mellow and golden', and the Fullers website tasting notes reveal it was an organic beer, brewed with Champion Optic malt and Target hops. I should be looking for a 'fresh hop aroma with notes of honey and toffee, leading to a slightly sweeter taste and burnt, bitter aftertaste'. After 11 years, what's changed?

The colour, to begin with. Sorry for the crap pic, but you can see the beer is a rich deep ruby hue. It was bright with some tiny bubbles persisting. It sustained a caramel coloured head for as long as it was in the glass.

On the nose, hops had been replaced with a gentle aroma of peaches, and the presence of Fullers' signature zesty orange from the yeast. The body was thick and satisfying, and mouthfeel was zingy and bright, like a big spoonful of a good marmalade which gave way to a long and slightly bitter and warming finish.

The beer hadn't gone boozy over time, though it was a sipper. There was something I thought might be metallic in the finish, but it wasn't there all the way through the beer, and in the end I decided it was simply some finishing bitterness.

Very nice beer to linger over with my feet up for a while. Later vintages for tasting are the 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009. I'll summarise all of those in a single post once I get to the end, using the tasting notes. One thing, though, Fullers. An update of the tasting notes to indicate how each year is drinking would be useful.

"I Was Working In The Lab..."

This morning, your correspondent was at London's excellent Kernel Brewery, as Rake manager and Rabid Barfly Glyn Roberts embarked on another brewing adventure, this time swapping the valleys of Wales for the backstreets of Bermondsey.

Our host was the affable Evin O'Rioirdain, who in less than a year has built a formidable portfolio of bottled beers and a brilliantly simple yet effective brand. Already a SIBA winner, he produces an impressive array of delicious hop-forward golden ales alongside his interpretations of some old-style darker brews, like London Porter, Export Stout and his recently-released Imperial Stout.

Today, with Glyn as a catalyst (actually, more like Igor to Evin's Dr. Frankenstein), Evin is fusing his two signature streams to create a version of San Francisco brewpub 21st Amendment's Back In Black Black IPA, a beer Glyn has raved about since his honeymoon. A 6.8% brew with Carafa roasted malt and hopped with Centennial and Columbus, 21A were generous in sharing their recipe with Evin.

As I arrive, Evin and Glyn are preparing to commence the boil. Mike, a homebrewer with thoughts of stepping up to commercial scale, is helping out around the brewhouse, getting a feel for the ebb and flow of a brewers' day. It has me reflecting that, in all the heated debate about 'craft beer' occupying the thoughts of the UK blogosphere, one of the criteria ought to be the level of automation. Here, it's all hoses and buckets. No computer controls, no Star Trek console telling the kit which valve to open, how much liquor to pump and where, just a brewer seamlessly interacting with his plant to produce an impressive finished beer. And then there's Glyn...Here, our Barfly weighs out the Carafa, steams up his specs while checking the brewing copper temperature, weighs out the first addition of hops, then, strangely, rubs hop oil on his upper lip. He says it's a natural decongestant, but that look on his face isn't because of Vicks Vaporub. Evin only uses whole hops, so there's every chance Glyn was blissed out in Druid Street way before the time came to put the yeast in.

Here's some more pics from the lab...
Like I said, Dr. Frankenstein and Igor. Igor checks the mash tun temperature, while that foaming stuff is new life (last seen as a prop in Woody Allen's Sleeper (1973) ). Finally, Evin commits bruicide by throwing himself into the brewing copper after Glyn snorts one too many hops.

Talk is that some of this might be available on cask as well as bottles. I find myself mischievously wondering whether kegging might suit the style better, but you know it'll be good. I can't wait...

Greene King Still Apparently Embarrassed About Beer

Here's the third* of Greene King's newspaper ads promoting their pubs. As I mentioned here, they have built the campaign around responses to a survey...


"But Sidney," you may reason, "everybody knows pubs sell beer. This is a chance for GK to attract new trade by offering an experience that isn't beer-centric." You might have a point. Personally, I think they have a subconscious fear that punters will pop in for a warm by the fire and a beverage, and accidentally order GK IPA and swear off pubs forever.

No 'proper pub' should ever sell Greene King IPA.

* Disclaimer: there might have been more than three of these ads by now, but for some reason GK aren't buying space in The Sun. I found this one in the new Independent 20p comic/digest, 'i'...

First, There Was The Clone Beer. Now...?

...the UK may have its first clone brewery! Yes, folks, say hullo to Kent Brewery, a new start-up in the Garden of England. I say start-up, as the business is caught up in a planning dispute which has delayed their setting up in a permanent home. While they work with their prospective neighbours and the local authority, they are keeping their hands in with the help of a neighbouring brewer, said to be Larkins, to produce some test brews.

They do have a website, which has a wonderfully evocative theme about Kent's place in our brewing tradition, lofty ambitions in the area of provenance and the exciting possibilities of the New Hops. However, these are forward-looking brewers, as they explain,

[we] will not be recreating old recipes (although we may take guidance from the best), or keeping only to traditional hop varieties, because we are looking to the future rather than to the past for our inspiration.

Ah, guidance from the best. Who's the best? Might be the former employer of Paul Herbert (our Kentish Man), judging by the couple of unfined gyles of beer which have made their way to his old place of work. My source (we'll call him/her, "Deep Pint") takes up the tale.

Numbered Gyle 1, the first contained a 5.5% Porter, while the other cask is described as a "pale hoppy beer". Both might be described as 'signature beers' of the former employer. One has been a Champion Beer Of Britain. Recent sampling of Gyle 1 caused raised eyebrows, as the beer appeared to be exactly to the recipe of his old employers' Porter. A little side-by-side sampling took place outside the brewery, which confirmed the suspicions. According to Deep Pint, his erstwhile colleagues are "fuming" about what they see as ripping off their recipes.

Now, it's possible that Herbert is just using these recipes until his own brewery is up and running. Or perhaps "guidance" means copying lock stock and hopsack. Just to make sure, I expect his old mates will be in touch to wish him well and ask for their recipe book back.