The Spirit Of Sharing

(It's been 15 months since I last wrote this blog. The waning enthusiasm I was feeling through 2014 finally pushed me into inertia and, although there were some good beery things happening in 2015, I couldn't be arsed to write about them. So far this year, though, I've felt more excited about the beer scene than at any point since early 2014, so I've sharpened a pencil and resurrected the blog. The last thing I wrote about in 2014 was Irish craft beer, and it's the topic of my first post of 2016)

I am summoned to the Irish Embassy in London. Have they decided I'm too plastic, I ponder? No, nothing like that, the Embassy is hosting the Irish Food Board (Bord Bia) event 'Spirit of Sharing', and I've been invited.

The event showcases 20 drinks producers across whiskey, gin, liqueurs, poitín and, of course, beer. The UK is a huge market for this sector, with sales last year of over £280m (€365m) and growth of around 10%. The Food Board are keen to drive this growth further, and presumably this is part of an ongoing programme to connect producers with new markets.

Brewers made up a quarter of the producers, and represented the established - Carlow and Galway Hooker - and the new - Wicklow Wolf, White Hag and Clever Man.

White Hag were voted best new Irish brewer by Ratebeer, and half a dozen of their beers will be featured at The Rake's 'Thank Goodness, No Guinness!' fest over 17th to 20th March. They'll have 36 beers from ten breweries, and I think I'm correct in saying this is the first UK event to profile so many Irish brewers.

Are there still wolves in Ireland?
Quincey from Wicklow Wolf

Wicklow Wolf are a newish 10bbl operation based in Bray, who are already building a new brewhouse twice the size a few miles away. They have around 3 acres of hopfields, growing several varieties including Chinook, Cascade, Bramling Cross and Perle. Their all-Perle porter is excellent. They are keen participants in the local 'Locavore' movement, brewing a fresh-hop beer annually using locally-grown barley.

Malcolm Molloy, a Clever Man

Clever Man are the youngest of the participants, running for just a year, and with a nice line in branding and a solid core range of four beers, including a turf-smoked stout and a tasty American Pale Ale. Galway Hooker had four beers, and Carlow three. Both admitted that the newer brewers had compelled them to think about their ranges. Carlow mentioned they were looking at producing sours, and that was a recurring theme. Wicklow Wolf are aiming to retain the original brewhouse to make sours and look at barrel-ageing, while White Hag are already doing both.

Their Beann Gulban Heather Sour ale is a nicely tart gruit, which had lovely mouthfeel and a gently tart finish. They also showed off Black Boar, which is their Oatmeal Imperial Stout aged in (of all things for an Irish brewer) Scotch whisky barrels. Justin Mason, also in attendance, thought it was a bit 'hot', while I felt the whisky was a bit overpowering. I think we both felt it could do with more time in the bottle.

Caskmates. Unlikely but true...

My palate tends to protest when I drink spirits, but Jameson had something that needed to be tried. As they related it, a conversation at the bar at Franciscan Well in Cork City between Shane Long, FW's head brewer, and the head distiller from Jameson, led to barrels the brewer had used to age a stout, being returned to the distillery, where they filled them with whiskey, The whiskey picked up chocolate and butterscotch and, on a very long finish, I also got Seville oranges. Most of the batch has seemingly gone Stateside, but it's stocked in some UK on-trade outlets.

Leftovers

Finally, poitín. I'd had this twice in my life. Teeling makes one, and though they had a bottle on their stand, the little teases didn't open it. Bán Poitín from Skibbereen in West Cork were there as well, though, and I had my third experience. Made from malted barley, potatoes and some molasses, this stuff is fierce. It bit at the back of my mouth and burned all the way down. It's become popular as a base in cocktails, and Charlie McCarthy of All About The Cocktail was doing a brisk trade at his bar using it.

So, no Ferrero Rocher, although Ambassador Dan Mulhall introduced the event and was a voluble and approachable host. Still, there were some excellent Irish chocolates and some leftovers...

Time will tell whether this event and others like it, represent a breakout for Irish craft. While it's remarkable that a country with a population less than half that of London's can support over 80 breweries, the scene is growing up fast and it's natural for many of those brewers to want to try their luck in other beer markets. If you, and you're curious and in/near London, get along to The Rake for their event. I'll be looking forward to re-acquainting myself with White Hag, and catching up with 8 Degrees and Black's of Kinsale.

Thanks to Bord Bia and Charlie McCarthy for the invite

Boggle's 2014 In Review (1): Ireland

(As an irregular reader of this blog – you could hardly be a regular reader, given my slapdash approach to updating it – you'll know I don't contribute to The Golden Pints, the end-of-year awards-season reach-around for beer. Instead, I give out Boggle Awards to my favourite London bar and brewery of the year.

As I've been sitting on a bunch of half-written pieces since the early Autumn, I thought I'd preface the Boggles with a review of some of my beery highlights. So, watch out for a few more posts cobbled together from contemporaneous notes over the next few days, then the Big Awards Night around 31^st December. Exciting, eh?)

I have a family connection to Ireland. The area where the Counties of Cork and Kerry meet on the Beara Peninsula, a finger of land jutting into the Atlantic, bounded on the south by Bantry Bay and braced by the dramatic mountainscape of the Cork and Kerry Mountains. My late mum was from there and I've had reason to spend a little time there over the past couple of years.

In one of those peculiar synchronicities which tend to happen to me when beer is involved, I was introduced to a character named Paul Maher, boss of an Irish beer importer called Four Corners. He imports Brooklyn into the Republic, and was in London during their week-long Mash Bash in August. Popping into The Rake for an after-work beer one Friday, I stumbled into a Brooklyn event where I met Paul. He was interested in the New London Beer, while I was curious about the state of the Irish craft beer scene. I knew a little from reading The Beer Nut's blog, but wondered, was locally-brewed beer finding a foothold?

Paul pointed me at some places to check out west of Cork City, including a Carry Out off-licence branch in Bantry. I was heading through Bantry on my way to the town of Glengarriff, so figured I could hit the ground running. And then, before my trip, my brother in law had surprised me by sending me a pic from the bar of Casey's Hotel in Glengarriff, who were now selling Galway Hooker in bottles, as well as a couple of beers from Dungarvan Brewing in Waterford. I knew there was a good chance that I'd be able to stay off the Big Six beers during my trip.

I knew where the offy was in Bantry, so headed straight there. Just inside the door, in a chiller, there were a couple of shelves of Cork-brewed beers, alongside Belgian and German bottles. The manager spotted me and we had a brief chat. I wasn't buying any beer just then, but did he know where I could drink some in Bantry? He wasn't sure, being from Skibbereen, but thought that Ma Murphy's might have some. Perfect, I knew where that was, and with an hour to kill, thought I'd belly up to the bar and see what they had.

Ma Murphy's is a traditional sort of pub just off the main square, with a small off-sales section at the front, and the bar separated by swing doors. I bellied up and asked the barmaid what they had. She reeled off a list – 8 Degrees, Mountain Man, 9 White Deer... All from West Cork, some brewed about 20 minutes away, she said. I settled on both beers from Mountain Man; Hairy Goat and Green Bullet.

When I got to Glengarriff, I was greeted with a bottle of Galway Hooker at Casey's, but I was more interested in the Dungarvan Beers. Helvick Gold was a very drinkable blonde ale, but my favourite was Comeragh Challenger, a 3.8% Irish Bitter, which had a beautiful long, astringent bitter finish. I could only manage a couple of bottles at a time, and I drank the hotel bar out of their stock, or I'd have brought some of this home with me.

As it was, I was back at the Carry Out a few days later, to grab up a few bottles. As well as Cork beers, they were stocking decent stuff from breweries outside the county. Then it was back in Ma Murphy's to sample the rest of their range. In five days, I think I drank a Big Six beer once.

The Lads...

The only beers I didn't try while I was in Ireland were from Franciscan Well, the brewery in Cork City. I overlooked the bottles due to lack of space but when I got back to London, Beer Synchronicity kicked in again, and I received an email inviting me to a launch for their beers in the UK. Molson Coors' investment has allowed the brewery to expand, and they are now available here.

I sampled three beers. Rebel Red, named for the county of Cork; Chieftan, a drinkable Citra-hopped pale ale; and Shandon Stout, a Cork-style dry stout which has an intriguing smoked character. Head brewer Shane Long was coy about how they get this in the beer, despite using no smoked malt. It was more complex than Beamish – the best of the Big Three stouts in my opinion – and had a nice sour character in the finish. Worth a try if you see them here, I'd say.

There's a lot more of Ireland's brewing scene to explore. Their beer organisation, Beoir.org, has a free smartphone app which can guide you to good beer, and I think I'll be making good use of it when I get back there in 2015.

The New Boys (4): Orbit Beers London

Hi-Fidelity

Another railway arch in Southwark, another brewery start-up. But this one isn't in Bermondsey. Rather, a mile and a half or so south south-west from The Kernel and Brew By Numbers, in untrendy Walworth. In a quiet side street off the busy Walworth Road, tell-tale bags of spent malt signpost the premises of Orbit Beers London.

Operating for just two months, the brewery is the culmination of a familiar, yet quirkily different tale. Owner Rob Middleton, a quarter of a century of office toil under his belt, decided he wanted a change. But brewing wasn't his first stop. He bought a VW camper van he named 'Brian' and travelled. Having read Iain McEwan's book on Scottish distilleries, 'Raw Spirit', he thought he'd like to do the same sort of thing, so he wrote 'The Tea Leaf Paradox (Discovering Beer In TheLand Of Whisky)' about Scottish brewers. What he learned about beer and brewing led him to researching and, finally, setting up the brewery.

The Man Whose Head Expanded

Having found premises, and somebody to build him a shiny new kit, he needed a brewer. Step forward a familiar face to London beer drinkers, 'Super' Mario Canestrelli. I first met him when worked at seminal craft beer bar The Rake, but his travels in beer have taken him to the US and elsewhere, while in London he's worked at Craft Beer Co. and The Cock Tavern, where he spent time as brewer for Howling Hops, the claustrophobic brewhouse in the pub basement.

There's a distinct German influence on the early beers at Orbit, with an Altbier and a Kolsch-style ale already out of the fermenter, and then a Pale Ale, because Rob likes them. I tried the Alt on keg at Craft in Clerkenwell, and thought it a little chewy and sweet for the style, but quite drinkable once the palate is tuned into it. Mario agrees, stating it's a work in progress, inspired by Schumacher Alt. A brewery this young is still getting used to the quirks of their plant, and they've made some infrastructure tweaks as they go along. A larger bore fill pipe for the CLT, and some tuning up to their glycol cooling system. The beers they want to brew present slightly different challenges, too. They need to lager their beers, extending the time from mash-in to racking by 2-3 weeks, and the colder fermentation temperature is what necessitates the cooling system.

The Trio - Da Da Da

 To date, just four gyles have been racked, two of the Pale and one each of the Alt and Kolsch-style. Mario thinks the Pale will need some tuning, but I thought it was very good now. Subtle fruit on the nose, and a nice drying finish that made you want another sip. The Alt was a little less sweet two weeks on and from the bottle, while the Kolsch suggested a little sulphur on the nose beneath spicy esters, and felt very clean in the mouth, with a nice transition from early sweetness to a clean crisp finish. The lads are keen to feature UK-grown hops, which will give the beers a more subtle profile. Don't expect to be hit over the head by some high-alpha aroma hop, at least not right now.

Subtlety and quirkiness extends to the naming of the beers. Music is a big deal to Rob (his marketing strapline is 'Hi-Fidelity Brewing' and the branding suggests vinyl records, and some of the bottle caps feature a 7-inch vinyl spindle - nice. And subtle, what else?) and what links them; Ivo is the Pale Ale, Neu (who were playing in the brewhouse when I visited) the Altbier, and finally Nico, which is named for husky-voiced chanteuse who first found fame with Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground.

Van, van, van auf der autobahn

There's a busines plan that includes a tasting room set-up, and room to expand, and they're busy drumming up business, so there's a good chance you'll see their beers in bottle or on keg around London in the near future. Keep an eye on them, the beer offer is different, well-made and they've got an appealing brand. Maybe they'll brew a Baltic Porter...