Sexy Sadie

Well, Sadie the Goat went very well. We know a beer is going well when we make arrangements to go to a pub to check it out only to find its been drunk very quickly before we get there. Sadie kept us on our toes while we hunted her down.

Since this is a development recipe we are working on different aspects of the beer with a view to the final product. This time we have decided to gear up the hops towards our expected IPA level and this is why Sadie has become sexy.

Dark amber beer with a buzz’n hoppy fruit citrus aroma that leads all the way into the flavour.

Sadie the Goat

Sadie the Goat was a very naughty girl. Her real name was Sadie Farrell and she was an American criminal and a river pirate. She first came to prominence as a vicious street mugger in New York’s “Bloody” Fourth Ward. Her modus operandi was to find a lone traveler, she would headbutt  them in the stomach, her male accomplice would then hit the victim with a sling-shot and rob them. Sadie, according to popular underworld lore, was engaged in a longtime feud with rival female bouncer Gallus Mag who once bit off her ear in a bar fight.

Taking inspiration from Sadie we are testing out malt and hops combinations for a new IPA which will bottled and kegged. The beer is deep amber with a first hint of fruity mango leading onto lemony lime grapefruit finish.

Heavenly beer for Wetherspoons Festival

We are really excited to be part of the worlds biggest real ale festival and thrilled to be chosen to be on the  bar along with some of the most interesting international brewers.

Our planning started last year. First came the hops. Galaxy and Stella were ordered from the last Australian hop harvest to be ready in time for this festival. With the hops already chosen, a simple malt grist with a touch of colour from Munich malt to showcase the hops was in order.
As part of the Wicked Woman range we needed a name. With celestial names like Galaxy and Stella we thought of the constellations and while not strictly wicked Andromeda fits the name for a heavenly beer.

In Greek mythology Andromeda was chained to a rock to be eaten by a sea monster as punishment for her mother’s bragging. She was rescued  by Perseus who became her husband.

The artwork for the pump clip was specially commissioned from Phillipe Fenner

Andromeda has a rich golden colour, with a passion, tropical fruit aroma on the nose. The taste is lightly malty overlayed with zesty citrus hop notes giving a satisfying fullness on the palate.

Spotty dogs beware…our latest wicked woman Cruella is all on the sniff

The twitching dismay on the faces of regular Brewster’s drinkers as they eyed up the dark beer before them, has been reported into us from bars about the area. We can imagine the scenario, they ordered the Brewster’s Wicked Woman complacent in the knowledge that the brewers would deliver up to them another pale and hoppy epic. This time, a dark beer was  pulled and presented. Resignation to one pint of the darkness may have followed, after all Brewster’s are adequate brewers, it couldn’t be that bad.

But one sniff was all it would take to separate out Cruella from the other malty  stouts and porters, this mother wants to be a Black IPA. When those hoppy aromas hit their olfactory organs they’ll have known the hop taste was going to be big to work against the malt. The dominating hop flavours were fruity, juicy, citrus limes and they melded deep into the rich roast body. Momentarily across the drinkers mind it may have occurred to them that they had just drunk a beer that had challenged their visual and oral perceptions. And then regathering their composure, it is highly likely they asked “how can you have such a beer as a black IPA?”

Heeeere’s Lucy… a beer with bite

We needed a name for our next Wicked Woman; Germanic or Eastern European with a touch of West Coast Hollywood to suit the beer we were brewing. Richard’s choice of name was inspired and matched what was needed perfectly. Poor Lucy Westenra was a pure, sweet, vivacious young woman. Unfortunately she became the victim of Count Dracula. Once dead she developed a taste for the blood of young children and the female vampire had to be finally destroyed by her three human suitors to save her soul.

How does this work with our new beer. Well it all started with Hophead, a pure sweet vivacious little 3.6% cask ale. It gets the “pimp treatment” the ABV is vamped up to 4.8% and cold fermented with a Pilsner style yeast. American West Coast Hops meet Eastern European fermentation. The result a Wicked Woman Pilsner style beer with a hoppy sensual bite. A New World Pilsner.  Now it’s your chance to be vampire slayer.

“Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me. Aren’t you?”

Of course she is and of course we are. And to help us with our seduction we are trying out a brilliant hop from Australia, Galaxy. Brand new to us. We have waiting patiently for months for the bales to arrive from the  hop merchants. We have heard it is used in Little Creatures beers so its piqued our interests. Once it arrived we gave it a rub in the brewery and its full super aromas and hop oils became apparent. The hop has been around for a while but is definitely a class act, with a certain sophistication and most surprisingly up front fragrance. The seductively boozy Mrs Robinson just sprang to mind at once.

We have a pure pilsner malt grist giving golden ale with lightest malt flavour to show off the hop notes. Watch out for the wonderful clean citrus and passion fruit flavours. We love it and we hope you think the beer lives up to Mrs Robinson wiles.

Calamity Jane rides into town

While Richard was off rockin’ in Germany, Sean managed to wangle a day in the brewhouse all on his own. With a veritable smogasboard of Richard’s finest hops and no supervision, it is ironic that Sean’s interpretation of the recipe given to him was called Calamity Jane. In spite of his interpretation, it was a surprisingly disaster free day and another great tasting beer was brewed.  Sara even pimped it up later with a little dry hopping.

A dark golden ale with with the roast malt notes blending well with fantastic new world citrus hops to produce a really good fruity hop flavour.

Richard’s hop grist worked really well and will be the basis for our “American C_hopper” which will be part the JD Wetherspoons great October Beer Festival this year.

Wicked Woman – Emma Hornet

Emma Hornet is our latest Wicked Woman beer named by Simon Finch at the Tollemarche Arms in Grantham. Emma is a fictional character from the film Sailor Beware who was played by Peggy Mount. As the archetypal battle-axe Emma Hornett dominates her hen-pecked husband Henry, his meek sister Edie and daughter Shirley. She eventually declares herself “a very wicked woman” and pledges to change her ways.

The beer is just pale malt to give a lovely golden colour. The hops are Polish Bobek and American Mount Hood. Fantastic aroma, fruity “sherberty” (if I could make such a word), herbal, which runs on into the flavour. All in all a remarkable combination of hops. Don’t let the sour puss on the clip put you off, this is another goody from Richard.

Hellcat Maggie

While we trial recipes for new permanent beers we create lots of interesting beers in the process. Our latest Wicked Woman, Hellcat Maggie, is one such experiment along the way to creating a new bottled IPA. The finished IPA will be 6.0% while the Wicked Women beers are 4.8% so this trial recipe looked at the beer colour and hop grist. The prominent hops are Citra and Summit. The darker gold or very light copper colour came from the addition of lightly roasted malts. The first aroma was of flowering currant gently revealing into pineapple fruit, this is probably the Citra hop character coming out. On tasting it comes across as an ample bodied beer with the richness and sweetness coming from the light touch of the roasted malts. The citrus aspect of the hops meld well with the malt to develop tropical fruit flavours, touch of mango perhaps, pineapple?. Drink it, make your own mind up and let us know what you like. Cheers

Hell-Cat Maggie was a fearsome fighter and gangster in Manhattan’s Five Points district in the mid 1800′s, she had her teeth filed into points and she wore long claw-like brass fingernails. She used to hang out in drinking establishments such as “McGurk’s Suicide Hall”, “Hell’s Gate” and the Tub of Blood.

Lady Marmalade

Our latest Wicked Woman beer is Lady Marmalade. What makes this brew special is the newish hop, Citra, one of the most exciting hops we have used since the arrival of Nelson Sauvin. We have been waiting for a year to get our hands on it so there was great excitement in the brewery as we brewed. Citra is simply a stunning hop to brew with, it has a high oil content so the intensity of the flavours give the beer a real impact. It has that initial fresh citrus bitterness but rolls across your tongue to reveal tropical fruits, mango, pineapple, kiwi. This beer has been single hopped so we can learn what the hop characteristics are for ourselves. Hope you enjoy the pure single hopped flavours of a brilliant new hop.