Polypins for parties

Ironbridge Brewery's Christmas Special. Four Candles features four malts and benefits from four hop additions and is 4%. Named after the four candles of advent it’s not to be confused with “handles for forks”. 

Appearance: Chestnut brown with a thick, off-white head.

Hops: Galena, First Gold, Crystal

Malt: Maris Otter, Cara, Crystal and Malted Wheat

Order your Xmas party ale now

20 Litres = 35 pints

Other ales in polypins from Ironbridge Brewery are Centennial (4.3%) This golden ale started out as a one off special as part of our single hop series.
Single hopped with the superb U.S. Centennial hop. Lots of hop character, tons of flavour.

Wenlock Stout (5.1%)  Wenlock Stout is a 5.1% traditional stout. The initial dry character is followed by a satisfying smooth finish.

Appearance: Deep garnet black, off-white head.

Hops: Centennial and Cascade

Malt: Careful blend of pale, chocolate, crystal and roast barley

Green Jack Brewery's very fine ales

Green Jack Brewery, a multi-awarding winning traditional real ale brewing company based in Lowestoft, Suffolk and are headed up by master brewer Tim Dunford. From modest beginnings Green Jack have now grown to one of the largest real ale breweries in East Anglia, with our new purpose built brewery in Lowestoft beginning production of our award winning real ales in early 2009. Beers with a contemporary take on traditional styles.

A mixed case of 2 each of the bottle conditioned ales including;  

Mahseer IPA (5%, 500ml); An India Pale Ale as it was always intended to be, strong bitter and very hoppy! Our IPA has been Brewed with English bittering hops and American aroma hops, a winning combination! Named after the legendary Golden Mahseer, which is most highly prized fish a freshwater angler can catch! Growing to over 120lb in weight the mahseer inhabits the rivers of northern India.

Norfolk Black (4.8%, 500ml); A full flavoured, smooth Chocolaty Stout infused with a special blend of spices especially for Christmas.

Baltic Trader Imperial Stout (10.5%, 750ml fliptop bottles); An Extra Strong Export Stout. Smooth, rich and fruity with roasted coffee & vanilla flavours. If you havn’t tried it yet, you need to! Baltic Trader celebrates the North Sea sailing ships that traded between East Coast ports like Lowestoft, the Low Countries and Scandinavia.

Ripper Barley Wine (8.5%,750ml fliptop bottles); Champion Barley Wine. Inspired by Belgian tripel ales this multi-awarding winning brew is dangerously drinkable. Rich amber in colour Ripper is sweet and fruity with a warming finish

Gone Fishing ESB (5.5%, 750ml fliptop bottles); The Gone Fishing E.S.B.or “gone missing” as they call it in our pub, is a strong, deep amber coloured Ale, fruity and malty very drinkable for it’s strength.

Lurcher Stout (4.8%, 750ml fliptop bottles); Fruity, chocolaty, rich and fulsome, well-balanced with hops, yet So Smooth. Proving to be a real winner, if you like stout you will love Lurcher.

Discover this fine collection for yourself.

Upham Brewery beers now available

Upham Brewery is a family-run business, set in the rolling Hampshire downs, not far from Winchester. Our fine real ales are crafted in the grounds of a picturesque, seventeenth century farmstead by a small and dedicated team. We brew using traditional methods, which ensure the beer has great character, and use the best natural ingredients we can get hold of, to give our drinkers a proper pint, full of flavour.

Created under the expert guidance of a top brew-master, Upham Ale was our first tipple, and is still a winner. Since then, the brewery has gone on to create two further tasty tipples, Upham Nectar and Stakes Ale. Find out more about them here.

The business launched in early 2009 and it's been a busy time. We have a fast-growing distribution base, a very loyal drinkership and other plans in the pipeline. You see, some really do like it Upham…

Currently three delicious bottle conditioned beers.

UPHAM ALE

This is our first beer and still a firm favourite. Upham Ale has roasted malt flavours that mingle on the tongue with notes of chocolate and a pronounced, hoppy finish. 4% ABV.

UPHAM NECTAR
First brewed in summer 2010, Upham Nectar is a light, golden-coloured beer with a sweet, hoppy flavour that lingers over the malts. This is a real thirst-quencher with a lovely clean, dry finish. 3.8% ABV.

STAKES ALE
A chestnut-coloured beer, brewed for those who enjoy a stronger drink, Stakes Ale has buckets of flavour. Roasted malts and a hint of chocolate come to a hearty, hoppy finish. 5% ABV.

Boom time for real ale with trendy new image

Real ale has defied the downturn as pints become more popular with young people, a new guide reveals.

Ninety-nine new breweries have opened in the last year, as drinkers enjoy a ‘golden era’, says the Campaign for Real Ale, which launches its Good Beer Guide 2012 today.

It found that real ale has shed its ‘old man’ image as trendy young men and women drive the boom.

Young drinkers seem to be turning their backs on homogenised, heavily branded beers and switching to high quality local brews.

There are more breweries now than at any time since World War II – despite the closure of at least 40 large breweries since 1997.

‘To see one shy of a hundred new brewers coming on stream in just 12 months is unprecedented, particularly during a time of economic downturn,’ said guide editor Roger Protz.

‘This truly is a golden era for British brewing, and it’s little wonder more consumers than ever are getting acquainted with real ale in the face of so much choice.’

Britain now has 840 breweries, an increase partly driven by tax breaks announced by chancellor Gordon Brown nine years ago.

About 32 per cent of women have tried real ale, compared with 20 per cent five years ago, along with 38 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds.

Jules Whiteway, 39, who opened the independent London Fields Brewery in Hackney, east London, last month, said it had attracted ‘a mixed crowd, to say the least’.

‘People like craft products because they are more local,’ he added.

‘There is a big move at the moment into more interesting beers as opposed to your flavourless, poor-quality ales.’ [Sophie Elks, Metro London]

Parliamentary groups back UK Brewing Centre bid

The chairmen of two influential pub and beer groups for MPs have lent their support to the National Brewing Centre's bid to set up as a trust company.

National Brewing Centre: tells the history of British brewing

The National Brewing Centre in Burton-on-Trent is hoping to set up a trust company called “The National Brewing Heritage Trust Ltd” but must first prove it is a national organisation. Show your support at http://www.facebook.com/livingbeer

The Society of Independent Brewers is already based there and the centre holds a number of historical artefacts and documents that are of national importance to the history of British Brewing.

“The Centre is without doubt a national organisation,” said Save the Pub Group chairman Greg Mulholland MP. “As a leading brewing nation, the brewing centre is of huge national significance and a hugely important part of Britain’s culture and heritage.

“With SIBA based there as well as a museum holding many historical artefacts and documents on the history of British brewing, it is hugely important the centre is able to secure its long term future.

“I wish the centre the best of luck and the Save the Pub Group and I will of course continue to assist them in any way possible as it seeks to set up ‘The National Brewing Heritage Trust Ltd’.”

Local MP and chair of the All Party Parliamentary Beer Group, Andrew Griffiths MP, added: “I am really pleased to have the support of Greg and the All Party Save the Pub Group for the National Brewery Centre.

“The Centre plays such an important part in the history of brewing, not only in Burton but nationally as well. It is vital for the National Brewery Centre to thrive and succeed to help promote the greatness of the British brewing industry and I am delighted to continue to support them in this.”
[ By Ewan Turney for The Publican's Morning Advertiser]

Lager-brewing yeast isolated from Argentina

Scientists have identified a yeast that led to the discovery of lager.

The researchers isolated the new species in the frozen forests of Patagonia in South America. Their discovery suggests that this yeast crossed the Atlantic hundreds of years ago and combined with one traditionally used in Europe to make ale. The discovery is described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A lucky find. The workhorse of brewing, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is used worldwide to ferment fruit and grains to make wine, cider and ale. Lager-brewing, which is fermented more slowly and at lower temperatures than ale, is presumed to be a later invention, and was likely stumbled upon when Bavarian monks moved their beer barrels into caves to store it. In those caves, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which prefers to grow just above room temperature, is presumed to have been outcompeted in the fermenting beer by a species that thrived at cooler climes. The modern-day lager-brewing yeast, Saccharomyces pastorianus, which is a fully domesticated species, is probably a hybrid of this cool-loving strain and the ale-brewing species, and survives because brewers keep back a little of the lager each time to seed the next batch with the same yeast. Lager's cradle "The hybrid almost definitely formed accidentally and people adopted it because the beer came out differently," said evolutionary biologist Chris Hittinger from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, US, who was one of the team behind the discovery.

The UK consumes 20 million barrels of lager each year but researchers have long wondered where the original cool-loving yeast species came from. That is until Dr Hittinger and his colleagues isolated it from a beech tree in the forests of Patagonia this year. These forests, where daily lows average around -2C, are the perfect cradle for modern-day lager-brewing yeast. The species has been designated Saccharomyces eubayanus.

"I personally prefer lagers to ales, and I am very grateful that these two distant cousins met up in a Bavarian cellar hundreds of years ago," Dr Hittinger told BBC News.

Knowing the ancestral strain to the modern day lager-brewing yeast will help scientists pinpoint the effects of domestication in the genome of brewing yeasts. And there is also the possibility that there are other undiscovered species of yeast in those Patagonia forests that could become the next best brew.
[By Jennifer Carpenter Science reporter, BBC News]

Go wild for Oscar Wilde mild

Oscar Wilde mild beer from Mighty Oak brewery in Essex has been crowned Champion Beer of Britain at the Great British Beer Festival.

The beer is described as a roasty dark mild with suggestions of forest fruits and dark chocolate.

It is a 3.7%abv ale from Mighty Oak. Which has been brewing since 1996.

"I am amazed that we won — its been my dream since 1996 when the brewery opened," said brewery owner John Boyce.

"We can probably get another 20-30% from the brewery and will be able to match demand. Being a mild it won't be a huge seller."

Juding panel chair Roger Protz said: "Oscar Wilde was a stand out winner, universally praised by the judges for its overall quality. Once again a dark beer has triumphed over paler beers.

"It’s a beer with great depth of character, and for the style has a lot of hop bitterness as well. It proves that a dark beer can be refreshing even in very hot weather."

By Ewan Turney