HERITAGE IPA
Cask brewing is one of the most traditional techniques and if not the most then certainly up there with the oldest. Sadly though, cask beer has been in decline for some years now and many of its disciples are tolling the bell of its impending doom. That would be very sad. But there is hope.
It appears that what we know as ‘Traditional Ale’, has a growing and dedicated following outside of the UK. Maybe, just like in the wine industry a few years back, consumers are becoming a little tired of the flavour bombs that they’ve been bombarded with and are now craving a more subtle and nuanced beer? Whatever the reason, one region where traditional ales are becoming a beer drinkers favourite is Scandinavia, and that is where the journey to our first anniversary beer began.
Having a state-controlled alcohol monopoly may not be everyone’s obvious choice for sourcing your beer supply. But numerous surveys and research, have reinforced the fact that it is still the system preferred by the Swedish people, and one that they want to keep. The identical store format, where all products are selected by blind tasting, with no special promotion allowed in store, provides a wonderfully level playing field that allows all producers, regardless of size, to compete in store, on an equal footing. How good might that be here? The love of traditional English ales is one trend that Systembolaget, the state operator, has seen growing and the style is becoming ever more popular with their customers. They welcome tender responses from British brewers and last year we won first place in one of those, and so Heritage IPA was born. Knowing that it would ship to Sweden in January made it the perfect, if possibly a little off-piste, choice to kick-off our anniversary year
Those that have followed our journey will know that our lagers are influenced by the classical, historical styles of Franconia and Bohemia. We love those traditional techniques of decoction mashing, cold stabilisation and natural carbonation. We seal the tank near the end of fermentation so that the carbon dioxide produced in the latter stages of the yeast’s activity, can naturally carbonate the beer rather than needing to force carbonate just before packaging. In its simplest form that’s the basis of cask ale and one thing that makes it different from traditional keg beer. After filling, a little additional sugar and yeast is ‘primed’ into the cask to kick off a secondary fermentation. That secondary process then ‘conditions’ the beer giving it that gentle, natural carbonation whilst allowing the yeast to impart its final contribution to the flavour.
So, there is quite a lot of common ground between conditioned ale, and our traditionally brewed lagers. Both rely on natural carbonation and a secondary, (in lagers case long and cold) conditioning phase to polish off the beer. so maybe not so off-piste after all ?
Our Heritage IPA is brewed with Maris Otter to give it a really solid malt base, onto which we layered a generous hopping of English Akoya , EKG and Godiva hops to give the beer a subtle bitterness and bags of flavour. We get some orange marmalade, grapefruit, and a little caramel sweetness beautifully balance by the bitterness of the Akoya. The beer was can-conditioned by replicating the cask process. At packaging time, we ‘primed’ the beer with more sugar and yeast so that the final conditioning takes place in the can, to round off the flavour and fill out the carbonation. Full of body and flavour with a pronounced but not overpowering bitterness. Inspired by the original English IPA’s that perhaps influenced the Californians to produce the West Coast back in the 60s, with their new world hops.
We are delighted with it. It is a great showcase of traditional brewing technique, combined with a celebration of British ingredients, two things that sit right at the heart of the Utopian ethos and we think that is a great way to kick of our anniversary year releases.
Available in can and cask for a limited time only. Enoy !
