DEYA

An unforseen future, nestled somewhere in time,
Unsuspecting victims no warnings, no signs,
 Judgement day the second coming arrives,
Before you see the light, you must die!

Ah, whoops. Have got DEYA, a Cheltenham based brewery, mixed up with Tom Araya's excellent thrash master's Slayer. Soz....

Back to boohar, and over Loockdown, and largely via my chums at Bar Stewards, DEYA have produced some of the frankly finest pints. Prior to writing this I had a quick check of my previous posts and noticed that in 2018 and onwards I had already recognised the excellent quality of their soups - and had written about it a number of times previously, thereby proving me right. Tonight I had the first of three cans of theirs which I picked up from Bar Stewards, and found it unsurprisingly excellent.......

Over the past four months their Steady Rolling Man, an excellent 5.2% IPA, is probably the beer, of many, that I have drunk most often. Its a great quality, vegan friendly, unfiltered and unpasteurised IPA which drinks like babbeh milk with an excellent hoppiness in the background. This was well received and enjoyed, and in fact most of their best beers have been 5.2 - 6.9%, but they did also do a fabulous DIPA collab with Left Handed Giant in Brizzle. Despite some disappointing brown colours this once again was excellent.

One of the things I like about DEYA is that as well as them producing big cans, therefore supplying a whole and wholly enjoyable 500ml, they also state that the beer was produced "in our house style". Am well aware that this is neither a soul changing nor spine snapping revelation, but I do think it perfectly sums up their output.  Tonight I enjoyed a 6.5% "Glue IPA" and it was outstanding. Perfectly pale, utterly clouded, hoppy and fruity in the aftertaste and displaying an excellent overall mouth feel. Although it sadly does not list the HOPS used, it's noticable that they are of good quality, perfectly balanced, and the overall taste is so good that I can forgive that lack of information.

Have never had chance to travel down to Cheltenham to pop into, as well as what I hear are some excellent pubs, their brewery tap. It is however something that I would love to do. Not least because, its actually very rare to find a brewery whose every output you desire, simultaneously doesn't disappoint. and which leaves you craving some more....

So although this is a short post I would like to thank DEYA for their marvelous output, and to hope to see then in keg or can, or who knows, perhaps even Cask from the Past, at sometime soon.

Cheers!

Wee Beefy

Not another fined mess

Hello,

    now regular readers may wish to admonish me or mumble under their breath in dissatisfaction at the fact that my detox and stop at home money saving plan lasted only 2 days. However, any such scathing disapproval would only prevent you from sharing in my joy at drinking two utterly faultless beers last night, in ideal surroundings. So forgive me, and allow me to tell you why breaking my abstinence was so worth it...

I left work with a significant thirst after a day of frustration and poorly executed projects by those above me. I decided to go straight to Shakespeares Ale and Cider House on Gibraltar Street, not five minutes away (well, literally, if you walk slowly) without even stopping to secure myself some cash first.

Having checked the card machine was working, I selected a pint, a half of somethiong strong and a packet of crisps. It came to a fiver. Myself and the lass behind the bar were impressed, and I paid on card and got some cashback. I realise I may have mentioned this before, but giving cash back, especially in the form of for example, charging £12.80 for a pint and giving a tenner back, is simply good business sense. Punters stop around longer, and assuming they purchase more beer, don't pay by card thereby saving you the transaction fee...

Anyhoo, todays business lesson aside, lets talk about the incredible beer.

Revolutions Brew Demo, 4.5% unfined late hopped ale. A glorious amber, possibly slightly chectnut ale which, was crystal clear. Initially I was disappointed about this. However, my sense of let down evaporated, after one swig told me straight away I had picked the best beer on the bar. As my visit continued, it became obvious that I had probably picked the best beer on any bar, anywhere, on that night.

Demo drinks so easily as to be embarrassing. There is a distinct and pleasing nutty flavour lurking in the bitterness which I swear I have detected in unfined beer before. That its colour is so glorious maybe an anomaly, since I was expecting a cloudy offering, but it was suggested to me that the finings weren't there to clear the beer, rather to keep the yeast at the bottom. Arguably, one is the same as the other -  I found out though that the beer had been in the cellar at Shakespeares for a good while. So you could suggest that all the "matter" i.e. yeast and hop debris had naturally settled to the bottom of the cask.  I still don't understand if or how that could have contributed to the beer being so damned amazing though....

Five minutes after my first purchase, without even having entertained the idea of starting to sup my half of Raw Pacific Ghost, 5.9%, I was back at the bar using my tenner to purchase a sarnie and another pint of Demo. This time I had to force myself not to drink Demo until I had finished my Raw beer. It was a very enjoyable and impressively balanced hoppy beer in itself, but it possibly didn't receive a fair assessment in the face of the competition.

All too soon I was once again delighting in the absurdly pleasing quaffability of the tremendous Demo. Had I the money, time and physical capacity, I think I would have drunk the beer until it ran out. It was that good. That it was also safe to drink plenty at a sensible 4.5% made it all the more satisfying. An unrivalled start to any night's drinking.

I was off oop troad next to pop in Dada as Tuesday's demand. The two other Tuesday regulars were in and we chatted about darker beers, mild at the Temple, and the National Inventory of Unspoilt Pub Interiors. On the bar there were no guests, which would normally annoty me immensely, but I didn't care, because they were selling Thornbridge McConnells. Which is bloody excellent. I haven't drunk it since December, and it was well worth the wait.

Plenty of Thornbridge favourites have fallen from grace recently for me. Most notably Kipling, Jaipur and for a while now, Lord Marples. So to find McConnells in such fantastic form was reason to celebrate. And I did so by buying several pints of the wonderful drink.

The enjoyment of my visit was enhanced by chatting with beer genius Emily and James, the youngest man in the world. There are times I have been to Dada and been non-plussed about the beer, but not minded in the face of excellent company. I have already written at length about why I like the place so I won't go over old ground, but its safe to say that my trip there, on this occasion of beer excellence, was the perfect end to the evening.

This year has seen me bowled over and blown away by Brodies Citra, Red Willow Faithless, Magic Rock Bearded Lady Bourbon Cask and Magic 8 Ball, Blue Monkey BG Sips (again), Steel City 666, Dark Star Saison and now Revolutions Brew Demo.

It looks like I've nearly settled on my top ten beers of 2012....

Wee Beefy

What next for frontier brewers?

Ay oop,

     I was talking with a friend recently about the next big thing to hit real ale and beer in general. Obviously circumnavigating any assessment of where mega conglomerates and fizz packers would strike next, I focused on the smaller brewers, so often, even if not exclusively, at the forefront of beer innovation and trends.

Ten or fifteen years ago, in my experience, beers were still brown and malty. Some admittedly strayed into paler territory, in fact of course, Stones in Sheffield was always pale, but largely the output was mid brown to dark brown, plus a stout or two. The only noticeably hoppy stuff was from Burton Bridge (Empire) Freeminer (Trafalgar IPA), White Shield, and Whim, Hartington bitter, perhaps.

It turns out, unbeknown to me, and seemingly the rest of the larger percentage of British brewers at the time, that American brewers were putting huge amounts of hops into their beers years ago, and pushing the boundaries of what particular styles should be like, and experimenting with producing styles not native to their continent, or even their nearest ally, the UK.

Assuming then that we have spent the last decade in the UK catching up with the USA in terms of hop quantities especially, I consider that we are getting ever nearer to matching our Atlantic cousins in terms of bite. However, I wonder, will we continue to chase them, or pursue another countries style, or more intriguingly, forge our own way?

I mean, even the stoic world of stouts and old ales has been Yankified - for the better?

At present, where hops are concerned it seems that IKE is the start of the beginning of the end for producing equally hop forward beers. Reaching ever dizzying heights of IBU is impressive but ultimately I want to be seduced rather than hospitalised by a beer. Don't get me wrong, Steel City 666 is still a matchlessly hoppy and delicious beer. And I realise that the folks at SCB see other characteristics in their IKE touched beer other than hop induced pain.... 

 Overall though , after near on a decade of hop heavy dry bitter beers, I can see a desire for something a bit more rounded, or maybe at the opposite end of the flavour spectrum, or put another way, new. 

Of course trends have already emerged, but even then a scarcity of good knowledge of American beer styles prevents me from identifying where Black IPA and Red Hop/Rye ales originated, but its clear we are catching up, even if not quickly, rather than leading. IKE can take us to the eye watering heights of some overseas beers but it has to be in a magnificently complex beer to make it palatable.

So as for new trends, alas, the UK seems alone in striving for great flavour in sub 3% beers and doesn't seem to have a NEW specific identifably British style, or direction. Since the USA has only been brewing  the better smaller brewer and innovative output for 20 or 30 years, its surely time to set a divergent and desirably unique beer direction in the UK, so that we can match, rather than follow US beers.

And, that of course does not even have to mean matching their ascorbic, dry, bitter, Belgian IPA, smoked whatever and red ingredient output. To be really good, the UK needs to keep up with the USA whilst also defining itself, not based on what has been UK beer for a century, but what is and can be UK beer now.

In terms of future styles and developments, I personally think a combination of cask, KeyKeg and Bottle conditioned (yep, that;s right, BCA, but really (hopefully) only produced by competent bottlers) output is the future, but giving equal stall to each medium. I don't think one of the three will outstrip the other as gradually, well informed punters come to equally appreciate and part money for the benefits of each style of dispense.

What I do foresee is, whilst carrying on with hop forward ales, assertive dark brews, remarkable lagers and steadfastly traditional bitters, the UK will find its feet pushing uniquely British unfiltered beers. Unfiltered KeyKeg starts to plugs the divide between cask and KK to some extent, unfiltered cask is a revelation, if only in the early stages (Waen spring to mind, yummy!) and unfiltered bottles have been around in Europe and in some small way the UK for years. Tasting Williams Bros Grozet from the conditioning tanks years ago at Strathaven was a highlight of my drinking years I can assure you. And the clamour for unfiltered Pilsner Urquell was legendary.

But do you agree?

And if not, what do you think will be the future direction of British brewed beer, be it in cask, KeyKeg, or bottle?

Wee Beefy.