Having recently learnt that there's talk of Sheps avoiding the problem of light strike by using reduced hop extracts, or even no hops at all I took the opportunity to talk to members of the brewing staff about exactly what hops they do use, and how much.
Being a traditional Kentish brewery (or is it brewery of Kent?) they do of course use a lot of hops. The core beer range is all hops from Kent (Target, Admiral, First Gold and Goldings were mentioned), and with their craftier beers they've branched out to use foreign hops such as Centennial and Saaz too. As to how much hops they use, the beer I was on, Master Brew (3.7% ABV) has around 35 bitterness units, the sort of hopping rate that would put it in the realms of craft beer if only it tasted of grapefruit. Perhaps they would get more cred if they called it a Session IPA rather than a Kentish ale.
Perhaps their cask beers would get more cred if they all didn't taste like liquored down versions of a poor base beer? They are high gravity brewed surely?
ReplyDeleteI didn't ask about high gravity brewing, I'll see what I can glean next time I meet one of their brewers. Traditional breweries have been getting several different beers from the same mash for a long time though.
DeleteI've never been a fan of Spitfire but the Master Brew was good at this event. Whether the two beers are related I couldn't say.
I’m not sure about high-gravity brewing, but they seem to ferment their beers right out to dryness, so that there are very little residual malt sugars remaining in the finished beer. The result is a thin-bodied, un-balanced beer, with a harsh bitterness and a strange metallic taste.
DeleteYes, the core range are fermented down to a low final gravity, but I did hear that the Whitstable Bay beers are not fermented out as much.
DeleteThat must be why the Whitstable Bay beers taste a lot better. If this is the case, then the question has to be asked, why are the mainstream/core beers fermented out to such a low final gravity?
DeleteI got the impression the core range are set as they are (low final gravity, all Kentish hops) but the brewers have more of a free rein with the Whitstable Bay beers.
DeleteWhat's your take on the light strike thing? (I didn't follow the quote on Yvan's blog about Sheps' yeast being particularly good at preventing it (?).) I argued about lightstrike at some length with that whippersnapper Dredge four years ago. Ironically, the blighter got into my head & I've been avoiding clear bottles ever since.
ReplyDeleteLight strike definitely exists, and even I notice it sometimes, particularly the burnt rubber taste I associate with green bottles of cheap French lager. The way some of my fellow beer geeks go on about it though does make me suspect that either they're a lot more sensitive to it than me or they're over egging the pudding.
ReplyDeleteAs to the sulphur eating yeast preventing light strike I really don't know. Interesting story but I've never heard anything like it before.
I can actually sort of live with lightstrike. It doesn't make for awesome beer... but after you've opened the bottle and had a few sips it tends to be over. Or just stick a slice of lime in it as the old Corona tale goes. (No idea if there is any truth in that one mind you.)
ReplyDeleteWhole original point of my post was that a bottle of beer in clear glass being placed in a UK "top 10" by someone holding the UK's supposed highest beer qualification makes a joke of the whole thing.
It is, of course, asking for trouble - but I've popped a bunch of these sorts of beers onto a sunny windowsill for an hour, then chilled, then opened... good way to get a nice blast of that weird aroma and it does seem to last longer down the glass that way.
Almost all seem to exhibit the same property when fresh off the supermarket shelf - just much more lightly so. (Not that I've done an exhaustive test of this... the fact that a brewery sees it fit to put a beer in clear glass says enough about their respect for the product to me and I'm not that much of a masochist.)
The chemical behind light strike (MBT) is very volatile so is most noticable when a bottle is first opened. I've also done the deliberate light strike bottles thing and when you've really cranked it up it there's no getting away from it.
DeleteMarston's have decided to stop sending any beers out in clear glass, after the triumph of the brewers over the mareters.
ReplyDeleteI'd noticed Old Empire has gone brown bottle, which was good to see. I wonder if the unfortunate fact that clear bottles sell better than brown is changing?
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