Training...

We've got the girls in from the Coach and Horses in Dronfield today. Chloe Bradshaw and Ellie Brightmore are working hard, breaking up hops, moaning that they're too smelly and learning a bit about the art and the science of brewing.

Why are they here? Ellie is helping lead the cellar management at the Coach and what better way to get a complete understanding of beer! So if you're ever at the pub, make sure you ask them some brewing questions... they better know the answers now!

For the record, we're brewing Jaipur today, so they're well acquainted with the wonderful aromas of Chinook, Centennial and Ahtanum. Mmmm... hops...

Jaipur wins Gold at GBBF!

We're all buzzing here at Thornbridge after Jaipur, our 5.9% India Pale Ale picked up a Gold Medal at the Champion Beer of Britain competition in the Strong Bitters section.

After a Silver back in 2006 and a Gold in 2008, we're stoked to see that the same beer brewed on our new brewery has acheived the same result!

That's five Champion Beer of Britain medals in five years (with a Bronze for Lord Marples and SIlver for Kipling last year).

We can't complain about that!!!

Colorado Red

The fourth International Collaboration Series brew is heading closer to completion at Thornbridge Brewery in Bakewell, Derbyshire. After past collaborations with Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery in the US, Luke Nicholas of Epic Brewing in NZ and Agostino Arioli of Birrificio Italiano in Italy, Thornbridge have teamed up with Doug Odell of Odell Brewing Co. in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Doug is a huge fan of English ales and bases his multi-award winning beers on the balance and drinkability he finds in the cask ales he finds here. Doug has also judged in past Great British Beer Festivals and often brings his brewery employees here for them to gain inspiration to produce fantastic beer.

Coinciding with the release of his bottled range in the UK market, Doug joined the Thornbridge team to recreate a version of his Red Ale, which has recently medalled at the World Beer Cup and North American Beer Awards. The 5.9% beer is crammed with speciality malts and with a twist on the popular American Red Style, it has been hopped instead with a massive amount of oil-rich English hops including Admiral, Bramling Cross, Phoenix, Pilgrim and First Gold.

“We wanted to take a great US style of beer and put a bit of a British twist on it,” says Brewery Manager, Kelly Ryan. “We don’t want people to dismiss the fantastic breadth of flavour and aroma that UK hops can give to a beer... not every beer should be about US or NZ hops. It was also amazing to work with such a stalwart of the US microbrewing industry”.

Colorado Red, as the beer has been named in tribute to Doug’s brewery, will be released on Monday August 2^nd at a Meet the Brewer event in the Cask and Kitchen in Pimlico, London. The beer is described as having  hints of subtle toffee malt, complimented by a heady mix of dried fruit, candied peel, hop resin, rosewater and a fantastic blend of herbal UK hop notes. The bitterness is well rounded and the beer finishes with hints of citrus and roasty malt characteristics.

Thornbridge's very own UK Brewer of the Year!

Amazing news, our very own Stefano Cossi was named UK Brewer of the Year last night at the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group annual dinner in London.

The award is recommended by the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is an incredible accolade for us as a brewery, highlighting the work that Stef has led with the development of our new Riverside Brewery.

I think everyone should raise a glass (of Jaipur, of course) and congratulate Stef for this acheivement! Ever humble, Stef said to us all, "I am very proud and would like to share this recognition with you as a team achievement. However the pewter tankard is mine and mine only!"

Hehe, good on ya Stef. You deserve it!

Collaborations, Awards, Festivals too!

What a week! Our collaboration beer with Odell Brewing from Fort Collins, Colorado is fermenting away happily (you can read about it in a bit more detail here). Designated "Colorado Red", this is going to be a mega-hopped American style Red ale, weighing in around 6.1-6.3% AbV and jam packed with loads of luscious UK hops (Admiral, Phoenix, Pilgrim, First Gold and Bramling Cross) as well as a few guest Americans! It should be available in a couple of weeks and we'll have 100 or so casks, so keep an eye out for it!

In other fantastic news, we have just learnt that we did really well at the Great Taste Awards this year! These awards are run by The Guild of Fine Food and are the national benchmark for speciality food and drink in the UK, so this is a magnificent acheivement for us. Jaipur took out an impressive Three Gold Star award (only 92 of these were given out and there were over 6,500 food and beverage entries in various categories). Halcyon Green Hopped IPA 2009 Harvest and Saint Petersburg also did really well and both took out Two Gold Star Awards. As you can imagine, we're chuffed!

Finally, we're all getting excited about our annual trip down to the Great British Beer Festival in Earls Court, London this year! Not only are we on the SIBA (Society of Independent Brewers) bar with Lord Marples after winning the National Competition in the Bitters and Pale Ales category, but we also have our very own bar for the first time!

You'll be able to try Jaipur, Kipling, Hopton, Lord Marples and our delicious Derbyshire Elderflower-packed Craven Silk as well! Eat Out magazine have written a little about it here.

Some of our bottles have also made it over to the USA and a local Minnesota newspaper gives its thoughts on them here.

We even had some Jaipur especially kegged for the USA market and we've heard that it's going down a treat in New York... even with some of the hardened, super-mega-hoppy IPA loving Americans. Descriptions such as "an English IPA with teeth, yet delicate" are good enough for us! Maybe we need some for the UK market, too!

Collaboration O'Clock!

We are really excited to announce an up and coming coolaboration with Odell Brewing from Fort Collins, Colorado. Founder and legendary Brewmaster, Doug Odell is heading over to see us in the beginning of July and we're gonna brew something big and hoppy for cask.

We're right in the middle of recipe development, but are hoping to use some brilliant British hop varieties and showcase these in an American style Ale.

More details will be available soon, but if you want to reserve a cask of this, get hold of the sales team now!

A Fantastic Result!

The International Beer Challenge (IBC) is about discovering and rewarding the finest beers across the globe and promoting these to international buyers and retailers.

We first entered these awards in 2009 and got Gold for Bracia and Kipling, a Silver for Saint Petersburg and more importantly, Bracia was awarded the Supreme Champion Speciality Beer. It was a fantastic haul!

The 2010 IBC saw even more entries, making the competition even tougher, but again, we did brilliantly. We won a medal in every category we entered! We again took out Gold medals with Bracia and Kipling, Silver medals with our Halcyon Green Hop Harvest 2009 and Jaipur 330mL and Bronze medals for Saint Petersburg and Jaipur 500mL. We also took out a Packaging and Design award for the new Jaipur bottle.

Fingers crossed for another Supreme Champion award when they are announced as well!

Jaipur to The States

This week we have sent 35hl of Jaipur to The States in bulk form. When it arrives it will be kegged and available in some of the great bars in New York City. We have managed to achieve this because of our great association with our Importers B United. They also take their first consignment of bottled Jaipur which follows on from the great feedback since Halcyon and Saint Peteresburg hit the shores.

We aim to have a launch night towards the end of this month so will keep you posted.

<script type=

As many of you know Jaipur was first brewed on the 7th June 2005 and this last couple of weeks we have been enjoying ourselves in a rather Jaipur type of way.

Above is a picture of Stefano adding those great American Hops for the first ever time, who'd have thought back then about the success the next 5 years would bring.

i know there are a few Jaipur Parties planned at various places and let us know if you want to hold one yourselves and we will feature it.

If you have your won stories or want to go more go to www.jaipuripa.com

Buy a Poster Now

Iconic Poster for Iconic Beer’s Celebration

 
To mark the fifth anniversary of Jaipur first being brewed Thornbridge engaged renowned poster artist Martin F Bedford to produce a Jaipur poster.

Bedford produced  posters at The Leadmill, Sheffield’s premier music venue,   in the 1980/90s for an eclectic mix of groups including the Pogues,  Wishbone Ash, Pulp and the Fall.  

As a fan of Jaipur, Bedford was happy to take on the assignment and after visiting the brewery was impressed by the hard, technical work and creative aspects that go into producing premium beers such as Jaipur.

“There is no doubt that Jaipur has reached iconic status in the craft beer world” says Simon Webster, Thornbridge’s Chief Operating Officer  “and it deserves to have its own poster by an artist like Martin who has produced so many iconic ones in the past”. 

The poster is available as a limited edition signed print and can be bought foir £7.50 from the Brewery or £10 inc p&p

The Beer Bus is Back Home

Well it was a good couple of weeks and best part of 1000 miles on the clock for the Jaipur Beer Bus. 

We returned last week after visiting Nicholson pubs throughout the UK, the feedback was incredible and thank you also to all of the staff who made us feel welcome and all of the people who turned up to wish us well and listen to Kelly speak about Jaipur. It was also great to hear how well it was selling, apparently outselling everything else 3 to 1.

Rumour is that it will be back on the road later this - coming to a pub near you....?

And God first revealed the Messiah's birth to the shepherds......

......well that's not entirely correct -WE informed the good publicans of Derbyshire first and they did proclaim "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"...well that's what it sounded like anyway.

Who'd have believed it, its nearly 5 years since we first brewed Jaipur India Pale Ale! it was on the 7th June 2005 or 765 as we like to call it, when we brewed a beer provisionally titled Mystery Blond, in the old Brewery at Thornbridge Hall.

Back then we had no idea of the impact that the beer would have on the resurgent brewing scene in the UK. Five years on and over 60 awards later its not just Damien Hirst, Prince and Anna Kournikova who are famous for being born on this day.

We aim to celebrate Jaipur's Anniversary throughout 2010 and have launched a new website www.jaipuripa.com to celebrate this great beer please add your own post to the blog.

We have also just launched a celebratory poster by 'Esteemed Poster Artist' Martin Bedford which is available to buy for £10 inc p&p - this is a must buy!

Pop along to the site and you will also see information on the Jaipur Tour which starts next week and may just turn up at a pub near you.

More news to come!

Let's here it for the Kid

Our big mate Kid Acne was lighting up South Yorkshire, or more accurately Bungalows & Bears in Sheffield, again with a collective of DJ's - we were on hand to supply ice cold bottles of Kipling to keep the party going - here's what he had to say with a link to the site with some great pictures!

Continuing the theme of far too many DJ’s, drunk ‘n’ charge MC’s and malfunctioning equipment – I’m proud to say SOUTH YORKS (Part Deux) didn’t disappoint. Once again, in celebration and acknowledgement of our musical heritage – South Yorkshire’s heavyweight producers, musicians and DJ’s went head to head with an eclectic mix of bleep, pop, punk and bogle, all of which has been recorded and remixed within the 7 Hills we call home. (We tried doing the same thing in Leicester but got stuck after playing Mark Morrison, Showaddywaddy and Speedy Banton). 

Big Aye Aye to ing: 0px; margin: 0px;" href="http://www.thedesignersrepublic.com/" target="_blank">Ian Anderson for bringing us into the future with his drum computer, Big props toWinston Hazel (FMG / Smac19) for dropping a rucksack of rare acetates and dubplates into the mix. Big up to Pipes for letting the world know Dizzee Rascal recorded at Kenwood Studios and thank you to Amy Dutronc for announcing Pink Grease’s “come back”.

X-amount of props to Slick Dixxx for flying in from Barcelona and to spread the love and to Zombie Disco Squad for calling in half way through their world tour! 

http://www.kidacne.com/blog/

Around the Blogosphere and Halcyon Praise

With our release of Saint Petersburg and Halcyon Green Hopped IPA 2009 Harvest, there's been a flurry of blogging action, especially about our beloved Halcyon.

For those interested, we crammed our original Halcyon full of Warrior from the US and a fantastic selection of German hops... Magnum, Brewers Gold, Spalt Select and Perle. We then took around a third of this beer and cold matured this on a huge amount of fresh Target hops that we had overnight couriered to us. This resultant "hop-juice" was then tested in a blind trial in a variety of concentrations by blending it back with the original Halcyon to get the exact character that all put big massive hop-grins on our faces. Confused?

How we made it aside, there's been a load of praise for this limited edition release and it excites us that we can put some real seasonality back into beer. We reluctantly put a 6 month shelf life on it too. For us, hoppy beers are best the minute they are in the bottle so should be drunk as fresh as is possible. Stronger, darker or maltier beers may be better for maturing or cellaring but something like Halcyon or Jaipur should be drunk straight away!

You also may notice a bit of loose sediment in the Halcyon bottles. We think this is a combination of the new technology we are using to prepare the beer for bottle. We use a centrifuge instead of filtering and/or pasteurising the beer as we think this will help protect and conserve the aromas and flavours that we try our hardest to capture in the beer in the first place. The sediment includes yeast from the bottle refermentation process, but is also probably a bit if polyphenol from the BIG wet-hopping we did and maybe even a few sheared yest cells from the centrifugation process. So you might get a bit of haze, but you'll also get a double-triple-octuple dose of flavour and aroma! In fact, here are some tasting notes on it...

Pineapple, pear juice, slight mineral note, lychees and small hints of both almond and elderflower. Full bodied with alcoholic character in the mouth, warming in the swallow and a touch of spiciness. Slightly hazy orange with beautiful white foamy head. Big hop resin in flavour with some lemon hop characters also. Steadily increasing afterbitterness and well balanced sweetness.

And here's what some beery folk think of it...

http://thebeerboy.blogspot.com/2010/05/beer-and-curry-well-halcyon-and.html

http://pencilandspoon.blogspot.com/2010/05/thornbridge-halcyon-is-fucking-awesome.html

http://reetgoodleeds.wordpress.com/2010/05/09/reetgood-rides-the-zeitgeist-thornbridges-halcyon/

http://hopzine.com/?p=1270

Koreans love it! http://fatpig.tistory.com/257 You can trust me... I read Korean :)

http://theormskirkbaron.blogspot.com/2010/04/thornbridge-halcyon-green-hopped-saint.html

We've also had an American visitor... http://thewashedrind.blogspot.com/2010/05/marbled-musings.html

And being involved in a mighty taste off!! http://www.beerreviews.co.uk/beer/big-blind-punk-ipa-vs-jaipur-vs-uipa-tasting/

Plus a bit about me... http://www.fuggled.net/2010/05/brewer-of-week.html

And tomorrow we bottle some Jaipur!!!

Thornbridge Garden Party 2010

Yes its that time of year again when we bring details of the Garden Party held at Thornbridge Hall. You will be able to have a look around The Hall Brewery and there will be lashings of beer on tap as well as some tee shirts and bottled beers to buy.

Thornbridge Hall Charity Garden Party
Sunday 4t July 2010
11am - 4pm

Advanced booking available fro groups of 10 or more, plus special offers for all Camra group.

email Emma for details e2@thornbridgehall.co.uk 

Bottles now available online

Halcyon Green Hop and Saint Petersburg are now available to buy on line

http://www.mybrewerytap.com/catalogsearch/result/?category=&q=thornbridge&x=0&y=0

Guess what's for Dinner tonight??

We're off to Rowley's Restaurant and Bar in Baslow, Derbyshire tonight for the annual Thornbridge Brewery evening where we have an amazing meal matched with (and often cooked with) a bunch of our cask ales.

Check this out!

Rowley’s Hot and Spicy Nuts
Served with Jaipur Indian Pale Ale

Scottish Salmon Cured in Hops
Apple and Hopton Jelly
Served with Hopton

Ox Cheek braised in Raven Stout & Black Treacle
Colcannon Potatoes, Crispy Bacon
Served with McConnels Vanilla Stout

‘Cheese on Toast’
Raven Stout Bread, Swaledale Old Peculiar
Served with Raven Stout

Frozen Malt Parfait
Bitter Chocolate Sorbet, Hop Crispy Crunch
Served with Lord Marples ‘Butter Beer’

Meet the Brewer and Beer of the Festival!

Kelly, Simon and Alex are all ready for our first ever Meet the Brewer night in York on Wednesday 21st April at 7.30pm. We'll be along for you to have a chat with us about the brewery, our beers and of course there may even be an ale or two to taste! Rumour has it that a couple of pre-release bottles of Halcyon Green Hop Vintage 2009 and Saint Petersburg may even accompany the Thornbridge crew!

In other fantastic news, Jaipur just took out Beer of the Festival up in Dumfries at their Real Ale Festival... I'm pretty hopeless at counting, but that brings Jaipur up to around award number 63 in just under five years.

Stoked!

Pumpin' on the radio

Be sure to check out BBC Radio Sheffield on Saturday morning around 9.45 am if you want to listen to Brewery Manager Kelly Ryan recount his recent visit to Chicago to take part in judging in the World Beer Cup and the subsequent award for Thornbridge Bracia!

Back to it!

Stef and I have both returned in one piece from the fantastic city of Chicago, an absolutely fantastic city and one that all beer lovers has to check out! Would you believe that I missed getting a pint of cask Jaipur at one of the bars (The Map Room) by just a day!

We're super stoked about the Silver for Bracia in the Specialty Honey Beer category. We're going to work hard on getting the batch we have sitting at the Hall Brewery into bottle, in fact Stef is already at work looking at the chestnut honey refermentation! Will let you know when we're good to go...

The Craft Brewers Conference was fantastic, we both learnt massive amounts and met some fantastic brewers that brew beers that we know and love. The judging was also incredible, surrounded by 180 people who were ridiculously knowledgeable about beer.

In other news, our refermentation of Saint Petersburg and Halcyon Green Hop Vintage 2009 are getting closer to completion, maybe only a week or two to go and they'll be off to the shelves! Be prepared!!! Remember www.mybrewerytap.com will be a sure bet for some as well!

Also, for those that have tasted our New World Pale Ale, Lumford, we're about to brew it again next week, so this should be around again mid May. It sits at 3.9% and is massively hopped with Ahtanum, Nelson Sauvin and Pacific Gem. If you like Kipling, then you'll love it's baby brother!

Kelly

Bracia takes Silver at The World Beer Cup

Breaking News Bracia wins Silver at The World Beer Cup Category 9: Specialty Honey Beer (27 Entries)
	Tauras Alus su medumi UAB "Kalnapilio – Tauro grupė" Panevezys, Lithuania
	Bracia Thornbridge Brewery Bakewell, United Kingdom
	Cable Car Amber Ale World Brews Novato, CA

The Great British Pint

Beer Writer Adrian Tierney-Jones confirms that the Great Brtish Pint is not dead - report appears in tomorrows Daily Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/pubs/7566718/Britains-beer-scene-The-Great-British-Pint.html

Halcyon in bottles

i know you are all keen to try this so i will not rub your noses in it too much - but - just trying a bottle of the 'pre-release' Halcyon Green Hop Bottle Conditioned and it pours a beautiful bright wide head and a hop nose to die for ....... surely you can smell it from there????

Sorry! - ready to roll in a week or so - get your orders in early - only 7500 bottles and a large amount already promised to The States. Remember - you have to drink this beer young its amazing...................

Brewery Shop Trading Hours

Unfortunately, the Riverside Brewery shop will not be open for trading over the Easter period.

It is, however, open from 9am until 5pm weekdays, so come on down for brewery merchandise, mini casks and delicious bottles of Jaipur and Kipling!

Soon we'll also have our Green Hopped IPA 2009 Harvest and Saint Petersburg Imperial Russian Stout bottles available for purchase too!

The Day We Lost A Brewer

Just like that we go from 6 brewing staff to 5! Today, we farewell Brewer David Pickering as he makes a move over to Carlow Brewing Company in Ireland after over three years at Thornbridge.

Dave began way back in March 2007 when production got a little too much for Stefano and Kelly to take care of! Trained as a Process Biotechnologist and finishing his brewing training at the esteemed Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, Dave brought a wealth of knowledge to the small team, having brewed previously at The Feast and Firkin (with Dave Sanders of Elland Brewery fame), Habitat Brewpub in Turangi, New Zealand, Mates Brewery in Napier, New Zealand and Kinsale Brewery in Ireland.

Dave was well known for his pirate antics and his curious ability to burst his own eyeball whenever there were small single serve packets of UHT milk around.

In the brewery he was a tireless worker. Whenever a job needed doing, Dave would get it done. No hassles, no worries, no fuss. A fantastic wielder of the mighty hop, a few beers were given the Dave Treatment with great success, particularly our spiced ale, Hark, which owes its fantastic hop combination to the man himself!

All of us at Thornbridge wish Dave, wife Trish and son Caolan the best of luck on their move over the ditch and know that Irish beer is soon going to start tasting even better!

Keep an eye out for the Carlow beers in the future as we know Dave will make them even better than they already are!

Sláinte Dave!

Buy Bottles on line

Our beers are now available to buy online through our online partner My Brewery Tap. Follow the link below to buy bottles of Jaipur and Kipling.

http://www.mybrewerytap.com/catalogsearch/result/?category=&q=thornbridge&x=0&y=0

The Light

Murmansk - Not just for the Russians

Hop Sleep

A big day yesterday for the brewteam with Stef, Kelly, Andrea, Dave, JK and Matt heading out to Charles Faram to pick the brains of our two favourite hopheads, Paul Corbett and Will Rogers in the picturesque Worcestershire.

With 50 different hops smelt, it was a challenging day for the senses, but great to assess this seasons Continental, British and American varieties.

One could think two of our brewers, Dave and Andrea (pictured) hadn't realised that hops are a fantastic soporific. Am sure they're both dreaming up new and exciting beer recipes...

Webbed

Been a few articles with a bit of a Thornbridge feel to them lately throughout the blogosphere...

Mark Dredge's fantastic Pencil and Spoon blog discusses the merits of Jaipur and Kipling with a Thai Red Curry...

http://pencilandspoon.blogspot.com/2010/03/fabpow-thai-red-curry-with-thornbridge.html

Mark from Real Ale Reviews tells all about the recent Meet the Brewer night at the Sheffield Tap...

http://real-ale-reviews.com/thornbridge-exposed-at-the-sheffield-tap/2010/03

Reet Good - A Leeds Drinking Blog gives us a nice concise summary of the night...

http://reetgoodleeds.wordpress.com/2010/03/17/sheffield-taps-meet-the-brewer-thornbridge/

Hopzine say nice things about our Raven...

http://hopzine.com/?p=804

The brilliant Pete Brown gets us thinking about bands and breweries...

http://petebrown.blogspot.com/2010/03/beatles-and-stones.html

Kelly from Thornbridge has also just finished Part Three of his New Zealand beer tasting extravaganza...

http://beerevolution.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/the-totally-awesome-new-zealand-craft-brewing-scene-part-three/

And finally... Steve, the Beer Justice says same nice things about The Sheffield Tap!

http://beerjustice.blogspot.com/2010/03/sheffield-tap.html

Good News for the Capitals Drinkers

Following on from the great listing at The Cask & Kitchen in Pimlico we continue to make inroads to the Capital City.

From 23rd March Jaipur will be available in 48 Nicholsons Pubs for 3 months making sure that this is going to be the best Spring London has ever had!

After the resounding success of the listing of Kipling in these pubs the top bods at Nicholsons have decided that their discerning drinkers need more Thornbridge Beers.

if you want to know where to find a Nicholsons pub go on the link below - as well as the 48 London pubs there are also another 32 around the country so find out if Jaipur is coming to a pub near you soon

http://www.classicpubs.co.uk/nationalsearch/

SIBA Conference - Just Like the Oscars

As many of you know we were awarded the Gold Medal at recent SIBA awards for Lord Marples. Marketing Manager, Alex Buchanan, was there to pick up the award and also found time to comment on the whole thing - here's his account below;

The SIBA conference recently took place over two days in Stratford-Upon-Avon. This year's theme was the importance of the "People Factor" to the brewing and beer business. Perhaps at first glance this appears obvious but as some key speakers highlighted very successfully something we overlook at our peril be they our staff, customers or consumers.  Now representing some 450 breweries SIBA celebrates its 30th birthday this year and so the Conference had an added importance. In addition to some interesting and useful presentations the Conference celebrated the release of the Local Industry Brewing report 2010 which highlighted that in 2009, through the worst of the recession, local brewers recorded volume growth of near 4% - a fantastic achievement and evidence of the importance and demand there is for cask ale. The conference also reinforced the friendship of the brewing industry with "competitors" coming together, sharing experiences and knowledge and having a fantastic time something that you will fail to see in many other industries.

The culmination of the Conference was the announcement of the SIBA Beer Competition which is just like the Oscars in that your beers are judged by your fellow professionals. At Thornbridge we were delighted when our Lord Marples was judged Champion Bitter and Pale Ale. A terrific endorsement for our brewery. 

A full list of winners can be found at www.siba.co.uk

Meet The Brewer

It's Meet The Brewer time on Tuesday March 16th at the fantastic The Sheffield Tap pub in Sheffield Train Station. Kelly Ryan will be there to answer all of your questions and to taste some of the beers and tell you what the inspiration behind them is.

It all starts at 7.30 so get there nice and early as 'The Tap' has really become Sheffield's busiest bar!

Should Jai Stay or Should Jai Go?

Dave (Un-pronounceable) Szwejkowski is a well travelled man - there is nowhere he will not travel for a good pint - proven by his, up-sticks, move to Sheffield. He also knows a good beer when he tastes one - and even when he brews one -  (www.steelcitybrewing.co.uk), so it is great when he partakes in missionary work and takes Ice to the Eskimos, sorry I mean Jaipur to the Indians.

Good work Dave and thanks for the photo - any one beat that?

Lord Marples Best Bitter in Britain

Beer & Food Dinner at Rowleys

wednesday 28th April sees the third annual Rowley's Beer & Food Dinner featuring our beers. If you would like to make it please get in touch. To see the full menu follow the link below;

http://www.rowleysrestaurant.co.uk/events

Let The Presses Roll

The new range of bottles will be available at the end of this month and we signed the labels off at our printers today - you can see the Jaipur labels begin to roll.

Next week we will be bottling Jaipur, Saint Petersburg and the Green Hopped Halcyon so get your orders in now!

Friends from across the pond

Sunday saw a visit to Thornbridge by US brewing mavericks, Stone Brewing. Stone President and Brewmaster, Steve Wagner and Head Brewer, Mitch Steele are visiting the UK to learn as much as they can about India Pale Ale as part of a commission to put together a book for the US Brewer's Association.

The book itself plans to give a detailed history of IPA as well as a bunch of recipes from various breweries around the world, so looks like it'll be a great addition to any brewer or beer lovers book shelf!

Mitch and Steve joined Stefano and Kelly for a few Thornbridge Ales at the Coach and Horses in Dronfield before checking out both the Hall and Riverside breweries. After the Thornbridge visit we sent them on their way to that mighty IPA Mecca of yesteryear, Burton-on-Trent where their IPA journey continues...

I think this somewhat grainy photo shows what most of us beer lovers already thought... the elusive Stone team are actually aliens just like in the movie Cocoon. A rational explanation for the incredible beers that they do!

A Thirst for Thornbridge

Kelly is now safely back in the bosom of his adopted country but the printed word about his escapades down under continues - as they say on the streets of Wellington - "Read all about it"

http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/3362567/A-thirst-for-Thornbridge

Thornbridge Beer Festival

The Old Hall in Whitehough, Chinley  are holding a Thornbridge Beer Festival this weekend.

They have the core beers as well as the limited edition Halcyon Green Hoped IPA as well as the Exposed Strawberry & Pink Peppercorn Stout.

The Exposed Awards

This Thursday sees the annual Exposed Magazine Awards in Sheffield and this year we have teamed up with them to make sure there are some great drinks on offer.

Phil Turner, the Editor, was part of the team that brewed our Strawberry and Pink Peppercorn Stout and there will be a cask of it on sale during the festivities of the night. There will also be a special limited edition bottle of Exposed Pale Ale available too for the revelers.

We have also been involved in sponsoring an award 'Best Unsigned Band/Musician' so look forward to finding out who the winner is.

A couple of friends are also up for awards The Sheffield Tap have been nominated for 2 awards and Spice Market Cafe have been nominated for best new restaurant.

News from Down Under

As i write this Kelly Ryan is now conducting a tasting of our beers over in his home country of New Zealand - those of you following Kelly's journey on twitter will be aware of it - for those who would like to know more, follow the link

http://www.themalthouse.co.nz/index.php/blog/122-a-touch-of-kiwi-in-thornbridge-ales

Bottled Beer is coming soon!

Our bottling line has now been commissioned and the new range of Thornbridge Bottle Conditioned beers are about to be released.

We start with Jaipur, Saint Petersburg and the 2009 Green Hopped Halcyon which is a limited release and it the follow on to the 2008 version which won 'Best Harvest Ale' at The World Beer Awards.

The range should be ready around April and we are already taking orders.

Thornbridge Hits London

There is hope for all of you people living in the capital, Thornbridge is now available at The Cask Pub & Kitchen in Pimlico. Landlord Martin Hayes is a big fan of our beers and has a range of them now available at his great pub. 

Already we have had some great feedback from many of you who stumbled upon the beers by chance. Martin is going to carry on stocking a full range of Thornbridge beers and it is certainly worth the trip.

We also begin supplying 50 Nicholsons Pubs in  the Capital in March with our Jaipur India Pale Ale. This comes on the back of a successful 3 month run of Kipling in the same pubs. 

A Wild Swan walks into a Brewery and asks for a pint of Jaipur

Its not even a joke, it almost happened! The frozen lake seems to have forced our feathered friend off his patch at Riverside and he has come looking for a new home.

News

All go here at Thornbridge as 2010 kicks off. We have been joined by post-graduate student Mauro Fanari from Sardinia who is working closely with Stefano on our yeast propagation and other yeast trials. Mauro studied Agricultural Biotechnology and is already proving a great asset to the team. It's a shame he's only with us for a couple of months!

Production at the new Riverside Brewery is steady and we are working hard on the technology behind our bottling processes. The centrifuge is working really well and everything looks close to go with regards to our first official bottling run. The beer in question will be our Halcyon Green Hop Vintage 2009 which was mega-hopped with some freshly picked Target hops at the back end of 2009. We may even have a few limited edition casks of this beer, which any hop lover out there will love!

A few classics and new favourites have also made their return with a new batch of our resident homebrewing champ's Raven having just made it's way into cask. Jam-packed with Nelson Sauvin, Chinook and Amarillo with a bit of Columbus and Amarillo in the dry-hop, this Black IPA is a must for those that like their hops and those who love to argue about the existence of Black IPA :)

Bramling Cross infused Hopton has also made a return and the odd cask of Hark must be out there as well. Hark is a fantastic winter ale brewed with rye malt, crystallised ginger, coriander seeds, caraway seeds and loads of freshly zested Seville orange peel. With a mixture of great, citrussy hops, this beer not only warms but is full of a bunch of spicy, clean and crisp flavours.

McConnels is on the brewplan this week, our fantastic vanilla-pod infused stout. Creamy and chocolatey and brewed with oat malt, this is another awesome winter pint.

Saint Petersburg has also been popular of late, especially in Christmas puddings! We teamed up with Matthew Walker, who put out a deliciously rich and decadent pudding over the Christmas period. Each pud contains 5.5% Saint Petersburg by weight... I swear you can taste it! This has also been flying out on cask, am guessing the snow has made this 7.7% Imperial Russian Stout a worthy contender in keeping out the almost Baltic temperatures! We are looking at bottling this over the coming months also.

Jaipur of course continues to do well and win awards and this is the third of our beers that will be making it into bottle in our new plant over the next few months. We can't wait!

Kelly is off to New Zealand in a few weeks and can't wait to do our second ever collaboration brew with Epic Brewing Co. in Auckland. After an awesome brew with Epic Head Brewer, Luke Nicholas, last year, our fantastic 7.7% Epic Halcyon, yet another tribute to the hop, He's heading over to do an Epic Thornbridge Stout, so watch this space and we'll fill you in on the details. He also hopes to make it down to Wellington and visit the renowned pub, the Malthouse... maybe with a Thornbridge beer or two in hand for some folk to try.

Last but not least, it's been great to see the success of the Sheffield Tap in the Sheffield train station. With between four and eight of our cask beers on, a brilliant bottle selection of close to 200 and a great line-up of keg beers, it's easy to see why so many people are supporting it. Awesome!

Signing off,

Kelly

Thornbridge Garden Party 2010

Yes its that time of year again when we bring details of the Garden party held at Thornbridge Hall. You will be able to have a look around The Hall Brewery and there will be lashings of beer on tap as well as some tee shirts and bottled beers to sell.

Thornbridge Hall Charity Garden Party
Sunday 4t July 2010
11am - 4pm

Advanced booking available fro groups of 10 or more, plus special offers for all camra group.

email Emma for details e2@thornbridgehall.co.uk 

Epic Collaboration

Our beers are now available to buy online through our online partner My Brewery Tap. Follow the link below to buy bottles of Jaipur and Kipling.

http://www.mybrewerytap.com/catalogsearch/result/?category=&q=thornbridge&x=0&y=0