Not a good time to open a pub?. We opened three in 2011

  Not a good time to open a pub? We opened three in 2011...

After a £100k+ refurbishment the brewery agreed a lease with Enterprise Inns in October and opened the Hallamshire House, Commonside, Sheffield. This partnership follows our success in agreeing a  ground breaking  free-of-tie lease with Enterprise in November 2010 for the Greystones in Sheffield which has recorded a 400%  increase in turnover since it was taken over. The Greystones  rapidly established itself as a successful community pub and its “Backroom” venue has hosted many sold out nights for the best in UK and International music and comedy. 

In early November we opened a Sheffield city centre freehold called DaDA . The bar focuses on the brewery’s full range of keg, bottle and cask beers and well as a revolving list of selected beers from breweries our brewing team are fans of. The bar has space allocated to temporary art exhibitions covering everything from works by local established artists to those wishing to showcase their work for the first time.

The final addition in 2011 has seen the purchase of a freehold lease on the Coach and Horses in Dronfield  from Sheffield Football Club  - the world’s oldest team. The brewery had supplied the beer for the pub for the past four years but will now take over  its full running.  It will undergo a refit in early 2012 and re-open under the day to day management of Ellie Brightmore.   

Simon Webster, Thornbridge’s Chief Operating Officer,  comments on the openings and a successful 2011  “Running a brewery and pubs is hard work in what are difficult economic times. We have a simple formula with a focus on quality products and service of course but also ensuring the pub meet the needs of its “community” be these local residents, or those coming to our pubs for the beer, music or art we support.

Picture:

Left: Ellie Brightmore – Coach and Horses Manager

Right: Mike Pidgeon – Thornbridge’s  Pub Estate Manager

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Tzara - our new Kolsch style beer

Tzara is a hybrid beer, fermented like an ale but matured like a lager. A delicate straw coloured, crisp, refreshing beer.

Rob Lovatt, Thornbridge’s Brewery Director, says  “Kolsch has always appealed to me as it’s a style which has shorter dwell times than other Germanic styles but is still delicate and refreshing. To create a genuine version of the style we imported malt directly from Bavaria and selected a traditional Kolsch yeast. It is all about producing an extremely clean and delicate beer with the higher fermentation temperatures giving it a broad, almost fruity palate with some bready notes which are softened by the lagering period”.

Malts:  extra light German Pils, Cara pils, Wheat.

Hops: Perle, Tettnanger, Mittelfrüh.

Yeast: Koslch

Available now in keg and bottle. Call 01629 64 1000

Dada Bar

We opened our new city centre bar Dada last week after a refurbishment of what was once a city institution Trippet’s Wine Bar.  The opening of Dada is a good example of us having some fun and creating a venue that would, like the famous art movement of the same name,  challenge the norm, but at the same time use our winning focus on Beer, Art, Music and Community to attract a wide range of customers. The bar will have a space allocated to temporary art exhibitions everything from works by local established artists to those wishing to showcase theirs for the first time. A body of work by Jane Faram in collaboration with George Law that includes collage, drawing and painting is the first exhibition.

 Dada will accumulate more input from Sheffield artists and musicians over the coming year including projects in association with Martin Ware of Heaven 17 and founding member of The Human League.   Music will be varied but aimed at creating a chilled environment.

 A range of Thornbridge beers including a focus on our increasing keg range and a  number of world classic beers will be available on draft and in bottles as well as ten gins and a wide range of quality wines.

Steelmaker - Our New Helles Lager

Launched this week to support the Save the Portland Works campaign Steelmaker is a Helles lager brewed by Rob Lovatt and his team at Thornbridge. Rob explains “A quality malt bill of German pilsner and the noble Tettnanger hop is required to produce this classic beer and these provide enough depth for a beer of simplicity. Although this style leans towards the malt, it is a well balanced beer. The noble hops express themselves as spicy and citrusy on the nose, the bitterness is somewhat restrained but there is enough in the finish to dry the palate”.  

 The Helles lager is called  “Steelmaker”  in recognition of Harry Brearley who invented stainless steel at the Portland Works.

 (http://www.portlandworks.co.uk)

The Hallamshire House now open with a full range of Thornbridge beers

After a sympathetic six figure refurbishment of the Hallamshire House at Commonside beer opened again on the 15^th September with a full range of Thornbridge beers.

 “As with all our pubs we are committed to delivering excellent products and customer service” says Thornbridge’s Pub Operations Manager Mike Pidgeon  “whilst also working to create the best environment that suits the pub and its local community”.

The Hallamshire House will be managed by Becky Stuart and Tom Ashfield who developed their skills and knowledge at The Greystones, the ground breaking free of tie pub that Thornbridge opened in partnership with Enterprise Inns in  November 2010. The Greystones was recently judged the best turnaround pub in the North East by the Morning Advertiser the weekly bible of the licensed trade. 

Duncan Marsden, Divisional Director of Enterprise Inns, says  “the Hallamshire House opening concludes another partnership lease with Thornbridge Brewery that allows this very successful brewer to develop another retail proposition that builds upon the strengths of their "excellent" beer portfolio and high retailing standards within Sheffield”. 

Tom and Becky are delighted by the quality if the refurbishment and say “It’s great to be associated with the reopening of such an iconic pub that has had a great past and will definitely have a fantastic future. We know from working at the Greystones how a successful pub operates and that  Thornbridge beers are incredibly popular with their own fan base!”

 
The Hallamshire House,
49-51 Commonside,
SHEFFIELD,
S10 1GF

 0114 266 3611

www.myhallamshire.co.uk

Thornbridge’s Saint Petersburg an Imperial Russian Stout Fit for a Queen

In May 2011 an intrepid band of brewers and sailors undertook a  sail voyage following in the tradition of the great London Brewers delivering Imperial Russian Stout to the court of Queen Catherine the Great. The voyage and beers left Greenwich in London on 15^th May 2011 arriving in Saint Petersburg some six weeks later. 

Imperial Russian Stout  is a strong dark beer which was originally brewed in the 18th century  for export to the court of Catherine II of Russia. It was high in alcohol at between 8 & 9% by volume, necessary to protect the beer from spoilage and freezing on the passage through the Baltic. In 1796 it is reported that “The Empress of All Russia is so partial to Porter (Russian Export Stout) that she has ordered repeatedly very large quantities for her own delivery and that of her Court”.

Eleven of the UK’s most enterprising brewers made their interpretation of this classic beer. All the beers were first sampled in Greenwich. The beers then underwent the rigours of the sea passage before being sampled again and the selection made of the winning stout “Fit for an Empress”.

 Thornbridge’s Imperial Russian stout, coincidently called Saint Petersburg, was crowned the overall best beer at an awards ceremony last Friday (9^th September). Simon Webster, Thornbridge’s Operations Director, said the project to recreate the journey to Saint Petersburg was “of great interest and the quality of the beers submitted for the journey very high. We are delighted to win the award and thank Tim O’Rourke and all the Great Baltic Adventure team for making this happen”. (for further details see  www.thegreatbalticadventure.com)

 Picture – left to right:

 Alex Buchanan -  Marketing Manager Thornbridge

Simon Webster -  Operations Director Thornbridge

Tim O’Rourke  - Leader of the Great Baltic Adventure

The Great British Home Brew Challenge 2011

The Great British Home Brew Challenge 2011

Craft brewing has had a resurgence across the world during the past few years and is having a fantastic influence on the brewing industry in the UK. With over 750 breweries now operating, the range of beers styles available has never been greater. Many of the beers brewed in today’s new wave of breweries are brewed by professionally qualified brewers, others brewed by those that have developed skills through brewing at home. This reflects the tradition of brewing beer in the UK which until the advent of commercial breweries was in the main done at home and often by the woman of the house.

Recognising this great tradition of home brewing Thornbridge brewery and Nicholson’s pubs are delighted to announce the launch on the 1^st September  of The Great British Home Brew Challenge 2011 aimed at identifying the best home brewed beer. See www.gbhomebrew.co.uk (from 1/9/2011) for entry details.

Simon Webster from Thornbridge explains “A considerable number of home brewers develop great quality beers that can never be appreciated by a larger drinking public. The Home Brew Challenge 2011 will provide home brewers with an opportunity to match their beers against those of other enthusiasts, and have them tasted by a panel of expert beer judges”.

The winner will see their brew recipe transformed into a production brew by  Thornbridge Brewery and made available through Nicholson’s 100 pubs across the UK.

Ben Lockwood of Nicholson’s says “the UK has a great tradition of home brewing. In many countries home brewers work closely with fulltime brewers and new approaches and recipes for beers are often discovered. With this Challenge we can offer the home brewer a chance to have their beer professionally produced and then served in over 80 traditional British pubs. This should be a very interesting competition and whilst serious hopefully great fun for all involved”. 

Thornbridge’s Simon Webster says “the Challenge will be a celebration of the British tradition of brewing with the aim of creating a great new beer and for people to try and embrace many of the new flavours in beers from across the world. As we do in our brewers at Thornbridge we will look for Passion, Innovation and Knowledge as key factors in the judging”.

Browne - The New Stella Beer From Thornbridge

Browne  - The New Stella Beer From Thornbridge

Faced with the delightful challenge of using Stella, a new high alpha hop from Australia, the Thornbridge brew team thought this would work well in a nice hoppy Brown Ale. And so Browne was developed and is now available from the 8^th August.

Caolan Vaughan, Thornbridge’s Production Manager, explains “With Browne we have created a medium intensity beer in both flavour and aroma. It has a juicy fruit and floral aroma upfront but nice hints of roasted and caramel-like aromas come through. This juicy aroma comes from the use of a single hop called Stella which we  used exclusively in the hopback – or as we know it the Hopnik and we developed this beer so that 90% of the total bitterness would come from our Hopnik addition. It is 4.3% abv with 38 IBUs of tastefully balanced bitterness”. 

Food Match: Try with a beef burger where the caramel flavours of the beer are a great match for the meat.  

Malts: Maris otter, Munich, Brown, Pale Crystal, Wheat and Chocolate.

Hops: Stella – Stella is a new high alpha aroma hop from Australia that is big, intense and pungent: that is fruity and floral and can be characterised as passion fruit like.

Yeast: California Ale Yeast WLP001

Kill Your Darlings

“Kill Your Darlings”  - the new classic style Vienna lager from Thornbridge 

Vienna lagers, named after the city they were originally brewed in, has become a classic style of lager but one rarely brewed in the UK. Thornbridge’s take on the style is “Kill Your Darlings” which is reddish brown in colour with a medium body and characterized by a malty aroma and slight malt sweetness. A twist on this style has been added by late hopping with Amarillo and Tettnanger hops. After a period of cold fermentation the beer has been lagered for five weeks. “We have done the waiting so that you can enjoy the crisp fresh flavours and in our opinion this is a beer best drunk as fresh as possible” says Brewery Production Director, Rob Lovatt.

The beer is being launched to celebrate the work of one of the UK’s foremost urban artists, Kid Acne and the launch of his first solo show (named Kill Your Darlings) which features work from throughout his career alongside a series of new commissions. The show runs in Sheffield this Summer at the Millennium Galleries from 21^st July to 23^rd October.

Kid Acne is a good friend of Thornbridge and we have supported some of his previous shows in London and Sheffield . The new Sheffield exhibition gave us the chance to have a great new beer  to celebrate his work with Kid Acne designing the image that accompanies the beer.   

The term Kill Your Darlings is used by writers to describe the painful process of cutting cherished characters or scenes which don't serve their overall story. This captures our brewing spirit and asks us not to be too precious about beer, but simply to revel in the joy of creating it.

Notes:                                                                                          

This summer, the Millennium Gallery will celebrate the work of one of the UK’s foremost urban artists, Kid Acne. Featuring work from throughout his career alongside a series of new commissions, Kill Your Darlings represents Kid Acne’s first solo show in his home city of Sheffield.

Kill Your Darlings is a motto used by writers to describe the painful process of cutting cherished characters or scenes which don’t serve their overall story. Revisiting some of the iconic creations which have helped to establish Kid Acne’s international reputation, the show will celebrate the DIY ethic and often transitory approach he has refined over the years. Murals, illustrations and sculpture will trace the development of his work and show how he has carried the wit and subversion from his days as a graffiti artist and fanzine creator through into adult life as a designer, artist and musician. 

Showcasing the sheer diversity of Kid Acne’s work, Kill Your Darlings will feature comic books, record sleeves, flyers, fanzines, sketch books and screen prints, as well commercial commissions such as skateboard graphics, vinyl toys and porcelain figures. The exhibition will also debut a series of new work, including large scale sculptures, paintings and a live-action short film.

Kid Acne’s art career began with an appearance on Rolf’s Cartoon Club at the age of twelve. Within a year, he’d started writing graffiti inspired by its infinite scale, colour and immediacy. Alongside a small group of friends, he spent his teenage years making underground fanzines and releasing limited run 7”s on their Invisible Spies imprint. Applying the same DIY ethos to the rest of his output, his work can be seen throughout the globe – in wheatpastes and rap-sprays from New York to Azerbaijan. His signature style of illustrations have adorned products for the world’s leading brands, while the man himself continues to paint epic slogans in sub zero temperatures.

Kid Acne has exhibited widely, both in the UK and internationally, including StolenSpace, London, Iguapop, Barcelona, Spain, Myymälä 2, Helsinki, Finland, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Western Australia, and Fredericks & Freiser Gallery, New York, USA.

Best Keg Beer in the World

Thornbridge Brewery was one of just nine brewers globally to take the ultimate accolade of Champion Beer at the Brewing Awards, announced in April this year.  At their bar at the GBBF, the Thornbridge team displayed the trophy awarded to them for Jaipur IPA, which won the Champion Keg Ale Award. 

Versa - our new Weisse Beer

The Vice of Versa

With Summer here what could be better than a glass of fresh, fruity,  oh so drinkable, got to have another Weisse beer – well say hello to Thornbridge’s Versa.

Rob Lovatt, Thornbridge’s Production Director, says wheat beers are close to his heart after making numerous trips to Bavaria where he was “blown away” by this style of beer. However they are notoriously difficult to produce and so Rob says he and the team at Thornbridge knew they had a challenge to develop a beer they would be proud of. One dilemma faced was that despite a great respect for cask beers it was felt that wheat beers are not best suited to cask as it is best showcased in keg and bottle.

Versa Weisse pours a hazy, burnt orange. And true to its style it has well balanced flavours of clove spiciness, banana and bubblegum. The beer uses a traditional Bavarian yeast strain with Tettnanger hops and Bavarian wheat, pale, cara and crystal malts.    

Rob says he is “really happy” with Versa but warns that this is “a beer that is best drunk fresh to best appreciate the fruity, ester aromas”.

 Versa will be launched at the Sheffield Tap (www.sheffieldtap.com) at 7.30pm on the 30^th June.  Get your fresh Versa from July 1^st  -  call 01629 64 1000.

For more information on how Versa was brewed see http://thornbridge.wordpress.com

Stand and Deliver Black Harry

Stand and Deliver Thornbridge’s Black Harry

Back in the 16th and 17th centuries travellers took their lives in their own hands travelling in the Derbyshire Peak District as highwaymen ruled the pathways -  the most famous of all robbers being Black Harry.  The area that Black Harry operated in sits close to Thornbridge Hall and in safer times the area has become a place of recreation for walkers, horse riders and mountain biking. The Black Harry Trails project has just been completed to upgrade and improve these routes for users and in doing so  increase recreation opportunities for the less able, elderly and those with young families. To commemorate this work being completed Thornbridge have brewed  Black Harry a dark, fruity ale.

Thornbridge's Black Harry use Pale Ale, Crystal, Black and Oat Malt. The Hop is Hallertau Northern Brewer. The beer at 3.9% is dark, refreshing and very drinkable. It has a fruity aroma with notes reminiscent of raspberry,  a light creamy body and a long nutty finish.

Black Harry is available from June 21^st – call 01629 64 1000 to order yours.  

www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/blackharry

Alchemy XII, XIII and XIV

As part of our Alchemy range of experimental beers from the Hall brewery we are pleased to announce the arrival of Alchemy XII, XIII and XIV  – available from next week:

Alchemy XII: uses a pale ale malt base with the earthy and floral Delta hop variety, a new US variety obtained by crossing US Cascade and UK Fuggles. Alchemy XII was brewed to trial this variety. Delta whole flowers are added to each cask at racking to provide additional varietal character.

Malts: Maris Otter Pale, Wheat, Crystal malt, Chocolate malt

Hops: Hallertau Northern Brewer (bitterness), Delta hop

Alchemy XIII is a Brown Ale  - an often looked down on style, nevertheless an exciting and challenging one to brew as it focuses on maltiness rather that hop character. This beer is brewed using a generous amount of Melanoidin malt which provides a strong malty character.  It is dark brown in colour, on the nose it’s fruity with malt and orangey hops, dry in mouth with a long malty finish and moderate bitterness.

Malts: Maris Otter Pale, Melanoidin malt, Crystal Rye malt, Black malt

Hops: Hallertau Northern Brewer (bitterness), First Gold (aroma)

Alchemy XIV is a Summer Ale  that uses wheat to provide a subtle acidity which is thirst quenching. The bitterness is low and hop aroma is mild. There is a fruity note from the yeast. This is a beer which serves as a base to then add a range of flavours through botanicals, in this case pink peppercorn.

Malts: Pale Maris Otter, Wheat malt, Wheat

Hops: Hallertau Northern Brewer (bitterness), Hallertau Hersbrucker (aroma)

Saint Petersburg to Saint Petersburg

Ale for Sail 2011 – the great Baltic Adventure

IMPERIAL RUSSIAN STOUT FIT FOR A QUEEN

Saint Petersburg to Saint Petersburg

The Beer

Thornbridge are delighted to be one the brewers providing beer that will be undertaking a sail voyage following in the tradition of delivering Imperial Russian Stout to the court of Queen Catherine the Great. The journey from Greenwich in London hopes to arrive in Saint Petersburg on 18^th June.

Thornbridge’s Imperial Russian stout is coincidently called Saint Petersburg. Imperial Russian Stout  is a strong dark beer which was originally brewed in the 18th century  for export to the court of Catherine II of Russia. It was high in alcohol at between 8 & 9% by volume, necessary to protect the beer from spoilage and freezing on the passage through the Baltic.

In 1796 it is reported that “The Empress of All Russia is so partial to Porter (Russian Export Stout) that she has ordered repeatedly very large quantities for her own delivery and that of her Court”

Eleven of the most enterprising brewers have made their interpretation of this classic beer. All the beers will be first sampled in Greenwich. The beers will then undergo the rigours of sea passage all the way to Saint Petersburg where we will sample and select the winning stout “Fit for an Empress”.

The boat.

To transport the beers is the 60 foot Round the World Clipper, Thermopylae. This fantastic yacht has already circumnavigated the globe four times in the Clipper Round the World Races so should see us safely to Saint Petersburg. The boat comes fully equipped and includes a professional skipper and two professional watch leaders.

The passage will take five weeks with stopovers in a major Baltic city every weekend and our passage will be celebrated by Beer Festivals at each of the major venues, where participants and crew will be able to sample a complete range of beers supplied by our participating Brewers including examples of the Imperial Russian Stout.

For further details see  www.thegreatbalticadventure.com

Sequoia - American Amber Ale

Sequoia

4.5% American Amber Ale

Sequoia is the common name of the largest tree in the world that only grows naturally on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. But we are lucky enough to have a mighty Sequoia growing in the grounds of Thornbridge Hall – inspiration on our doorstep.

The Thornbridge Sequoia American Amber Ale has beautiful citrus and pine notes that come from our generous additions of Amarillo, Centennial and Chinook hops.  It is smooth and velvety in the mouth with the toasted malts giving it a medium body with hints of roasted hazelnut, toffee and caramel malt flavours. Sequoia, a beautiful beer for all occasions!

JAIPUR - World Champion

Thornbridge crowned Champion Keg Ale at international awards

Our Jaipur IPA has become one of just nine brewers from across the globe to take the ultimate accolade of Champion Beer 2011 at the Brewing Industry International Awards, widely dubbed the ‘Brewing Oscars’.

This is a fantastic award and a great honour for the brewing team here at Thornbidge. We are passionate about brewing and enormously proud of our beers, but to be judged as the best beer in our category worldwide is beyond our wildest expectations. Jaipur has won many awards as a cask and bottled beer so to win the keg ale award,  when we have only been supplying this for a few months,  is  extra special.

Some 800 beers from over 30 countries entered the Brewing Awards, which were judged in February this year in Burton-upon-Trent. Judging took three days and was carried out by a panel of highly respected brewers from around the world; uniquely, judges in the Brewing Awards are required to be currently working brewers, ensuring that the beers are assessed by experts with up to date brewing knowledge.

Ruth Evans, chief executive of competition organisers Brewing Technology Services, said, “The Champion Beer trophy in the Brewing Awards is one of the very highest honours in the international beer industry and one that hundreds of brewers around the world aspire to.  Jaipur  has been judged by experts to be the finest of its type found anywhere in the world, and Thornbridge should be very proud of their achievement.”

Alchemy - at the Hall

Alchemy: A process by which paradoxical results are achieved or incompatible elements combined with no obvious rational explanation

One of the reasons that we were so excited when the Hall brewery reopened a few weeks ago was that we would be able to try some new and innovative approaches to making beer.

We have occasionally in the past released some Alchemy beers that are experimental in nature. These beers are now being brewed again so lookout on this site and on our Facebook page for more information on these. Sometimes these are one off brews and at other times brews that will develop into beers that may become core to our range. We use the Alchemy beers to get feedback from customers and, of course, sample these ourselves.

Stefano Cossi,  who leads on innovation at the Hall brewery, explains about selecting and using some new hops in Alchemy X released this week:

“During a recent visit to our hop supplier, we had the chance to meet Peter Glendinning, a passionate hop developer from Herefordshire, and rub and sniff his new selections. We came back with three varieties to brew with: Bishop, Archer and Duchess. Bishop is Goldings-like, delicate and earthy with lemon and toffee notes. Archer is pungent, resinous and citrussy (lemon and grapefruit) while Duchess is distinctive with mint and licorice notes.

With these we brewed two Pale Ales at The Hall: one using Bishop and the other blending Archer and Duchess as aroma hops.”

And more information on the Archer, Bishop and Duchess hops:

“It can take many years to develop a new variety of hop, and it can take many more for its use to become established with brewers.
Normally, new varieties in the UK come from the breeding programme at Wye Hops,
owned by UK growers and run by the world-renowned hop breeder, Dr Peter Darby.

But these new hops, named Archer, Bishop and Duchess, all originate from Herefordshire where another Peter has been making his own private selections.  Peter Glendinning is an independent research agronomist and has been the Technical Adviser to the National Hop Association for 20 years, concerned mostly with crop protection and field experiments in hops.  

" The old growers were right....... one lifetime is definitely not long enough to learn how to grow hops!  For the last five years I have been trying to complement the complex work at Wye by looking for new hop plants with higher yields, better tolerance to disease or interesting aromas, or perhaps all three!  We know that each new variety has its own unique aroma, but no-one can predict for sure how it will brew.  So I have always marvelled at the artistry of brewers selecting hops by their aroma."

New hops are grown in small plots, picked by hand and dried in sacks. Then with the generous help of Charles Faram Ltd they are fresh-packed into 2kg brewing samples and cold-stored.  For this next harvest in September 2011 there should be a about 80kg of each variety available for brew trials.

" I am delighted and very thankful that Stefano, and his colleagues at Thornbridge, are brewing with these new hops.  All three are seedlings of Sovereign, a new variety likened to Fuggle, and the results of these brewing trials will help direct the selection process.

"I believe it is very important for us to introduce a steady stream of new varieties as it takes a number of years to learn how to grow each new variety and how best to brew with it.  Some new varieties may not stand the test of time, but some might.  And in searching, we have recently discovered that the UK can grow hop aroma every bit as intense as the US varieties prized by some brewers!  Thornbridge and Dark Star are first on the list to test samples from new plots being planted this summer, and due for their first harvest in 2012...... Watch this space!

Thornbridge Beers in Waitrose

We are delighted to announce that we have agreed an exclusive partnership with Waitrose to sell our award winning bottled beers across their stores. Three beers will be launched on the 18^th April; Jaipur IPA, Kipling South Pacific Pale Ale and Wild Swan White Gold Pale Ale.

David Wyllyams, beer buyer at Waitrose, says the partnership with Thornbridge is one built on the shared aim to offer high quality bottled beers to customers demanding greater choice and provenance. “We knew Thornbridge had a great reputation for the quality of their beers and after working with their team of brewers we can see that their Innovation Passion and Knowledge mantra is one they put into practice day in and day out”.

The Hall Brewery re-opens

The Brewery at Thornbridge Hall is now fully refurbished and Brewing Beer again for the first time in over 6 months. It will work primarily as a development Brewery and launch the next generation of Thornbridge beers alongside the Brewery at Riverside.

Stefano Cossi, Director of R&D, heads up the new team and he has been joined by Giada Simioni who will assist him and be trained to brew. After working at Italian brewery Birrificio Italiano, Giada, who holds a Masters in Food & Beverage Management, came to Thornbridge for an Internship in October 2010 and began working alongside Stefano with the intention of developing the Hall Brewery into a Research and Development facility.

On Thursday last week they brewed the third batch ever of Bracia, an endless fourteen hour double-mash brew day was the result. The bad news,  if you are reading this in the UK, is that the entire brew will be heading off to the United States so it will be later in the summer before the UK can taste this excellent beer again.

After the brewers spent a day sampling hops at Charles Faram, almost 70 varieties in total, they have 3 batches of single hop pale ales ready to be brewed which will highlight experimental UK varieties of hops.

All very exciting and heading to a pub near you soon.

Double Delight in SIBA National Beer Competition

Double celebration here at Thornbridge after we won two awards at the national SIBA competition. 

Kipling won the Silver Award in the Strong  Bitters Category after progressing through a series of regional and then national judging sessions. It was one of only 52 beers to take away a medal – a great achievement considering that over 1,400 beers enter the initial stages of the contest.

Equal delight for a Bronze with Jaipur IPA in SIBA’s inaugural keg beer competition and a new product for us - we were up against some seriously good keg products.

Julian Grocock, chief executive of SIBA, said, “The quality of craft beers produced by SIBA brewers improves every year, so our Awards go to brewers who are truly ‘the best of the best’. Thornbridge’s skill, passion and dedication to creating great craft beer, make it a deserving winner.”

Don't worry this is a Coalition you can rely on...

Coalition Ale based on the classic Old Ale style was brewed on the 25th February 2009 when the Thornbridge brewing team were joined by Mark Tranter from Dark Star Brewing in Sussex. Matured for two years and now ready to be sipped and enjoyed – cheers!

This unfiltered orange-hued Ale pours hazy with a fine white head. The aroma offers notes of sandalwood and honey. In the mouth it has a soft quality but overall its dry with a mouth-coating bitterness and notes of honey and oriental resin The finish has a subtle bitterness reminiscent of liquorice root.

Malts: Maris Otter Pale Ale and Crystal.

Hops: Atlas, Aurora and Liberty.

This is our second beer in the new Thornbridge Hall range  - limited quantities are available now in 500ml bottles - call 01629 64 100 for more details.

Picture: Left to Right

Nigel Dallas, Rob Lovatt, Matthew Clarke, Mark Tranter (Dark Star) and Dominic Driscoll

The Wild Swan has landed

Ok it might only be 3.5% but what a flavour packed beer you get!

 Using Hallertau, Northern Brewer, Chinook, Celia and Sladek hops Wild Swan is white gold in colour with aromas of light bitter lemon, a hint of herb and a subtle spiciness.

 A great refreshing beer that is now available in bottle for the first time.

 Call 01629 64 1000 to order some today

Jaipur Double Gold Champion Keg Beer

Whatever the dispense method a great craft beer is a great craft beer!

SIBA National Keg Competition February 2011 JAIPUR Gold - Champion Strong Bitters and IPA

BREWING INDUSTRY INTERNATIONAL AWARDS JAIPUR - keg ale class 3 Gold

Galaxia - A Beer from the Southern Stars

A new beer fom the team here at Thornbridge “Galaxia”. The name might suggest it’s from the stars but it refers to this being a single hopped pale ale – a beer brewed to showcase the Australian hop variety Galaxy.

Caolan Vaughan our resident antipodean says ”Using our fantastic pale ale recipe allows this stunning hop to transform this beer into a pleasurable experience in a glass  - one for all hop lovers”.

 The Galaxy hop imparts striking beautiful aromas of mango, guava and grapefruit. While providing an intensely tingling bitter finish.

Galaxia 5.2% is on sale now 01629 64 1000.

We hope you all enjoy

Cheers

Thornbridge Brewers

Can Good Beer Save A Pub? We Think So....

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/were-only-here-for-the-beer-how-good-local-ales-are-saving-our-pubs-2189027.html

Nuovo Lager from Thornbridge: Italia

With our sophisticated new brewery at Bakewell we are able to develop a whole range of different beer styles. But beer making also needs people and so in collaboration with our friend Maurizio Folli of Birrificio Italiano, an expert in lager brewing, we have produced Italia (4.8% Pilsner).

Ingredients are fine Pilsner malt and Hallertau Northern Brewer, Perle and Spalter Select hops. After a cold fermentation and a long, very cold maturation the beer offers herbs and lemon zest on the nose with a malty note that appears as the beer warms up. In the mouth it is soft with creamy malty notes and moderately intense hops; the finish is herbal and minty with a firm bitterness.

Want to find out why our beer tastes so good?

Do you enjoy a pint of Thornbridge beer?

Want to find out why it tastes so good?

Well come and meet one of our brewers, try some samples and find out the secret to our great tasting beers

January 27th 5pm – The Palace, Kirkgate,  Leeds

January 27^th 7pm The Scarbrough Hotel, Bishopsgate, Leeds

February 24^th 7.30 The Bollin Fee, 6-12 Swan Street, Wilmslow

Thornbridge Beers In Nicholson's Beer Festival

If you don’t know Nicholson’s pubs then you are missing out as they have some of the most fantastic and atmospheric pubs of anywhere in the country from London to Edinburgh via Leeds and York and many more to boot.

These pubs have taken Thornbridge beers for quite a while now and the staff are really clued up on craft beers and it is great when we get feedback from customers to say they have drunk our beers in these pubs and really enjoyed themselves.

 Nicholson’s are keen to promote craft beers and are holding a Best in British Cask Ale Festival from the  20^th to the 30^th January. We are delighted they are going to feature Thornbridge’s Brock 4.1% a very smooth and creamy dark stout and Hark 4.8% a warming winter ale with spiced fruit flavours – guaranteed to shake off the post Christmas blues.  More information is at: http://www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk/offer/beerfestival2010/

Thornbridge's Lord takes seat in House of Commons

Parliamentary privilege was put aside last week as Thornbridge’s Lord Marples beer made the House of Commons when it was served in the Stranger’s Bar.  

 The Chairman and Vice Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group last week joined CAMRA Chief Executive Mike Benner to sample Lord Marples ale, brewed at Thornbridge Brewery by the Beer Group's current Brewer of the Year Stefano Cossi, while the beer was on sale as a guest for a week in the Strangers' Bar at the House of Commons.

Picture Left to right:

Andrew Griffiths, MP for Burton upon Trent and Vice Chairman of the Beer Group,

Mike Benner, and Alan Meale, MP for Mansfield and Chairman of the Group.

Chiron - our first new beer of 2011

Thornbridge’s first new cask beer of 2011 is Chiron (5% - Pale Ale) – named after a Greek mythological character - a statue of whom resides at Thornbridge Hall. Chiron was a centaur  - creatures notorious for being wild and lusty, overly indulgent drinkers and carousers. By contrast Chiron was intelligent, civilized, and known for his  knowledge and skill. We like to think our Chiron is a sophisticated drink developed with knowledge and skill but containing just that little hint of hoppy devilment.

Rob Lovatt our Brewery Manager says “balance was key for us in this recipe. We wanted to make a pale ale where all aspects of the beer complemented each other perfectly resulting in improved drinkability”.

Chiron Pale Ale is golden in colour. The aroma is subtle but spicy with citric notes from the hops, balanced by biscuity malt and tart citrus fruit. In the mouth, there is a superb balance of tart hops, juicy malt and tangy fruit while the lingering finish offers a hint of apricot and tangerine before it finally becomes dry, bitter and hoppy but underscored by sweet malt. A beautifully balanced and wonderfully refreshing beer.

 “Hop and malt selection where key to the balance” says Caolan our Production Manager, “and after some trials we settled on  Pale Ale, Munich and  Cara malts and  Crystal Cascade and Chinook hops”

 Chiron is available now – call 01629 64 1000 to order.

Bracia Returns

In 2009 Thornbridge launched a bottled beer - Bracia (Dark, Rich Ale) developed by Head Brewer Stefano Cossi. Stefano had been inspired by Chestnut Honey as an ideal ingredient for a rich, dark beer where “its complex flavours would subtly blend with the roasted and toasted notes of specialty malts”.

The beer, a limited edition, proved Stefano’s instincts to be correct as it won plaudits from beer fans and a number of awards including Gold Medals (2009) in the International Beer Challenge and World Beer Awards and Silver (2010) at the World Beer Cup.

Now Bracia, which will be brewed and released four times a year in limited quantities, is available again. Bracia’s 2010 Winter release also launches the new “Hall” range of beers from Thornbridge designed to showcase the brewery’s innovation and speciality range.

Bracia’s careful use of  Malts (Maris Otter, Brown, Munich, Dark Crystal, Black, Chocolate, Peated), Roasted Barley, Hops (Target, Pioneer, Hallertau Northern Brewer and Sorachi Ace) produce a truly unique beer. Its aromas are of chestnut honey, cappuccino, white chocolate, dark fruits and vibrant fresh peel. The mouthfeel is velvety and rich, with notes of coffee, chocolate, liquorice and hazelnuts with warming alcohol, cocoa and a little peat in the finish. Thornbridge's Bracia has been infused with a generous amount of dark and bitter Chestnut Honey that was sourced by Stefano from Beekeeper Onelia Pin in the Alpine foothills of North East Italy.

Saint Petersburg - The Best Imperial Stout in Europe?

Great result for us at this year's European Beer Star awards! Our Saint Petersburg has taken out the Gold Medal in the Imperial Stout category!

Stefano is over in Nuremberg at the moment collecting the award. While he's over there he's even managing to get a collaboration Pale Ale brew in with Matthias Muller of Weissbrau Muller in Germany!

An awesome result for an amazing beer! The best Imperial Stout in Europe? We like to think so :)

Let's Brew a Lager!

Here at Thornbridge we're huge fans of Birrificio Italiano, one of the leading lights of the Italian craft brewing movement. I'd say we're pretty much their number one fans!

When we made a decision to brew our first lager, it was to these guys that we turned and asked for their expertise in this collaboration brew. We thought recreating their brilliant Extra Hop Pilsner would be a great starting place so got in a bunch of fantastic German hops, some German Pilsner malt and even had some yeast flown over from Germany and picked up at Manchester airport by taxi on the day of brewing. If you're gonna do it, do it properly!

The lager is still at the start of it's long fermentation at a cool 9 degrees celsius and we'll be maturing it for a couple of months at least, so hopefully this will be ready to go in the New Year in bottle and keg. Awesome!

Pictured from left are: Thornbridge Head Brewer, Stefano Cossi, our new Laboratory Assistant on loan from Birrificio Italiano, Giada Simioni, Birrificio Italiano Lead Brewer and Metallica Expert, Maurizio Folli and our own Thornbridge Lead Brewer, Andrea Pausler... The Italian Job!!!

The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it

An odd quote for the title of a news article, but Rudyard Kipling hit the nail on the head! Our South Pacific Pale Ale, Kipling has just won a series of awards at the SIBA (Society of Independent Brewers Association) Midlands Beer Competition.

Heavily infused with the fantastic Nelson Sauvin hop from New Zealand, we've always been proud of this beer, so it's great to see it do well! We were also the first brewery to use this hop in the UK.

In the bottled beer competition, Kipling got a Gold Medal in the Gold Beer category and then went on to win the overall bottled beer competition.

In the cask ale category, it won the Strong Bitters (5.1-5.5%) category and soldiered on to take out the Midlands Supreme Champion Beer award!

It's great to see that no matter what form the beer is in, whether it be with a bit of fizz in a bottle or as traditional ale from the cask, it's appealed to the judges. The same beer that goes into bottle has also found it's way into a few kegs and is available to try at The Sheffield Tap in Sheffield and the Coach and Horses in Dronfield. With the up and coming SIBA Draught Beer Competition, we have fingers crossed to complete a hat-trick!

The photo above shows our new Pub Operations Manager, Mike Pidgeon, proudly displaying the silverware. Yay for us!

A new bottled beer from Riverside

After the success of our 500 mL bottled range (Jaipur, Halcyon Green Hop Harvest 2009 and Saint Petersburg), we've decided to add another to the ranks and tomorrow we will be bottling our very own, Nelson Sauvin-infused Kipling. You know we love New Zealand hops! That's why we were the first brewery in the country to use Sauvin!

Even as this article is typed, the South Pacific Pale Ale is being spun around in a centrifuge, the little yeast cells getting as dizzy as hell, as we get it ready to enter the final stage before it hits a pint glass... all ready to get bottled. All of the brewers have tasted the freshly-centrifuged beer, proclaimed from the top of our lungs that it's damn fine and given it the special Thornbridge seal of approval. This involves a brewer group hug.

The consensus from us all also included the want, nay, the need for more supermodel brewers. If the beer is that great, so should the group hug be...

As well as some super-fresh 500 mL bottles, our keg experiment continues, with a bunch of kegs to be filled this week and destined for The Sheffield Tap and The Coach and Horses.

Be sure to hunt it out where you can... www.mybrewerytap.com will be sure to have some and you all know that life is great with a bit of New Zealand in it :)

Jaipur? In a Keg?

We put Jaipur into a keg. Surprisingly, a few ale buffs are grumbling about this. Why, I ask? It is unpasteurised and unfiltered. It contains living yeast and could theoretically continue undergoing conditioning in the keg. It contains a load less carbonation than standard keg products. In fact, it is only around 0.4 volumes higher in carbonation than a well conditioned cask. It isn't served in contact with any extraneous CO2 either.
 
Yet still people who haven't tried it have to moan! Pretty sad really.
 
We think it tastes amazing. It's the same stuff that goes into our bottles. We have it on at the Coach and Horses in Dronfield for the time being and are going to put a trial keg on at The Sheffield Tap this week.
 
If you only like cask ale, don't try it. You will probably moan.
 
However, if you like beer and appreciate it for what it is, not based on whether it's cask ale or not (which I could argue it is, anyway), let me know what you think of it!

Bank Street Arts

We continue our support of the local Art Scene and are pleased to announce our tie up with Sheffield's Bank Street Art Gallery. Over the next year we will be the beer supplier for all of the events that are held in this brilliant gallery.

Bank Street Arts is a new Arts Centre in Sheffield City Centre at a formative stage of development. Housed in listed Georgian terraces only a stone’s throw from the market and the Cathedral, they aim to provide a home, venue and setting for a wide range of creative individuals and organisations. One of the key elements of their work will be the focus on collaborative cross media projects

www.bankstreetarts.com

Sheffield Steelers

We are delighted to announce that we have secured the sponsorship for the Sheffield Steelers Man of the Match awards for the upcoming season. 

Each team will have a Man of the Match awarded with a case of our Award Winning Jaipur IPA. 

We are delighted to be involved with Steelers and are looking forward to what will be an fantastic season. says Brewery Director Simon Webster This association builds on our support for other local sport with involvement at Sheffield Tigers, Abbeydale Sports Club and Sheffield FC as well as that for the great Arts and Music in the City and is a great way of promoting our beers through activities we are interested in.

In addition to this, we will soon announce some great offers and discounts to all Steelers fans at Thornbridge run pubs and clubs.

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

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!

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....?

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!!!

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/

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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

Chiron - our first new beer of 2011

Thornbridge’s first new cask beer of 2011 is Chiron (5% - Pale Ale) – named after a Greek mythological character - a statue of whom resides at Thornbridge Hall. Chiron was a centaur  - creatures notorious for being wild and lusty, overly indulgent drinkers and carousers. By contrast Chiron was intelligent, civilized, and known for his  knowledge and skill. We like to think our Chiron is a sophisticated drink developed with knowledge and skill but containing just that little hint of hoppy devilment.

Rob Lovatt our Brewery Manager says “balance was key for us in this recipe. We wanted to make a pale ale where all aspects of the beer complemented each other perfectly resulting in improved drinkability”.

Chiron Pale Ale is golden in colour. The aroma is subtle but spicy with citric notes from the hops, balanced by biscuity malt and tart citrus fruit. In the mouth, there is a superb balance of tart hops, juicy malt and tangy fruit while the lingering finish offers a hint of apricot and tangerine before it finally becomes dry, bitter and hoppy but underscored by sweet malt. A beautifully balanced and wonderfully refreshing beer.

 “Hop and malt selection where key to the balance” says  Caolan Vaughan,  “and after some trials we settled on  Pale Ale, Munich and  Cara malts and  Crystal Cascade and Chinook hops”

 Chiron is available now – call 01629 64 1000 to order.