Nirvana Brewery: Beer tasting and brewery tour

Last week Nirvana Brewery hosted a virtual beer tasting and brewery tour, with special guest Natalya Watson. Nat loves beer. She is one of only a handful of advanced cicerones in the world. She's is an author, hosts a podcast and during 2020 started a Virtual Beer School. 

The evening was hosted at the Nirvana Brewery, located in the heat of East London. They are an independent, family-run brewery dedicated to producing quality craft ales. They started producing low alcohol beers in 2017 thanks to Becky supporting her dad. Jim was looking to go teetotal and she wanted to help him feeling at home when socialising. They use 100% natural ingredients and since 2017 have brewed various styles of beer such as stout, IPA and pale ales - as well as experimenting recipes like a kombucha beer.  

The evening saw about 65 participants on the virtual tour. Some of these were solo callers, like myself, and others joined with members of the household. I would say there were at least 80 people involved, but could well have been a few more. After introducing the evening, Becky handed over to Nat to talk us through pouring like a pro.

What are we tasting for?

Nat introduced herself and told us about her journey to get to where she is today. Nat was very clear that before we know how to taste beer we needed to know how it was made and what can affect the colour, smell and taste of a beer. It turns out that beer is more complex than other beverages. To make alcohol you need sugar, yeast (something to ferment) and a liquid - usually water. A pint of beer is around 95% water. fermented drinks like wine and cider are quite straightforward. They contain a fruit which have natural yeasts that ferment during the brewing process. Beer however, doesn't naturally contain yeast. It has to be added. Beer generally consists of 4 ingredients, in fact in Germany beer HAS to contain just 4 ingredients - malt (malted barley), yeast, water and hops. The variety of beer that we love and enjoy is down to the combination of those ingredients. For instance, yeast provides the family of beer, like ales or lagers. Hops can account for bitterness, aroma and flavour. 

Now that we know what goes into it, let's get to some tasting!

Easy on the eye

Not so fast. Nat explained to us that there are 4 steps to tasting beer. The first thing is to pour your beer into your glass - always use a glass, and a clean one at that. Nat explained that a greasy glass can impact the beer in a few ways - so makes sure it's a clean one! Where were we... oh yes, pouring your beer. Hold your glass at a 45 degree angle and pour along the edge of the glass, gradually turning your glass into an upright position. This allows you to manage the head on your beer as you pour it. You thought that was one of the steps didn't you? Not quite, but nearly there. Okay, we are there. Now you've got your beer into your glass you can LOOK at it. The colour of your beer can tell you the short of things you'll be expecting to taste. 

What a whiff

Next if the aroma. Most people might have thought this would be the first, but I found that learning these steps meant I was much more prepared to look for and think about the flavours I experienced. To get the most out of the aroma, gently swirl your glass. This will build up a bit of head on your beer and release some additional aromas. Breath it in. If you can't pin down that scent, think about parallels in normal life. Warm toast, floral noses - don't be afraid to put a name to it.

Take a swig

The first chance to try a drop of your latest tipple. Again, think about what you can taste. Try to name it. But wait, there's more that can help you. Retro-nasal breathing. I know, I'd not heard of it before either. Take a mouthful of your beer. While it's in your mouth, breath out of your nose - without choking on the beer. This intensifies the aromas of the beers and brings out more of the flavour. I can honestly say this was a fantastic tip. I've been doing it for everything I've drunk since and it works a treat. 

What a feeling

The fourth and final step is mouth feel. Is it thin? Maybe silky smooth, like milk. It's it flat? Or does it have a lot of fizz? Does it have a warmth from the alcohol - well, not in this blog, but for alcoholic beverages you may feel that well known warmth. All these things add to our drinking experience. We may not think of the bubbles in our beer as flavour, but that pop will undoubtedly add something. Next time you try something, think about how the carbonation it has impacts its flavour. Try it out. 

What else did we learn

We were kindly shown around the Nirvana brewery, with Becky taking us through the process. The first thing Becky explains is that AT uses far less malt. Up to 5 times less in some cases. Another big difference if the water temperature. A higher temperature reduces the fermentation, creating much less alcohol. The wort produced from the mashing process in then pumped to the kettle, where it is boiled for an hour to sterilize. Adding hops here can change things dramatically. Adding hops when hot will produce bitterness, adding when cool will bring more aroma. 

The liquid is then cooled and pumped to a fermentation vessel. The yeast is pitched and then the beer is left for two weeks. The process is very controlled. The sterile environment is hugely important for AF beers. Any contamination could mean unwanted fermentation and a ruined batch.

At the end of the two weeks the beer is hazy. Additional hops could be added to create a dry hopped beer. This is the end of the journey in the Nirvana site, but there's still one more important stop. The beer is shipped for bottling. Nirvana don't currently have space for bottling, so this is done off site where it is also filtered. The filtering increases the shelf life of the beer, and as there is no alcohol to act as a preservative this is a key part for Nirvana in their process. 

We finished the evening by going through our remaining Nirvana beers. The beers we tried in the night were; Bavarian Helles Lager, Hoppy Pale Ale, Organic Pale Ale, Dark & Rich Stout, Classic IPA and Traditional Pale Ale. All of the beers use a different combination of yeast, malts and hops to create their own unique flavours. You can really taste the difference between them, especially the different hops used. Nirvana hosted a fantastic evening and can be proud of the beers they have produced. I look forward to see what can they bring to the AF community in 2021 and will be watching closely as this brewery continue to expand and make a real name for themselves. Finally, a special thanks to Natalya Watson for guiding us through the session. Very well presented and clearly loves doing what she does.