AF Beer club Virtual festival day 3

 

On the final day of the af beer club virtual festival we have another 4 Drinks.  

We start the day with the great Hammerton crunch AF, followed by Birmingham brewing co sober brummie,  then a bit of a change and a soda from cloudwater soda and end the day with what looks like could be a very big hitter from MashGang the I am Become death the destroyer of the worlds.  Looks like going to be another great day so So lets get cracking with Beer 1.

Hammerton Brewery - Crunch AF

Host: Robin (Af Beer Club)

Guest: Co founder of Hammerton Brewery Lee Hammerton.

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Hammerton Brewery was founded in 2014 In the North London borough of Islington at the time their were lots of bars and pubs in the area but no real local brewery presence.   So Hammerton brewery was started to address this.  They started off with IPA's and later moved into different styles.  Interestingly they still use the same brew kit to this day.

After trying a few different American Peanut butter milk stouts Lee and his team spent some time experimenting to see what they could do with the style.  After quite a few test brews they managed to get a recipe they were happy with and launched the Beer as a one off brew at Craft Beer Rising.  The beer proved so popular and sold out all the stock at the festival (9 -10 kegs worth) that they decided it had to be part of the test range.

They started looking at the idea of an alcohol free beer.  To begin with they didn't think they had the kit or the money to invest in new kit.  But they kept revisiting this idea and noticed more and more alcohol free beer on the market that tasted good and sold.  They went back to the head brewer and he did more and more research into this and after lots of research and test brews they came up with their first alcohol free beer a pale Ale called Zed.  To brew this they use the same yeast as their normal beers but get the mash to lower temperature which means the yeast does not produce so much alcohol.

After the success of Zed they started looking at what other styles of beer they could do in alcohol free.  They realised there were few stouts in the AF market and none like crunch so decided to give it a go.  So after 3 or test recipes they came up with one they liked and around the time that Lees wife was expecting their first child Crunch AF was launched to mark the occasion.  

Hammerton has been limited with what they can do with AF over the last year or so due to the pandemic and lots of staff being furloughed but now things are starting to return back to normal and the vaccine is being rolled out they hope to Experiment with more AF beers.  They would be looking at possibly some more Pale ales and IPAS with a bit more of a hop profile than Zed and also would look at another Stout possibly a Chocolate fudge cake and one challenge they would really like to take on is the AF wheat stout.

My Thoughts on the Beer

Looks:  This is a great looking stout the lovely thick black looking with a good head.

Aroma: I find this smells a lot like popcorn a very sweet toffee aroma.

Taste:  A lovely buttery taste that leaves a nutty aftertaste.  Has a good thickness to it which can be lacking in some other AF Stouts.

The tastes in this combine really well and the end product is a very enjoyable stout.  Will have to get some of the full strength to compare it with one day.

Birmingham Brewing Co - Sober Brummie

Host: Zoe (Reading CAMRA)

Guest: Matt Head Brewer

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Birmingham Brewing co was founded in 2016 all of their beers are Vegan and Gluten free as they wanted to be accessible to everyone so that they could share their love of beer with everyone.

They came to realise there was one group they couldn't share it with those who couldn't or didn't want to drink alcohol.  This is where the idea of sober brummie came from.  Having tried some very poor Af beers at the time they realised their was a gap in the market for a quality beer but without the alcohol.

They worked on developing the product over a 3 year period experimenting with different styles and techniques to keep the alcohol low in the brewing process.

The process they eventually came up with is very similar to their usual brewing process but allows them to keep the alcohol out.  

The beer is a simple grain mixture with 98% pale malts, Some caramel malts and Oats to give it a bit of a thicker mouth Feel.  5% of all sales go to the Midlands Air Ambulance Service.  

The crest on the can is used to represent various parts of Birmingham.  The Dots mark the Commerce of Birmingham and represent the outside of Selfridges,  The windows of Birmingham library mark Its knowledge, and finally the sloping roofs represent the Industry of Birmingham.

At the moment they have no immediate plans for any more alcohol free beers but its definitely something they will be looking at in future and the process they use could easily be adapted to More styles of alcohol free beers.  They could also easily transfer the beer to kegs and it is very likely sober brummie will be available on tap in their tap room very soon.

My thoughts

Looks Very clear straw coloured beer with not much of a head

Aroma Get a bit of a juicy aroma coming off but it's hard to notice any specific smells.

Taste: Nice malt profile with a bit of sweet honey taste.  Has a nice bitter finish to it.

Overall:  A decent pale that I could easily drink a few cans off.  Will be great to get up to their tap room and try this on tap one day.

Cloudwater Soda - Raspberry and Rhubarb Lemonade with Belma Hops

Host : Robin

Guest: Anja

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Cloudwater Soda was set up as a seperate brand from Cloudwater Brewery to give people a grown up drink that wasn't beer but also by using hops they wanted to keep a nod to their brewery roots.  

They launched at the 2019 mindful drinking festival where they handed out samples of thier Mango and green tea sodas.  These proved very popular with the attendees and have since added to their range with many more flavours.  They like to experiment with the flavours first and then find a hop to fit the taste.  

Cloudwater Soda feel that colabs are very important to them and alough them to gain knowledge from other companies as well as share thier own.  They feel that using hops in thier sodas brings people into the conversations about how they effect flavours without having to actually have a beer.  

They will carry on experimenting and releasing more flavours in the lemonade range.

My Thoughts

Looks - This pours with a nice light reddish colour,

Aroma - A very fruity aroma I got lots of lemon from the lemonade and then a little bit of raspberry in the background.

Taste -  To begin with I wasn't really getting any of the individual flavours just an interesting mix.  Very refreshing though and after a while I noticed more of the raspberry coming through.

Conclusion - When I first saw this was in the box I was a bit disappointed that there was a drink that wasn't a beer in a beer festival box.  But this was actually a nice change and these are very good soft drinks.  I look forward to trying a few more of theirs.   

Mash Gang - I Am Become Death Destroyer of Worlds

Host: Robin

Guests: Jordan James and Mike

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Well this was an interesting chat what a crazy and interesting bunch of guys they are.

Mash gang was started during the first lockdown.  Realising they had no work for a while the guys found themselves drinking lots of Alcohol free beers eventually they couldn't find anything else to buy so on this Mash Gang was born.  

Their first beer was a bit of a challenge they originally set out to brew a lager and had been looking at lots of American style lagers and other drinks.  Mike got a bit excited by the Malt liquor style and when the other guys received their samples of lager there was another bottle hidden that was of the malt liquor style.  The guys decided this was the one to bring to market and so California uncommon was born a new style for the UK market but they liked it and so they put it on sale to see what happened.

Mash Gang are of the thought that if they like something they will make it and take the risk to see what happens.  They like to concentrate on the beer and innovative ideas and leave all the other stuff.

My Thoughts

Looks -  This pours as a very cloudy yellow beer.

Aroma - The smell is very unpleasant Hard to pinpoint anything particular but a sort of dank sourness

Taste -  This has some crazy strange tastes too it.  There's a bit of a smoked malts taste and a small amount of heat from the chilli's.

Conclusion -  I'm unsure about this beer the taste is very strange but didn't find it unpleasant think it could be one of those that takes a while to get used to maybe need another Can to decide.

Round up

Well if anyone's made it this far I'd just thought Id say what a great weekend its been with some great beers and lots of things to take on board.  From brewing techniques to how beers can be used to promote important causes like mental health.  It's had it all.  Thanks to Robin, Zoe and Matt for hosting the sessions and all their brewers for their insights into their parts in the alcohol free beer world.  

Special thanks has to again go to Robin for putting it all together and Tom at Wise Bartender for the logistics of getting the beers out to us.

Hope to do it all again next year and who knows maybe We can meet in person.