Beer and wine hybrid created for first time

Nottingham's Castle Rock Brewery has created what it alleges is the first beer and wine hybrid to be produced in cask.

The limited-edition fusion brew, named New Era, is an attempt by brewer Dan Gilliland to bring together the best of the brewer and vintner worlds as part of a range of one-off experimental beers - Traffic Street Specials.

Starting with a traditional dry-hopped ale, made with fruity Yakima Valley hops, the base beer is fermented before it is combined with Italian Pinot Grigio grape juice and Champagne yeast and fermented for a second time.  

"The sugar content in the grape juice combined with the aggressive Champagne yeast - it ate through pretty much all the residual sugars, pushing the alcohol levels up to 7.7%. This is good medium ground between wine and beer,” Gilliland explained.

“What we have now is not a beer nor a wine, but something that shifts between the two – the cool citrusy hops play off the warm and heady gooseberry notes from the grapes, leaving a tart, dry finish from the wine and one final sweet kick from the malts.

“Admittedly that sounds like there’s a lot going on, but the marriage works and I’m really excited for people to try it for themselves. To my knowledge, this is the first time a beer-wine hybrid has gone into cask, but if you know of any others get in touch on Twitter @Traffic_Street."

New Era will be available in pubs across Nottinghamshire throughout the winter, but is extremely limited in quantity.

All that remains is whether to call the hybrid ‘bwine’ or ‘weer’…