St Austell and Verdant team up to create hazy pale ale

Limited-edition Fuse (5% ABV) was born when St Austell Brewery’s Lee Walker and Penryn-based Verdant’s head of operations James Heffron came up with the brew over a pint.

Verdant brew manager Sam Taylor joined Walker at St Austell Brewery’s small batch brewery earlier this month (August) to bring Fuse to life. It’s been made with Verdant’s own yeast and three new experimental English hopping varieties.

The finished beer is “packed with tropical fruit and citrus flavours and has a savoury biscuity note to it with a thick and chewy mouthfeel”.

Exciting to collaborate​

Walker, who manages the small batch brewery at St Austell, whose beers include Tribute, Proper Job and Korev, said: “It’s really exciting to collaborate with another Cornish brewery whose beers we regularly seek out.

“St Austell and Verdant produce very different beers in their day-to-day operations so the idea of coming together to blend styles and flavour ideas has been a real pleasure.”

Fuse forms part of the brewery’s Cask Club series that sees a variety of experimental beers brewed in its small batch brewery, giving brewers the freedom to experiment.

Many of St Austell’s most popular beers, including its flagship Tribute pale ale, started out as small batch releases.

Steeped in tradition​

Sam Taylor of Verdant, which makes craft beers including Headband and Light Bulb plus its cask core tipples such as Argal and Penpol​, added: “St Austell Brewery is steeped in tradition and our brewery is the opposite of that.

“Both breweries are coming at things from a different angle and that’s the true point of collaboration, different ideas from different places that coalesce to make one product that is great and brings something new to the table that neither one of us would have thought about doing.

“We’re lucky to have our own yeast strain and lucky that it lends itself to this style of hazy New England beer.”

Fuse will be available in select St Austell Brewery pubs across the West Country from 31 August.