Sharp’s Twin Coast Pale Ale
Earlier this year Sharp’s Brewery introduced a new cask beer for summer called Twin Coast Session Pale Ale.
The brewer, which celebrated its 30th anniversary this year and also produces Doombar, released the beer for on-trade customers on Saturday 16 March.
The 3.9% ABV cask pale ale, inspired by the Twin Coast peninsula in Cornwall, was described as “a crisp, bright and pale-gold ale” with a “citrus-hop aroma” and a “refreshing, juicy taste”.
In addition, Sharp’s said the serve compliments modern pub classics including mild curries, Cajun chicken burgers and loaded fries.
Sharp’s Twin Coast fresh cask ale is available in 5 litre mini casks and 36 pint boxes direct from the brewery’s webshop at RRP £29.99 and £69.99 respectively. Read more here.
Adnams Beach Break
This summer saw Suffolk-based brewer Adnams team up with Devon’s Utopian Brewing to release a new collaborative beer.
Beach Break is a 4.2% unfiltered Kellerbier-style lager, created using a variety of British hops including Fuggles and Godiva alongside East Anglian Munich malted barely and Helles Fire lager yeast.
Utopian Brewing head brewer Jeremy Swainson said: “Adnams has this incredible heritage, and Dan Gooderham (Adnams head brewer) and I got chatting about some of the fantastic beers we’ve had in Germany that have essentially come out of wooden casks. The idea was we could both draw on our skill sets and come together.”
The process of serving in a wooden barrel, and the fact there is often yeast in suspension, made Gooderham think this would be the perfect style for a cask beer.
Adnams head brewer Dan Gooderham said: “Jeremy from Utopian was schooled in Germany, so he brought the methodology, and Adnams has its history with cask - I think it’s quite a nice marriage. British brewing culture is actually quite similar to German brewing culture”.
Beach Break is available direct from Adnams in 12x440ml can format at RRP £20.99 as well as in both keg and cask format.
Northern Monk and Timothy Taylor’s Northern Rising
Last month Northern Monk and Timothy Taylor’s joined forces to release a new collaborative brew.
Northern Rising, a 4.4% stout, was released in a variety of formats, including cask and keg.
Brewed using roast barley and crystal malt, the beer was described as “malt-forward” with a “satisfying chocolate flavour”. Timothy Taylor’s “staple” Golden Promise was also added to the mix, giving the stout a full body.
Northern Monk co-founder and managing director Russell Bisset said: “We’ve been huge fans of Timothy Taylor’s for many years and a collaboration with them has always been on our bucket list.
“We had fun getting together and developing different concepts on what we could do together and landed on a stout, an exciting challenge.
“Stouts are the fastest growing beer style in the UK, and we’re stoked for people to try our take on a classic.”
The brew marked the first collaboration from the two breweries and had been in the making for more than a year.
Timothy Taylor’s head brewer Andy Leman added: “Northern Monk is a fellow Yorkshire brewery we’ve been proud to call a friend for many years, and one that has produced some of the most exciting craft beers in the country.
“It’s been fantastic to blend their craft beer credentials with our real ale expertise to produce Northern Rising, a truly delicious stout.”
Woodforde’s Lionheart
Soaring summer sales of Woodforde’s Lionheart cask ale led to the Norfolk brewer turning the seasonal special into a permanent beer.
The 4% ABV pale ale was first released to mark England’s participation in international football tournaments.
It was later made permanently available to pubs in cask and 500ml bottles.
Woodforde’s said the recipe had been enhanced and offered courageous hops and bold flavours using exclusively British ingredients.
Woodforde’s head brewer Aaron Taubman said: “We were blown away by how well received Lionheart was in pubs across the country this summer – especially in such a fiercely competitive market.
“That’s why we’re so pleased to now make it a permanent addition to our core range of beers, lining up against some real Woodforde’s heavyweights.
“We are all about bringing bold, exciting options to our cask offering, so have slightly sharpened the recipe to make it even better. We’re really excited to see even more pubs join the pride.”
The brewery is also a proud signatory to The Cask Project. Read more here.
Thornbridge Union
Moving to July, Bakewell-based Thornbridge Brewery launched a new cask IPA made on the union set it was gifted from Marston’s in May this year.
The Derbyshire brewer saved a Burton union set from Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company (CMBC) and has been making sure it is used on a regular basis – starting with its flagship brew, Jaipur, to make sure it all worked.
Now, The Union 6% ABV IPA has been brewed exclusively on it and will be released at Thornbridge brewery bars on Friday 5 July 2024 and available to the on-trade afterwards.
Thornbridge said ‘The Union’ is a classic British IPA with a base malt of Maris Otter from Norfolk, “where the sandy soil and maritime climate is perfect for growing this variety” and brings a “slight nuttiness and biscuit flavour”. Read more here.
Adnams & Five Points’ Distant Fields
Another new addition for Adnams, the brewer joined forces with Five Points to release a collaborative new brew, Distant Fields (4.5% ABV), in August this year.
Celebrating locality and seasonality, the new beer was brewed in a ‘landbier’ (‘country beer’) style.
The golden amber serve, which is also vegan, offers initial toast and bready notes on the nose followed by autumnal red berries and a touch of citrus lemon, balancing the light spice and charred maltiness.
Adnams head brewer Dan Gooderham said: “Part of the inspiration was our locality – being the heartland for malting grade barley means provenance is key. Plus, we’ve got a local roaster in Simpsons Malt.
“We both try to use English ingredients whenever we can, so we brewed with a broad range of malts, all English hops, and a special yeast to bring everything together.”
Distant Fields is made from Vienna, Dark Crystal and Double Roasted Crystal malts from Simpsons and East Anglia.
Hukins Hops in Kent supplied the Bullion and Fuggles, while UK Admiral hops were also used alongside a Swiss yeast strain, Après Ski, which was selected in a nod to Five Points’ head brewer Max Descloux’s Swiss heritage and adds a touch of fruit and floral notes.
Distant Fields is available in both cask and keg format from Adnams pubs and stockists across East Anglia, as well as in Heineken Free Trade, Star Pubs and via Adnams key partner Wholesalers.
The serve is also available in canned format at RPP £29.99 for 12x440ml from Adnams webshop. Read more here.
- If you have any new products being released to the on-trade, email the details with high resolution images for potential inclusion to rebecca.weller@wrbm.com.
- Check out the most recent round-up here.