Pete Drinks

The Redchurch Brewery was founded in East London back in 2011 and I hope it doesn’t give too much away to say that they’ve become one of my favourite breweries. Not only do they make some wonderfully tasty beer – more on that in a moment – but their overall design is a thing of beauty too.

I’m a sucker for a good label.

Despite their relative youth, Redchurch have managed to develop quite a broad range, with seven different beers at the time of tasting – although they have since added an eight beer, in the form of their Brick Lane Lager.

We start from the weaker end of their range, although it’s all relative. I apologise now for the crappy quality of the pictures!

Shoreditch Blonde is a pale blonde beer, the weakest in the range at 4.5% ABV. It pours with a fine bubbled, lingering foam and just a hint of yeast haze. This is something of a theme with Redchurch, with quite high sediment levels in their bottles – although not to the same extreme as the likes of Kernel.

The nose is full of fruity hop aromas, and some sugar sweetness. There’s a slightly spiced, wheat beer like hint too, although that might be from the yeast.

On drinking, it’s well restrained – delicious and creamy mouthfeel, light and sweet with fresh citrus fruit and a nicely subtle bitterness. Nicely quaffable.

I was expecting Hackney Gold to be a golden ale, but as the picture above shows I was wrong. It’s Redchurch’s take on a classic Best Bitter, at 5.5% ABV; a deep, rich red ale in the glass, with another nicely fine textured head.

The aroma is well hopped, fruity with toffee notes and an chocolate orange hint.

The flavour is malt and caramel, with orange blossom coming from the hops and leading into a deep bitter finish. Perhaps not the most traditional Best Bitter I’ve ever tasted, but very nice regardless.

Bethnal Pale Ale next, another 5.5% ABV beer. Golden, and nicely clear until I managed to pick up a load of sediment while pouring, which resulted in the murky looking glass above!

The overwhelming aroma is of fresh grapefruit, and just a hint of honey. It’s fruity too, on tasting but that is quickly overtaken by a big – almost too big – bitter finish which is rescued by a sticky sweetness coming in just at the end.

Big and brash, this is not a subtle beer.

Hoxton Stout completes the first batch, a 6% ABV stout that sits black in the glass with a luxuriously pillowy tan head. The aroma is classic stout with a rich, tempting toasted maltiness.

In the mouth, it’s simply magnificent – burnt sugar and a rich, slightly sweet start that leads into a deep roasted bitterness with some subtle coffee notes, and a wonderful dry finish.

The second set (with much better photos!) are from the strong end of the range, all coming in around the 7.5% ABV mark.

Great Eastern India Pale Ale kicks off the strong section, the weakest as a mere 7.4% ABV.

It pours with a huge head (that’s not entirely down to my incompetence!), and a nice rich golden colour which I managed to ruin by picking up yet more sediment.

There’s a gloriously huge hop aroma, sweet peaches and dried mango – the sensation of sticking your nose in the glass is much like sticking your head inside a sack of hops straight from the farm.

It’s initially warm in the mouth, with sweet caramel and sticky summer fruit. There’s a building resinous hop flavour, still very floral but bringing in more and more bitterness to the tail. The alcohol warmth as it slips oh so easily down your throat suggests a much higher percentage and my tasting notes sum it up as “properly, properly huge, magnificent, incredible!”

This has definitely gone onto my Desert Island Beer List.

Old Ford Export Stout is the second stout from Redchurch, stronger than the Hoxton Stout at 7.5%. It’s similarly black in the glass, although the head is thinner and a touch more fleeting.

The aroma is enticing; dark roasted coffee, with a distinct undercurrent of dark fruit hops and just a whisper of dark chocolate. I don’t think I can say “dark” often enough here.

Creamy in the mouth, there’s plenty of molasses and a delicious, dried cherry fruit sweetness that’s countered by a big bitter background and another warming alcohol burn. It’s a cracking stout.

Finally, Baltic Street Porter finishes off the collection although I’m slightly sad to say that it seems to have disappeared from Redchurch’s website. Another black beer, with another ridiculously huge head.

The aroma is rich with orange blossom and a chocolate edge; sweet, rich and enticing.

In the mouth, it’s thick and smooth, sticky sweet like black treacle and chocolate. There’s a delicious fruitiness to it too, with dates and ripe melons, all tied together with a gentle bitterness that leaves the beer sweet without being cloying – just what you want from a porter.

Redchurch don’t do subtle beer, and I’d hate to see their hop bill, but overall this is a stunning range without a single duff pint in sight.

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I always make it a mission to hunt down local beer when I’m travelling, and our trip down to Cornwall last year was no exception. As well as managing to pop into, among others, Harbour Brewing, I also picked up some bottles to enjoy back home.

This is the range from Wooden Hand Brewery, although it looks like Cornish Gribben has since been replaced with a Cornish Steam Lager.

Pirate’s Gold is a 4.0% ABV pale ale – more of a pale copper colour than gold, with a fleeting head on it. The nose is full of toffee, with a slight biscuit hint.

In the mouth, it’s a pretty decent bitter. Toffee flavours are nicely balanced by a slightly dry, significant hop bitterness along with a dark berry fruit. Although it doesn’t feel too fizzy, there’s a little too much of that ‘sharpness’ to the flavour that over carbonation can give you, but that’s a minor quibble.

Next is Cornish Gribben, slightly stronger at 4.1% ABV. A pale, dull copper colour in the glass, this beer appears almost flat. There are some sweet malt tones on the nose, and a hint of orange citrus fruit.

The flavours mirror that first impression; flat, slightly sweet, a subtle hop bitterness with just an edge of citrus about it – not bad, but it’s not setting my tastebuds singing.

Cornish Buccaneer is another step up, at 4.3% ABV. A much more encouraging, bright amber in the glass with a thin head. There’s not much of an aroma but there’s a faint, sweet nose, more fudge like this time.

On tasting, there’s a decent hop bitterness balancing out that sweetness, but the flavours are muted. There’s nothing wrong with it, but it’s a fairly average bitter.

Continuing the nautical theme, next is Black Pearl, a 4.5% stout. Jet black in the glass, it has a thin but lingering tan head on it. The nose is rich and roasted, full of coffee.

The taste starts with sweet, rich treacle and an almost creamy texture. A deep and satisfying roasted bitterness comes through, making it a nicely balanced and very pleasant stout.

Cornish Mutiny finishes off the range, the strongest of the bunch at 4.8%. Deep copper in the glass, it’s the first bottle to produce a really decent, deep foam head. The nose is filled with malt and biscuit and certainly promises a bigger beer than its brothers.

Although there is a rich sweetness to the flavour, somewhat half-heartedly balanced by a hoppy bitterness, it remains unremarkable.

Overall, this is a slightly frustrating collection. There’s nothing actively wrong with any of these beers – Black Pearl is a decent stout, and the rest are all perfectly competent Best Bitters, but there’s not a great deal to distinguish them from one another.

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Sierra Nevada are probably one of the best known US brewers in this country. As with many great breweries, they were founded 30 years ago in California by a keen homebrewer who dreamt of taking things to the next level.

Their Pale Ale is widely available in supermarkets and bars, and it’s happily easy to find the bulk of the rest of their range too.

We start with their classic Pale Ale, at 5.6%. It’s an amber ale in the glass, with quickly fading, fairly large bubbles. The nose is sweet, light with gently toasted cereal, and just hint of alcohol. There’s also an undercurrent of gentle green leaf hops.

In the mouth, it’s fresh, fruity, with a relatively light body. It’s quite full of fizz, and  surprisingly unsweet considering the nose. There is some sugar right at the front, but quickly fades away into a lingering hoppy tail. Throughout there are gentle, summer fruit hints from the hops. It’s light, delicious and wonderfully drinkable.

Next up is Torpedo Extra IPA, at 7.2%. A slightly darker gold in the glass, with a thin but more lingering head. The nose is rich, filled with sweet fruit, almost honey-like – although I’m not getting the level of floral hops I expected.

It’s a big, rich beer in the mouth – a medium body for all the sweetness, it manages to avoid being too heavy and sticky. The sweet honey come through nicely, with big deep fruity hops feeding in lots of bitter dryness in the tail – more than making up for the slight lack of hops on the nose. It’s proper, big IPA. Spectacular.

On to the Porter, again at 5.6%. A deep dark russet in the glass, with a thin but fine bubbled, lingering head. There’s plenty of coffee on the nose, with some hint of dark chocolate there too.

The taste is full of burnt toast, in a really good way. It’s deliciously sweet, with a burnt sugar bitterness. The body is relatively light for all that, which helps keep it refreshing. Those sweet and bitter notes remain balanced throughout, with a shortish hop tail coming through at the very end. It’s on the lighter side for a porter, but it’s tasty nonetheless.

And so finally to their Stout, slightly stronger at 5.8%. This one is properly black in the glass, with a slim tan head on top. It has a dark, toasted sweet malt nose to it.

It’s properly big and chewy in the mouth. The first flavour you get is a deep, almost black treacle sweetness which is beaten into submission by a seriously deep bitter core. There’s a rich, creamy texture and it manages to be both big on bitter and yet leave you with a sweet stickiness to your lips. Awesome.

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