The end of the year and all of its festivities is approaching, the nights are drawing in and the beers are getting darker. We've lined up a number of exciting events to carry us through to 2022.
BEER SHOP STA 8TH BIRTHDAY
The Kernel Brewery TTO + Peddling Pizzas - Saturday 30th October (pizza served 1700 - 2100)
The Kernel has been a staple for Beer Shop since day one and their diverse range of beers make them a perfect choice for populating the taps with something that'll get everyone excited. Hoppy, dark, sour or continental - covered (beer lineup TBC next week).
And frankly, we've been dying to get Adam back to serve us up some top-tier slices (especially in his new wagon). This is simply the excuse we needed!
BEER SHOP HTC CALENDAR
Thursday 21st October - Bubble Works Run Community - The Trick Or Treat Run.
Sunday 31st October - 1200 - 1700 Major Beers + Shop Crusts
Bert and Ernie, Salt and Pepper, Batman and Robin, Mario and Luigi, Bangers and Mash, ...... Beer Shop and Major Crusts. No need to say anymore.
Bert and Ernie, Salt and Pepper, Batman and Robin, Mario and Luigi, Bangers and Mash, ...... Beer Shop and Major Crusts. No need to say anymore.
Tuesday 2nd November - 1930 - 2100 Jonny Garrett Bottle Share
Hitchin is very lucky to have a new resident and that resident is THE Jonny Garrett from Craft Beer Channel fame. This will mean nothing to some but he is a pretty big deal in the craft beer community and a great addition to our town. Jonny has released a new book and to celebrate we are having a tutored seasonal bottle share! - more details to follow.
Hitchin is very lucky to have a new resident and that resident is THE Jonny Garrett from Craft Beer Channel fame. This will mean nothing to some but he is a pretty big deal in the craft beer community and a great addition to our town. Jonny has released a new book and to celebrate we are having a tutored seasonal bottle share! - more details to follow.
Thursday 4th November - Bubble Works Run Community Monthly Run + Beer
Tuesday 23rd November - 1900 - 2100 Home brew Club
Home Brewers Assemble! Its been 2 years since our inaugural Home Brew bottle share and it's back, back to black (excuse the song reference) but it will be the original theme of dark beers. You know the rules brew something dark of any ABV and bring along 1-2 litres, enough to share around the group.
Home Brewers Assemble! Its been 2 years since our inaugural Home Brew bottle share and it's back, back to black (excuse the song reference) but it will be the original theme of dark beers. You know the rules brew something dark of any ABV and bring along 1-2 litres, enough to share around the group.
Saturday 27th November - Bubble Works Run Community + @BambuuBrush Special Litter Pick Up Run - more details to follow.
Tuesday 30th November - Special Birthday Crossover Bottle Share - more details to follow.
Thursday 2nd December - Bubble Works Run Community Birthday Run - more details to follow.
Saturday 4th - Sunday 5th December - Birthday Weekender Special Guest Tap Takeover - more details to follow.
Sunday 5th December - Major Beers and Shop Crusts
We've noticed an uptick in the speed at which our Verdant stock is selling recently. Good thing we've got some more tins in for the fridges. Conventional Tactics - the new 6.5% IPA variant of single hop Nelson DIPA that turned heads back in 2020. "Dank gooseberries, tangy citrus and a touch of kerosene-soaked bicycle inner tube." We're salivating.
There's also a new iteration of Swifts Or Swallows? (originally a Cloudwater collab back in 2018). The 2021 version makes use of Ekuanot, Galaxy, Nelson Sauvin, & Strata both hot side and as the dry hop additions. We've also topped up on People, Money, Space, Time & Road To Unruin, whilst we're seeing a return of I Played Trumpet On That Tune & 300 Laps Of Your Garden.
A trio of brand new Wylam beers are being delivered later in the week. Punkah 6% is the product of a recipe devised with West Country outfits DEYA and Brookhouse Hops, melding the modern with the traditional. Significant Drifting 6.6% IPA offers citrus, tropical & stone fruit flavours alongside a spot of rye spice with its Citra, El Dorado & Galxy dry hop, & Billy Pilgrim Citra & Cryo Pop NEDIPA 8.8% promises all sorts of fruity dessert flavours with a protein heavy (think thick) grain bill to match.
Happy Birthday & virtual High Five to Unity who have made it to the half-decade waypoint of brewing lovely beers for all of us to drink. We've got it pouring at St Albans today and in 440ml tins aplenty!
A few more single lines coming in are worth a mention too. Newtown Park have a released a strong (5.8%) Session IPA called Flood The Colours making use of Strata & Mosaic for their combined tropical and dank qualities. Burnt Mill are continuing on their roll with various West Coast IPA recipes, going extra fruity and pale with Saturn's Tree 6%, & Cloudwater's High Beam is a 5% scaling down of recent TIPA Elevationism using Chinook, El Dorado, & Simcoe.
AND - it wouldn't be an ordinary week at the shops if we didn't have some variety of totally ridiculous, international, genre defying, vaguely beer due to arrive. Tefnut Pass Out is riffing with a blackout theme; heaps of berry fruit, but also squid ink, black tomato, black lava salt, black corn... Sour and ultra thick like it's Imperial Gose predecessors from Omnipollo & The Veil Brewing.
There's always alluring wild things ready to be bought, popped and supped from our cold storage - but in this week's mailer is the short list of the recently added sharing bottles from some of the UK's best wild and mixed-ferm producers...
Cloudwater's barrel programme has been relentless with its releases this year. Three of their new sour beers are tied together by the exploration of chuckleberries as an ingredient in wild fermentations; young spontan expression is tested in A Series Of Good Ideas, blending of young and old in red wine and port barrels respectively is at the fore of The Way It Could Have Been, then carbonic maceration is approached by during the conditioning of bourbon BA The Wind, The Sun, And The Rain.
Five years of pales ageing in various wine barrels have been blended and bottled by Wiper & True in their Pale Blend 2021, coming in at 7.3% offering more fruit and funk than mouth puckering sharpness.
DEYA are beginning to take flight in the aged beers market with a conceptually simple, and hopefully flawless, oat heavy, mixed fermentation beer, Hoppy Oaty Thing.
And finally, we've not yet mentioned the latest Burning Sky simply and aptly named Cherry Saison. Sour morello cherries added to a nine month old, wild Saison. In all likelihood, as tasty and drinkable as it is understated!
