Whitelocks Beer Festival begins tomorrow. Some of the offerings;
Some beers to think about ahead of the festival (more to come!)
Kegs from Italy:
Birrificio del Ducato
Giovanni Campari is regarded as a visionary and revolutionary Brewmaster, producing sensational and award-winning beers in the tiny village of Roncole Verdi since 2007.
AFO 5.4% No IBU Pale Ale
As in ‘Ale For Obsessed’. This is the second beer Giovanni ever made. Top-fermented pale ale brewed with 10 different hops including Chinook, Cascade and Simcoe.
CALIFORNIA SUN 4.5% No IBU California Common
The Ducato version of the ‘steam beer’ style beloved in the San Francisco Bay Area, first produced when Frontier brewers set cold-loving yeasts to work at higher-than-usual temperatures.
CHRYSOPOLIS 5% NO IBU Sour ale spontanea
Inspired by the lambic tradition of wild fermentation, this is racked into wood barrels directly from the mash tun - not from the fermentation tanks as is usual - and allowed to age slowly with lacto, pediococci and brett yeasts.
FOREVER YOUNG 4% No IBU Sahti
A collaboration with Sori Brewing in Estonia. Sahti is a farmhouse style indigenous to Finland and still brewed in much the same way as it was 500 years ago when it was produced on a tiny scale for festive occasions.
FREERIDE 5.2% No IBU West Coast IPA
Pale orange and a fluffy head but very much with hops to the fore here. Giovanni describing this as the “cause and the end” of many problems… indeed!
KISS ME LIPSIA 4% No IBU Gose
Salty, fruity and tarty. Blended with pink Himalayan salt, and aged 9 months.
LA LUNA ROSSA 8% NO IBU Sour Ale
At least three years in the making. Mixed fermentations, mainly with lacto, acetic and brett yeasts - deeply funky. Blended with young beer then aged for a further 12 months. Possibly not to all tastes, but a huge beer with a massive rep.
MACHETE 7.6% No IBU Double IPA
This beer is notorious among afficionados for its uncompromisingly enormous hop hit. Sticky, full-bodied, resinous, and some say drinkably ruinous. Careful!
WEDDING RAUCH 5.2% No IBU Rauchbier
A style born in the Bavarian foothills, more specifically the ancient town on Bamberg where brewing smoke-flavoured beers has prevailed since medieval times.
VIOLENT FEMME 4.2% No IBU Hoppy saison
As Giovanni says, an abv in keeping with a style of beer made “to drink with the body more than with the mind,” adding he often drinks this beer in the evenings thinking of “the violent femme who tore his mind”. Wow!
BirrificioLambrate
The original Italian rock and roll brewpub, slaying palates from its base in central Milan since 1996. Any trip to the city should include a visit to one of their renowned beer bars.
AMERICAN MAGUT 5% 30IBU West Coast Pils
Lambrate’s attempt to marry the famous German style with US hops. Reputed to be super crisp, super light and super drinkable.
IMPERIAL GHISA 5% 80IBU Smoked Baltic Porter
A style of beer originally made in London in the late 1700s, reputedly bound for Russia where Catherine the Great had developed a taste for its dark intensity and (arguably) the high abv!
ORTIGA 5% 45IBU Golden Ale
Named after the district of Milan made famous by Enzo Jannaci’s song ‘Gang of the Ortica’. This beer is described as ‘dangerously drinkable’ by Lambrate - expect some light spice and gentle bitterness.
PORPORA 8% 45IBU Bock
This style has been given a twist by Lambrate with the late hopping, giving balance to the slightly sweet, caramel fruitiness.
Hungarian breweries:
RothBeer
Starting life as a homebrew micro-operation, Roth has developed over the past 10 years into an irreverent, experimental and award-winning brewery.
BAKANCSLISTA #17 circa70IBU 6.1% IPA
The latest in Roth’s ‘bucketlist’ series of powered-up single-hop IPAs, this time teeing up Mosaic and smashing it out the park. Juicy.
PYROMANIA 7.5% 35IBU Smoked Porter
Five different malts and the balancing effect of Magnum and Spalt bittering hops. Should be fluffy, malty and given to a light finish.
Hopfanatic Sörfőzde
Hidden away at the end of a maze of alleys and tunnels just off the Andrassy Avenue, Hopfanatic is a moniker and a modus operandi - big beers and big hops. Welcome!
NO HOP LIMIT 8.5% 125IBU Double IPA
Professes to be a bit of an unsubtle beast in this style, with brewmaster Tamas Kiss not shy when it comes to adding masses of resiny, oily hops to his signature brews.
FEKETE ERDO 6% 45IBU Porter
Mr Kiss giving a twist to this trad London-style by adding fresh forest fruits during the secondary fermentation and then steeping with Willamette and Centennial hops.
MONYO Brewing Co.
Less than two years in operation, founder Adam Pein’s manifesto is to revolutionise the Hungarian beer movement and to foment the beginnings of ‘Craft Beer 2.0’
BLK IPA, 6.3% 51IBU Black IPA
Should be deceptively light, with Warrior and Simcoe hops to the fore
#Whitelocksbeerfest16