Man Overboard – 5.0% Fruity IPA & Brit Hop – 4.2% English IPA
The sun’s out and Spring is in full swing – which usually signals a busy time for seasonal brewing at The Hop Shed! This month we have not one but two new IPAs on offer, and in fact both are collaboration brews that allow us to share our experience with British hops.
The first release is Man Overboard, a 5% IPA brewed with staff from The Cocky Anchor pub in Worcester. We decided to collaborate with them on a beer because they bought all of our seasonal brews last year, and as they’ll be celebrating the fifth anniversary of their sister pub (The Cocky Anchor in Romsey, Hampshire) this year they wanted to go for a 5% IPA. After discussing some ideas, I put together a recipe using bready Vienna malt which a number of different hops could slot into, and while attending the brew day manager Matt and barman Dan gave them a sniff and decided which ones they’d like to go for. They chose Harlequin, Godiva, Mystic, and Jester – which should give the full range of tropical and citrus fruit flavours! They also gave us some valuable info on what has been selling well in the pub, so we can keep on trend with future beers!
The second of the releases we start delivering the last week of April, which means it’s unlikely to be on bars until the first week of May, but should be just in time to enjoy over the bank holiday weekend. Brit Hop is a 4.2% IPA using one traditional English hop – Goldings – and one modern variety – Olicana. This idea originated when Phil, who used to live in the area but emigrated to Australia, came into the brewery while visiting family. He now works in a brewpub north of Brisbane which hosts Noosa Hinterland Brewing Co. and introduced me (virtually) to their head brewer John. We both liked the idea of a beer we could design together and brew separately, so came up with an English IPA recipe that fuses the traditions and innovation in British brewing, to connect opposite sides of the world with a great beer!
A lot of breweries do them, but why go to the effort of a collaboration brew? Well personally one of the things I really like about the brewing industry is that while in another field companies may be keen to protect their trade secrets, brewers are usually quite happy to share advice and ideas to help one another. A collaboration is an opportunity to learn from someone else, share what you know, and maybe come up with something you never would have thought of on your own. As a brewer, I’m always keen to try out new methods and increase my knowledge, and I also try to promote British hops as viable alternatives to – and having unique characters from – international varieties. It also doesn’t hurt that you may get your beer in front of new people who have never tried it before, and if it’s good, they might keep ordering from you!
I’d love to do more collaborations in the future – if you’d like to suggest someone we could work with, either as an employee of the organisation or just because you like what they do and want to see us team up, let me know on rob@thehopshed.co.uk!
