Tsujigiri - A Fresh I.P.A that you don't want to mess with

 In December 2014 we were celebrating a good friend's birthday at BrewDog Shepherds Bush. As the beers were flowing so did our creative juices. The bar's general manager, and a friend of ours, Dean Pugh, was amongst the party. He got talking to Chris Taylor, one of our brewer's assistants, and our head brewer, Bryan. With all three having homebrew backgrounds the discussion was on beers they've brewed and would like to brew. Soon the trio were recounting past recipes and churning out ideas for using slightly different ingredients including various yeasts and fruits in possible future recipes.

Dean spoke of a time when he experimented with fermentation using 4 different yeasts, including sake yeast, on a single recipe. He also mentioned how the original recipe using sake yeast evolved and was successfully brewed on BrewDog Manchester's pilot kit, showcasing other Japanese ingredients including sushi rice and Japanese hops. Bryan talked about what he had seen in the sake breweries of Japan, which he had visited a few months before and so, the guys suddenly got excited over using sake yeast to ferment a beer. Things didn't stop there; they hit upon the idea of brewing a fresh IPA, using fruit in the recipe. What we were looking at now was a beer fermented with sake yeast with additions of fruit and since the theme was a "Japan I.P.A", the fruit of choice was yuzu. Then the question of sourcing such an odd ingredient in large quantities was posed, and the conversation went that way...

Months later and after several get-togethers, where the idea of this brew just wouldn't go away, a pipe dream became a reality. Dean came to Weird Beard brewery, donned a Weird Beard overall and brewed this interesting recipe along with Chris and our new lead brewer, Jonny Bright. Here's the photographic proof:

In writing the recipe the guys decided to bridge the citrus character of the yuzu with the lemon-sherbet quality of one of our favourite hops: Sorachi Ace. This hop originates from Japan and aside from being an all-time favourite, was a suitable choice for the hop schedule. They also decided upon adding Chinook to compliment the spicy notes that the sake yeast would create during fermentation. The aim and the result: an easy drinking I.P.A with a considerable twist! Speaking of twists, the name of the beer, which is obviously Japanese, can get you a little tongue-tied.

Tsujigiri literally translates as "crossroads killing" and describes the impulsive act of a Samurai testing out his new sword on a random individual or passer-by. Not too far removed from an 'impulse brew', Tsujigiri is not your everyday I.P.A but can be surprisingly drunk like one. The beer comes to 6.2% and on the nose, it's citrussy because of the yuzu. It also has a subtly herbal aroma with a fresh minty-ness from the Sorachi Ace. Sipping on the beer, you get the I.P.A bitterness through the tangy lemon and fresh herbs, but it rounds off really refreshingly and balanced. It's bang on for the summer and a delight to drink. Tsujigiri will be launched at BrewDog Shepherds Bush on Friday 22nd May from 6pm at their event.

We look forward to seeing you there but kindly request all new katana are left at home.

Single Hop Series: No. 5 Single Hop Centennial

The Single Hop Series allows us to showcase our creativity within the constraints of using a single hop. So far we have got our creative side on with Chinook, Amarillo, Nelson Sauvin and Citra. With these hops, we've respectively produced an Imperial Best Bitter, Belgian IPA, Saison and even a Pilsner. So this time around we thought we better go big: big on flavour, big on aroma and big on ABV.

But which hop did we decide to play around with for the 5th brew of the series? We hadn't needed to look far since we went with a hop you will find in many of our beers, particularly our specials. We decided to give Centennial, one of our favourite hops here at Weird Beard, centre stage. It's both big on flavour and aroma and to 'tick the box' on a high ABV beer, we simply chose the style of a double I.P.A.  

Here we give you Single hop Centennial: packed full of all the citrus and floral notes you would expect, with a healthy bitterness and malt back bone to back it up. It's available to order and you can generally sip it up in bottle and keg. Excitingly, today, the only cask of this beer made to-date, is available to drink at Craft 100, Craft Beer Co Clapham.

Hope to see you there!

Sadako Imperial Stout

Back in July 2014 we released the dark, rich monster that is Sadako: our first imperial stout, onto the world. The beer was originally held back at the brewery for just under 4 months, as we never want to release a beer that we don't believe is ready. We were small and naive back then, and in hindsight feel we let her out into the wild a little early. We had simply run out of room at the brewery and we got a tad bored of moving the pallet around each day. The beer tasted good so we thought we would release it. It generally went down well, but it soon became very clear that it was still improving as it got older. By the time it had sold out, and there were very few bottles still ingaround, it was tasting fantastic!

The next batch was brewed in early September 2014 and packaged in October. Since then, we have acquired ourselves more warehouse space, where we can stick a pallet in a dark quiet corner and forget about it. For the last 6 months, batch 2 of Sadako has been lurking in the depths of the Weird Beard warehouse, watching, waiting for its chance to make a bid for freedom. Now the time has come, the video has been watched, the phone has rung and Sadako will climb out of her box. Are we getting all of these Ring references?

Sadako currently appears on our brew schedule at least 3 times a year. You can tell when we brew it as another of our favourites, Dark Hopfler, comes out of the same brew day. But we will be pre-ageing each batch of Sadako for at least 6 months before pulling it out, waxing, and releasing it. Even if only to make sure we are presenting head brewer Bryan's favourite beer at its best. It has been a long wait between batch 1 and 2, but we hope you find it has been worthwhile. Infact you can rest easy knowing that in that dark corner of the warehouse, there is yet more Sadako waiting for its time to come and get you.

A portion of each batch also goes into barrels. There is no pre-determined time scale on these; when we decide they are ready, they are ready. So you can look forward to seeing Heaven Hill, Jack Daniel's, Jim Beam, Red Wine and Tequila barrel aged versions of our flagship imperial stout coming your way at some point. We may even redo the Ardbeg aged version, but I wouldn't hold my breath....

The Bottle Shop Collaboration Brew

For the past year we have done monthly pop-ups at the Bottle Shop Arch at Druid Street and it has been an all-round wonderful experience. Not only did these bring us closer to the thriving beer community of Bermondsey, but we've built a particularly strong relationship with the team behind the Bottle Shop. We've had many immensely enjoyable Saturdays working alongside them in their space. So when we were approached by our friends from there, Andrew and Ben, to take our working relationship to a new level, we didn't hesitate. Together we've made a beer with other breweries that have 'popped-up' at or are friends of the Bottle Shop, which will be launched at Arch this coming Saturday.

"You taste better when you are scared"; is a Tart Grapefruit IPA, collaboratively brewed with Marble and Bullfinch breweries earlier this year. The idea behind the brew is itself an interesting concept; here we have three breweries working together under the umbrella of another aspiring scheme from the Bottle Shop.

The beer was brewed at our brewery in West London on Friday 13th February. The date, coupled with the  interesting beer which we will divulge later, provided inspiration for the name and the Jason style hockey mask theme for our Lup'in Skull. 

  
So what beer has been born from the minds at the Bottle Shop, Bullfinch, Marble and ourselves? Well, together we've created an I.P.A with a load of Cascade and Chinook hops in the kettle and fermenter. This isn't a scary sort of recipe these days however, and this is where you should be listening attentively, we added 100Kg of acidulated malt into the mash. Using this kind of malt was a first time experience for Weird Beard: both for Gregg, who assisted in the recipe-writing of our collaboration and Bryan, who brought the beer gasping to life on the brewday. Matt Howgate (Marble) and Ryan McLean (Bullfinch) were also contributors to drawing up the recipe and executing the brew.

In concocting this brew, we thought that if we are taking you out of your comfort zone, we'd do it a little bit more. On top of the sour malt, we added a lot of fresh grapefruit juice at the fermentation phase for an extra sharp spike of flavour. The beer both tantalises and shocks your taste-buds with its zesty-ness. You expect it, you know it's there but you go for the sip and it is still frightfully juicy and tart. That being said, it entices you to keep on drinking it.

Our beer is now ready and so we invite you to come to its launch party. Weird Beard's Gregg, Marble's Matt and Bullfinch's Ryan will all be present at the launch, which will be held at the Bottle Shop Arch. Come along, we dare ya!

Weird Beard and Brodie’s Collaborative Brew “WEIRD BROdMANCE”

There is a lot of talk about what makes "craft beer", craft. The lack of definition and the daunting challenge of doing so means any way of epitomising it is vague, contrived and often controversial. Something that is evident amongst people in the industry however, is that when it comes to the craft beer scene, everyone inspires respects and collaborates with those deserving of it. In the macro-beer world and between The Beer Giants, sadly there isn’t that same camaraderie. Stone Brewing has quite beautifully described the relationship between compatriots in the craft field as “a ‘collaboration not competition’ mindset, a constant alliance and source of inspiration”. When we were met with an opportunity to work with Brodie’s, we obviously did not say no. Besides, head brewer Jonny Bright, from Brodie’s and our Bryan have known each other from before they were making beer. It was only a matter of time that they would cross paths over a mash tun to brew together. Here’s the story...

On a mid December morning, Bryan tweeted Jonny: “I can’t see you mate” to which Jonny replied: “I’m in a van outside opposite Yeoman” and on that congenial note the brewday had begun. 

Come 9.30am, we had mashed in and both Bryan and Jonny enthusiastically mixed the grains into water for our East-meets-West collab brew. 

The day was a fairly long one but in the company of brewers, friends and beer it was thoroughly enjoyable and satisfying. Indeed, collaborations tend to be really great experiences for everyone involved. They offer opportunities for bouncing ideas and learning from one another, these are important and necessary for developing skills and generating concepts or altering perspectives. Ideas and the beers born from just get better! This is particularly ‘eye-opening’ as a brewer in the confines of his own kit. Then there is the fun aspect. Brewers simply love to brew and getting two of them together on a brewday, well, there’s a kind of romance you can’t knock and so this inspired the name of our beer.

So what was it that we made? Between us, we decided on a strong beer: one to savour and one to share. In some ways this transcends our attitude towards the industry we work in where brewers strive, independently but also together to increase awareness and accessibility of quality beer out there. Good beer is best enjoyed in good company and that spirit is then passed on. For example we have "Whale Wednesdays" at Weird Beard, which involves the team collecting after work midweek, each contributing a beer from their personal bottle collections, sharing, reviewing and having a whale of a time! The beer we made is one for that sort of occasion. 

Our beer was a mash-up of some of our own favourite recipes: think Weird Beard’s Sadako and all the best traits of a Brodie’s impy stout. This means it is big on the hops, big on sweetness and deliciously more-ish. In light of the festive season, we chose maple syrup instead of molasses to thicken the brew. With the maple syrup added to the boil and during fermentation, we emphasised the candied sugar qualities of the chocolate, amber and crystal malts used. You can also expect caramel, spice and some vanilla from it. 

Since we dictated the malt ingredients, we had Jonny decide on the hops. He suggested Galena, an American hop that rises to the occasion when used for bittering in bolder or darker beers. Together we came up with a hop schedule that ensured the beer would have a sufficiently crisp pine and wood essence to cleanly contrast, but also balance the sweetness of the malt backbone. To smoothen it up even more, we added lactose. We needn’t say it, but a lot of thought was put into brewing this lavishing imperial stout and it was made ardently, with passion from both sides.  

We made the beer, now for you to indulge in WEIRD BROdMANCE! We will be launching our collaborative beer on cask, keg and in bottle at the Hop & Berry, London in March. Limited stock will be available thereafter for your enjoyment.

Little Things That Kill - re-invented

Little Things That Kill was one of our biggest sellers last year. We admit it also caused us and a lot of our loyal customers the most problems.

The idea was to make a low ABV beer with some balls; a beer crammed full of flavour but more importantly with the body to support it.

We originally made this beer unlike any other pale ale by approaching it as if it were a stout. When we make beer, we steep the grains in water and it is the water's temperature that makes a difference in the types of sugars produced. This is "mashing". Certain types of sugars are more fermentable than others; they are easier to convert to alcohol. Most pale beers will be mashed somewhere between 60-65 degrees Centigrade to produce sugars that are easily fermented. With stouts, we want unfermentable sugars, which when left give stouts their thick, luxurious body and mouthfeel as well as the higher calorie count.

Little Things That Kill was mashed at the highest temperature we dared (+70 degrees. Centigrade.)  This was to produce more unfermentable sugars, making the beer a little more chewy and sessionable. This did work to an extent, but not as we had hoped. We made a lot of unfermentable sugars, giving the beer the desired body, but we also made hard-to-ferment sugars. This meant our beer appeared finished and ready to bottle, when in fact it wasn't.

Those of us who can't afford expensive bottling lines use carbon dioxide, the very helpful by-product of fermentation to bottle condition our beers. To do this, we leave a small amount of yeast and a very controlled quantity of sugar in the beer, called "priming". This allows the beer to go through secondary fermentation in the bottle, cask or keg. (Yes, I did say we condition our beer in the keg and so, yes our kegs are 'real ale'!)

The problem with Little Things was that the beer was conditioned, as normal, with the sugar we prime with. Unexpectedly, gradually over time the yeast converted the extra, harder-to-ferment sugars in the beer also, leading to overcarbonated and unpourable beer. For these problems, we are very sorry and we faced the difficult decision to stop brewing Little Things That Kill.

However, we love the brand so much and couldn't let it go. How could we really?! Not only does it have a cool skull logo, it happens to be named after a song by a, maybe-not-so-classic, British band that head brewer Bryan loves. We can understand that people may shy away from giving it another try, but we have made changes.

We took a step back: came at the beer from a totally different angle and have breathed new life into the Little Things That Kill brand. We still mash high, but not nearly as high. We still approach it as a stout, by adding ingredients you normally find in darker beers. This time around we used generous amounts of wheat, oats and lactose to give a silky, fuller mouthfeel with better head retention. We appreciate these changes affect some people: those with wheat or lactose intolerances and vegans. We are sorry for this but we want Little Things That Kill to live. We have not compromised on hops though. The first of this new batch is stuffed full of Mosaic, Amarillo and Cascade in both the boil and dry hop stages. The result? We have a full bodied hoppy monster of a beer at a sub 4% ABV, making it the perfect session beer.

We may continue to tweak the recipe though the batches, along with our usual changing up of the hops each time, so please do let us know what you think. We ask you to give it one more chance.

Out Of Office Coffee IPA

Guest post from our brewery assistant Andrew Drinkwater:

For the past six weeks I've been learning firsthand about the differences between homebrewing and the world of commercial beer as a brewery assistant at Weird Beard. It's been extremely hard work but also very rewarding - the bruises, scaldings, thermal burns, chemical burns, cuts, grazes and acid swallowing was all worth it when drinking a cask of something I'd been involved in from brew to packaging.

One of the privileges of the past few weeks has been to design and brew a new beer with my fellow brewery assistant, Chris Taylor. Together with his partner Emma, Chris is one of the country's most talented homebrewers, and has been working part-time at Weird Beard for the past few months in addition to his full-time job. We've homebrewed together a few times, but it's been a lot more fun working with a kit 72 times bigger!

Out of Office Lu'pin - inspired by Chris!

The idea for our beer came from my previous job. My old team drank a lot of fantastic coffee from the roasters at Hasbean - in particular, their blueberry-packed Yirgacheffe Naturals from Ethiopia. I brought my last pack of beans into the brewery on my first day, and while drinking it with Chris, we came up with the idea of brewing a Coffee IPA in the mould of Kernel's long-lost Suke Quto IPA. 

Chris came up with a killer mix of Chinook and Amarillo hops to provide tropical fruit and some complexity, and Mosaic hops, both as a steep and dry hop, to complement the blueberry notes from the coffee. We wanted to aim for a very pale, clean and dry beer to let the hops and coffee sing, so the malt bill is very simple, with 95% pale with a little bit of wheat.

We added the coffee in three different ways - crushed in the underback, fresh French Press coffee added directly to the wort, and several kilos added to the fermenter along with the dry hops. We did almost manage to completely ruin an FV with the amount of hops and coffee beans we threw into it - but we think it was worth it. In lieu of a grinder, here I am smacking it up ready for the underback:

We're really proud of the final beer - it's 7% ABV, very pale, and has all the bitterness of an IPA but with the aroma and flavour profile of a good cup of coffee made from a freshly roasted delivery from Hasbean. We've called our beer Out of Office, to reflect our 'part-time' nature and to indemnify the guys at Weird Beard if you don't like it! 

The first keg of Out of Office is going to be on the bar at my leaving party at Brewdog Shepherds Bush on Saturday 18th October, along with a couple of other Weird Beard rarities like Hive Mind (which has been reformulated for 2014) and the much-vaunted low-alcohol Dark Hopfler. Hope to see you there!