Four new beers

Well, actually, I lied there in the title a little. Three of the beers aren't new, indeed they've been languishing in some scruffy old wooden casks for a few months, because we thought it would be a good idea.

The beers were Vitesse Noir and Granite 2013. We put the Vitesse Noir in a Bourbon cask, because chocolate and bourbon work. We were not wrong.

We thought the Granite might be a whole load more interesting. For a start the beer is quite dry for a barley wine. The yeasty things got themselves all worked up and just continued eating maltose like some sort of Ovaltine addicted creature. This version is the strongest and driest we've ever made.

Putting it in a Bourbon cask seems to have calmed it down quite a bit. Putting it into a Islay Whisky cask seems to have done quite the reverse.

We have produced less than 500 bottles of each of these beers. Sorry about that, but that's just the way it is.

The other beer really is a new one, and is the third in our range of Rhetoric beers. The idea for this came from Yvan Seth last year, when I was sat at IndyManBeerCon with some shopping in front of me. He asked if my stash of green tea and baggy of pepper was for a beer. "No" I replied "But that's not a bad idea"

It turns out not to be too bad an idea at all, the beer is not over-the-top and nicely balanced for a 12.4%. Additionally, it's got some subtle and quite interesting flavours going on. Distinctive and delicious.

We've made a little more of this one. Around 3000 bottle in total. We've also put a little bit into some KeyKegs, so if you are really lucky, you'll find some in your favourite beer bar sometime soon.

I also spent some time messing around with a little sample, some milk, cream, egg yokes and stuff to see what might happen. The resultant ice-cream was really tasty, I might tell you some more details sometime soon. Lets just say strong beers and freezers make for an extra-special result - watch this space.

You can buy all these beers on-line at our webshop.

Enjoy.