Rake out

Gee, this last week has been busy; brewed 4 times in 8 days, I've never done that before. I pressed one of my recently acquired fermenting vessels into action and so increased my potential brew-length¹. I've also had to rack beer into cask because it was sitting in fermenters, getting in the way, besides, we've also had people ringing up for beer, some we've even had to disappoint due to a lack of beer being ready. But before the reader starts thinking I'm complaining, I'm not, it's all really good fun.

Some months ago I was talking to Glyn, who manages The Rake bar on Borough Market. We had discussed the possibility of him putting our beers on at some point in time; not that easy a job as we have no real logistics network to get casks down to London or empties back. Neither was I sure I could be in a position to have enough beer, or casks, to make it possible. Just over a week ago, during twitter discussions, it became apparent that I would be in London next week and then again a few weeks later for the GBBF. I also realised that having just taken delivery of new casks and having increased fermenting capacity, I could indeed manage to get beer to The Rake. Moreover, if I can risk my delicate country boy lung tissue to the great smog, then perhaps I could hang around while the beer is stillaged, tapped and settled, just so I can be around to check its quality.

And so, on the 28th June 2010, I will be in The Rake from around 4pm, and so will my beer. I'm excited, Glyn tells me he is, I'd like to think that beer lovers in London might be too. I'm slightly wary of the possibility of a whole load of proper beer rating people there, armed with finely tuned palates, but hey, feedback is feedback.

Hope to see you there.

If all goes well with casking-up this next week we will have;

Light Cascade 3.4% - guess what? it's made with Cascade hops.

Continuum 4.0% - Our "standard" beer, dry hopped in the cask.

Fusion(?name still in thought process) 4.2% Ginger and a hint of chilli, all late hopped.

Dark Energy 4.9% - Sort of a stout, perhaps, dark and fruity dry hops.

Infra Red 6.2% - I'm not even going to try and describe this, you beery experts will tell me something different, the best description on the night gets a pint bought by me.

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¹Brew-length is the volume of beer that can be made at one time. Why it is measured in units of volume but given a title suggesting a linear dimension in space is perhaps slightly confusing.