Hello and welcome once again to our irregular brews letter from your friendly local craft beer shop and bar. Well, it feels as if Autumn has finally crash landed after an insane summer heatwave. We find it fascinating how the weather can affect the beers we drink, and we had a big rush on our
lagers, wheat beers and pale sales over the summer. Now the nights will soon be drawing in and we look forward to bringing in some stronger and warming dark beers for our board.
We also are pleased to welcome 2 new members of staff, Luke and Alexa. Both join us with a wealth of experience working in Nottingham’s craft beer scene. Do make sure to introduce yourself next time you’re in!
Our new Kraft Werks eCommerce site will be going live soon! We have been working hard with our new digital agency over the summer months in preparation for the upcoming launch of a new Kraft Werks click and collect web store. This will allow you to view and buy all our in-stock beers at any
time, and we plan further along the line to expand this service to include delivery. Watch out Amazon! More to be announced soon…
Events
We have a busy month of events coming up with our second beer and cheese event in partnership with the award-winning Delilah Fine Foods. This time we will be pairing beers with cheese as well as charcuterie. The tickets sold out very quickly for the last event so if you would like to join us we strongly advise to book early.
We will also be hosting our 3rd (can you believe it) Annual Kraft WerksOktoberfest! The kegs of Munich-brewed beers are on they’re way from Bavaria and the steins will be being filled from the 1st October onwards.
New Brews
2018 Rainbow Project.
If you are not familiar with the Rainbow Project collaborations, it's where 7 of the best British breweries link up with 7 international breweries to collaborate on ideas and brew some very special beers.
Started in 2014, the international Rainbow Project proved so popular it has been a big annual event on the craft beer scene. So far, they have given us legendary beers like the Buxton/Omnipollo Yellow Belly and this year’s selection doesn’t disappoint. 2018’s link-ups are with some of the best US craft brewers and this year’s theme is barrel aged and/or barrel fermented beer. We have just a few boxes left, and they include an exclusive Rainbow Project glass.
Here's what you get in the box...
Wild Beer Co x Side Project Rosa Rouge (ABV 5.0%)
A sour saison with pomegranate and rose petals.
Hawkshead x Modern Times Yellow (ABV 5.3%)
A barrel aged saison with apricots brewed in San Diego. This collaboration was aged in red wine barrels before going through a secondary fermentation on over 3 lbs/gallon of Southern California apricots.
Beavertown Tempus Project Lapis Lazuli (ABV 8.2%)
Beavertown drew inspiration from natural winemaking to produce an amphora and barrel aged beer. For a fruit addition, they used Pinot Noir grape.
Magic Rock x Casita Cervecería Papillon (ABV 7.5%)
A barrel aged sour ale with blueberries, apricots and butterfly pea flowers. The foundation of this finale comes in the form of ageing in French oak barrels.
Burning Sky x Three Floyds Out From the Void (ABV 11.0%)
Burning Sky’s collaboration with legends Three Floyds comes in the form of a barrel aged barleywine. Fermented with Burning Sky’s house ale yeast and a Brettanomyces strain. The beer was then aged in Sauternes wine barrels with vanilla pods and cacao nibs to give a decadent chocolate orange flavour.
Partizan x New Belgium Phoenix (ABV 5.0%)
Phoenix is a “green” inspired wood aged saison that takes full advantage of the unique character of aged hops. The aim is to showcase green flavours from aged hops in the barrel.
Siren x Sante Adairius Equilibrium (ABV 5.8%)
A red-inspired, warm-pitched, red wine barrel fermented Saison delicate with intelligent complexity.
Farmhouse Breweries
One of our most loved breweries of 2018 is the enigmatic Little Earth Project, a small sustainable brewery deep in the Suffolk countryside. Their beers are barrel aged and have their own in-house wild yeastiness. These brews often combine locally grown seasonal foraged ingredients.
Recently after many conversations, we secured a few bottles of very rareMills Brewing beers. Mills are tucked deep in the Cotswolds and all their beers are wild fermented with minimal modern intervention relying on local wild yeast cultures. The wort was left overnight in an open cool-ship to be inoculated then barrel aged, fermented and blended. Mills rare releases are hotly anticipated and we have just a few bottles of their Today Sour for you, a blend of three barrels of 2 years oak aged beer. We believe these small new sustainable, naturally fermented farmhouse brewers could provide a pointer to the future of craft beer in the UK.
That's all for this week, thanks for reading!
All the best,
Os & the Kraft Werks team.