Thank you to Genevieve Upton, Brewer from Marston's Brewery, Burton on Trent (and passionate lover of all things beer) for this wonderful review of new beers from 'Revisionist'...enjoy!
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| Gen with the seven delicious Revisionist ales |
As part of Team Revisionist, part of Marston’s new product range for 2014, I have attended a selection of events to launch these seven delights.
These seven beers offer a new perspective on seven styles, but what is it that defines each of the styles such that we could then make them our own?
1) Craft Lager
Lagers are typically pale beers, though not always. They are fermented at low temperatures (around 15C) to minimise the production of esters. Ideally they have long cool conditioning periods (traditionally called lagering) of around 14-15 days, to help mature the flavour, though this isn’t always carried out and depends on the beer and the brewery. Typically they are low in bitterness, which would indicate little body hop addition. As artisanal lagers are developed, some will now include lots of late hop addition to capture the amazing fragrances of world hops, with none of the bitterness.
Lager started as a winter beverage, when there was plenty of cold ice and snow to maintain low fermentation temperatures. Brewers would stock pile ice in order to ferment lagers for as much of the year as possible. It was only with the dawn of good temperature controls that lagers began to be associated with refreshing summer beverages.
2) Saison
A Saison is a Belgium farmhouse beer that was fermented in winter but stored and drunk in the summer by hardworking farm hands. They have a fruity and distinctive spicy character thanks to the distinctive yeast, though historically, there was no defining characteristic for the Saison. In modern times, Saison yeasts are descended from the yeast of the Dupont Brewery which ferments well at high temperatures – 29 – 35C! In the farmhouse environment there was much variety from farm to farm due to wild yeast contaminations. Orange zests, coriander and even ginger have been known to be added to the brew for their bacteriostatic qualities, though for this style, provided the yeast is right, there is potential for anything goes.
3) Hefeweizen
With Hefe meaning yeast, and Weizen meaning wheat, this is a pretty easy definition – a yeasty wheat beer that’s cloudy in appearance. These beers are usually sweet and fruity, with the distinctive banana ester and some clove characteristics from using a Bavarian wheat beer yeast. They don’t need to be entirely wheat based, but are usually 50-70% wheat based.
4) Dark IPA
To many, the Dark IPA is an oxymoron. How can a pale ale be Dark? A relatively new style, it combines the popular IPA styles of higher alcohol %, with lots of body hop for bitterness and lots of late hop for aroma. On top of that, rich dark roasted malts make this an all round drinking experience.
In order to be genuine, in my opinion, a pale ale of any kind should pay homage to the Burton Pale Ale and IPA routes and have a higher gypsum content in the brewing water. That gypsum helps to promote a full mouth feel and softens any excessive bitterness.
5) Rye Pale Ale
For these beers, some of the barley cereal has been swooped out for Rye malt. These are usually dark crystal malts with rich red colours, but also a distinctive dryness. The American RPA style uses lots of hops as well as Rye, for aroma and bitterness, so there’s a huge confusion of dry but sweet mouthfeel, fruity aroma and character, bold bitterness and plenty of body.
6) Red Ale
Red Ales were born in America, as they tried to redesign the English ale styles. Typically they have a sweet malty finish, deep red/amber colours and a hoppy aroma. They often use crystal malts, which are kilned when the grain is still wet. This caramelises the sugars and produces a delicious toffee character as well as ruby colours.
7) California Common Steam Beer
This one is my revisionist beer, and I fell in love with the story of California Common beers. Harking back to the 1890s, in Gold Rush California, the demand for alcohol was ever prevelant. The Germanic settlers had brought with them a taste for lager/pilsner style beers, with low hopping rates and quaffability a great importance. However, thanks to the warm climate and lack of refrigeration techniques, the potential to ferment their lager beers at cold lager temperatures (see above) wasn’t easy. Fermentation was carried out in shallow troughs on the roof tops of tall buildings, so a combination of the cool night air at altitude would keep the temperatures from soaring. Non-the-less, these beers still fermented high, generating an ester profile and stressing the yeast. The result? A lager/ale hybrid that is refreshing and has a fruity ester profile.
Now, the Revisionist range pays homage to each of these styles in its own way. I’m not going to tell you what to expect, as different palates will pick up different flavours. They are all quite different from each other and no one beer will define this range. However, they are a great gateway range to bolder, different beer styles. I hope you might try them and I hope you will discover something new to enjoy, even if not every one is to your taste.
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