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beer stories: news
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BEER NEWS - January 2012
Safe Harbour
The revival of interest in small, local craft brewing continues with yet another new brewery launch, this time in Cornwall. The Harbour Brewing Company officially opened for business on Friday 20th January in
North Cornwall and has been set up from scratch by brewer Rhys Powell and Eddie Lofthouse. The business partners have turned their dream into a reality by opening a brewery with "a unique brewing process."
Eddie said: "We are committed to making beers that are contemporary and deliver an uncompromising taste experience. We use pure Cornish spring water sourced on the hillside next to the brewery, and only the
finest raw materials. We believe this is the only way to deliver a premium quality product." They have installed a brewery system that "allows the brewing to be as creative as possible."
The 10 British Brewers Barrel (BBL) system was designed in California and built in Hungary by the American firm Bavarian Brewing Technologies. Rhys, who studied brewing and distilling at Heriot Watt University
in Edinburgh, explained their unconventional equipment choice: "We chose a combined mash lauter tun, rather than a separate mash tun and a lauter tun, as it gives us all round flexibility with process
control and use of adjuncts." Harbour Brewing Co have a starting range of four different beers including: Harbour India Pale Ale, their strongest beer made using a blend of six British and American hop varieties;
malt driven Harbour Amber Ale; Harbour Light Ale; and the Czech-inspired pilsner Harbour Lager. All of the range will be available on draft and in bottles.
Northampton Shoe-in
At the other end of the scale one of Northampton's largest businesses, Carlsberg UK, has announced the creation of up to 60 jobs if planning permission for a new bottling line is approved.
Carlsberg UK has its UK headquarters and brewery on Bridge Street in the town and has submitted plans to West Northamptonshire Development Corporation for a multi-million pound expansion programme that will house
a bottling line capable of filling millions of bottles a year. If granted, work will begin in March 2012. Matt Callan, supply chain director for Carlsberg UK says: "This is really positive news for
Northampton. We are proud to play a part in the town and this investment shows our commitment to Northampton and the UK beer market. The creation of up to 60 jobs is a great boost for the local community,
especially in the current economic climate and means that we will be able to brew and package millions more bottles of beer including Carlsberg, Export and San Miguel at our brewery."
Alfie's Revenge
Meanwhile, back in Cornwall, Driftwood brewery's of St Agnes celebrated as their seasonal beer (named after a stuffed squirrel), 'Alfie's Revenge', was crowned last week as CAMRA Champion Winter Beer of Britain 2012. The panel of judges at the National Winter Ales
Festival in Manchester chose the 6.5% ABV old ale for its outstanding quality. Nik Antona, CAMRA Director, said: "The beer is well-balanced, highly drinkable, and certainly belies its strength. A worthy winner,
I congratulate this thriving Cornish brewer on their success today." The overall Silver award went to Cairngorm brewery's Black Gold, whilst the Bronze medal went to Coniston brewery's No 9 Barley Wine.
Just missing out in the overall awards, Hammerpot's Bottle Wreck Porter deserves a mention after taking gold in the porter category.
Beer and Pizza
It's a gastronomic match made in heaven of course, but ahead of National Pizza Week (6th-12th February), the British Beer and Pub Association's 'BeerGenie' web site teamed up with Domino�s Pizza to find the perfect
Beer and Pizza matches. To research the best combinations they enlisted the help of The Saracens Rugby Team. John Smit (ex- South Africa captain) found his favourite combination was the vegetarian
Florentine pizza (spinach, feta and tomato) paired with Birra Moretti, and with Erdinger Weiss as runner up. With the altogether meatier New Yorker (pepperoni, ham and bacon) Worthington White Shield
won hands down ("The hops merged wonderfully with the pepperoni") whilst Brooklyn Lager was the second choice. Perhaps predictably, wih the Tandoori Hot pizza both Cobra and Thornbridge Jaipur were
the favoured matches.
Paris in the Spring Time
Beer-lovers heading for a spring break in the city of romance might want to consider heading that way between March 7th and 11th 2012. That means they can take in the Paris Cookbook Fair, where
apparently beer books are a particular area of focus this year. There will be exhibitors from countries as far apart as Australia to Austria and Belgium to Brazil
showing collections of collectible beer books, with Canadian, Irish, British and US stands ensuring plenty of English language availability. There are beer books presentations and beer tastings on the
'International Beer Bar', a 'Beer Pentathlon' that promises a fun learning experience about tasting beers of the world and conferences and roundtable discussions about beer and books.
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