Seasonal beer -Dark Mild 3.7%

Mild ale is a style which has come to be associated with low ABV beers, however mild ales were simply less heavily hopped beers than their more bitter relatives, and as such became a hugely popular style in the 19th century as the workforce driving the industrial revolution took to the malty brews as a means of restoring themselves after a long day of manual labour at the coalface. Many milds in common with most beers of old were brewed to a far higher O.G. than those of today, and some milds of today still follow this recipe -I encourage the dear reader with a curious pallette to seek out the wonderful Dark Ruby Mild, ABV 6%, brewed by the Sarah Hughes Brewery of Sedgley, West Midlands.

Our own interpretation is packed full of Maris Otter pale and crystal malts, with a little chocolate malt and roasted barley...a real dark mild full of flavour with the English hop, Challenger in the copper and a good dose of whole flower hops added late, in the hopback. A fine beer to restore oneself after a long day at the grindstone, or on the fells! Enjoy!

February 2009

It's a joy to feel the temperatures return from the polar depths of January...the brewhouse is not well insulated from the cold, and low night-time temperatures mean a close eye must be kept on temperature of the beers in the fermenters -in a couple of the coldest spells we had, they've had their own electric heater in the brewery to keep them cosy through the night!



But it has been impossible to notice that this week has brought about milder weather -the birds are noisily going about their business below my window, and the snowdrop has been joined by the celandine beneath the hedgerow. And so brewing goes on apace -Lakeland Bitter in FV 3 has been chilled, to bring about precipitation of yeast from suspension, before racking to cask this week...



...And a day of steam and bustle in the brewery today, sees FV 4 occupied by another gyle of the well hopped Best Gold, such is the demand for this beer by the ever-thirsty populace...



...I shall endevour to bring you more news of seasonl brews when there is such. In the meantime allow me to whet your appetite with the news that plans might just be afoot for a rather special blended beer, in the tradition of the porters of the 19th century...watch this space!

The Bitter End proudly presents...

We all know that it's hungry work being a passionate connoisseur of quality beers, and hard and thirsty work for those who are inflicted with a passion for discovering the best in quality locally produced, home-cooked food. Therefore it is with great pleasure that the Bitter End is able to help in some way, by the announcement of...Our first ever speciality PIE & PINT of ale festival, at the Bitter End. The Cockermouth beer festival next door in the Kirkgate Centre kicks off on Thursday, running through to Saturday, so pop in to the Bitter End on Thursday and Friday lunchtime, or all day on Saturday before 6pm for some very special pies and micro-brewed beer.
I have managed to persuade our amazing chef to create a selection of speciality pies showcasing the best of his locally sourced, quality ingredients and combine it with the best of local micro-brewed beer. A selection of Bitter End Brewery beers will be on tap including the welcome return of seasonal beer for Dec-Jan, Espresso Stout, 5.8% ABV. Drop in and try your hand at beer and matching beer and food. See you there,
steve

Beer festivals

Ladies and gentlemen. Allow me if i may be so forward, to draw your attention to a number of imminent beer festivals where you should go, immediately, and quaff amongst many other fine ales, three fine brews from the Bitter End...

15th Westmorland CAMRA Beer Festival -Kendal, 8-11 Oct (Wed-Sat)...Lakeland Bitter 3.8%
9th Ayrshire & Galloway CAMRA Beer Festival -Troon, 9-11 Oct (Thu-Sat)...Lakeland Best Gold 4.3%
West Cumbria CAMRA Beer Festival -Whitehaven, 21-22 Nov (Fri-Sat)...Bitter End Barley Wine 6.2%
Cockermouth Round Table Beer Festival, 4-6 Dec (Thu-Sat)...Espresso Stout 5.8%


...i might particularly draw your attention to the beer for the West Cumbria CAMRA Beer Festival -a special beer to look forward too -It will have 10 weeks in the cask to condition before quaffing -expect a most suitable beer for the season, with some wonderful hop flavour from generous dry hopping. See thee all in Whitehaven,
steve

the hop harvest, 2008

I was fortunate enough lately, to have made a visit to Herefordshire -i could not resist stopping to visit a hop field, and assess the state of the crop. Hear, dear reader is the result. The bines were laden with their resinous cones, but some dry weather would help to make the ground a little easier for the tractors to move over. Marvel at the wonders of digital technology:

A handsome cone laden bine...



The height of the bines in this field suggests one of the dwarf 'hedgerow' varieties such as First Gold -Only attaining perhaps half the height of taller growing varieties, thus enabling easier maintainance of the crop, and use of a more efficient picking process...

Seasonal beer, August-September -Three Hares –ABV 3.6%

It was sad to see the passing of July and with it another year’s gyle of our seasonal brew, Wild Honey which had proved so popular, but do not despair and instead, look forward to August, and to September and console yourselves with the brewing and in the drinking of an old favourite of ours -Three Hares, a deliciously hoppy, 3.6% beer, dry hopped in the cask with a generous quantity of the flower of that most wonderful Humulus lupulus and thus yielding a fine hoppy nose. When Mike first brewed to this fine recipe, he decided upon a name inspired by a small a scene depicted in the stained glass of All Saints Church whose grand steeple reaches high above the Kirkgate rooftops across the street from the Bitter End -that of three white hares.

A stiring in the hop gardens...

August bank holiday weekend, a chance to catch up with jobs on the allotment, perhaps welcome visiting relatives and gather with friends for a barbecue in the evening sunshine, the late summer air scented with the ripening of the season. Or, if you farm in one of the hop growing counties of England, in Kent perhaps, or close to the Welsh borders in Herefordshire or the Teme Valley of Worcestershire, then maybe a time to be busy -firing the hop kilns, housing pickers, and making ready for the culmination of a year’s hard work and patience, watching the hop bines with one eye on the weather, and that first morning rising with the dawn and with the mists, to bring in the bines from their ordered rows in the fields, laden with their fresh, green, resinous hop cones. To bring them into the bustle and disorder of the yard, to be picked and dried, weighed and packed in their enormous pockets ready to be shipped to the merchant, or straight off to the breweries, as apprehension and excitement of what this year’s harvest will bring, perceptibly fills the air –a bumper crop perhaps, not too much wilt affecting the Fuggles in the top field, or a repeat of the downy mildew that ruined so much of the crop five years ago...Well faithful reader, word has reached the Bitter End from our hop merchants that things are stirring in the first few hop gardens of Kent. Early indications are not for a bumper crop, with Challenger and Fuggles being somewhat weather affected, but with fingers crossed a better crop than last year which saw stocks of some varieties in limited supply. It will be a few weeks before the high-alpha varieties are harvested, and the crop safely in, but next time you sip a pint of hoppy ale, give a thought to the humble Humulus lupulus and the year upon year of bustle and life which has been brought by its harvest, to the hop gardens of England every August bank holiday.

July Seasonal Beer -Wild Honey A.B.V. 5.5%

The last time we brewed the wonderful Wild Honey it proved so popular, it is now added to the permenant range of Bitter End seasonals, July -Wild Honey A.B.V. 5.5% -A celebration of the hard work of the populace of English bees, the beekeepers art, and hoppy pale ale.

The beer was brewed with Cumbrian honey. Allow me to suggest you obtain a jar for your own larder. If you wish to do so I point you in the direction of the Granary on Main St. and I point budding beekepers, or anyone with an interest in apiculture to the informative website of the Cumbria Beekeepers Association at www.cumbriabeekeepers.co.uk

It's after pulling glass after glass of beers like this I become convinced that the thirst of the populace of Cockermouth and its environs is wholly un-quenchable. And so, happy drinking to all who sip upon this year's Wild Honey in July, the smell of summer rainfall over freshly mown hay upon the air, and drone of the humble honey bee to the ear.