Brewer's blog

Hello Bishop Nick drinkers, I'm sorry I haven't written a blog for a long while, but since I last had a jovial chat back in February or March, things took a turn for the worse.  Back then, Corona Virus was just a curiosity happening on the other side of the world, but international travel soon brought it to our shores.  Thankfully we remained operational during the lockdown, indeed we were very busy filling bottles, mini casks and polypins for home delivery and although the brew schedule slowed down, a good few months were spent in the cold room preparing orders for our customers.  During the Spring and Summer we also managed to fit in some limited edition brews - the blonde "Flaxen" (sold out very quickly), the fruity golden "Revelry 2020", "Prosper" and "Respect".  The "Prosper" was a favourite of mine - we used copious amounts of Mosaic hops (the first time I had used this variety), and despite it always being a bit risky making a single hop variety brew, it turned out well, with plenty of citrus and pine flavours.  It's also still available in bottle, as is the "Respect" - a red ale, brewed with rye to give a dry liquorice character and hopped with the robust English Bramling Cross hop.

Moving into Autumn, things have understandably slowed down a bit.  People are back at work, pubs are trying to operate with restrictions and limited capacity and those long warm evenings in the beer garden have turned dark, cold and wet.  The slow down has given us the opportunity to prepare for Halloween and Christmas a bit earlier.  The annual brew of the porter "Witch Hunt" went without a hitch and is now available in cask, mini cask, polypins and bottles.  The bottles arrived today - Nelion and I couldn't resist a quick sample and it's got a big thumbs up!  Roasty, nutty, a bit of bitterness and a long dry finish and worth trying.

Who knows what Christmas will bring this year?  We have tried to prepare for all eventualities by brewing three different ales to cater for both home and pub drinking.  With the assumption that more beer will be consumed at home, we've decided to be a bit brave this year and have brewed a strong ale -  "Rejoice" at a fairly hefty 5.6% and full of dark fruit and nut flavours with a big bittersweet finish.  However, don't worry if you're looking for a slightly lighter ale, we've also decided to re-brew the popular hoppy golden 3.8% "Crown" this year (my favourite Bishop Nick beer I've brewed by the way).  Both the "Crown" and "Rejoice" are still sitting in the fermentation vessel, waiting to be racked, whilst our third brew for Christmas is still a bit of a secret - watch this space, it could be a bit special...