Beer of the Week: Hackney Hopster

In a change from my usual after work Mayfair venue, I wondered over to the Coach & Horses in Bruton Street (not to be confused with the nearby Coach &Horses in Hill Street which is a superb Shepherd Neame pub).  This was an old haunt but we hadn't frequented it for a while and fancied a change.  (www.taylor-walker.co.uk/pub/coach-and-horses-mayfair/s5155)



Coach & Horses*


Being just off Bond Street, it can sometimes be a bit of a tourist trap, especially in the summer but this Taylor Walker pub do look after their beers and have never failed to have something new on tap each time I have walked in.  They usually have four beers on the go and as you can see from the pictures they have had a wide variety over time. 

Amongst other things I was delighted to find a beer from London Fields Brewery which has been on my list of places to try, so no time like the present!   

The first surprise was that it was a beautiful copper coloured ale, more akin to a Yorkshire bitter rather than a straw coloured golden ale that one tends to associate with hoppy pale ales (see my previous blogs on the IPAs and Pale Ales from the Kernal Brewery).  The full bodied flavour really hits your palate and then follows down to the back of the throat to leave a pleasing after taste.  The brewery themselves describe it as follows:-

London Fields Hackney Hopster

"The Hackney Hopster is a debonair young chap of a pacific pale ale. Dressed in hops from New Zealand & West Coast USA, the Hopster shows off flavours of grapefruit, lemon zest and gooseberry."

(www.londonfieldsbrewery.co.uk/shop/hackney-hopster/)

I'm afraid I don't know what a pacific pale ale is (for once the Internet let me down so if anyone can enlighten my I would be grateful, but I suspect its something to do with the origin of the hops) but whatever it is I want more!  I could definitely feel the pleasing sour note of the hops in my mouth.  The beer is 4.2% and was definitely tempting as a session beer but I can see myself getting into a lot of trouble if I tried (my frailty rather than anything to do with the beer)!  I can imagine it going well with spicy food as the hoppiness of the beer will cut through the strong flavour.  The brewery will also be the venue for London's Brewing (www.londonbrewers.org/londons-brewing-festival/), a three day festival in May to celebrate the best of London's breweries and if the standard is as good as this it should be a blast.





This Week's selection at the Coach & Horses



Previous Beers at the Coach & Horses



 

 

 

Acknowledgements
*Coach & Horses picture from Square Meal www.squaremeal.co.uk/restaurants/london/view/99735/Coach_and_Horses

Hops in a Box....Its all about the flavour

Those nice chaps at Meantime Brewing are an inventive lot and their latest initiative is a winner in my books.  They are distributing free boxes of hop seeds with everything you need to grow your own hops and to remind drinkers what's in their beer and how it got its flavour.

Britain has a thriving community of artisan food producers and specialist brewers who are passionate about their products. Yet I am amazed at the number of people I know who opt for the bland and tasteless without a thought as to how their produce has got to them.  From intensively reared and cellophane wrapped chicken breast, mild rubbery cheddar and those mass produced so called lagers which will remain nameless that dominate the supermarket shelves.  So its good to see someone going a step further and taking the time to explain what it takes to put the flavour into the end product.

Hops in a Box from Meantime Brewing

You can pick up a box from Waitrose or a number of other outlets that serve Meantime beer.  For more information on the initiative and to so where you can pick up your own Hops in a Box go to their website

meantimebrewing.com/news-events/news/hops-in-a-box/

 or search the hashtag #hopsinabox on twitter. 

There should be a local near you where you can pick one up.  I picked up my box from the Clarence in Dover Street which is a Nicholson pub that always has a decent and ever changing selection of beers to choose from. You can see from the pictures that they are currently serving a number of good hoppy ales on sale including Jaipur which is a classic example of an Indian Pale Ale and VPA from Vale Brewery which is a golden ale.



The Clarence: Plenty of choice

I have a twelve foot wall in my garden which is currently covered in ivy and the idea of replacing that with a crop of hops is appealing.  The aim for the hops themselves is to end up in my home brew but as a novice brewer I'll need to get a bit of advice first.

On another note its good to see that the Chancellor has taken heed of the damage the beer escalator has been doing to the pub trade and scrapped it.  I know that some drinkers are still moaning about the minimal impact it will have on their pockets but it is an important concession and will stop adding to the future costs of a pint.

Even if the reduction is not passed on to us as consumers it does give the trade a bit of breathing room to cope with other costs, such as fuel for transport, that have also gone up and impact of bulk beer production will mean a greater benefit to them.