There’s not a lot in this world that will get me out of bed at 6am, let alone the promise of a trip to an old, cold train shed in the wilds of Stirlingshire on a slightly damp Tuesday in April.
However, when that ex-train shed contains Fallen Brewery and I’m heading there with my colleagues from The Good Spirits Co. to brew a beer in celebration of the anniversaries of our three shops then there wasn’t much that would hold me back.
Fallen is one of our favourite breweries, so we were delighted to be able to collaborate on a beer with them. I say collaborate, we had a very specific idea of what we wanted the beer to be – a refreshing dry-hopped Blackberry saison perfect for sunny days and train journeys – but on the day our job was mainly to sweep up, add hops at the right time and generally not get in the way.
Less than a month later the finished product is available in all of our shops (keep an eye out for it on keg in your favourite pubs too) and we couldn’t be happier with it.
In the interest of fairness I’ve also mentioned some of my other favourites from the last seven days, but I think we all know that this week is all about Train Beer.
Beerbliotek Göteborgswits (£3.80/5.2%/330ml)
I was initially drawn to this Swedish wheat beer by both the promise of melon and the wonderful/terrible melon pun on the label. There is plenty of that classic Wit character throughout, with all the citrus and spice that you would expect combined with a delicious cantaloupe sweet note balanced by a crisp hoppy bitterness in the finish.
Two Roads/Evil Twin Geyser Gose (£4.60/5.5%/330ml)
Two of my favourite breweries team up for a take on one of my favourite styles? This was pretty much a no brainer, and for all the mention of slightly unusual ingredients like Icelandic moss, sea kelp, skyr and birch smoked sea salt there were no unwelcome surprises in flavour.
Buxton SPA (£2.20/4.1%/330ml)
The SPA in this case is Special Pale Ale, although I would be tempted to say it’s more of a Blonde. Whatever the semantics, this is a delicious light and citrus packed number perfect for sunny days.
Wylam Sticky Bud (£4.20/8.7%/330ml)
The potent promise of the Double IPA seems to be a brewer’s favourite at the moment, and whilst familiarity usually breeds contempt for me I couldn’t resist checking out this one from Wylam due to my love of their previous offerings. Fortunately I wasn’t disappointed, this a huge tropical treat with added resinous hop character and a dry, zesty lingering finish.
Fallen/The Good Spirits Co. Train Beer (£2.60/4.9%/330ml)
Unsurprisingly I have left the best until last. As we had a hand in brewing this I can’t pretend I’ll be in any way impartial, so I’ll give you an idea of customer feedback so far: phrases like "nectar of the gods", "possibly the best beer Fallen have ever brewed" and "the very water of life" have been bandied around and who am I to argue? The customer is always right after all. This dry hopped Blackberry saison has plenty of the advertised fruit character on the nose, the beautiful juicy depth of flavour I expect from all Fallen beers and a combination of clean, refreshing bitterness and saison spice on the finish.
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