Summer Lightning
It seems to be the beer of the moment, Summer Lightning (5% abv) from the Hop Back Brewery seems to have saturated all the pubs in Clerkenwell of late. I have enjoyed a pint at The Mitre (with sparkler attached), The Gunmakers and also as a real ale in a bottle variant at home.The beer is a pale, dry ale which tastes like a bitter but looks like a lager.
Out of the three pints I had, all of them tasted completely different! The best and most tasty pint was from The Mitre, I don't know why, but it was really fresh. They do sell a large volume so it may just be an age thing. The pint's I grabbed from the Gunmakers were nice, but were showing some cardboard tastes, which stem from oxidation. Maybe this is due to The Gunmakers location, I doubt they get the turnover of beer that The Mitre gets and it may have been a couple of days old or towards the end of the barrel. Finally the bottle I had tasted the worst. It was pretty astringent and had the taste of cooked corn, a sure fire sign of DMS.
Summer Lightning is an interesting beer, but what i have found most interesting is the change in character and taste between pubs and also between cask and bottle. The beer is considered a trend setter in the real ale community being the first true summer ale and is considered to be one of the most awarded beers in England. Website
Edit: 08/09/08
I think I may have been a bit hard on The Gunmakers. After having a quick pint in the packed pub on Friday afternoon, I witnessed a healthy turnover of ale (although the Mitre probably does turn over more - which was my original point). As it stands, I much prefer The Gunmakers to The Mitre for a number of reasons and I have yet to have a bad pint there. I just found the Summer Lightning to have a slight oxidation (it was till nice and far from stale). In all fairness, this is could also be due to a number of factors prior to the beer arriving at the pub in the first place.
Labels: Ale, Golden Ale, Hop Back, The Gunmaker, The Mitre
posted by Tim at
Friday, September 05, 2008
7 Comments:
Culinary Brewer, if you'd like to try the Summer Lightning on top form come to our place today. We went through an entire cask between 6pm and 9pm so another fresh one went on then. Rest assured we do have the turnover - it's rare that a cask lasts more than 36 hours. Of course, we only have two handpumps so that's hardly surprising.
My mate Andy had a session on the Summer Lightning a few weeks ago in the City Arms in Manchester and had a fine old time as a result. I was on Newman's Last Lion of Britain myself that night - another fine drop!
Hi Jeff,
I wasn't having a go about the condition, merely commenting on the natural difference a few hours makes. I did pop in for a pint though, but opted for the Brakspears bitter. At 3.4% it makes for a less intersting, but more productinve afternoon at work!
DMS seems unlikely in this beer because I imagine it's brewed with pale malt which has low DMS and DMSO potential. DMS is more likely to stem from lager malts which are not traditionally used in British ale brewing.
Also, DMS also stems from particular bacterial contaminations, which is possible in cask that is not turning over rapidly.
"the natural difference a few hours makes"
Some cask ales improve as much as a couple of days after you start serving them - Landlord being the best example. Some pubs, wise to this, have two on the go at once so it doesn't see too quickly. For that particular beer, I'm considering doing that myself. Others do begin to decline rather quickly, but none should go stale in a few hours. If they did cask ale wouldn't be practical at all.
True, I couldn't agree more. I'll have to choose my words more carefully in the future. (Sorry if I have casued offense).
I also think that in some beers, such as Old Perculiar (and TT Landlord as you mention), a slight oxidation adds to be the beer, bringing out additional flavours and esters. The most usual being plum and raison flavours. I have a PhD in organic chemistry and could harp on for hours on that front!
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