Our vision of Heaven this year is with maple syrup, chocolate and vanilla, aged in Heaven Hill bourbon barrels for a rich, thick, sweet and decadent delight that comes in at a warming 12.5%.

Our wicked brewers gathered around the cauldron and concocted two potions. They have guarded the secrets of the brews, but there was plenty of hubble, bubble, toil and trouble. Both a stout in form, but flavours beyond the norm. One a trick, one a treat. With a smile your face will be sure to greet. Around the dying fire there are cinders. A granule of homely Northern reminders. Fear not, you don’t need to be afraid. With devilish care both beers have been made. Strike now before All Hallows’ Eve, and before the 31st the potions you shall receive.

 

The Reincarnation, the sixth Patrons Project brew with Smug, is the first European collaboration brew with New Zealand beer heroes, Garage Project.

Garage Project have developed a product called Phantasm, a thiol-enhancing grape skin-derived powder which boosts the production of tropical and citrus compounds by the yeast. We've paired this with fresh 22 harvest NZ hops Nelson Sauvin and Motueka, backed up with some classic US Citra and Idaho 7, to get this juicy 8.0% DIPA.

Summer is truly here with this one. A Flake & Sauce ice cream pale ale, so expect raspberry, vanilla and chocolate to give that classic flavour.

 

Any beer with the "Vortex" name carries a certain weight of expectation! Building on a winning formula, we brought in Strata and Eclipse hops to the hop bill for added orange juice and dank passion fruit notes alongside a lead trio of Citra, Mosaic and El Dorado.

Hopped with Talus, Motueka, HBC 586 & Talus Cryo.

One of the intriguing aspects of tarot is the juxtaposition of cards’ appearances and their range of interpretations - not everything is as it originally seems. We wanted to recreate this contrast of darkness and light by pairing Amy’s bright, bold, and colourful artwork with an inky, ominously dark Imperial Stout.

Continuing along the Lovers’ theme, taking inspiration from Valentines chocolate boxes presented the opportunity for further contrast - recreating the sensation of bright, sweet, red-fruit soft centres glimmering through the cracks in dark, bittersweet chocolate.

Using a tried & tested hop bill of El Dorado, Amarillo & Galaxy, we've reigned in the sweetness of previous Fresh releases by using a smooth base of barley and oats.
The result is a bouquet of fruity pick n mix on the nose, with clementine oil and sprightly citrus up front, followed by tart passionfruit and rounding out into mellow soft peach. It's 11.2%, but drinks like a 9.6%, tops...

 

Inspired by a Spanish dish similar to chocolate-covered French Toast. Vanilla, cinnamon & cacao join a robust base or Munich, Brown, Rye, Chocolate, and Crystal malts for bitter chocolate and spiced bready character up front, rounding out into sweet, silky, warming indulgence.

 

Stripping back the adjuncts and focusing on the Imperial Stouts’ inherent flavour profiles for the latest iteration in Tom J Newell’s Imperial Stout totem pole. The series’ signature milk chocolatey, treacle-toffee base this time includes a touch darker roast malts, delivering a more prominent toasted profile, with tobacco and bitter dark chocolate on the finish. 

A modern take on Norwegian raw ales, in which the mash is never boiled. The complex mash bill is fermented with Kveik yeast and unfiltered to give it a full body with an almost Lambic-esque sour funk, finished off with a big hit of sprucey, piney hops.

The Gold Edition of SKGN’s Dream Forms series. Along the way we had help from the likes of Neon Raptor (UK), Stigbergets (SWE), and Collective Arts (CAN), and for the final edition we’re joined by two of our favourite breweries of recent times, Lancashire’s Rivington and Glasgow’s Overtone who have nominated some of their favourite hops.
Idaho 7 brings apricot, papaya, and punchy resin, with juicy tangerine from El Dorado pellet & Cryo. Cashmere contributes its zesty lime character to complete a tropical fruit salad, all over an oat-forward malt bill provides the style’s customary pillowy mouthfeel - even at a modest ABV. 

Being the hop-heads we are, we were always going to brew an IPA, but to mix it up a bit from current trends we decided to revisit the piney, resinous bitterness of the west coast style.
For the grist we went with an extra pale base malt and bulked this out with some light Munich malt. Under this, a touch of light crystal malts to add a touch of colour and that sticky sweetness which accentuates and supports the resinous hops.
For the hops themselves, we went with a couple of classics of the style. Amarillo is one of the most underrated varieties these days, but when on form delivers an unrivalled level of tangerine zest. Alongside this the
OG west coast variety, Simcoe, a multi- purpose classic which delivers plenty of pine alongside berry, passion fruit and citrus.

We start north of the border, where it has been proven that there are few delicacies which aren’t improved by some batter and a plunge into the deep fat fryer. Few creations are more famous than the famous deep-fried confectionery treat, so we set about the fun task of how to replicate that sticky, caramel- rich flavour. We also invited some fun lads from Leith to join in. Whilst best known for their social media account, Pilot Beer brew some pretty tasty beers and were straight down to assist our wacky experiments! Over a grist featuring some brown and chocolate malts, light and dark variants of crystal malt and plenty of rounding flaked oats; we added copious amounts of caramel as well as lactose milk sugar to accentuate the milk chocolate character we were seeking. We further bulked out the mouthfeel with maltodextrin. In fermentation we added chocolate and vanilla to seal the deal, to result a rich and sticky stout that transports you to a chippy off the quayside of Leith.

🛶🎉 The Great Experiment Vol VIl: Integrity. (8.1%) India Pale Ale Double Dry Hopped with insane amounts of Mosaic, Huell Melon and Cascade.

We’re big fans of the beers that Theo and the team have been putting out for the last couple of years, and we’re excited to see what they get up to in 2020 in their brand new expanded brewhouse. It’s the perfect time of year to be brewing a big US-hopped DIPA as the 2019 harvest makes its way into European distribution. DEYA were keen to work with some newer varieties whilst they were as fresh as possible, so we decided to build the beer around Idaho 7, a late-maturing variety which is ripe with tropical fruit potential. We backed this up with Azacca, a hop which got us really excited last year with its ripe watermelon aroma, and rounded this juicy hop bill off with the first of our individually selected batch of Citra. This combined 28g/l dry hop sits over a base beer loaded with flaked oats and wheat, and is fermented with a new US strain perfect for producing super clean IPAs, that has a lightly fruity ester profile to complement, rather than overpower, the diverse array of aromas created by this stellar hop bill.

Throw in the sour beer expertise of our Dark & Wild City guests HOMES and Ology and we were on to something pretty special for this gold edition culinary concept collaboration.
The base beer was kettle-soured for 48 hours and features high portions of flaked oats, some wheat and some milk sugar; the perfect combination for a soft and creamy ice cream like mouthfeel. We whirlpool hopped with 6g/l of Citra, enough for some deep tropical fruit without taking away from the 200g/l of fruit puree that we added through fermentation.

This stout was brewed with a plentiful mix of different grains, ranging from flaked oats to boost mouthfeel, a mix of different roasted barley varieties for layers of chocolate and liquorice character plus some special B crystal malt which is rich in berry notes. We wanted this beer to be as rich and full in mouthfeel as possible so we also added lactose and maltodextrin to the boil, very complex sugars with low fermentability. In fermentation we added raspberry puree to give a ‘jammy’ depth to our cake interpretation, cherry puree alongside and then spun through toasted coconut flakes. They not only contribute flavour but a silky mouthfeel as a result of their oil content, as well as a touch of vanilla as a good base for bringing the custard character to the mix.