Introducing: Magic Rock Brewing

Huddersfield has just gained a brewery! Magic Rock is a new adventure for the guys behind myBrewerytap with Stuart Ross, formerly of Kelham Island, Acorn and Crown Brewery, heading up the brewing duties.

Brothers Richard and Jonathan Burhouse are the investors in the brewery that will be based in the outbuildings of their family business in Huddersfield, a business which has been importing and wholesaling crystals and natural gifts for the last 40 years – hence the name Magic Rock.

“The intention is to brew modern flavour-forward beers inspired in part by US craft breweries in order to take advantage of the current real ale boom and an expected increase in discerning drinkers seeking more flavourful beers,” explains Richard. The Magic Rock beer will be available in casks, kegs and bottles, focussing predominantly on cask but increasing bottles with demand. Their core range will be as follows, plus a number of seasonals:

Curious - Pale Ale (3.9%)

Rapture - Red Hop Ale (4.5%)

High Wire - West Coast Pale Ale (5.5%)

Dark Arts - Stout (6.0%)

Cannonball - India Pale Ale (7.4%)

Brewing will begin in March 2011 and Stuart officially starts working for the brewery today, helping in the set up. “I’ve always enjoyed Stuart’s beers, which always seemed very true to style and well crafted - he’s not intimidated by big abvs and he’s open minded to new methods of production and dispense,” says Richard. “He’s also young, enthusiastic and likes modern big hopped aroma and flavour in beers.” Richard and Jonathan will also help out on the brewing side, having taken a brewlab course last year.

“When Rich asked me if I'd be interested in being the brewer we talked about beer styles and different breweries and found we both wanted the same from a new brewery,” says Stuart, who has most recently worked at the Crown Brewery in the Hillsborough Hotel, Sheffield, where the beers have been very highly regarded. “I've always worked with other peoples’ recipes and brewing equipment and I'm really looking forward to putting my own stamp on a new brewery and new beers."

Magic Rock will have a 12bbl brew length initially with a large hopback included in the kit to help build hop character into the beers. They are starting with two fermenters, so brewing will be limited initially due to fermenting/conditioning space, but they’ve committed to another two fermenters and hope to install those within a few months, depending on demand for the beers.

The focus will be towards US-style, hoppy ales done with a modern twist for the UK pub market. I love the pump clip/label which is different, sharp, modern and will definitely stand out on the bar against its contemporaries and rivals. Stuart is also a great brewer who loves drinking the styles of beer he’ll be making. I’ve enjoyed many of his beers from Crown so it’ll be good to see him flex his brewing muscles in a place where he can start from the beginning.

You can follow them online as the brewery develops. The website is now live. There’s a facebook page and you can follow the action on twitter: @MagicRockBrewCo, @MagicRockStu and @mybrewerytap (myBrewerytap is run by Richard but the two businesses are separate, although the Magic Rock beers will be sold through mBt).

With a dedicated team of people who love those beers, I think it’s a great new addition. Look out for Magic Rock beers in the next few months! 

BrewDog Tokyo* and the Incendiary Binge Winge

When I was at university we would buy a bottle or two of vodka/gin/whisky almost every week. Each bottle cost us less than £6. We used the spirits as part of drinking games with the intention of getting very drunk, very quickly and cheaply. Between six of us the 700ml of spirit would usually go, sometimes we drank more than this, all the time we drank a few beers too. We played drinking games and then we'd leave our house and go to the student union where we would have quite a few more drinks - alcopops, pints of lager, shots, shots and mixers. By the end of the night we'd be very drunk. Mission accomplished.

That is what we did. We didn't sit around in a circle tasting the drinks. Hell, we tried our hardest not to taste them. We spent as little as possible to get as much alcohol as possible and then drank it quickly. This is binge drinking. It's organised and calculated. This is what we are warned about in the news.

Here are some examples; which do you think contribute most to binge drinking? Having two pints of 5% ale in the pub; being able to buy a litre of 7% cider for £2; 24 cans of premium strength lager for £10; two bottles of wine for £5; a four pack of Bacardi Breezers; a 350ml bottle of whisky for less than £4 (almost the same volume as a bottle of beer); a £10 bottle of super-premium ale that's 18% (a little stronger than wine, as strong as port - which costs £4 a bottle, half the strength of gin).

There are different modes of drinking. Some are reckless and concerned entirely with being a means to a drunken end. Some become reckless through the evolution and degradation of an evening. Some are altogether more civilized; a few bottles of wine or beer to share, no plans on drunkenness but a certain inevitability that it will come. There are nights when it is all about the drink and the whole getting drunk side of things gets in the way and stops the evening prematurely. Then there is the quiet drink to relax in the evening, maybe a pint in the pub, a glass of wine with dinner, or perhaps opening a bottle of something at home. And as soon as it's taken into the home then it's the responsibility of the drinker, am I right? If I buy a bottle of whisky then I could drink it all in one go if I wanted to (if I could). I could buy a four pack of beer or alcopops and drink the lot, or maybe I'll just open one. I may open a bottle of 4% ale or I might fancy trying a bottle of super-premium strength, super-premium priced, completely esoteric beer designed for a select few and made on a small, hand-crafted scale from premium ingredients.

The difference becomes the way it's consumed and the mentality behind the drinking. If I had £20 to go out and 'get drunk' then I could buy 48 cans of lager and put myself into a coma. I could buy one bottle of wine or five. I could get three bottles of whisky or one. Some people would rather have one good bottle of wine than five cheap bottles. I'd say it's likely that more people in general would rather have five, thus putting the buyer of the one £20 bottle apart from the other drinkers. Some people are happy with a Big Mac for dinner; others want triple Michelin starred food and will pay hundreds of pounds for it. It's all about how people consume and how they want to consume. It takes a certain kind of ruinous drunk who would knock back a few bottles of £100 wine in an evening, or who would get lashed on six bottles of expensive 10% craft beer.

The debate about Tokyo* is inevitable but still frustrating. There has to be some common sense from the writers of articles like this and this before publishing such one sided arguments. I can see their side and selling a bottle clearly intended to be drunk in one sitting, which contains 6 units of alcohol, is a lot, but I could go to the pub and drink three pints and be over six units or I could drink a whole bottle of wine (something that's easily done), or I could drink two bottles of 9% beer, 3 bottles of 6% beer (there aren't lobbyists against the new four packs of Punk yet, are there?).

I will drink Tokyo*. It's most likely that I'll just have the one bottle in the evening. Why would I want to drink three bottles of it in one sitting? If I wanted to get that drunk then there are quicker and cheaper ways of doing it. And besides, I won't be drinking it with the intention of getting drunk; I'll be drinking it as a fan of the brewery who wants to try everything they brew. That's an important part of this: BrewDog are aiming their beer at a very particular crowd of beer enthusiasts. This isn't even just for those who enjoy beer; this is for the serious hardcore and it comes with a price tag to match. It may appeal to other people in a 'wow I want to try the strongest beer' way but the taste and experience will be too much. And while this may be the strongest beer in the UK, it isn't close to the strongest beers in the world and there comes a point where these beers only appeal to a very select audience, an audience who drink to appreciate something and are therefore willing to pay to appreciate it. And what if the beer was packaged in 250ml bottles (for the connoisseur) or 750ml champagne bottles (for sharing) rather than the ubiquitous 330ml bottle that we pop the cap off and suck down like water. It’s all about education still, it always is.

This is not a cheap case of lager, this is not a £6 bottle of vodka and this is not contributing to a binge drinking problem because it is working at the opposite end of the spectrum where smoking cigars is fun, reading a book in the sun is okay and enjoying a few sausage sandwiches isn't all that bad.

What do you think? And have you noticed how not even one of the journalists has given us some tasting notes before they dig into the hysteria?!

I know this debate is rolling around the beer blogs and the news but I wanted to add my thoughts as someone who technically regularly binges (on Friday I drank a bottle of Stone IPA followed by a bottle of Moor JJJ IPA – which itself contained 6.3 units of alcohol - followed by a Riptide stout which I think probably tops 10 units; does this make me a drunk? No. It made me drunk, but not a drunk and I only did it once in the week.) And yes, this is excellent punk marketing for BrewDog, so good on them for having the balls to stand out there. I also understand that The Rake have a cask of this and when that comes out I'll be jumping on a train for a pint (which I guess will cost me about £15!), who'll join me?!

BrewDog are Biting Back

I wrote about The Portman Group banning BrewDog's Speedball here. So many other bloggers took up the story too. Well, now BrewDog are taking action.

They are suing the Portman Group for Defamation. Read their article here.

And while you're there, check out BrewDog's Dinner 1 & 2... The guest writer may be familiar to you!