– Verdant Tap Takeover review by Cameron Steward
On Wednesday 17th May 2017 we held a Verdant tap takeover at Port Street. We asked Cameron Steward to come down and taste his way through the hits. Here are Cameron’s words and photographs…
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One of the most striking articles should you choose to visit the Verdant Brewing website is a blog post entitled ‘High Level Sink’. The declaration from January 2017 begins, “Today was a bad day” and outlines how Verdant had to dispose of a staggering 800 litres of their Pale Ale High Level Kink (4.8%), due to contamination issues.
You may think this an odd confession; why announce such a colossal failure? What good can come from planting that seed of doubt regarding the level of professionalism in such a highly competitive field? On the other hand, it’s refreshing to acknowledge such a calamity and certainly reassuring to see that Verdant demand only the highest quality, ensuring the product they put out is their best.
Sadly HLK isn’t present at the Port Street Beer House tap takeover, but their Pale army is solidly represented with Light Bulb (4.5%), Headband (5.5%) and the brilliantly titled Roy, I Want A Hilux (5.5%). They’re reassuringly hazy, bitter and very fruity – just what you’d expect from a brewery whose manifesto is a hop-forward reaction to a lack of juicy, bitter bombs from this side of the pond. It’s evident Verdant are heavily inspired by the New England IPAs and Pales, which have gained more mainstream recognition in the UK over the past couple of years. They cite Treehouse, Trillium, Monkish and Hill Farmstead as influences and this comes across with crystal clear clarity (although in reality, they’re pretty murk-tastic) in their IPAs, Putty (8%) and Even Sharks Need Water (6.5%).
Both these beers are showcased at the takeover and Sharks is a damn-near perfect example of a smash-able, juice-splosion IPA. It’s packed with tropical lushness and plenty of bitterness. That NE profile is equally palpable from the soft mouthfeel that head brewer James clarifies “comes from wanting to meld yeast, malt and water profiles to enhance the hop experience”. It’s also worth mentioning that these beers pair fantastically with the sticky and sweet Pork Bao buns provided by the master chefs at Common Bar.
It’s not hard to tell that these guys have worked hard, each of the offerings at the takeover represents the tastes and demands of Verdant’s tireless brewers – there are just the 3 of them. This didn’t happen overnight of course, they began piloting brews in 2013 before moving to a 1bbl kit in a shipping container in 2014. “Test, assess, change and test again” James tells me and by August 2015 the beers were ready for public consumption. A mere 10 months later they moved to their current premises in Falmouth, Cornwall, equipped with a 10bbl kit that went live in September 2016. From there on it’s all been a haze (pun intended), with popularity seeing Verdant become increasingly more visible in the north of England, having already infiltrated the South West, Northern Ireland and London. Their next target, Scotland, is so direct in their crosshairs that the day after their Port Street takeover, they’re invading one of Edinburgh’s finest, The Hanging Bat, to bring the hop pain.
Future aspirations include obtaining their own canning line and opening their tap house for summer sessions. They also hope to extend their Christmas card list with a range of forthcoming collaborations that may be classified “top secret” but definitely include Manchester’s own Cloudwater, which is definitely worth getting excited about.
It’s not hard to see why Verdant have grown so exponentially; they’re fun and personable gents who offer time to answer my questions and it’s clear they’re brewing beers they crave, which happens to coincide with a reinvigorated interest in the modern IPA – see Hop City for further evidence. Their pump clips and cans glow as vibrantly on bars and shelves as the contents do in the glass, and if they’re not happy with those beers being saturated with “lush, juicy and moist hop flavours”, then they’ll reassess and try again.
– Cloudwater Double IPA Day
CLOUDWATER DOUBLE IPA DAY // Saturday 7th November // Port Street Beer House // 7pm // free entry
What’s twice as good as an IPA? A double IPA! That’s how it works, right? Not sure but I can tell you this for certain: we are emphatically looking forward to tasting Cloudwater‘s new special edition, super fresh 9% DIPA. As well as pouring their eagerly anticipated double IPA on keg, we will also be pouring their similarly anticipated new IPA on cask. Now that’s what I call a double IPA day!
Join us Saturday 7th November from 7pm to taste both of these new Cloudwater offerings. Here’s some words direct from the brewery to get you juiced,
“The 7th of November marks the first year anniversary of residency in our warehouse in Manchester, and what an eventful year it’s been since we got the keys. Still three months from our first birthday, we’re up to gyle 101, and have made our way through nearly three seasonal ranges.
Back in early September, following a tasting of some excellent, fresher than ever before IPAs and DIPAs brought back from the States, we plotted to brew two hoppy beers that were more balanced, more flavourful, more hoppy, and that would hit our targets more squarely than anything we’ve brewed so far.
DIPA 9%
1500kg of malt, 70kg of the biggest, juiciest aroma hops.
Even a 2oC, with less than 1/3 of the carbonation we’ll package it with, this beer smells and tastes fantastic.
IPA 7.2%
1500kg of malt, 70kg of the biggest, juiciest aroma hops.
This beer is destined to be a very hoppy cask beer that will have cask aficionados and craft beer geeks alike quaffing half after half of what we’re sure will be one of the most impressive cask releases from us yet.
Originally destined for release as part of our Winter range in early December, we’ve decided to release both beers a month early, to celebrate beer at its freshest on our anniversary with the hoppiest beer we’ve made to date, brought to you as early as we possibly can. Both beers are being packaged this week (Wednesday and Thursday respectively), will be cold stored over weekend, before being dispatched early next week to arrive with you as fresh as they can be.
We’re incredibly proud of these beers, but they’re just the start of our next phase, an effort to make some of the best hoppy beer in the UK, and the beginning of a series of one off Drink Fresh, Hibernate, and Small Batch beers you’ll see from us in the coming years.”
Colour us excited.
