Brunel beers steam ahead

Box Steam Brewery in Wiltshire, inspired by the 19^th-century dynamism of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, has released three of its cask beers in bottle form that pay homage to the great railway engineer. When the brewery moved to a new site in January, it was opened by pop music impresario Pete Waterman, a great fan of steam railways who has a collection of locomotives.

The home page image shows Pete Waterman at the brewery opening with a Brunel lookalike. The original site of the brewery was close to the Box Tunnel in Wiltshire where Brunel’s engineers and navvies drove through the hillside to carry the mainline from Bristol to London.

Chuffin’ Ale (4%: £2.03) is brewed with 90% Maris Otter pale malt, with crystal and pale chocolate for flavour and colour. There’s a small amount of wheat for head retention and the single hop is the Fuggle for aroma and bitterness. The chestnut-coloured beer has a pronounced chocolate note on the aroma with sultana and raisin fruit and spicy hops. Vinous fruit builds in the mouth with tart and bitter hop notes, juicy malt and a continuing hint of chocolate. The finish is bittersweet with dry chocolate, vinous fruit and bitter hops.

Tunnel Vision (4.2%, £2.15) is brewed with 90% Maris Otter pale malt, crystal and chocolate malts, with Target hops for bitterness and Challenger and Goldings for aroma. The pale bronze beer has pungent hop resins on the nose with a hint of chocolate, and bready and yeasty malt. Over-ripe orange fruit builds in the mouth with hints of chocolate and tangy and bitter hops, while the finish is balanced between tart fruit, bitter hops and biscuit malt.

Derail Ale (5.2%; £2.15) records a rare engineering blip for Brunel when the engines Hurricane and Thunderer collided. The beer is brewed with 90% Maris Otter pale malt, with crystal malt and wheat for head retention. Progress hops for bitterness are joined by two American varieties, Cascade and Chinook for aroma. The deep bronze beer has a big blast of melon and grapefruit and a potpourri of citrus fruits on the nose, with tart hop resins and sappy malt. Bitter hops build in the mouth with tangy citrus fruit – lemon and pink grapefruit – and rich toasted malt. The finish is long and complex, bittersweet to start then finally intensely bitter from the hops, with tart fruit and rich malt.

The beers are available from the brewery’s online shop:

www.boxsteambrewery.com/shop