Bristol harbours new ideas for beer

Hawk-eyed passengers on trains from London approaching Temple Meads station will spot a building offering in large type the promise of “Moor Beer”. Hawk is the operative word, for the brewery is run by an American called Justin Hawke.

He is a passionate lover of cask ale and had his first -- not strictly legal -- taste when he visited Britain with his parents at the age of 15.  He and wife Maryann run the brewery and their rites of passage through the world of beer has been a long and unusual one.

They are both graduates of West Point military academy in the United States and Justin’s love of beer was intensified when he was stationed in Germany. He drank unfiltered beer there and developed a theory that finings, the substance used to clear beer, strips it of some of its flavour.

Isinglass finings are made by boiling fish bladders to produce a gloopy liquid added to casks when they leave the brewery. Hawke is not on a vegan crusade against the use of fish, he just thinks isinglass removes flavour from beer.

“Cloudy beer is full of goodness,” he says. “Yeast is the soul of beer -- it makes beer appetising. Remove the yeast and you remove flavour compounds.”

When he left the army, Hawke brewed in San Francisco but he and Maryann were keen to move to Britain and brew real ale (they are seen below, Justin in foreground, with the Moor Beer brew crew)..

In 2004 they were touring the country and came across the closed Moor brewery in Somerset. They bought it and restored brewing in an old barn close to the Somerset Levels. The barn was liable to flood and it was, Hawke says, a bad area to expand brewing and bring up a family.

So the Hawkes moved to Bristol and set up their 20-barrel plant in an old truck refurbishment depot. They wanted to bring the customers to their beer so “front of house” is a brewery tap where clients can sample the beers and also take them away in big 660ml bottles and two litre refillable glass “growlers”, an American import that allows live, fresh beer to be consumed at home.

The tap room is part of the Hawkes’ in-house philosophy. A bottling line from Italy is being installed along with a canning line from Germany. Moor Beer is going into canned beer in a big way and Justin Hawke will cause much head scratching among cask beer lovers with his concept of real ale in a can.

He points to the advantages: “A can is better than a bottle. It’s a smaller package to transport and it’s also environmentally friendly”.

But is a can strong enough to contain a beer that’s live, with still working yeast? Hawke says the cans are “squidgy” when filled and then expand as the beer continues to condition. I sampled some of the range, including Revival (3.8%), Nor’hop and So’hop, his 4.1% best sellers, and the aromatic Return of the Empire (5.7%), which uses the new English hop, Jester. I found them all superb.

Moor Beer brews 3,000 barrels year and seven new fermenters are on order to meet demand. As well as the UK, beer is exported to mainland Europe, Australia and New Zealand, Canada and the U.S.

Across town in the Ashton area, the Bristol Beer Factory (BBF) is also expanding at a rate of knots. “We’ve seen phenomenal growth since we opened 4½ years ago,” managing director Simon Bartlett says. He worked as an engineer at the long-closed Courage brewery in Bristol and knows the local beer scene well. Sales director Sam Burrows came from Charles Wells and is equally well versed in the pub trade (thery are seen, top, with Sam on the left).

The brewery has won a shed-load of awards for its beers, its milk stout in particular, and was named Best Producer in the BBC Radio 4 Food & Farming Awards. New vessels are on order to enable the 30-barrel kit to meet demand and the brewery will expand into a second building next door. The site was once the large Ashton Gate Brewery that was taken over and closed by its rival George’s – later Courage -- in the 1930s.

As well as the deliciously creamy Milk Stout (4.5%), BBF produces a pale bitter, Nova (3.8%), a traditional copper-coloured bitter, Seven (4.2%), Sunrise, a 4.4% golden ale, and a hoppy, bittersweet premium bitter, Independence (4.6%).

“Bristol is our focus,” Sam Burrows says. “We sell some beer in London and we export a little but the local market is key.”

“Cask is king,” Simon Bartlett adds. 20% of production is bottle-conditioned beer, 15% is keg for bars and restaurants but the bulk is cask ale.

BBF runs two pubs in the city, the Barley Mow and the Grain Barge. The Barley Mow is a fine community local with a wide range of cask beers, including from Moor and other local breweries.

It underscores Simon Bartlett’s belief in “celebrating Bristol – all brewers working closely together.” It’s an attitude that’s reaping a rich reward for beer lovers in the West Country.

*Print version: Publican’s Morning Advertiser, 8 October 2015.