Hop on a bus with special festival ale
Added: Saturday, July 7th 2012
A beer brewed specially for the Derby Beer Festival will encourage drinkers in the East Midlands to use the Red Arrow bus service when they travel to the festival. The beer, redinstead, (4.3%), is brewed by the Derby Brewing Co in collaboration with Red Arrow Buses, that runs a high-speed service every 10 minutes between Derby and Nottingham.
The beer, fashioned by head brewer Trevor Harris, will be on sale in Derby Brewing Co’s three pubs and in its extensive free trade in the Midlands and Lancashire. The beer will be available for six months. It will also feature at the beer festival, one of the biggest CAMRA events of the year. If it proves popular, Trevor Harris may add redinstead to his portfolio of cask beers that includes Hop Till You Drop, Triple Hop, Dashingly Dark and Business As Usual.
The beer was launched on 6 July in the Royal Standard, the brewery’s flagship pub and brewery tap. It has a pronounced amber/red colour due to the use of generous amounts of crystal malt. The recipe is: Maris Otter pale malt, torrefied wheat, type 200 and type 400 crystal malts. The hops for aroma and bitterness are Challenger, Goldings, Northdown and Perle, with Fuggles and Willamette added in the hop back for additional aroma.
The beer has a rich aroma of butterscotch, toasted grain, orange/citrus fruit and spicy hop resins, with more butterscotch on the palate, balanced by bitter and spicy hops, tart citrus fruit and biscuit malt. The finish is long and dry, with a continuing toffee/butterscotch note, tart fruit, toasted grain and bitter, fruity hops.
The beer is available at Derby Beer Festival, Assembly Rooms, Market Place, Derby, 11 to 15 July: see Events on this website. It’s also available at the Derby Brewing Co’s pubs:
Brewery Tap – Derby’s Royal Standard, 1 Derwent Street;
Greyhound, 76 Friar Gate;
Queen’s Head, 131 Alfreton Road, Little Eaton, Derby.
There will be special discount tickets for CAMRA members on the Red Arrow bus service that will cover the entire route, including Chesterfield, Ripley and Alfreton: £4.50; groups £10. https://www.trentbarton.co.uk.
*Image shows the launch of redinsetad with Roger Protz (left), Sarah Taylor of Red Arrow and Trevor Harris of Derby Brewing co.
