Blog Tracker
10-05-2024, 09:20
Visit The Beer Nut site (https://thebeernut.blogspot.com/2024/05/ronbridge.html)
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio3MnOSIW2ldIMCe5TX_bTx3NaNxwm6KG_dQzi7ZpcpW hTEIe_jHNoBTaXUzuPLeNVePjCmqfnA-LcS-oC23yOdeJ5hZxnxIB-z8NfbESN89LPsodMGXdEwHrAXzeGZ6pdOQgB4JEL9u8-KK9vGT2uxbrYaHNTWdwkGpgDAHyvsDjIo4BVMdSF7g/w137-h200/thornbridge_quiet_storm_cascade.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio3MnOSIW2ldIMCe5TX_bTx3NaNxwm6KG_dQzi7ZpcpW hTEIe_jHNoBTaXUzuPLeNVePjCmqfnA-LcS-oC23yOdeJ5hZxnxIB-z8NfbESN89LPsodMGXdEwHrAXzeGZ6pdOQgB4JEL9u8-KK9vGT2uxbrYaHNTWdwkGpgDAHyvsDjIo4BVMdSF7g/s3290/thornbridge_quiet_storm_cascade.jpg)Mr Ronald Pattinson of Amsterdam was in Dublin last month, as he has mentioned on his own blog (https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2024/04/dublin-bound.html). The hard taskmasters at the National Homebrew Club (https://www.nationalhomebrewclub.ie/) forced him to talk at length about brewing history in front of a crowd at UnderDog. The English visitor's presence was marked by the coincidental appearance of two new English beers on the taps, both single hop experiments from Thornbridge.
It felt like there was a bit of a deconstructed Jaipur thing going on, because the first on was Quiet Storm Ahtanum. Ahtanum is a fairly obscure American hop, and one I only really know from Jaipur and its subsequent clone, BrewDog Punk. The beers were that sort of strength too: 5.5% ABV. This one was a very pale yellow with a slight haze and lots of fizz, a carbonic bite disturbing the flavour somewhat. The flavour is very interesting and not at all what I was expecting from it, being a bowl of varied ripe fruits, including peach, apricot, white grape and red apple -- funky and foedtid, in a most pleasurable way. It's very sweet with it, and gets sweeter as it goes, having an element of strawberry too by the end. A tannic finish drys it out enough for the sweetness not to be a problem. I liked it. There's lots of complexity for a single hop beer, and it had a very modern profile: surprising for essentially a legacy hop. I didn't miss the lack of bittering.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimbT4WoB_Cn6Agp4eWG82TCESzsKjAyaHkQS4iNCSSNQ 80We4iWZFJLpYtSHw21UePwz3gkkLwS5ltmSXy1Dl8hNtFxH0T xaCfBG9LNqOH4FNJZguNOEpake8qxJ6dvar14kk2XHfgjrsYD7 vAf-Dp7GE__YPdJD_pzwDC2xJveLCuIWCkM6RQ3A/w173-h200/thornbridge_quiet_storm_ahtanum.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimbT4WoB_Cn6Agp4eWG82TCESzsKjAyaHkQS4iNCSSNQ 80We4iWZFJLpYtSHw21UePwz3gkkLwS5ltmSXy1Dl8hNtFxH0T xaCfBG9LNqOH4FNJZguNOEpake8qxJ6dvar14kk2XHfgjrsYD7 vAf-Dp7GE__YPdJD_pzwDC2xJveLCuIWCkM6RQ3A/s2625/thornbridge_quiet_storm_ahtanum.jpg)When that ran out it was replaced by Quiet Storm Cascade, and I thought I would be on more familiar ground with this. Surprise! There was no earthy bitterness here, and no punchy grapefruit or resin. Instead, it's a rich and nutty dessert, suggesting nougat or almond paste. The fizz problem from the other one has been solved, as it was lovely and smooth. I searched hard for any familiar features, and only towards the end did I notice a very faint metallic rasp, like you get from Cascade's ancestor Fuggle. I'm guessing both of these were made using some class of fruit-enhancing IPA yeast, because I'm pretty sure Cascade wouldn't turn out like this from a neutral strain. Regardless, it was very tasty, if not quite as interesting as the Ahtanum one.
There are loads of Quiet Storms in this series and I'll be looking out for others. Single hop beers are usually about demonstrating the specific characteristics of an individual hop. These ones, conversely, appear to be putting a new twist on them.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU-RB_EproiKJQerwxhX8o3S6p7NQ32S4fT49Z4P2vz6P44kP7out o_CzTqbt5GbVle0oUYsSionYNjTbcEjGMdVGxay10EOMIcOHDZ 6tgodBPR11MJWchlGMNwxNvDpJKuVTiCaem9MBj1wjv8uaOgmJ mu3iRRuwVugW6eQr8WG_eB6-3L6MU_Q/w400-h248/ron_pattinson_at_underdog.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU-RB_EproiKJQerwxhX8o3S6p7NQ32S4fT49Z4P2vz6P44kP7out o_CzTqbt5GbVle0oUYsSionYNjTbcEjGMdVGxay10EOMIcOHDZ 6tgodBPR11MJWchlGMNwxNvDpJKuVTiCaem9MBj1wjv8uaOgmJ mu3iRRuwVugW6eQr8WG_eB6-3L6MU_Q/s2604/ron_pattinson_at_underdog.jpg)
More... (https://thebeernut.blogspot.com/2024/05/ronbridge.html)
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio3MnOSIW2ldIMCe5TX_bTx3NaNxwm6KG_dQzi7ZpcpW hTEIe_jHNoBTaXUzuPLeNVePjCmqfnA-LcS-oC23yOdeJ5hZxnxIB-z8NfbESN89LPsodMGXdEwHrAXzeGZ6pdOQgB4JEL9u8-KK9vGT2uxbrYaHNTWdwkGpgDAHyvsDjIo4BVMdSF7g/w137-h200/thornbridge_quiet_storm_cascade.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio3MnOSIW2ldIMCe5TX_bTx3NaNxwm6KG_dQzi7ZpcpW hTEIe_jHNoBTaXUzuPLeNVePjCmqfnA-LcS-oC23yOdeJ5hZxnxIB-z8NfbESN89LPsodMGXdEwHrAXzeGZ6pdOQgB4JEL9u8-KK9vGT2uxbrYaHNTWdwkGpgDAHyvsDjIo4BVMdSF7g/s3290/thornbridge_quiet_storm_cascade.jpg)Mr Ronald Pattinson of Amsterdam was in Dublin last month, as he has mentioned on his own blog (https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2024/04/dublin-bound.html). The hard taskmasters at the National Homebrew Club (https://www.nationalhomebrewclub.ie/) forced him to talk at length about brewing history in front of a crowd at UnderDog. The English visitor's presence was marked by the coincidental appearance of two new English beers on the taps, both single hop experiments from Thornbridge.
It felt like there was a bit of a deconstructed Jaipur thing going on, because the first on was Quiet Storm Ahtanum. Ahtanum is a fairly obscure American hop, and one I only really know from Jaipur and its subsequent clone, BrewDog Punk. The beers were that sort of strength too: 5.5% ABV. This one was a very pale yellow with a slight haze and lots of fizz, a carbonic bite disturbing the flavour somewhat. The flavour is very interesting and not at all what I was expecting from it, being a bowl of varied ripe fruits, including peach, apricot, white grape and red apple -- funky and foedtid, in a most pleasurable way. It's very sweet with it, and gets sweeter as it goes, having an element of strawberry too by the end. A tannic finish drys it out enough for the sweetness not to be a problem. I liked it. There's lots of complexity for a single hop beer, and it had a very modern profile: surprising for essentially a legacy hop. I didn't miss the lack of bittering.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimbT4WoB_Cn6Agp4eWG82TCESzsKjAyaHkQS4iNCSSNQ 80We4iWZFJLpYtSHw21UePwz3gkkLwS5ltmSXy1Dl8hNtFxH0T xaCfBG9LNqOH4FNJZguNOEpake8qxJ6dvar14kk2XHfgjrsYD7 vAf-Dp7GE__YPdJD_pzwDC2xJveLCuIWCkM6RQ3A/w173-h200/thornbridge_quiet_storm_ahtanum.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimbT4WoB_Cn6Agp4eWG82TCESzsKjAyaHkQS4iNCSSNQ 80We4iWZFJLpYtSHw21UePwz3gkkLwS5ltmSXy1Dl8hNtFxH0T xaCfBG9LNqOH4FNJZguNOEpake8qxJ6dvar14kk2XHfgjrsYD7 vAf-Dp7GE__YPdJD_pzwDC2xJveLCuIWCkM6RQ3A/s2625/thornbridge_quiet_storm_ahtanum.jpg)When that ran out it was replaced by Quiet Storm Cascade, and I thought I would be on more familiar ground with this. Surprise! There was no earthy bitterness here, and no punchy grapefruit or resin. Instead, it's a rich and nutty dessert, suggesting nougat or almond paste. The fizz problem from the other one has been solved, as it was lovely and smooth. I searched hard for any familiar features, and only towards the end did I notice a very faint metallic rasp, like you get from Cascade's ancestor Fuggle. I'm guessing both of these were made using some class of fruit-enhancing IPA yeast, because I'm pretty sure Cascade wouldn't turn out like this from a neutral strain. Regardless, it was very tasty, if not quite as interesting as the Ahtanum one.
There are loads of Quiet Storms in this series and I'll be looking out for others. Single hop beers are usually about demonstrating the specific characteristics of an individual hop. These ones, conversely, appear to be putting a new twist on them.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU-RB_EproiKJQerwxhX8o3S6p7NQ32S4fT49Z4P2vz6P44kP7out o_CzTqbt5GbVle0oUYsSionYNjTbcEjGMdVGxay10EOMIcOHDZ 6tgodBPR11MJWchlGMNwxNvDpJKuVTiCaem9MBj1wjv8uaOgmJ mu3iRRuwVugW6eQr8WG_eB6-3L6MU_Q/w400-h248/ron_pattinson_at_underdog.jpg (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU-RB_EproiKJQerwxhX8o3S6p7NQ32S4fT49Z4P2vz6P44kP7out o_CzTqbt5GbVle0oUYsSionYNjTbcEjGMdVGxay10EOMIcOHDZ 6tgodBPR11MJWchlGMNwxNvDpJKuVTiCaem9MBj1wjv8uaOgmJ mu3iRRuwVugW6eQr8WG_eB6-3L6MU_Q/s2604/ron_pattinson_at_underdog.jpg)
More... (https://thebeernut.blogspot.com/2024/05/ronbridge.html)