Anorak London Launch - 16th July

We are very excited to be bringing Anorak to London and even more excited to be bringing it to The Rake. We're looking forward to showcasing Anorak to craft beer lovers in London, plus it's a great excuse for a roadtrip! 

We'll be launching Anorak in London on Monday July 16th from 7pm. Join us and try some of the very limited kegged Anorak and tell us what you think of it.

Natural Selection Brewing is a collaboration between The International Centre for Brewing and Distilling at Heriot-Watt University and Stewart Brewing. It allows four students to design, market, sell and launch a beer as part of their masters project for their MSc in Brewing and Distilling. 

This year we are making a beer called Anorak. It is a 4.8% summer wheat beer. We wanted to design a beer for summertime but also one that was a little unusual. Anorak falls between a few current beer styles.  Anorak will not have a banana or clove aroma that might be associated with typical German or Belgian wheat beer. Instead it will have a refreshing, citrus, hoppy aroma derived from dry-hopping and the seven hop varieties we are using. It will have an aroma that might be typical of an IPA but without the bitterness, which combined with the wheat will make it very drinkable. 

Hope to see you all there!

VENUE - The Rake, 14a Winchester Walk, London, SE1 9AG map

DATE - Monday 16th July

TIME - 7pm

Photos of Anorak Brewday

Abbie Macpherson at Dovecot Studios until June 17th

Abbie Macpherson, the graphic designer behind Anorak, is currently part of an exhibition at the Dovecot Studios, where graduating students from Telford College are showcasing their work.


For her graded unit Abbie chose to develop an entire marketing campaign based on Anorak,  taking Anorak way beyond our original design brief.  We are thrilled with the array of professional marketing materials that Abbie has produced.  Abbie really is making a name for herself in the drinks industry - please form an orderly queue, we found her first!

The exhibition finishes on the 17th of June, be sure to get along before then to see Abbie's stunning designs and the rest of the work from the students at Telford College.

The full marketing campaign - photo really doesn't do it justice!

We hope to get some of these posters produced soon.

Mmm.. Anorak

A 4-pack of Anorak

Yeast Propagation - VIDEO

John took a visit to Stewart Brewing earlier in the week to propagate the yeast for Anorak.  Here is a video of the action:

 

In other news, Anorak t-shirts have arrived and they look amazing! 

Recipe development the Anorak way

Brewday is quickly approaching and we’ve finally nailed down our recipe for Anorak.  It has been a lengthy process, beginning with our initial trials at the tail-end of March.  Cracking open some of these remaining initial brews evoked fond memories of the progress we’ve made.

Reminiscing about the past few months, Shane began daydreaming: fields of golden wheat and barley, mountains of fresh green hops, slurries of sexy yeast, the alluring aroma of isinglass…wait, what? 

Best not to ask...

At the start, we had some BIG ideas for beers – hell, put ‘imperial’ on a beer label and Denis gets that tingly feeling in his pants – but we came to the realization that we needed something more appropriate and approachable than a 10% Brettanomyces chilli espresso scotch ale (actually, that sounds pretty questionable, even for us).  An easy-drinking wheat beer for the festival season became our goal, however it needed a twist…

HOPS.  We like hops.  Nay, we f@*$ing love hops.  We adore them.  Hell, John has some weird fantasy involving hops, a sand wedge, and a handful of 9-volt batteries…. don’t ask. 

Denis feeling a bit rough after John
introduced him to Brett.

Kristen has a thing for Belgians and was really pushing for a wit-style yeast.  John was down with this, too – he seems to power through those beers that typically result in those gut-wrenching, head-throbbing, next-day hangovers.  Denis vetoed this proposal of a phenolic-producing yeast immediately for the aforementioned reasons.  A compromise was made to use a clean-fermenting American wheat yeast.

We’re aiming for full-out hop flavor and aroma to complement the crisp, clean nature of the wheat and our chosen yeast, while avoiding the harsh bitterness of American style IPAs.

Anorak blurs the lines between beer styles.  Call it a hybrid, even a beery tramp of sorts… we call it a perfect marriage. 

Anorak Edinburgh Launch - 11th July

Natural Selection Brewing is a collaboration between The International Centre for Brewing and Distilling at Heriot-Watt University and Stewart Brewing. It allows four students to design, market, sell and launch a beer as part of their masters project for their MSc in Brewing and Distilling. 

This year we are making a beer called Anorak. It is a 4.8% summer wheat beer. We wanted to design a beer for summertime but also one that was a little unusual. Anorak falls between a few current beer styles.  Anorak will not have a banana or clove aroma that might be associated with typical German or Belgian wheat beer. Instead it will have a refreshing, citrus, hoppy aroma derived from dry-hopping and the seven hop varieties we are using. It will have an aroma that might be typical of an IPA but without the bitterness, which combined with the wheat will make it very drinkable. 

It was VERY difficult to choose a bar to host our launch.  Edinburgh has a thriving beer scene, with great bars in every corner of the city.  Every week there are great beer events.  (Kudos to the Beer Cast team - we were struggling to keep track of what was happening before the Beer Weekly started!)

OK folks, get your diary out - we're pleased to announce that on Wednesday 11th of July we will launch Anorak in the Stockbridge Tap. Both cask and bottle versions will be available. 

The Stockbridge Tap is the perfect location to launch Anorak.  No stranger to hosting beer launches and tap takeovers, the Tap is a firm favourite with the Edinburgh beer posse.  Who remembers the legendary Magic Rock tap takeover back in February? No? We're not sure we remember it fully either (damn that seductive bearded temptress).  We are confident that our launch night at the Tap will achieve similarly legendary status!

Hope to see you all there!

VENUE - Stockbridge Tap map

DATE - Wednesday 11th July

TIME - 7pm