All your ANORAK are belong to us!

A bottle of Anorak with Edinburgh Castle and skyline behind.

The sun has set on Natural Selection Brewing 2012.  Looking back it was an incredibly busy 4 months, developing our beer from initial ideas to finished product.  Ultimately the project was fantastically rewarding, the team learned a huge amount about developing and bringing a product to market.  We have no doubt that the experiences gained from this project will be invaluable in our future careers in the brewing industry.

The 2012 team would like to thank our mentors: Steve & Jo Stewart and the whole team at Stewart Brewing, for giving us the opportunity and support to brew our beer in your brewery, and to the project supervisor David Quain, Professor of Brewing at the ICBD, for providing excellent support and guidance.  Natural Selection Brewing would not happen without them.

We'd also like to give a special thanks to the staff and managers of our two launch pubs: The Stockbridge Tap and The Rake.  The are both great venues to work with and very nice people.

A final thank you to the many other people who supported Anorak: the beer-geeks, raters, bloggers, pubs, bars and off-licences.  You all helped make the project a success.

At this point we pass the baton of Natural Selection Brewing onto the 2013 MSc Brewing & Distilling class, who are at the very beginning of their time at the International Centre for Brewing and Distilling at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.  We wish them all the very best and we look forward to tasting the product of Natural Selection Brewing 2013!  #RIPanorak

Cheers!

Denis Johnstone

Shane O'Beirne

John Woodford

Kristen Ewer

In addition to our Edinburgh launch we also launched Anorak in London.

PS If you haven't tried ANORAK yet don't worry, there is a very small amount available in off-licences in Edinburgh and around Scotland, but it wont be around for long.

Snozberry? Who ever heard of a Snozberry?!

The big day for Natural Selection Brewing has almost arrived, tomorrow, Wednesday 11th July, we finally launch Anorak at the Stockbridge Tap!

From 7pm you will be able to try Anorak for yourself from keg, cask and bottle. We think it's tasting great and look forward to hearing what you think of it! The only other place you will be able to try the kegged version of Anorak will be in London on 16th July at The Rake. 

We also have a special one-of-a-kind cask of Snozberry Anorak that will only be available at the launch night. This cask has been packed full of fresh snozberries which Willy Wonka has assured us will complement the refreshing characteristics of Anorak with a delicious fruity flavour and aroma, never before seen in a Scottish beer.

Team Anorak: L-R Denis Johnstone, Shane O'Beirne, Kristen Ewer & John Woodford
Front: Steve Stewart MD of Stewart Brewing, mentor and supporter of NSB.
Photo by Douglas McBride.

We are the music makers,

and we are the dreamers of dreams!

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

Our Kick-Ass Designer - Abbie Macpherson

Why Anorak looks so spectacularly awesome is down to our talented designer Abbie Macpherson. Why Anorak tastes so spectacularly awesome is down to us (fingers crossed!).

Not only has Abbie worked on the Natural Selection Brewing Anorak design she has also gained an In-book status from D&AD, a commendation from YCN and local acknowledgement from Show Racism the Red Card in Scotland. Quite an impressive array of achievements!

Abbie has been studying graphic design at Edinburgh's Telford College and will be continuing her studies at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee. 

All of us at Natural Selection Brewing continue to be blown away with amount of work Abbie is putting into the project. We thank her for her dedication and professionalism, as well has her brilliant designs. 

Anyone that is around Edinburgh from June 13th-17th should make their way to the Dovecot Studios where Abbie will be having her graduate exhibition.

Beers for our prototype tasting announced!

The lineup for our free prototype tasting at Vino Wines, Stockbridge on Friday May 25th from 5-8pm will be:

Prototype 1 Malted barley / malted wheat Anorak

Prototype 2 Pilsner malt / malted wheat Anorak

Prototype 3 Cranberry infused Anorak

Prototype 4 Blackberry infused Anorak

Prototype 5 Blueberry infused Anorak

Come along to this tasting, say hi and give us your feedback on our recipe development.

Anorak Prototype Tasting

Natural Selection Brewing are in the process of designing the recipe for our new beer Anorak.  Anorak is a 4.8% wheat beer that is a bit unlike any other wheat beer you will have tried before.

This event will include an exclusive tasting of our new Anorak prototypes, plus a couple of other very limited production experiments.  

Come along to our public tasting and give us your input as we further develop our recipe!

TIME: Friday 25 May 5-8pm 

VENUE: Vino Wines, Stockbridge, 26 North West Circus Place, Edinburgh

Anorak Design Submissions

It's important to know what your strengths are, and we know graphic design isn't one of ours.  We are, however, shit-hot at making beer (sorry for the language, John's grandma). We try not to brag, but our bartering skills have exceeded expectations - we traded beer for our new design!  Cool, huh?

A few weeks ago we posted an appeal for graphic designers to send in ideas for Anorak in return for some of our prototype brews.  We were overwhelmed by the variety, creativity and quality of designs that we received. 

We will soon post a blog dedicated to our chosen design by Abbie Macpherson, but first we wanted to showcase the many fantastic designs we received. We were very impressed by them all.  All the designers are receiving a prototype bottle of Anorak as a small token of our appreciation.  Special thank you to David Wilson for supporting the students at Edinburgh's Telford College with their submissions.  

A MASSIVE thank you to everyone who submitted a design!  We hope to see you all at our launch in July.

If anyone else has any other services they'd like to swap for beer, feel free to get in touch.

 

Kenneth Gray

kennethgray.co.uk

@kenneth_gray

Aaron Monday 

12orchards.com

@12orchards

Gavin J Dunbar

facebook.com/GavinJDunbar

@GJDunbar

Alastair Miller

www.purplepandamedia.com

@GaryThePanda

Rebecca Westwood

rebeccawestwood.com

@becca_westwood

Andrew Palfreyman

Calum Mackinnon

http://be.net/calumackinnon

Cameron Stewart

Emil Blums - Blumanis

http://www.behance.net/emilsbb
http://ebloom.deviantart.com/gallery/

Jocelyn Kornfeld

www.thisisjocelyn.com 

@Jocelynkornfeld

Marc Smith

Ryan Allan

Stephen McCann

http://www.flatsteve.com

@Stephen_McCann

Aritha Dornau

Matt Johnson