Thornbridge Brewer's Challenge

The Thornbridge brewers have been involved in 'friendly' competition over the last four months. Each was tasked to produce a new brew that would showcase their skills and tastes. Drinkers were polled, ratebeer.com scores collated and cask sales monitored to work out which of the brewcrew would claim first place. I tried them all at various venues and decided that Katipo was my firm favourite... did the wider beery world agree with me when the results weer released yesterday?



Back in June, Dave Pickering was the first to step up with Barbary. I tried this in the Coopers Tavern, Burton, before I knew about the challenge. And a superb brew it was, atypical perhaps for a summmer beer with yummy malts and chocolate dustings all around. Slight spice and smoke too.

July saw Stefano Cossi's Hop Shock unleashed. Hugely popular at the Derby CAMRA festival on handpump, it was a decent itchy-scratchy pale that was more surprise rather than shock. Tons of hop in the nose but strangely restrained on the palate.

Newest brewer Matthew Clarke was let loose in August and came up with Karnival. In the American pale ale style, I found it to have a typical Thornbridge hop stamp albeit with a crepe sole rather than a steel toe-cap. An assured brew that ticked the boxes.

Bouncing into September came the Tigger of Thornbridge, Kelly Ryan, with Katipo. Named after a rare spider found in his home country of New Zealand, this was a rich porter riven with Belgian raspberries. When I first tried this at the Burton CAMRA festival I nearly fell off my seat - and it was only my second drink of the day. It had an outstanding feel, reaching a point when the fruit oozed effortlessly through the chocolate. Scooping plans were then abandoned and I drank as much of it as I dared to before a reluctant train journey home. Sampled again at the Brunswick festival it revealed more plump and juicy fruits before the quick bitter finish. And again at the Nottingham CAMRA fest where it was served rather cool but hot hands allowed that berried sting in the tail to surface again.

So it's a delight to find out that Katipo took first place in the Brewer's Challenge. "I've always been a fan of fruit beers," said Kelly, "and whilst brewing in Scotland and being surrounded by wild raspberries, I imagined that their sweetness and tartness would be a great mix". He found the competition to be fun; "it brought out a bit of competitiveness and cloak and dagger-esque recipe formulation!".

A worthy winner, Tigger; here's hoping you get the chance to defend your trophy next year! And here's hoping that Katipo will be brewed again soon, a cool winter deserves a rich fruity beer to cheer rosy nosed topers!