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Zak Avery
Zak, AKA The Beer Boy, is a prolific commentator on the UK beer scene, with a regular column in trade newspaper Off Licence News and of course his own site,
thebeerboy.co.uk. In 2008 Zak was named as Beer Writer of the Year by the British Guild of Beer Writers (a title held
previously by our own Roger Protz and Michael Jackson amongst others). Zak also finds time to manage BeerRitz, the award-winning off-licence in Leeds, where we presume sampling and roadtesting is an
essential part of the job.
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To the point: Sharp's of Cornwall
by Zak Avery
As I watched gallons of hot steamy water spray over the top of the spent grain, washing the last of the fermentable sugar out of the mash tun, I realised that the many mugs of tea I'd consumed
since rising at 4.30am were making their presence felt. To put it bluntly, I needed to pee. I asked assistant brewer Kelvin Proudfoot-Smith where the nearest gents was, and he gave a wry smile.
"The nearest one isn't really that near any more I'm afraid. As we've expanded and added bits onto the building, the walk has become longer and longer."
And indeed it was a bit of a hike across the brewhouse floor, into the fermentation hall, weaving between conditioning tanks and fermentation vessels and into
what is clearly the older part of the building. It's obvious that Sharp's brewery (the building as well as its output) has greatly expanded of late.
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In its 15 years Sharp's has grown from a micro, supplying its immediate environs on the north Cornwall coast, to an award-winning operation distributing across the south
of England. If you live south of the line between London and Cardiff you're almost guaranteed to have seen Doom Bar in a pub. Further north there's a good chance you
will see it soon as Sharps have just started to be distributed from Manchester. Growth continues to be good, with sales almost doubling in the preceding twelve months.
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Head brewer Stuart Howe (above) is at the frontline of production, and so knows exactly how growth is going; "This summer it was two brews a day all week, and one brew each day of the weekend".
| Copper-coloured bitter Doom Bar (4%abv) is Sharp's flagship beer. Its colour belies its lightness - there is a gentle lick of caramel, a faint whiff of the sea, and a dry moreish finish.
"Fresh, clean drinkability" is something of a cliché, but Sharps' cask ales have that quality in spades, something that Howe is proud of. "Idiosyncratic and exciting are all well
and good, but most palates succumb more readily to balanced and moreish" he explains "As a commercial brewer you've got to get a compromise between including enticing flavours and
excluding offensive or extreme characteristics. For a brewer, balanced and moreish are much harder to attain than idiosyncratic and exciting" |
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Alongside Doom Bar, Sharps produce several other cask ales, notably Cornish Coaster (3.6%abv), a golden session ale with a little citrus crispness woven into the pale malt character, and
Special (5.2%abv), a big fruity premium ale with lots of red fruit character and a hint of barley twist sweets. Special also has the trademark Sharp's clean moreishness, something that can
be hard to achieve in a beer of this fruitiness and strength.
But I wasn't attending the brewing any of these beers. I'd been invited to the first brew of Sharps Autumn Red Ale (4.1%abv), part of their seasonal range of beers. Autumn Red is, as
its name suggests, a red ale, a beer that bridges from the light, clean golden ales of summer into the darker, chewier beers of winter. It gets its colour and body from crystal and crystal
rye malt, along with amber malt and golden naked oats. Balanced bitterness comes from Northern Brewer, Fuggles and Brewer's Gold hops, along with a late addition of American Cluster hops. An
extra dimension of flavour is achieved by conditioning the beer on chunks of oak, and not just any old oak, but hand-toasted, sustainably sourced oak from the Eden Project.
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As the wort for the autumn special goes into the copper to boil, Howe and I adjourn for lunch, over which we taste some of Sharps' little-known speciality beers. As well as the Belgian-inspired
blonde beer Chalky's Bite (6.8%abv), matured over Cornish fennel seed (left, Stuart with Rick Stein, celebrating the release of Chalky's Bite, named after Stein's companion on his TV series), Howe also
brews some excellent stronger beers. |
St Enodoc Double (8.5%abv) is a perhaps a bit strong and pale for the "double"
designation, but has a lovely peachy aroma and toffeeish flavour, alongside a slightly wild tartness achieved by adding a strain of pediococcus bacteria to the brew. Honey Spice Triple (9%abv)
also has a peachy note, alongside a clearly honey-derived floral note, and a hint of honeycomb in the medium dry finish. Massive Ale (10%abv) is very fruity and full-bodied, just starting to
show some of the sherryish characteristics of extended bottle ageing, while the enigmatically named "4" (11%abv), a strong barley wine, is full of luscious ripe fruit and orange marmalade notes.
| Sampled a couple of weeks later, the finished Autumn Red turns out to be a real treat. The complex malt bill give a rich, spiced and dried-fruit breadiness to the beer (think toasted teacakes),
while the American Cluster hops add a clean citrussy bite over the earthy bitterness of the classic English Northdown. With the other three seasonals in the range (Winter Berry Ale (4.3%abv),
6 Hop IPA (3.8%abv) and Honey Spice (4.2%abv)), and a range of both everyday and specialist beers available in bottles, it's clear that 15 years after their founding, Sharp's are still moving
forwards with unusual enthusiasm. |
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Zak deep in the hopping stage of Autumn Red |
Sharps' cask ales are widely available in the south of England, and their seasonal ales have similarly good distribution. Their bottled beers, including most of the more unusual ones featured
in this article, can be purchased from their online shop at www.sharpsbrewery.co.uk.
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