You may have noticed that our online shop has been a bit low on stock over the last couple of weeks. We really have been blown away by your support both on the website and in our independent stockists throughout January and, to be honest, it caught me by surprise during what is normally a very quiet month – even at the best of times. I’m sorry if you’ve been unable to find what you wanted lately.
Thankfully we’ve now packaged our first beers of 2021 into cans, the online shop has been restocked and the tanks are full of beer again. Our aim has always been to offer a great range of beers across as many styles and strengths as our limited tank capacity allows. Once we’ve canned these beers on the 22nd February we’ll have at least six beers to choose from, and a degree of normality will be restored.
We’re very pleased to see the return of Mourne Gold Pale Ale this week. Gold was one of our original brews back in 2015 and has been brewed regularly ever since. At 4% alcohol by volume it is a light and sessionable beer and one that I like to keep a few cans of in the fridge at home. It is a filtered bright beer, pouring a striking gold colour with a fluffy white head.
Moving to cans has provided the opportunity to develop the Gold recipe further with small additions of Cara Gold malt and lightly roasted Amber Malt in the grist producing a deeper malty flavour to better balance the hops. We use a combination of German, English and American hop varieties for a clean bitterness; spicy kettle hop flavour; and a floral, fruity hop aroma. And even though it’s poured from a can, the gentle carbonation puts you in mind of the experience of a delicious hand-pulled pint of cask conditioned Gold.
Dot’s Delight is a 9% alcohol by volume Vegan Blueberry and Vanilla Muffin Stout. Jet black and bursting with blueberry aroma, this is a sticky sweet stout to enjoy with – or as – your dessert. We don’t use lactose (milk) sugar in our big stouts so they’re always Vegan Friendly (as an aside, all our beers are Vegan Friendly!). Instead the recipes contain lots of oats which, along with Dextrin Malt, help to boost the sweet malty mouthfeel of the beer. For this recipe we cold-steeped the Crystal Malt portion of the grist to add a layer of caramel flavour in the brew. It’s a bit of fun, and we all need a bit of fun right now.
(Please have fun responsibly.)
You’ll already know that most of our new beers are named after climbing routes in the stunning Mountains of Mourne, and we’re sticking with that theme here. Dot’s Delight is a HVS climb that can be found on the First Corner Buttress of Lower Cove.
Both beers are available now in our shop. Don’t forget we still provide chilled home delivery to NI and most areas of ROI, and the fine folks at Parcelforce will get your beer to you, entirely unfettered, in Donegal and GB. We’ve shipped cases of both beers to Nelson Sauvin for onward distribution to your local good beer off sales in Northern Ireland this week, and stock will be making its way across the Irish Sea at the end of the month.
Thank you again for your continued support. I’ve said it before but will continue to do so – we really do appreciate it. Next time I’ll tell you about a brand new stout for St. Patrick’s Day; two hazy hoppy rebrews from 2020; and some quite exciting news about Mourne Mist Pilsner.
