Month: May 2021

21
May
2021
A New Chapter

A New Chapter

As many of our lovely customers know, we’ve been looking for a new space for our brewery with room for a taproom (and possibly a pony) for quite some time. We started looking in the area around our current place in Edmonton, but the search has widened and widened over time, with even a fleeting suggestion we might move it to Iceland!

We would have liked to stay close to our current location and the community that has supported us over the last five years, but unfortunately we have been unable to find the perfect spot in the borough of Enfield – everywhere we considered was too big, too small, didn’t have everything we would need or had a very limited lease term available that would mean the capital investment in setting things up wouldn’t give us a return over time.

Finally, a few weeks ago, we found somewhere new, not in Edmonton/Enfield – and we signed the new lease this week.

This means that over the summer, subject to various licensing applications being successful, we will be moving our operations to Walthamstow. We’re moving into another industrial unit that’s about 3.5 times the size of our current place and has room for a taproom. It has dedicated office space and even posh loos, and it’s near a few other breweries in a bustling beer community.

Anyone who has been to our Edmonton site recently will know that we’ve outgrown it – as our Brewer, Michaela, put it, we’re “potbound” – and we think this gives us the best opportunity to grow and develop the business as well as continuing to serve our aims as a social enterprise.

We’re planning to do some crowdfunding in the near future to help build the next phase of Beerblefish, so look out for more on that very soon!

Beerblefish's Bethany Eating a Burger
The first meal in the new brewery – a Beerblefish tradition!
Posted by Bethany in Beerblefish HQ News, Brewed for Good, Taproom and Bottle Shop
17
May
2021
Now Available: Reusable Jute Bottle Bags

Now Available: Reusable Jute Bottle Bags

As you’ll have seen from our Impact Report 2020, we’re keen to find more ways that we can improve the sustainability of our operations. One of the things that has been bugging us for ages is the sheer amount of cardboard we get through, and that includes when we sell direct to retail customers.

We’ve never used plastic bags, preferring paper bags or cardboard carry cases, and we know that some of our customers either reuse their cardboard boxes or bring their own reusable bags – but we know that a lot of the cardboard we send out across our business probably only has one use before recycling or even landfill and we want to try to change that. Now we’ve got our own solution that we hope will make everyone want to help the environment.

We’ve sourced some jute bottle bags that have removable bottle dividers. That means you can fill them with beer or just use them on your regular weekly shop (or you could really push the boat out and… do both!) They’re really nice quality and super-strong, and we’ve tested them to make sure all our bottles fit.

So what’s in it for you? Why should you buy one of our bags? Well, we’ll do you a deal. You buy the bag. At the same time you could fill it with beer and benefit from our regular multipack discounts. Then, when you need some more beer (and/or gin), you bring it back to us at the brewery or at one of our market stalls (see our events page for when they are) and we will give you an extra 10% off the beer and/or gin you buy to refill your bag, on top of any available multipack discount.

By the time you’ve reused the bag two or three times (depending on what you buy), you’ll have recouped your investment in it through the extra discount, and then you’ll just be making savings every time you choose to help the environment by reusing the bag.

Bags are available now (with or without beer in) from our online shop (and yes, they will come in a cardboard box – that’s for solving another day…), and we’ll have them for sale at the brewery and our market stalls. The filled bags make a great gift, too!

Regular brewery customers should note that we’re discontinuing our extra-discounted brewery prices – all the more reason to get your hands on a jute bag!

Posted by Bethany in Brewed for Good, Merchandise
07
May
2021
Keeping Mumme

Keeping Mumme

Right now, Mumme is in fact the word. No, not the sparkling grape-derived drink with a similar brand name, but rather our new-but-old-but-new historically-inspired ale that hailed originally from Germany.

As you’ll know by now, we love a heritage beer at Beerblefish – our range based on nineteenth century recipes has been around for a few years and we’ve just decided to make our Viking Ale a permanent fixture (with a shiny new label – more to come on that) – and the latest style to take our fancy is from the German city of Braunschweig (or Brunswick in English). This style was called Mumme in Braunschweig, but was often written Mum in England.

In common with many more recent brews, there were two types of Mumme brewed – one was made for the home market and was low in alcohol, while the other was exported – known as Schiffsmumme because it was for shipping.

The people of Braunschweig had started brewing Mumme by the time it was first recorded in the late fifteenth century and it remained popular until the late eighteenth century, at which time its popularity started to wane – helped along in Britain by a high import duty no doubt designed to protect the British brewing industry. An ale called Mum continued to be brewed in Ireland (then part of the UK) but other beers took over and the style was consigned to the beer history books.

Braunschweiger Mumme’s demise predates the national adoption of the German beer purity law, but it is thought that this kind of ale brewed in northern Germany was part of the reason that Bavaria, in the south, introduced the law in the early sixteenth century, in order to protect Bavaria’s own beers from competition – Mumme used ingredients that fell outside the beer purity law, including herbs, spices and stone fruits (usually plums or prunes).

Our Mumme includes prunes, cardamom, cinnamon, camomile and orange peel, which are made into a kind of tea before being added to the wort. It took Michaela and Glenn a few tries to get the combinations and proportions right and they found it was better to brew a tea with each ingredient and then combine them, rather than starting with a mixture of ingredients.

The malt bill for our Mumme includes three types of malted barley (extra pale, crystal 150 and Munich malt) along with dark malted wheat. The only hop is Hallertauer Mittelfruh, which is used for bittering, while the spiced tea does all the work for the flavour and aroma.

The result is a dark, slightly smoky ale with a spicy and fruity edge to it and a silky mouthfeel. At 6.9% ABV, it’s quite robust, but still very drinkable and very different from anything we’ve brewed before.

You’ll find it now in our online shop and it will be available from our stockists very soon. Tried it? Let us know what you think!

Posted by Bethany in Beer Launch, Beer Styles and Recipes, Brewing, Research and Trips