The last time I remember going upstairs in Truro’s Old Ale House was to a meeting that sought to resurrect a Cornwall branch of the National Union of Journalists. The air was musty and the floor creaked, and not just because there were several overweight old hacks present. The NUJ branch never made a comeback and, in all honesty, neither did the Ale House, until earlier this year when Skinner’s took on the Enterprise lease, cleaned up the main downstairs bar and re-opened it as a brewery tap.
On Friday, I returned to the that upstairs room, and a what a difference a loving leaseholder makes. The room is now The Hop Store, a warmly decorated function room that still has the beautiful wide windows which date from when the building, designed by architect and former Truro mayor Silvanus Trevail, was a milliner’s. Hop bines decorate the tops of the walls and there is a new bar and furniture.
The occasion was the launch of a new beer from Skinner’s, a collaboration with River Cottage, base of celebrity cook Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and HQ to a thriving seasonal and largely self-sufficient food business. River Cottage, it transpires, approached Skinner’s to create a new beer which would, naturally, pair well with food and the result is EPA (English Pale Ale) a 4% ABV brew that has now gone on sale in cask and in bottle.
Skinner’s brewing team, who comprise Mark Standinger, Mark Gammons, Mike Job and Mike Stennet, came up with three recipes to present to River Cottage and a majority of 29 out of 30 who tested them went for the recipe we tried on Friday evening. The brief was that the beer had to be made with English hops.
Hence, the star of this beer is a new strain of UK Cascade hop, grown in Herefordshire, which offers more subtle flavour than its loud American cousin. With Admiral it is used as an aroma hop in the pale golden beer, with Northdown undertaking the bittering duties.
“The English hop growers are fighting back!” a proud Steve Skinner told a large crowd of beer enthusiasts in the Hop Store, where a table from River Cottage were special guests. River Cottage’s John Wright, best known as a foraging specialist, got involved in the project, and hop supplier Charles Faram let the brewers play around with some hopping ideas.
The verdict: this is a lovely, easy drinking, flavoursome pale ale, with citrus and floral hop notes on the aroma, a smooth palate with lemon citrus turning very dry on the long finish. Some I spoke to reckoned it was a bit too dry at the end, but for me it was fine and I think with, say, a chicken or white fish dish it would bring out the food flavours well. If you have a preconception of Skinner’s beers, prepare to be surprised – it’s a very different hop profile to, say, Betty Stogs, or even the golden Pothleven or Sennen.
It’s available in bottles now at Skinner’s online shop and on cask in the Old Ale House and other outlets.
