Purple Moose Brewery has joined forces with Welsh food company Bwydydd Madryn to launch a new chutney.
Geraint Hughes (left), managing director of Madryn Foods, with Lawrence Washington, MD of Purple Moose Brewery. Photograph: Mandy Jones
The relish, from Madryn’s Calon Lan range, has been infused with the deep malty and blackcurrant flavour of multi-award winning beer, Dark Side of the Moose.
It’s the latest in a series of new products unveiled by Madryn who earlier this year opened a new warehouse in Pwllheli to cater for their growing order book.
The expansion came about in part because the launch of their successful new blasus.cymru website to enable the company to sell direct to customers as well as through supermarkets, convenience stores and restaurants across Wales.
Madryn managing director, Geraint Hughes, said: “We wanted to create something a bit different with our savoury chutneys, and wanted to link up with another Welsh brand, so we approached Purple Moose.
“Chutneys have been making something of a comeback in recent years, and the demand for them has been growing significantly. “Working with another Welsh brand in this way works on so many different levels, and Purple Moose beer is a personal favourite of mine too.”
He added: “When we were developing this chutney, we tried a few beers from the Purple Moose range, but Dark Side of the Moose was the one that worked best. It is the ideal match in terms of the taste and the depth of flavour in the chutney.
‘A marriage made in foodie heaven’
“Apart from the Dark Side of the Moose beer, the main ingredients of the chutney are mangos and apples, so it has a bit of sweet and sour in the taste, making it incredibly versatile, so it can be paired with everything from salads to the top of quiches and sausages.”
Like Madryn, Purple Moose is going from strength to strength and now employs more than 40 people at the brewery, its Australia pub, and two shops in Porthmadog, and a newly-opened store in Betws-y-Coed.
Brewery managing director, Lawrence Washington, said: “The style of Dark Side of the Moose is a dark bitter, which doesn’t really fit into the other beer styles of the UK — it’s not quite a porter and not quite a stout.
“It’s still one of my favourite beers, and it’s won by far the most awards of any of our ales, including the Golden Fork at Great Taste Awards as the best of all the food and drink products in Wales, not to mention the award for the best name at CAMRA’s Cambridge beer festival.
“It’s 4.6% and it’s got a really nice deep malty flavour from the darker malted barley that goes into it. That rich, biscuity flavour is balanced nicely with the Bramling Cross hops, which give almost a blackcurranty aroma and flavour.
“It works perfectly with the chutney. The chutney is wonderful and has a nice tang of the beer in it — it’s a marriage made in foodie heaven.”
