Utopian Brewing has released its 2023 Festbier, the latest in a range of brews paying homage to classic styles, but using 100% British-grown ingredients.
Every year the brewery likes to add a distinctive feature to the classic Festbier style, and this year is no exception. Brewer Jeremy Swainson was delighted to be able to get his hands on some English-grown Hersbrucker hops.
Following previous years, which have involved complex Augsberg mash regimes and heritage Hana malt, this year’s brew uses a traditional double decoction mash with Utopian’s house lager malt. This builds a strong bready base with East Kent Goldings (EKG) and First Gold hops, followed by a late addition of the Hersbrucker leaf.
“Hersbrucker is a classic noble hop and has been used to make lagers for centuries,” said Jeremy. “It’s prized for the subtle aroma it gives to malt-forward lagers.
“It’s a privilege to be able to brew with some of the only Hersbrucker grown in this country, and this year’s Festbier is likely our best to date.”
The Hersbrucker hops were grown by Tom Probert, in Herefordshire, providing yet another example of how British growers are continuing to push back the boundaries and increase the range of amazing UK hops available to brewers.
The launch of the Festbier comes a week after Utopian released its latest celebration of British pilsners with its Goldings Pils. This is a series of small-batch brews which showcase British hops in the classic European style.
The Goldings used 100% East Kent Goldings hops with a big dry hop. Jeremy said: “Many would not associate EKG as a typical lager hop or for big dry hops, but the results are amazing, with heaps of flavour and aroma complementing the beautiful crisp dry pils base.”
Utopian, based in Devon, will continue to use only 100% British-grown ingredients, said managing director Richard Archer. “Using home-grown ingredients was a first step for us to reduce food miles and our carbon footprint, and it is great to see more and more brewers increasingly following that path.
“The range of styles and quality of UK hops continues to delight us, but the future of UK hops is in our hands as we need more brewers to be brewing with them, and not just the UK traditional varieties. There’s a window to try to redress the reduction in UK hop acreage, and we will continue to bang the drum to try to reverse that trend.”
Next in the British Pilsner series will be the now annual Green Hop Pilsner collaboration, brewed with Utopian’s good friend Eddie Gadd at the Ramsgate Brewery. Brewed last week, with another fabulous UK hop, this beer is due for release in October.
