Neptune Brewery is approaching its 1,000th brew and it’s asking drinkers to help select which of its historic brews should be revived to mark the occasion.
It has selected four beers that were first brewed between 2016 and 2018 and will set up a poll on which one will be brewed again to celebrate #Neptune1000. The choices reflect both the brewery’s more adventurous creations and the recipes that were best received by drinkers.
The poll is running across Neptune’s Twitter and Facebook platforms, and both its trade customers and newsletter subscribers will be emailed a link. The winning beer will be announced next week and the brewery will run an online competition for a chance to win cans of the #Neptune1000 beer, which will be released in late August.
The four beers are:
Fugu (4% ABV), a Sorachi Ace-hopped pale ale
A refreshing pale ale with some bready character from Golden Promise malts and a pleasing lemon and herbal character typical of the Sorachi Ace hop.
Run Aground (5.8% ABV), a coffee IPA
A sweet and piney Simcoe IPA, brewed with brown malt and a bespoke coffee blend from locals Crosby Coffee, delivering a robust coffee blast.
Tatha (5.9% ABV), an elderflower blonde
A light and crisp, citrussy blonde, made with a fragrant blend of juicy Citra hops and fresh elderflowers.
Jammie Dodger (6.4% ABV), a raspberry and vanilla amber
A full-flavoured blend of malts and oats deliver the expected rich and biscuity base complemented by fresh fruit purée and sweet vanilla pods for that familiar taste.
With a fondness for experimenting with quirky flavours and styles, alongside the brewery’s classic firm favourites, head brewer Les O’Grady had a good number of eclectic recipes to draw on from his eight-plus-year back catalogue. He is excited by the prospect of bringing back one of them for Neptune’s milestone brew.
“Back when we started in 2015, brewing one 200-litre brew a week, the idea of brewing 1,000 batches was a distant thought,” he said.
“Now here we are, after surviving a pandemic and going from me alone to a team of 12, approaching our 1000th commercial brew! I thought it would be great to revisit some of our old recipes and bring one back to celebrate this landmark. We’ll bring it up to date with a few tweaks to the original, but maintaining the essence of the original brew.”
It won’t just be the beer recipe that Neptune plan to upgrade. Eagle-eyed drinkers will have noticed a gradual refreshing of the Neptune designs and branding over the past months, spearheaded by the brewery’s creative lead, John McKeown. With Neptune since the very beginning, John has developed from a self-taught part-time team member to the full-time in-house brand designer.
He said: “We have been working on developing our brand since last year, gaining a better understanding of what our customers want, whilst staying true to our core look, with bold colours and the iconic trident being our main focal point. Getting the chance to rework one of my old designs for the 1000th brew will be a fun challenge.”
Along with the #Neptune1000 polls, the brewery looks forward to sharing details about each historic beer, some customer feedback, and a photographic trip down memory lane. It’s all part of a celebratory reflection on the brewery’s journey and successes since its humble homebrewing beginnings in 2015.
