Keltek Gatekeeper

There’s no shortage of unusual ingredients going into beers at the moment, but Keltek Brewery, in Cornwall, is making use of an abundant local resource in its new porter.

Gatekeeper (5.6% ABV) uses kelp — seaweed — in its recipe, which excites head brewer Rob Jones as he is a keen scuba diver.

The Cornish Seaweed Company, based in Gweek, on the south coast and founded by renewable energy engineer Caroline Warwick-Evans and conservationist Tim van Berkel, supplied the kelp dried and ready to go.

Keltek Rob JonesRob (pictured) said: “I knew Kelp had been used in brews, so I started to put a few ideas together and I was confident the liquorice sweetness you get from Kelp would enhance a porter. I researched other beers, and of course tasted some too — it’s benchmarking!

“The kelp came from Gweek dried and ready to go. We cut it into shorter lengths and added it to the mash, releasing the sugars to give us that all-important sweetness. As well as the barley and kelp, we used a blend of British and German hops to give a sturdy and smooth bitterness.

“Our range was missing a porter. We have brews down at 3.4% ranging right up to 7.5%, but we had nothing as dark as this one — at this time of year drinkers tend to drink darker and heavier beers. We also want to show our creativity — brewing is an equal share of science and craft. We are aiming to bring out a number of new beers in 2018.”

On the beer name, Rob added: “The French word ‘porteur’ roughly translates to doorman or gatekeeper, so we have kept the name in line with the style of beer in a roundabout kind of way, but it also fits in with the rest of our range, being based around the legends of King Arthur and his castles.”

The team at the Cornish Seaweed Company free dive off the Cornish coast and harvest the kelp by hand. They are very careful about where and when the harvest takes place to ensure sustainability. Find out more in this video…