Tuesday 27 September 2011

Modern Art Meets Brewers Art

Modern Art Meets Brewers Art - Plot 16 Green Hopped India Pale Ale 2011
 Last year we made a beer in collaboration with Modern Art Oxford's Plot 16 community art project at the Rose Hill allotments in OxfordThe Plot 16 project involved growing fuggle hops over a steel framework made in the shape of the victorian tower brewery building which houses the Modern Art Oxford gallery.  Unfortunately most of the 2010 hops were destroyed by a fire at The Berkshire Hop Company and so the rescue plan was to use what fresh green hops were left on the bines to "dry hop" a batch of our standard Prospect AleVery nice it was too with a big aroma and it has sold well in MAO's cafe throughout the year.

This year we had the opportunity to design a beer around the hops and build an Oxford provenance into it from the outset.  I have always thought that brewing IPA's (authentic ones that is) is something of a brewer's vanity - they are special but are they commercial - what is the point of brewing the best beer you can make if it has no market?  So brewer's vanity hit Shotover and we set out to make a beer that was the best we could do.  As a hobby brewer I had made a couple of "authentic" IPA's including one using an 1880 recipe from the historic records (thank you The Durden Park Beer Circle) but I wasn't satisfied with the "hoppiness" of either of them.  The hoppiest Durden Park historic recipes (see Whitbread's India Export Pale (1864)  used a hopping rate of around 3kg per barrel (36 imp galls or 163.6 litres) though many had less.  In contrast a typical 4% modern commercial bitter might have less than 0.5kg (17oz) per barrel.  Prospect (3.7%ABV)  is hopped at 750g (26oz) per barrel.

We decided to combine authenticity and provenance with 2011 Plot 16 India Pale Ale - a strong (6%ABV) pale beer using a large quantity of all Oxfordshire Hops.  A total of 18kg of hops went into the copper of a 5 barrel (820 litre) brew in four additions - 5kg each of Fuggles and Challenger from The Berkshire Hop Company at Kingston Bagpuize and 8kg of freshly picked  green fuggles from Plot 16.  This gives a like for like weight of the equivalent of about 12kg of dried hops or 2.4kg (85oz or over 5lb) per barrel.  The theoretical bitterness is around 70 IBU compared to 35 IBU for strong bitters (eg ESB) and 32 IBU for Prospect.  A further 3.3kg of Plot 16 green hops were added to the conditioning tanks for a week after the primary fermentation was over.

On Friday we bottled it and last night I tasted it for the first time after three days in the conditioning room. This beer is quite special.  I thought the hops would be overpoweringly bitter but they balance the malt quite well.  I think it will need a hundred days of aging  to really know.  MAO are taking 800 bottles under the Plot 16 label. We will sell the other 1000 bottles under our own label as Shotover India Pale Ale.  We also have two nine gallon casks in the cold room which we will save up for a speccial occasion.  Roll on Christmas!
Plot 16 fresh green fuggles

hand bottling Plot 16 IPA at the brewery