NEW NAME, NEW HOPES.
A year on from our last blog post, plenty of things have unfolded. The heavy, looming cloud of Covid-19 still stands over us all, and in these times, it is hard to be optimistic, but here at the Taproom & Brewery, we are quietly optimistic about the year ahead, despite the desperate circumstances.
In the last post, we spoke keenly about our headful of dreams for the exciting year ahead, and we could not have possibly foreseen the events that have unfolded since. From the highs of the Pressure Drop showcase, to the lows of Lockdown, it’s been a tough one.
Since March 2020, Covid-19 has severely stunted our big plans behind the bar, but has not affected our growth beyond it. The tireless efforts put in by all here at the Taproom and beyond (you know you are… xox) since the early part of April, have resulted in a fabulous new Brewing Space and of course, Stevenage Snooker Club! Three months of work has provided us a plethora of opportunities for the year ahead. So where are we, and what are the plans? Hmmmmm… lets see shall we!
Beer! Since January 2020, we set to work on producing some innovative new beers, to push the boundaries of the brewing kit. It started with “Dark Side Of The Moon”, a classic West Coast Pale, bitter, resinous and loaded with bitter orange aroma. This beer led the way for the creation of a bright and hoppy American pale to enter the stage in the early spring. “Ekuanot Be Serious!” hit the scene with great success. The extra pale session beer certainly lit up our faces when it hit the tap wall in April, this was the last beer brewed at the old site. Between these two pales, the brewing of “Redshift” saw Bog Brew’s first Weiss style beer. Loaded with raspberries, we probably consumed far too much between us, after the delivery runs and sweaty manual labor on the new brew house!
Moving forward, excited by our previous endeavors with wheat based recipes, the brewing of “Wheat Or Wheatout You” showcased a classic American wheat beer, which was appropriately smashed throughout the summer in the afternoon sun after our reopening on July 4th. As we progressed to August, we looked to the East Coast of the States. “Running With The Big Dog” was brewed with high hopes of hop heaven. Jam packed with El Dorado, this was, and will continue to be our showcase of the best new-world hops. Three brews remained before the end of the year, first up, “Spiral Galaxy”. A modern classic. Heaped with pure cocoa and cacao nibs, its one of our favourites! Rich, malty and oozing with chocolate, this beer enters our new core range too.
The return of “Super Massive Blackhole” (#2) was very welcome, boozy and decadent, we hope you’ve all enjoyed this magnificent beasts return! (I’m drinking this whilst writing this…). Finally, “Breaking Tradition” burst onto the scene in early December. The first sour out of the Bog Brew recipe book! A hefty fruiting and lots of wheat make this little raspberry number our newest core beer as we head into 2021.
In the last few days, the brewery has been well and truly hammered! Two days of cleaning and two long days of brewing have seen the re-brewing of both “Running With The Big Dog” & “Spiral Galaxy” with roaring success. Masked up and raring to go, Charlie and Paul have thoroughly enjoyed the last few days, and are optimistic about new brews in the near future. We’ve a whole cellar full of exciting hops and new malts. Not only are we excited about our recipes; we can’t wait to see what you guys have produced! The launch of our, now slightly delayed, home-brewing competition has seen a couple of entries so far. The winner will of course be given the opportunity to spend the day with us in the brewery, brewing their winning recipe! If you’re passionate about brewing, please get in touch!
Beyond the Brewery.
A challenging 2020 showed us how much you all really care about our vision. We’d like to say a huge thanks to you all, and the many breweries who’ve supported us with bangin’, fresh new beers! An honorable mention to Abbeydale Brewery & John Conroy, who helped us massively in the opening few weeks of the initial lockdown and throughout the following months, providing us with three in-house events between August and November, and perhaps some of the best mixed fermentation beers the UK Beer Scene has to offer.
Without your support, we simply wouldn’t be here, so from us all, thank you! So how do repay you? Well… with the next few months looking very uncertain we are unsure about planning of events and the like, but rest assured, we will continue to offer the greatest, and safest service we can with the best beer possible! What would you like to see? Be it more showcases, tutored tastings, or perhaps some brew sessions, please let us know!
Now to the present day. It has been a rough few weeks, and the announcement of another national lockdown has hit us hard, both economically, and mentally. It’s a tough period, and we set ourselves very high standards. At the taproom, we have tightened our cleaning policies, introduced a one-way system and adequate distancing protocols. We kindly ask you to respect our rules in this tough time, we don’t want to have to be telling you off now do we?
So there we go, if you’ve managed to read this far, congrats, have a beer on us! You deserve it… seriously. We can’t wait to welcome you all back in the hopefully near future, and we’ll be ready! So for now, Cheers!
Bog Brew (Six Hills Brewing Co) & The Broken Seal Team x
