I'm very excited today as we're launching our new range of beers today - the Inspiration Series. It's a brand new series of beers which have been inspired by the great beer styles of the world. There are some amazing classic beers out there in the wonderful world of beer and we thought it was about time we made our mark on this field. We asked everyone in the brewery to get together and make up a Beer Development Team to think about some new beers for us to brew and they came up with the Inspiration Series, a numbered list of deliciously diverse and exciting beers. We've got 4 in the pipeline, or grist-case I should say, at the moment, and Inspiration Series No.1 is Sunburst Bohemian Pilsner. You can see we've got a brand new designed look and those of you with excellent 3D vision can tell it's a 330ml long-necked bottle.
As you know Sunburst on draught has been developing over the last 15 years from a cask-conditioned version originally to a filtered version in keg more recently. I've always wanted to get it into bottles but we just didn't have the maturation or lagering tank capacity. It takes 8 weeks icy cold maturation after its 10 day cool bottom fermentation to develop its exquisite and complex Saaz and Hallertau Hersbrucker hoppy aroma, its smooth malty palate and its soft lingering finish. This fermentation and lagering regime is only possible with our beautiful Czech lager yeast, which I get from my good friends at the Brevnovsky Brewery in Prague. One of my long-term plans has been to get more tank space and get a dedicated maturation cellar, which we now have and at last we can put Sunburst into bottle! Slava, Slava! Hooray, Hooray in Czech!
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| A happy brewer in his new maturation cellar |
It's No.1 in the Inspiration Series because I've been inspired so much by my Beer and Brewery Hunting visits in the Czech Lands to brew this beer. I've had a very long association with Bohemia and the Czech Lands, first learning some Czech in 1968, year of the Prague Spring, so I could sing in the boy's chorus on the stage of my mother's opera company in Smetana's Bartered Bride. Years later I started to visit the country more often and since, as they say in Czech, Hospoda je nejlepsi ucitelka - the pub is the best teacher, my language skills improved along with my appreciation of their wonderful brewing traditions, sowing the seed for my desire to brew my version of the wonderful Pilsner style. Exacting to brew as it's such a delicate, yet exhilarating taste, with no margin for error, but oh, so exquisite to enjoy.
I hope you all enjoy as much as I do. Diky moc a Na Zdravi! Thank you very much and Slàinte, Ken
I hope you all enjoy as much as I do. Diky moc a Na Zdravi! Thank you very much and Slàinte, Ken
