Panda Frog Project 2014: Endangered Species

There is inevitable end point to any sequence of developments. The world of craft beer moves fast from new world styles to the biggest, boldest beers on the planet. At Panda Frog we believe there is an end point to this sequence, and this year, 2014 we are prepared unleash that end point to the world. A beer to redefine the boundaries of craft by taking craft to the next level. This is more craftier than craft, as far as craft can go. The very concept of this beer out crafts craft itself.

 

Behold...

 

Endangered Species.

 

 

Continuing Mordue's Panda Frog project we bring you the first of four Panda Frog beers for this year. Endangered species is a 6% strong mild that combines balanced quantities of English hops with caramelised and roasted malts to give a malty-hoppy, hoppy-malty, malty beer with a hoppy-malty finish. Sweet toffee, licorice and tobacco with peppery subtle earthy fruity hops to be a bit more precise.

Feel the wrath of my crystal malt!

 

Go on laugh... I can hear you sniggering now.

Moderately hopped to a none throat destroying 35 IBU this beer is dark, strong and old school to the core brewed entirely from English ingredients. Furthermore after primary fermentation this beer is dry hopped in a secondary vessel with (a moderate amount) of Fuggles hops before it undergoes a secondary fermentation in the cask (Fuck yeah!). This lets its flavours develop even further taking it to another level. Don't get me wrong, this is not craft, this is the level beyond. This is old school craft.

 

#oldschoolcraft

 

#pandafrog

 

Vive la revolution  

Stringers IPA with Hereford Hop

Mature cheddar cheese coated in roasted hops... With an IPA. Surely this has to be worth a blog post. Stringers IPA is a straight-forward, lovely IPA, with juicy Amarillo hops at the fore. Hereford hop is a medium to strong, slightly firm cheddar with bitter, dry English hops on the rind. The two harmonise together effortlessly with the dried hops adding that extra connection to the lovely resiny simplicity of this English style IPA.

This is a truly great beer and cheese combination worthy of any beer and cheese night. It's probably also worthwhile trying this cheese with various other IPA.

Rothaus Hefeweizen Zapfle

It's been a while since my last German Wheat beer. A dynamic beer style almost infinitely versatile with food, especially shellfish, big meaty dishes and Chinese cuisine. Rothaus Hefeweizen Zapfle
is a German wheat I have never come across. A bit less bold and boisterous than many German wheat beers Zapfle opens with light, sweet orange before soft banana and clove layers over a dry wheaty texture. It's quite easy going for the style, almost closer to some of the American versions I've tried. Could probably do with a few more of these for the summer.

Newcastle beer festival and Battle of the Beers 3

And we win again. Mordue brewery defend the BOB title with Apollo 40.



Here we go again, another award. Newcastle beer festival's Battle of the beers is a pretty much open annual competition where breweries from far and wide across the region lock horns hopeful for a shot at the prize. This year, with it being the 40th anniversary of the CAMRA branch the entrants this time were asked to enter a beer themed around 1974 or 40. Other than that no restrictions were given as far as beer styles, ingredients or alcoholic strength were concerned. Basically this was as open a brewing competition could get.

For the full list of entrants and winners see here. But I would be surprised if my Apollo 40 dominated the field by a long shot in the same manner X squared did last year. Anarchy at second had a formidable entrant with their 6% Belgian pale ale/wheat beer hybrid and Acton ales at third had an IPA that stood out with resiny citrus hops.

Yet none the less I felt we had a beer with complexity, charm and composure. I hoped it was bold enough to stand out as I was aware that any big ass stout or aggressive IPA would certainly grab a judge's attention more than this, humble balanced pale ale with it's caramel malt, orange and herbal notes from the six different hops used.

But as it turns out complexity and approachability were what the judges were after (despite the name, runner up Anarchy Punk Era is a beer packing in plenty of wheaty grain, banana and malt. Big and complex yet approachable). So none the less after meeting the Mayor of Newcastle again and getting lots of photos taken of myself and the Mordue crew it was good to hang out with the diverse set of characters that make up the region's brewing scene and try many beers.

 

Some of the highlights for me were Wylam's Silver Ghost Re-dux, a turbo charged hopped up version of the original regional classic. Magic Rock Ringmaster was smooth and harmonious as well as very hoppy, a lovely beer. Then we had Allendale Rye Pilsner, crisp and inviting with a spicy edge. Elland 1872 Porter (Champion beer of Britain) also turned up and was as always a class beer. But outside of them there were many interesting beers and the whole day was a great experience. This time we really out surpassed our expectations and are looking forward to entering next year's Battle of the Beers with Mordue as favourites. Obviously by then the scene will have inevitably changed a bit. But bring it on I say.  

SIBA Beer X

Killswitch 51 bags gold in speciality then bronze overall in cask, keg amber wins a silver.

 

To me Killswitch 51 will always be remembered for Newcastle beer festival's battle of the beers 2012. The all Munich malt brew hopped with Apollo and Galaxy hop varieties fell flat on it's arse as far as winning was concerned. Deemed a total failure at the time by staff. Then somehow overnight it changed, blossoming into something profoundly different from the wall of malt it was. One twitter fan deemed it as the North East's answer to Magic Rock's Rapture. Ever since Killswitch as remained a seasonal beer with a cult following that's proven it's worth winning a regional SIBA gold last year previous to its current accolade. All in all a good consolation to falling short at BOB 2012 you might think

But aside from this Mordue haven't just won a SIBA national award, the North East on a whole has punched above it's weight at Beer X. We kicked ass. Anarchy Brew Co got a gold with surely the most high octane stout of the region, Sublime Chaos. Tyne Bank got a gold for Silver Dollar IPA on keg (still not tried the keg version) then aside from this Wylam, Sonnet 43 and Allendale also bagged medals.

I love the North East's brewing scene, as a beer drinker I was practically brought up with it. Since I have joined Mordue many of the personalities and companies have changed and evolved but I still love it. But it's under-rated. You only have to look at the many nation wide beer blogger end of year 'Golden Pint' awards to see the obvious dominance of the likes of Thornbridge, Redwillow, Summer Wine, Fullers, Hardknott, Siren, Brew Dog, Beavertown an heaps more. Respect to them I say, but it's not all about what beer bloggers think. The North East has some exciting beers, some real (dare I say it) world class beers. From the well established to the new ventures we have quality and diversity. We're not just some fringe region of the UK known for it's random set of virtually unheard of micros putting out 'samey' products.

Brewers of the toon I salute you, for many of your beers were an inspiration to me through my journey of beer. Our scene has grown and thrived and long may it continue to do so.