Everards Brewery and Punch Taverns have collaborated for the fourth time to give eight lucky Punch Partners the chance to brew and brand their own beer.
The Everards Gold Cask Ale Champion course was hosted at The Brunswick pub in Derby, where Graham Giblett, Everards Head Brewer, led the team through the brewing process from the raw materials and ingredients.
Punch Partners were then able to plan the hops, malt, ABV and colour to create their recipe with inspiration on hand with the fantastic range of beers the Brunswick had to offer!
The partners got stuck in with brewing the beer, going through each stage of the brewing process thoroughly – even the cleaning of the mash tun! – and all done under the watchful eye of James Salmon, Brunswick Head Brewer.
The finest cask publicans were proud to present ‘Brief Encounter’, a four per cent golden beer, brewed with four hop varieties – Cascade, Summer, Fuggles and Goldings – resulting in a delicious citrus, peach beer with a hint of caramel.
Claire Cannell, Brands Manager said “The naming of Gold Course beers can often be a challenging, but as soon as Brief Encounter was suggested we were hooked – after we had the name, the design and theme all flowed.”
Following the success of last year’s brew ‘Amberella’, the partners stepped up to the challenge to design a beer, strong enough to exceed last year’s autumn’s sales. A fantastic 320 casks of Amberella were sold across 225 pubs nationwide in 2013, so something special needed to be brewed to beat this!
John Healy, Commercial Director at Punch Taverns said: “Partner brewing initiatives such as the Gold Course by Everards present a fantastic opportunity for our Partners to get involved, learn about the complexity of beer brewing so that they can proudly create their own ale.
“After the success of the Ambrella in our autumn rotation last year, we have high expectations from the ‘Brief Encounter’. The fact that it is only available on our Finest Cask range is a big sales driver, as Partners like to offer a variety of cask ales to their customers, and limited edition ales like ‘Brief Encounter’ provide a unique point of difference against competitors.”
Brief Encounter will be exclusively available on Punch’s Finest Cask guest ale programme this autumn, which will run from October to November.