Originally published in BEER May 2006
Note this brewery has since closed. For more milds see previous post.
ABV: 4.2 per cent
Origin: Little Downham, Cambridgeshire, England
Buy from: Brewery, specialists
Mail order: tel 01353 699966, www.elybeer.co.uk
Fenland / Isle of Ely Smokestack Lightning
Fenland opened in Chatteris in 1998 and moved to the Isle of Ely in 2004 after a change of ownership, adding a Real Ale in a Bottle range only last year. Smokestack Lightning was a stalwart of the original range but was dropped for a while. Revived in 2005 with a new recipe, it went on to win SIBA’s Eastern region best mild award in its draught form.
A complex grist of Maris Otter pale, crystal, carapils, chocolate and black malts gives the beer a very dark mahogany colour, with a lively carbonation throwing a fawn head that declines to big bubbles. The roasty chocolate aroma has a fresh fruity tang with a hint of spice.
Sharp roast notes on the palate are accentuated by the high condition but with plenty of chewy malt and nuts beneath. A cola, dark chocolate and coffee finish with a moreish fruit tang has an emerging burry hop bitterness from First Gold, Goldings and Fuggles.
Prompted by my enquiries to check the provenance of the saxophone on the label, the brewery discovered it had no connection to Lightning Hopkins, performer of the old blues tunes for which the beer is named, but had only been used because it “looked good”. As a result they’ve designed a new label featuring a steam train!
The name is also appropriate in another way: smoke and roast are clearly “in” for new milds. Modern brewers dosing the grist with roasted barley might be nodding consciously to the past, when technical limitations on malting rendered most beers smoky. On the other hand, they may simply assume their customers expect all dark beers to taste like dry stout
More milds in the next post.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/fenland-smokestack-lightning/34982/
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