Originally published in What’s Brewing January 2005
Origin: Knightwick, Worcestershire, England
ABV: 6 per cent
Buy from Brewery (tel 01886 821235, www.temevalley.co.uk ), specialist suppliers
Teme Valley Hearth Warmer
A few hundred years ago it wouldn’t have been uncommon for local breweries to keep their own patch of humulus lupus, but times have changed. When it was founded behind the Talbot, a celebrated 14th century coaching inn on the river Teme between Bromyard and Worcester, back in 1997, the Teme Valley Brewery became the only independent British brewer to use its own hops.
Pub and brewery are owned by the Clift family, who had also owned hop fields on the nearby Lulsley Court Estate, in the heart of Worcestershire’s hop growing country, since the 19th century. The estate was sold in September 2000, and while the brewery can no longer claim its singular distinction, it remains committed to local hops, with 90% coming from Lulsley Court and some of the beers using green hops fresh from the harvest.
These green hop beers by no means exhaust the noteworthy specialities in the brewery’s range. Hearth Warmer, which went by the punning name of Wass Ale when it was first launched as a draught Christmas beer in 1997, is one of the few British beers long matured at the brewery: it’s kept for up to nine months before release.
The real ale in a bottle version first appeared in December 2000, brewed from a complex grist of pale, crystal and chocolate malts with some wheat malt and roasted unmalted barley, plus locally sourced Northdown and Fuggles hops.
The result is a rich burgundy colour with an amber glow that pours with an off-white foamy head. The sweet-sour aroma is also striking, with plenty of sherberty, pastille-like fruit and hints of almonds.
The palate also makes an impression: it’s powerfully sweet and sour, with orange fruit, and the darker malts and roasted barley make themselves felt with unexpected but welcome roasty and chocolate notes.
There are toffee flavours in the swallow, leading to an intense finish with more fruity malt and a developing pleasant roast flavour. Unsurprisingly there’s a good dose of hops giving dry spiciness, but this never becomes overbearing, with plenty of sweet and juicy fruit and malt flavours still evident beneath the dryness.
The roasty flavours and the strength give Hearth Warmer the whiff of an old-fashioned country beer, calling to mind revivalist recipes such as Fullers 1845 and making it a particularly appropriate fuel for traditional seasonal cheer. If anything the flavours are a little too raw and vivid, and the beer could survive a bit more laying down after purchase, perhaps as a treat for the next festive season.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/teme-valley-hearth-warmer/39288/
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