First published in BEER May 2008 as part of a piece about Norfolk milds.
Beer sellers: Beers of Europe
ABV: 3.8 per cent
Origin: Acle
Website www.tipplesbrewery.com
Tipples The Hanged Monk
The English region most associated with mild is, of course, the West Midlands, still home to a good few classics in cask. But if you’re planning to celebrate the style indoors this Mild Month with a few decent real milds in a bottle, you’ll need to look further afield for a decent choice. The flat and marshy rural landscapes of England’s eastern counties may be very different from the urban sprawl of the Black Country, but innovative microbreweries are in plentiful supply, and thankfully most of them seem to consider a bottled dark mild an essential entry in a self-respecting craft brewer’s portfolio. This year all three beers featured below come from small-scale but very talented brewers in Norfolk.
Tipples Brewery, on the edge of the Broads, doesn’t take its name from a quaint term for an alcoholic drink but from its owner, the fortuitously named Jason Tipple, who opened it in 2004 after quitting the financial services industry. He’s since gained a high reputation for his well-crafted ales.
Jason is a self-confessed “big fan of milds” and when he sat down to devise a recipe he found himself inventing not just one mild but three. Trying to think of original names, he hit upon the theme of Broads ghost stories, eventually launching the beers as a trilogy just before Halloween 2005. The Hanged Monk, named for a traitorous monk said to haunt the ruins of St Benet’s Abbey on the river Bure, has since become a permanent addition to the bottled range, though the Monk’s spooky companions, Jack’s Revenge and Lady Evelyn, still haunt the brewery in draught form.
The Monk is brewed from pale, crystal and chocolate malts, and three hop varieties, emerging from the bottle near-black with a thick, pillowy head. A very spicy aroma has a sharp blackcurrant fruit note with roast, liquorice, cola and flowery hops.
A complex dark malted milk palate has a hint of fruit and a vivid dry mineral quality, with more cola and blackcurrant pastille and a smooth chewy texture – the upfront roast that’s often found in modern craft-brewed milds is absent here. Subtle roast notes do emerge from a dry but not bitter swallow, and the long finish also boasts refreshing fruit, restrained nettly hops and a late wet stone note.
No nebulous spirit, then, but a firm, satisfying, beautifully balanced and eminently drinkable beer that packs an abundance of flavour into a modest gravity – surely a hallmark of the classic mild.
More Norfolk milds in next post.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/tipples-the-hanged-monk/54976/
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