First published in BEER March 2007
ABV: 4.8 and 5 per cent
Origin: Newquay, Cornwall
Buy from: Local outlets, specialists
Website: www.atlanticbrewery.com
Atlantic Blue, Red and Gold
Meanwhile, Britain’s other Celtic peninsula is providing ever richer pickings for the beer connoisseur [see previous post reviewing two Welsh beers], with one of our few remaining traditional regionals, St Austell, going from strength to strength and outstanding newcomers like Sharps and Skinners also making their mark.
Atlantic, a brewery specialising in organic Real Ale in a Bottle located near Newquay on the coast of the eponymous ocean, is one of the most recent startups, dating from 2005. Judging by the two excellent beers I tasted for this piece, it should have a great future.
Remarkably, Atlantic grows its own hops and also produces special malts as well as brewing and bottling in-house – a level of vertical integration that was common in pre-industrial days but is very rare now.
Atlantic’s cottage industry status was confirmed when I phoned and was told brewer Stuart Thomson couldn’t speak to me as he was literally in the mash tun. I assume it was empty at the time and this wasn’t some experiment with unusual adjuncts!
All the beers are packaged in 330ml clear glass bottles – elegant but looking worryingly like alcopops. Anyone expecting from its name that Atlantic Blue might also resemble some of the sillier alcopops in colour will be reassured to know it’s actually a sensible dark ruby brown, and pours with a fine yellowish head.
A smooth dark malt and liquorice aroma leads to a light textured but very flavoursome palate with roast malt, sharpish fruit, fresh coffee, burnt toast and a faint medicinal note. The finish is rather sternly dry, roasty and hoppy but softened by flashes of juicy raisin fruit.
Crystal, chocolate and black malt provide the colour and there’s a dash of wheat malt too, with Fuggles and First Gold hops.
Brewed to a similar recipe but without the darker malts, Red Organic Celtic Ale does some pan-Celtic borrowing from Irish styles to create a very tasty reddish-amber beer with a soft and sticky off-white head, and a nutty and resiny aroma with hints of autumn fruit.
The palate is nicely fruity and slightly phenolic, with marmalade and hop resins over chewy malt. An initially soft finish soon turns moreishly hoppy with a touch of ginger spice and lingering orange peel. Yeghes da!
Read more about these beers at ratebeer.com:
http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/atlantic-blue/51066/
http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/atlantic-red/62999/
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