First published in BEER September 2007.
ABV: 4.9 per cent
Origin: Grafty Green, Kent
Website www.whitstablebrewery.info
Whitstable Pilsner
Whitstable, on the North Kent coast overlooking the lowest reaches of the Thames estuary, is synonymous with oyster fishing, and, since oyster eating is an activity where even fanatical oenophiles might consider beer when food matching, it was delightfully appropriate when some years back the town also gained an Oyster Stout to its name.
The stout originated at the Swale Brewery, originally in nearby Sittingbourne but eventually moving over the North Downs to the village of Grafty Green between Ashford and Maidstone. The brewery was bought and renamed in 2003 by the Whitstable Oyster Fishery Company, an old-established family concern that now owns the oyster beds, and at first supplied only the company’s own hotels and restaurants.
The new owners didn’t inherit the Swale recipes, so brewer Rafik Abidi developed his own version of Oyster Stout. This new stout is tasty enough, but better still is a craft-brewed pilsner-style beer, made from a pure malt mash of Fanfare lager malt with Czech Žatec hops added twice to the boil, cold fermented with a genuine lager yeast. The draught version is cask conditioned; the bottled version is lightly filtered but unpasteurised.
The slightly hazy golden beer pours with a fizz and a rapidly declining white head that brings to mind that other, more extravagant, natural partner for oysters, champagne. There’s an aroma of soft malt with slightly sharp orange, and a very biscuity and ice cream-soft palate turning bracingly hoppy with a citric tang.
The finish has full flavoured malt perfectly balanced with a squeeze of fresh lemon acidity and developing lightly bitter hops. And an elegant 33cl bottle with an attractive art nouveau label gives the beer the presentation it deserves.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/whitstable-bohemian-lager–pilsner/37797/
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