Festival - Old Suffolk Strong Ale
While staying in Somerset last August (2012), Lee and I visited a wonderful shop in Sommerton called the “Overt Locke”. It’s a sprawling hardware shop that is filled with all manner of tools, ironmongery, kitchen equipment, gardening equipment AND a well stocked homebrew section. While we were there, Ritchies Homebrew had just rolled out their new product, Festival Premium Ales which were positioned prominently on the shelves. A couple of guys working in the shop were very enthusiastic about these new kits - it seemed they were already brewing some themselves. Their enthusiasm rubbed off on me and I left the shop with one of these kits under my arm.
I didn’t get around to opening this kit until midway through November, just around time to get it ready for Xmas. As it turned out it is recommended that Festival Ales need a little longer to brew than most homebrew kits, so if you’re hoping to get a brew together quickly, be warned, you won’t get the best from this kit until 7-8 weeks have passed. I started drinking this ale two months after the date I began the fermentation. I believe the extra time taken to brew this ale is well worth it.
The kits are unusual in that the malt and hops are supplied in two heavy duty plastic bags rather than cans. Instead of hop extract powder, this kit contains a sachet of dried hop pellets to add to the fermenter during the first stage of the brew. A fine mesh straining bag is supplied to filter off the hops once you decide to rack, although in the event I didn’t need to. The kit also contains a special priming sugar to use once you move the brew to the barrel.
Old Suffolk Strong is a very dark ale, generally speaking it is opaque but held up to a light you can see it has a lovely tawny red colour. At first I was expecting the flavour to be similar to that of a porter or even a stout but it is a much fruitier ale than those. Some might say there are citrus notes. The hops added during the fermenting stage no doubt add to the bitterness but it is not a sharp bitter taste which I can easily identify when too much hop extract powder is used.
To conclude I must state that I’m more than pleasantly surprised by this Festival Ale and I am excited to try another Festival Ale as soon as I can. It is without doubt one of the most “moreish” flavours I have tasted since I began to brew ale from kits. As I write this review the weather outside is a very cold (-2º) January evening in London and the chill on this ale only adds to its refreshing qualities.