Sharp’s Brewery, the Cornish makers of the UK’s best-selling amber ale Doom Bar, has marked Cask Ale Week 2023 – running from 21st September to 1st October – by launching limited edition ale ‘New Zingland’.
This ‘super tasty, hazy pale ale’ is the result of a cross-brewery team challenge involving everyone from Sharp’s brewers to its brand and finance employees, empowered to implement their own creativity and ideas.
Last year’s Cask Ale Week in-house competition saw the development of Sharp’s Coaster Alfonso, a reimagining of one of its first ever brews, Coaster, with a mango twist.
For 2023, ‘Team Atlantic’s winning 5.4% New Zingland is described as having ‘a lovely creamy mouthfeel, a stone fruit and citrus sweetness and an assertive bitterness’. Motueka, Talus and Nelson Sauvin hops, all grown in New Zealand, were used in its production, alongside Kveik Yeast.
Another recent key cask innovation from Sharp’s is Solar Wave, which was born on the brewery’s pilot plant before being scaled up for national production, as its first nationally available cask hazy IPA in addition to it being the first to gain vegan accreditation.
Sharp’s technical brewer, Jonathan Wide said: “Here at Sharp’s, we love working in cask. It is incredible to witness the development of flavour and aroma as the yeast carries on interacting in the cask. I think cask lovers can pick this out even if they don’t fully understand the science and process behind cask conditioned beers.
“We consider our recent national launch of Solar Wave as a great example of innovation in the cask market. Because of the way we’ve brewed it, it’s got a massive flavour hit and it’s also our first certified vegan beer. And because it’s naturally hazy, Solar Wave retains all the complexity of flavour that is associated with cask conditioned ales, but it’s much easier for the publican to handle. We’re not surprised that it’s doing incredibly well with great demand from drinkers across the country.”
The Sharp’s team has also been innovating with new curved glassware, that reportedly ‘looks and feels great in the hand’, with the shape allowing the aromas to come through and the haze to display brilliantly. For the first time, the team has also added QR codes onto every cask, pump clip, bar-runner and glass.
Wide added: “The QR codes makes information, including videos and brewing insights, immediately available to everyone in the process – the landlord or lady, the bar team and to the customer themselves. We’re all about innovating at every step of the process from brewhouse to hand, and sharing our expertise.”
