We are looking forward to reopening on 19th March and our Spring Beer Festival runs from 31st March to 2nd April this year. We have been busy brewing (not sunning ourselves on a tropical beach but did manage to visit The Dog and Duck in Bognor Regis 👆🏼 and very nice it was too) and continuing the journey into the fascinating world of thiols . Mash hopping to extract bound flavour compounds and become more efficient in using hops, as we know how expensive they can be!
Pretty exciting news has just landed as we become an official co-working space, commencing 20th March, Monday – Friday 10am – 5pm. Working with the Building 41 business centre at Northwood, we are becoming a “spoke” for the Bay area. Members of Building 41 will be able to work from Boojum and enjoy free coffee/tea and casual workers just pay £5 per 3-hour session. This means that we will also be open for others to enjoy a beer or a freshly brewed coffee or cuppa. So, in essence, we are open 7 days a week, with evening hours as usual at the weekend. For more information click here
Josh has brewed a groundbreaking pale thiol ale “Forks&Hope”, which we will have available when we reopen. It’s brewed with hops that are classed as low carbon, exclusive to Brookhouse Hops. Low carbon hops are a completely new type of hop product, developed to help brewers create delicious beers that are packed with flavour and aroma, but with a fraction of the carbon footprint. Lab tests indicate that the individual hop aroma and flavour profiles are unaffected by the new preservation process, although usage rates may vary depending on the desired hopping level. Independent sustainability consultants working on the low carbon hop project calculated that the new hop preservation process emits up to 10x less CO2e/ kg of hops compared to a standard diesel-fired kiln. Forks&Hope is using low carbon Chinook (UK) and a whiff of Azacca. It’s a New England Pale Ale landing in at 4% abv, stuffed with tropical fruit flavours we think it’s an instant hit.
Josh and I have just re-brewed our spring dry ale from last year, Jaryllo, named after the Slavic God of Spring. As always we have given it a tweak, Josh suggested that we try it as a thiol brew – fast becoming our favourite thing to do – and additionally use Saaz in the mash, it has those white wine notes we want in this beer and extremely low bitterness. I also made the switch from extra pale Maris Otter to heritage floor malted Maris Otter, so expect more of a golden colour and depth of flavour from this iteration of Jaryllo.
Are there any lager lovers out there? Well, we have had a traditional German ale “lagering” all winter in a tank, so look out for when it’s ready, as it’s not often we get to drink beer made like this, especially as we know big brands classing themselves as lager are brewed and packaged in 3 days!
We have a new offer for our beer-loving friends in the shape of 440ml cans of fresh beer. When a beer is being packaged into key kegs , we are now also canning a few dozen for immediate sale. You don’t have to wait for it to come on tap anymore! Our first run virtually sold out on the day it was canned, as we invited people to come and collect. Talk about fresh! Our FaceBook page is the best place to find out when we have new beers ready.
Did you know we have an exhibition at Quay Arts Centre? Celebrating Sandown and all the creative practitioners and participants we have collaborated with since 2019. JUST THE PLACE is a free and fully accessible exhibition at the Michael West Gallery and explores Boojum’s role in placemaking, bringing new life and perspectives to our town. It’s on until April 8th. Special thanks to the Arts Council England for supporting our projects. You’ll find bottles of Brewed in the Bay beers in the cafe so you can have the whole Boojum experience.
Another date for your diary, as we present to you once again The Other Half Beer Festival, celebrating women in beer and we’ll have an all femALE lineup for you pouring delicious Brewster beer all weekend 23rd – 25th June.
Finally a big hurrah for CAMRA members! Thank all so much for voting us as 5th best beer venue on the island, we are absolutely delighted and it gives us encouragement to carry on with our project to experiment with beer, be a bit weird and have a laugh on the way!
Julie Jones-Evans
