Since rolling up the doors for the first time in early 2012, the team at Newtown's Young Henrys brewery have managed to effortlessly ingratiate themselves into their local community to the point where it's actually a little difficult to remember what life was like without them. Now, as the brewery approaches two years of beer-fuelled rock & roll fun, they can take a brief moment to take stock of a journey that's seen them grow in every regard; doubling their brewing capacity three times already and winning new fans through a long, long, long list of collaborators. But amidst all the fun, there's always been a lot of hard work. Exactly 499 brews worth of hard work, in fact. That's obviously reason enough to celebrate brew #500 with something extra special; a doubled-up version of their mainstay Hop Ale. For this, they doubled the malt (enough, apparently, that it wouldn't all fit in the mash tun in one go), then they doubled the hops; in the mash, when the wort was transferred to the kettle, at the start of the boil and also in the whirlpool. Then, for good measure, they dry hopped with double the amount normally used and conditioned it for twice as long. The beer is, you may not be surprised to learn, very hoppy and very malty. In keeping with the community-minded nature of the brewery, they left the naming of the 500th brew to their drinkers and crowdsourced around 80 suggestions. The unanimous favourite and winner of a place in the Young Henrys family album: Hop Van Damme: Double Impact. NO
Published April 3, 2014 2014-04-03 00:00:00
