Ironbridge Brewery

We had a vote two weeks ago on what to brew next and Centennial was the outright winner. So, we did it again!

Golden pale ale and just bursting with fantastic hop flavour, it’s a winner yet again.

We’re running an experiment at The Old Fighting Cocks. We’re serving Centennial at 2 deg C instead of the usual 11. The cold temperature really accentuates the hoppy bite. We love it but we do realise that one or two purists will complain that real ale shouldn’t be served that cold. We’ll just have one of the handpulls at the pub running cold and we’ll judge the response.

Today we’ve brewed ‘Four Candles’ again ready for the run up to Christmas. Yummy and not too strong.

Centennial has proven to be such a hit that we’ve had to brew it again. So much for a one off. The new batch should be ready by the end of the week.

Last month we brewed our first single hop beer. Amarillo was a big hit. This month we’ve brewed another single hop and this one’s a cracker also. It’s only been in the fermenter a day but the flavour is already standing out as an absolute stunner. It’s going to be 4.3% and I reckon this hoppy little number promises to be  even better than Amarillo, especially if you like hops! What’s it going to be called? Centennial is the hop and it makes sense to continue the “theme” so it’ll be called “Centennial”.

A bit of a private rant —
Someone came into the Old Fighting Cocks the other day with a box of eggs they’d purchased in a pub in town (not ours!). We’ve got hens ourselves and we totally deplore the inhumane conditions that a lot of hens are kept in, just to produce cheap eggs. Armed with a little knowledge and a reasonable eye site I asked if I could look at some of those eggs which had just been purchased locally and I was shocked to see that they are from caged hens! Shame on anyone who buys such eggs and more shame on anyone who is selling them. More shame yet on anyone selling them as free range!
There’s a code printed on each egg which tells you if they are from free range or barn or caged and these ones were from caged birds.
If you don’t believe me just Google it and check what the digits mean…

0 – Organic
1- Free Range
2- Barn
3- Cage

UK – Origin

##### – end digits represent the registered flock number.

An example code is 1UK 12345

The eggs being sold over a bar in at least one pub in Oakengates are marked 3UK ….. which means in no uncertain terms that they are eggs from battery hens kept in cages. DON’T BUY THEM, it’s cruel and totally unnecessary. They might be sold as “fresh” eggs but be assured they are from CAGED BATTERY hens. 3UK means caged birds. They might look wholesome because they are presented in a large tray but that’s all part of the con. Shame on anyone passing them off as anything other than the spoils of totally unscrupulous, cruel pigs. The pub in question should maybe change the sign behind the bar to read “We now sell eggs from battery hens kept in cages”. Just to make sure nobody is being conned.

There – rant over. Sorry. I get a bit wound up when I see battery eggs being passed off as something wholesome. We don’t sell eggs in our pub by the way, just good beer! Our own hens are happy little souls living totally free range and eating spent brewers grain.

Please don’t buy eggs before you check out the little code printed on each one. If it doesn’t start 0UK or 1UK then please please please give them a miss otherwise you’re paying over the odds for an inferior product and you’re lining the pockets of greedy, exploitative pigs.

We’re moving to a new website management package. It will be a lot easier for us to keep updated so there’s no excuse for old content now Dave! We’ll also be making the whole site mobile friendly and incorporating live feeds from the pub showing what beers are on and what’s coming up. There’s a few cosmetic issues to fix so please bear with us.

Ironbrewer’s Steam is going to be available at The Great British Beer Festival at Earl’s Court from 3rd to 7th of August.