The one thing that I really love about being a blogger is the mail.
As a child, I dreamed about getting post. I had a pen friend or two, even wrote regularly to both of my Nanas, for purely selfish reasons. Just so that every so often instead of bills for my mum or dad, there would be an envelope for me.
Now, whether it’s snail mail, or email, I get some intriguing messages – fertility supplements anyone? No? Me either.
It’s the variety I love. One minute it’ll be a press release about a new gin (yay!) or a new tonic (double yay!) or about a new children’s book (I’ll quietly pass that one to a parent blogger or two I know). Other times, it’ll be an invite to a fantastic sounding event, or an invitation to a distillery tour.
And yes, sometimes it’s things to review. That was how this beer landed in my handbag. Red card through the letterbox from Mr Postie (he is Mr, I’ve met him), collection of the parcel. That, did I order something from eBay and forget again? moment. Then you open it, unwrap the bubble wrap and wait a second, this sounds like… Beer!
This beer – which would later become train beer (which, much like train gin, which as we know has no calories, and no hangover effects) – was from Cheddar Ales, all the way from Somerset, and admittedly not a brewery I knew much about at all. I set about doing some digging.
Cheddar Ales is a craft brewery based on a farm at the edge of Cheddar Village, and head brewer, Jem, started it back in 2006 after 15 years working in another local brewery.
It now brews around 30000 pints a week, crafting ten beers of their own, including Mild Cheddar, Totty Pot, Bitter Bully and Gorge Best. Oh and the one I got to review, Firewitch.
We decided to sample the beer on the train. Admittedly, not necessarily the best way to review a beer, we had no plastic cups with us, though given that this was a bottle conditioned farmhouse saison, it was always going to have a light haze to it, and a small amount of sediment, which is visible through the bottle.
Firewitch is named after a flower native to the Cheddar Gorge and is made with Pilsner, Munich and a touch of wheat malt and has fresh citrus zest, coriander and grains of paradise added during the brewing process.
What you get is a spicy, saison beer, with lots of lemon, a hint of ginger on the palate, that was the perfect kick off to a sunny weekend away for us. It is a great summer style beer, with a round caramel malt base, the citrus and coriander lightening it, making it refreshing and a proper palate cleanser.
I don’t get to experiment with breweries from down south as much as I’d like to – possibly something my liver is grateful for – but this is one I really need to have again. I loved it’s spicy nature and that it was still really well balanced.
All too soon, we’d finished the bottle between us – long before our train arrived at our destination.
Lesson learned, take more beer.