JD Wetherspoon gets a bit of worthwhile stick for its corporate, off-the-peg, generic, modern-pub aesthetic, but it’s done more than most big pub chains to champion decent beer.
It’s really pushing the boat out for an international real ale festival which starts on April 7, which sees four overseas microbrewers invited to collaborate with British cask ale brewers on anglicised versions of their favourite brews from home.
Richard Chennells, brewer at South African micro Zululand, and a man who goes under the rather wonderful nickname of The Wandering Keg, can hardly contain his excitement at being invited to brew with Marston’s at the spiritual home of brewing in Burton-on-Trent.
It was, he says, “fucking fantastic”, and his cultural tour of our islands has been equally exhilarating. With adult family members in tow he set out to sample 100 authentic beers on his 10-day visit and had hit the 120-mark by day four.
His link with Marston’s has resulted in an Export version of his Zulu Blonde, using ale instead of lager yeast.
Garrett Marrero of the Maui Brewery in Honolulu might have drawn a relatively short straw with his trip to Banks’s in Wolverhampton but he’s diplomatic enough to declare it “an interesting place”.
I’ll let anyone who’s been there be the judge of that, but the cask version of the Coconut Porter he’s been brewing up certainly promises to be an interesting beer.
It’s made by adding fresh coconut to the mash – and Marrero’s returning home to leaving Banks’s brewers to administer a final dose of the ingredient to each cask, in the process introducing the phrase “late-coconuting” to the brewing lexicon.
Other collaborations for the festival see Greg Hall of Chicago’s wondrous Goose Island working with Shepherd Neame, and Virginie Harzé of Belgium’s Val-Dieu abbey brewery in the Everards brewhouse.
A trip to your local Wetherpsoon’s between April 7 and 25 to try the results is essential – and there’ll be 50 beers, including 14 festival exclusives, to sample in all.
[...] 2010 Richard was invited to brew Zululand Brewery’s flagship beer Zulu Blonde Ale at Marston’s Brewery for the JDW International [...]