Granadilla vs One In, All In

As our South African Head Brewer, Sean, is also a big rugby fan, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to mark this sporting occasion in the only way we know how - beer! 

Two beers, in fact. And in the spirit of collaboration shown by the different nations that come together to form the Lions, we reached out to some of our friends in the industry to scrum together and brew with us. One In, All In is brewed with The White Hag of Ireland, Lines Brew Co of Wales and Fyne Ales of Scotland. It’s a 6.5% Red IPA and definitely one for the Liquid Mistress reminiscers to get excited about. For 4.8% Fruity Pale Ale, Granadilla, we’ve teamed up with the wonderful Aegir Project, hailing from Cape Town in South Africa. 

One In, All In

With the British and Irish Lions famously decked out in Red, what else could we brew but one of ours (and more pacifically, Darron’s!) favourite styles, Red IPA. Before even thinking about recipes though, we needed to put together a British and Irish brew team worthy of the occasion. 

Representing Ireland, we asked our friends at The White Hag, and we’re delighted to have them on board for our first collab. Hopefully we can do more in time. It was Calypso that served as an early inspiration for The White Hag, with their Puca series serving as a tribute to our sharp flagship sour. We’re huge fans of The White Hag’s Hagstravaganza festival, and delighted that this beer will be in their ‘Boxstravaganza’ this year - which is the online/home delivered version. 

For Scotland, we went to our old friends at Fyne Ales. We’ve only ever brewed a couple of collabs with Fyne, back in the days with Ryan at the brewing helm. Both of those brews were at their place, this is a debut for Fyne to be involved in a brew here at Siren. Pre-pandemic, we had a collab booked, which obviously fell through, so for us they were the obvious choice to reach out to for this. 

Both Fyne and The White Hag were virtual collaborators, helping to work on the concept and the recipe. Of course, with current travel restrictions, and the need to keep numbers down, neither were able to join us in person. Fingers crossed we put that right soon. 

Lines Brew Co, hailing from Wales, were able to join us for the day though. We’ve been fans of the eco farmhouse brewery for a while so we were delighted to invite them in for the brew day. 

So onto the beer! Together we put together the recipe, and decided on using Red X®, a speciality barley known for its red hue, for the first time. 

The Red X® sits in a sweet, but balanced roasty malt bill that brings a delightful backbone to the beer, as well as the red colour. This is highlighted with a big hop fruit punch from Simcoe, Cashmere, Hallertau Blanc, Idaho 7 and Talus. It’s a delightfully easy drinking Red IPA and perfect for an afternoon of battling rugby. 

Granadilla 

Our Head Brewer, Sean, hails from South Africa, so this beer was an exciting project for him. With Aegir Project on board it was decided we’d focus on Granadilla, which is a South African favourite similar to passionfruit. We’ve paired this with a load of Pink Guava, previously used to great success in the sour beer Guava Script, for a full on, but balanced fruit profile. 

Idaho 7, Cashmere and Galaxy hops went in hot side, with 2 big dry hops of Simcoe, Mosaic, Galaxy and Strata. The result is a 4.8%, zingy, completely crushable summer banger that’s already a real staff favourite. 

The Lions Tour

Sadly for the British & Irish Lions, the tour hasn’t started amazingly. Some incredible performances in some of the warm up games were forgotten somewhat by a close fought loss to South Africa ‘A’. The bad luck continued into the first of the official tour matches, with the Springboks triumphing 22 - 17. 

First strike goes to Granadilla! 

The battle continued last Saturday. With the British & Irish Lions leading at half time 9 to 6 (and that’s the real quiz), things looked good. But, that wasn’t to be, with The Springboks romping home in the second half to a 27-9 victory. 

Second strike also to Granadilla.

The battle concludes this Saturday  7th August, with an inevitable loss for the Lions. It’ll still be a good game though, and well worth getting stocked up for. Hopefully ‘One In, All In’ can pull one back.

If you’ve got both beers, we want to hear which one wins the fight for you, tweet us or post to Instagram with #SirenLions telling us your winner! We’ve also put together an awesome mixed case, SCRUM TOGETHER, with beers that we think will go well for an afternoon of Rugby fun. 

Check it out below… enjoy the rest of the tour!