Time for Pool Parti

The break gave the IMBC team time to think about the festival, what they’d learned from it, what they love about it and where they might want to take it next. One of the biggest outcomes from this was a decision to make sustainability the theme for this year’s event.

“Given the current pressure of both climate change and inflation, we’d like to challenge breweries to think about producing a beer which is more sustainable for the environment, for the brewery and for the customer.”

Sustainability is a hugely important subject for us right now and we couldn’t wait to accept the challenge - Look out for a future blog for more on Sustainability. 

Parti-Gyle

One of the many things we learned from the recent Time Hops project is that looking backwards is often a very good way to look forwards.

There are all kinds of ways to approach sustainability, but reducing waste is always a very good place to start. So how can we make more from the processes and ingredients that we’re already using?

Parti-Gyle is an English term for a VERY old technique used to make more than one beer from runnings of a single mash. Fundamentally this will mean you would start with a more intense, higher alcohol beer, and scale down from there. Back in the day, this would often be three beers in the guise of a Strong, Common and Small, or in Belgium a Trippel, Dubbel and Single, for example.

Parti-Gyle brewing is still present in British brewing today, but has not been at the forefront of what you might consider more modern or craft brewery’s thinking. In Siren’s history, we’ve only ever used the technique once, when our good friend Andy Parker at Elusive Brew used 800L of Maiden wort to make ‘2 UP’. The ‘Baby Barley Wine’ was an amazing creation, dry-hopped with Mosaic to take the beer in a totally different direction, while maintaining the heart of Maiden. 

Pool Parti

We thought the idea of a Parti-Gyle would be ideal for the IMBC challenge, so set about a plan to make a beer that not only prevented wastage, but also brought something fun, interesting and delicious to the ‘Parti’, which is literally hosted in an old pool. 

Enter one of our favourite ever stouts, Origin Story. Making a very welcome return, this beer is a piece of brewing art from our head brewer, Sean. He balances twenty, yes… two zero, different malts to create a thick, creamy and glorious 10% dark beer, full of complexity without the use of the adjuncts you might expect for something of this ilk.

Our concept was to use the second runnings of Origin Story to make a Dark Ale, hoping to retain some of the rich, decadent character we love about the original, but in a lower abv beer with nice drinkability. We couldn’t be happier with the resulting beer.

There’s a beautiful chocolate character reminiscent of Origin Story, which we’ve complemented with rum barrel aged coffee from a sustainability-conscious producer. Sweetness, bitterness, dark sugar, raisins, subtle spiciness, vanilla, dark chocolate and drying tannins all fight for attention on the palate, making it a real journey when you’re drinking it. It finishes dry, inviting you back in for the next sip.

We can’t wait for you to try this beer and let us know what you think. It’s truly an evolution from the ‘Origin Story’ that would never otherwise have existed. We’re very grateful to the IMBC team for inviting this thought and inspiring its creation.

Parti Time

This year we’re lucky to be pouring beers for you from the Victoria Baths BOILER ROOM. We’ve poured beer almost everywhere in this iconic venue, from the church-like Pineapple Room, to the lively pools, to the (purple) Green Room with its incredible stained glass windows. We can’t wait to get stuck in to the moody, historic boiler room.

Last time around in the Purple Room. You may remember we had a cask of Maiden!

To mark the occasion, we’ll be pouring Pool Parti Boiler Makers all weekend! The coffee in the beer was aged in Rum barrels, but those barrels were originally ageing Bourbon Whiskey, so this is a very nice fit.

Alongside Pool Parti, we’ll have an A-List of our favourite beers across all styles, including plenty of exclusive Caribbean Chocolate Cake pours, a top secret collaboration with Fierce Beer, a host of your old favourites and some special bottle pours. Come and visit us for details, or stay tuned on the official Indyman App.

For those unable to make it this year, Pool Parti will be available to mailing list subscribers early this week. Get on the list!