Humpty Dumpty Brewery

Hop Harvest Gold 2009, 4.9%abv

We are pleased to announce the return of our autumn seasonal, Hop Harvest Gold, our annual celebration of the English hop (and a medal winner at last year's Norwich CAMRA beer festival). 

This year's beer is slightly lower in gravity than last year, at 4.9%.  A blonde ale with four hop additions including a generous load of new-season Goldings hops from Kitchenham Farm on the Sussex / Kent border, near Bodiam.  Hop farmer Chris Daws once again couriered a delivery of hops straight to the brewery for inclusion in this year's brew (Thanks, Chris!).

Hop Harvest Gold is available in casks from October 1st and will be available in bottle-conditioned form in about three weeks.  Supplies are limited, and when it's gone we'll have to wait until next year. 

 

Bad Egg, 4.1%abv

We are pleased to announce the hatching of Humpty Dumpty Brewery's latest cracking good ale, Bad Egg, at 4.1% abv.

We crafted this beer from the ground up to be a darker bitter than most of our range, with both more malt and more hop goodness than our current best bitter, Humpty Dumpty Ale.  You can follow the story (part 1, 2, 3, 4 ) elsewhere on our website.  We have also published a home brew recipe in the latest edition of Norfolk Nips (pdf).

If the name makes you wrinkle your nose, we hope the pump clip will bring a smile to your face as our "Over-Easy" Rider rolls into town and parks his bike in your favourite pub.

The beer is a complex blend of fine pale malt combined with crystal malt, caramalt and a touch of chocolate malt, giving the beer a ruby colour.  We have generously hopped it with 100% East Kent Goldings hops in the boil and at the finish, giving it loads of hoppy flavour and aroma. 

We are launching Bad Egg as a spring seasonal, but with the eggs-pectation that it might join our regular rotation.  Rolling out a fine new best bitter, we encourage you to take a ride on the wild side. Look for Bad Egg at our launch at the Lord Nelson in Reedham on March 27th, and across East Anglia throughout the spring season.

Hop Harvest Gold, 5.0%abv

 

Humpty Dumpty Brewery’s autumn seasonal for 2007 is Hop Harvest Gold, a refreshing and deceptively drinkable golden ale at 5.0%abv. This is a special beer for us, as we designed and brewed this beer with the first Goldings hops of the 2007 harvest, with special thanks to hop farmer Chris Daws of Kitchenham Farm, Bodiam in East Sussex and his family.

All of the partners visited the farm on Saturday, September 8th.  Chris took us for a visit to the hop garden, where we saw his Goldings, Admirals and a few other varieties of tall and hedgerow hops.  This was the first day of the 2007 picking, and the farm was a hive of activity.

 

Here Chris is telling us about some of his experimental plantings.   These hops were planted late in the 2007 season and are not aiming for a crop yield this year.

   

The young farmers motor through the hop garden, cutting the twine that supports the bines as they grow up more than 4 metres up poles and trellising.  The bines drop onto a specially fit trailer that catches them and keeps them from becoming tangled.

   

Chris and his family run the harvesting equipment, which plucks the hop flowers from the bines. It takes about five people to run this machine, feeding in the bines, bagging up the hops and dealing with the leftover bits. It’s quite a remarkable machine that efficiently separates the flowers from the stems and leaves, although a few careful eyes work the back of the line to catch the few leaves that get through the machine.

   

From the machine the hops are bagged and rushed to the oast at Iden Green Farm near Goudhurst in Kent.  Hops have to be dried quickly or they begin to deteriorate.  The hops picked on Saturday afternoon were dried overnight at the oast.

Next morning at the oast, we picked up our consignment of 2007 Goldings hops straight from the drying bins.

 

Here is Bale No. 01 of the 2007 Goldings harvest, ready to hit the road on Sunday afternoon.

 

Back at the brewery on Tuesday morning, Craig and Maggie measure out the first hops of the new season.

 

Craig lowers the hop bag into the kettle for the first round of aroma hopping.  This beer has two late hop additions to leave a more pronounced hop flavour and aroma than most beers.

From field to kettle in less than 72 hours, these hops could hardly be fresher.  They’re at the heart of Hop Harvest Gold, for a limited time only from Humpty Dumpty Brewery.

Meet The Summer Seasonals!

This stormy Bank Holiday weekend saw the return of our summer seasonals, Swallowtail and the prize-winning Lemon & Ginger.

Swallowtail (4.0%) is amber in colour with a well balanced refreshing bitterness. We had a cask of it up at the brewery at the weekend and it was in fine condition (we're doing polypins and jugs for take-away and will aim to have several beers available all summer long). 

Lemon & Ginger (also at 4.0%) is based on Swallowtail but is finished to a finely balanced taste of lemons and ginger.  This is a perfect summer thirst quencher - just the thing for a day in the garden.

 

Both of these beers can be found in our new seasonal Summertime Brews mixed case.  Take home 12 bottles of our lighter, easier drinking ales (Reedcutter, Lemon & Ginger, Swallowtail and Little Sharpie), all 4.4%abv or under.  This mixed case is an excellent introduction to Humpty Dumpty beers and would be a perfect addition to your barbecue or summer party. 

The King John, 4.5%

We are just launching our newest beer, The King John, an amber IPA at 4.5%abv. It's a full-bodied ale with lots of late-hop goodness to it.

Our artwork for this one is another image from railway artist John Austin. King John was a 6000-class ("King") locomotive on the Great Western Railway.  All of the locos were named after English Kings.  King John was launched in 1930 and ran the London-Plymouth-Taunton line in passenger express service until 1962 when the King class were replaced by diesel hydraulic locomotives. 

The King John will be available in pubs from February 2007, and bottle-conditioned by March.  Ask for him by name!

Humpty Dumpty Porter, 5.4%

Now available in cask and bottle-conditioned versions, our take on the traditional London style. We've gone back to basics on our new porter, working from black and chocolate malts to give our porter a full body with coffee and chocolate notes that is delicately highlighted by a late addition of Fuggles hop to give it a rounded and deliciously balanced flavour.

Porter takes its name from the market workers in London who used to down several pints during a shift to keep their strength and spirits up while hauling goods through the market. Keep an eye out for Humpty Dumpty Porter - just the drop to tackle a robust thirst.

AWARDS:

Best of the Fest: Kingston Arms Freehouse - Cambridge - 6th Beer Festival - April 2010

Norwich & Norfolk CAMRA Beer Festival - October 2009 - Bronze Medal - Old, Stout and Porter - Humpty Dumpty Porter

CAMRA Champion Porter of East Anglia, 2008 - Humpty Dumpty Porter

Norwich & Norfolk CAMRA Beer Festival - October 2008 - Bronze Medal - Old, Stout and Porter - Humpty Dumpty Porter

Christmas Crack 2006

This year's new Christmas beer is a spiced Belgian style ale of 5.5%abv.  We started with a classic English old ale grain bill and fermented it with a Belgian ale yeast at a slightly elevated temperature.  The resulting beer is a full-bodied malty brown ale with a characteristic Belgian nose to it.  We then added a special spice mixture to the beer to give it an aromatic highlight with a hint of vanilla that fades quickly, leaving behind a malty moreish finish.

This year's Crack flew out of the cold stores (sorry, publicans, we're sold out!),  although we still have some left in bottles which should age well.  We may bring this one back as a regular winter seasonal in the New Year.

A propos our livery, the kerfuffle over Santa's Butt has not escaped our notice, either. One supposes we wouldn't have a very easy time marketing Christmas Crack over in the US, either.  Especially from a brewery called Humpty Dumpty. 

Golden Gorse, 5.4%

Golden Gorse is our first completely new beer.  At 5.4%abv, we're calling it a Norfolk Blonde Ale.  Very light in colour and with a balanced hoppy finish, this one can be served a bit cooler than usual. It's a lovely refreshing drink; the perfect substitute for a pint of lager. 

Available in casks and bottle-conditioned.

Little Sharpie, 3.8% abv

Little Sharpie is our best-selling session bitter.  Light golden in colour and with a fresh but balanced hop flavour, Little Sharpie is a refreshing crowd pleaser. 

2008 Finalist: Champion Beer of Britain, Great British Beer Festival

2009 Good Beer Guide "Beer of Britain" selection

2009 Bronze Medal: Champion Beer of Britain, Bitters, Great British Beer Festival

Humpty Dumpty Ale, 4.1%

Humpty Dumpty Ale is our flagship best better at 4.1%abv.

Amber-coloured and with a hint of fruit in the nose, the flavour starts sweet before a long dry finish. 

Humpty Dumpty Ale is one of our stock ales and is available year-round.