Category: Blog Post

There’s no denying that craft beer has taken the UK by storm over recent years. Growing in popularity worldwide, with some styles, like hazy pales and sour beers, really taking off here in the UK. Despite this, we often get a lot of people coming to our taproom unaware about the different styles of beer. So, we’re here to let you know – in simple terms, what’s what.

From lagers to IPAs, there are so many different styles of beer to choose from – over 100 of them in fact. So, if you’re looking for the best style of craft beer – we can’t tell you that, because they’re all great in their own way and may suit different occasions. But whether you’re an aspiring beer connoisseur or just want to confidently choose a beer at your favourite taproom – we’ve got the key points you need to know to aid your decision.

In this blog, we’ll introduce you to some of the key, most popular types of craft beer (our personal favourites). And, of course, highlight some of our own Triple Point Brewing examples for you to enjoy.

Cheers!

So, what exactly is craft beer?

Craft beer is simply a term for beer that’s been brewed by small, independent breweries like us! Using traditional brewing techniques and focusing on quality and innovation, craft breweries produce smaller amounts of beer compared to large breweries.

Unlike mass-produced beer, craft beer is often more creative, as breweries focus time and resource into experimenting with different styles and flavours of beer.

Fun fact, usually, a large brewery’s ‘crafty’ beers aren’t hand-crafted at all! As a small, independent brewery based in central Sheffield, we love hand-crafting our beers. Here are some examples of our favourite styles and interpretations.

Lagers

If you’ve drunk beer, you’ve almost certainly tried a lager before. It’s one of the youngest, yet one of the most popular beer styles in the world, having been around a mere 400 or so years. Lager is termed a ‘bottom fermented’. This means, unlike ales, the yeast collects at the bottom of the fermentation tank. It can also prefer lower temperatures, compared to ales. Leaving a crisp, clean, and refreshing brew – because that’s what we want from a lager, right?

Triple Point Brewing recommendation: ‘Kerlsch’ (4.9%). An ale-lager hybrid (originating in Cologne) that’s clean, crisp, yet rounded. Gently fruity and aromatic. Using Cryo Amarillo, East Kent Goldings, and Strisselspalt hops. Try ‘Vote for Pedro’ (5%) as a crossover between crisp lager and hoppy pale ale. Or, for the ultimate refreshing craft lager, keep our flagship Helles (4.1%) Bavarian-styled brew.

Pale Ales

Whether you’re into it, or just starting out. Pale ales are a must-try for anyone interested in drinking beer. These golden to amber-hued brews combine for a more malty, medium-bodied, and often a ‘hop-forward’ experience – this basically means the first aroma you get from the beer is hops. They’re warm-fermented, so the brewer’s yeast creates more floral and fruity flavours. Completely delicious.

If you’re new to craft beer, you might feel nervous about trying the hoppier types, but don’t let it scare you! The great thing about pale ales is that there’s something for everyone. Always uber-drinkable but packed full of flavour & nicely balanced. From British to American pale ales, the family has grown over time. But there’s lots of variety available. For example, varying ABV strength, brightness, haze and cloudiness. And, of course, in the hop varieties used. So, you’ve got plenty to try out…

Triple Point recommendation: ‘Cryo’ (4.2%) – our best-selling hazy pale ale. Fruit bomb, super smooth, heavily hopped but with low bitterness. Using Galaxy, HBC586, Cascade, Centennial and Citra hops.

India Pale Ales

Although still considered a pale ale, India Pale Ales – more commonly known as IPAs, have evolved into a style of their own. They tend to be hoppier, more bitter, and carry a higher ABV compared to more traditional pale ales (usually within the 5% – 7% mark). Branching out a little further, you’ll find that American-styled IPAs are more citrussy and fruity, with emphasis now on tropical fruit flavours like mango, passionfruit, and pineapple. They tend to be stronger too, with alcohol percentages randing from 7%-11%.

Triple Point Brewing recommendation: ‘Bullseye’ (7%) – our new heavily dry-hopped IPA. We’re not kidding when we say we hit the bullseye with this one! Passionfruit, mango, and grapefruit flavours throughout. Using three of our favourite hops that hit the spot with pinpoint accuracy – Amarillo, Citra, and Simcoe.

Sours

Less interested in a hoppy profile? Fancy something a little tangier & more unique? Then pucker up! You need to try a sour beer.

Sour beers are intentionally brewed with wild yeast or bacteria which creates an acidic, tartness or sour taste. Sounds a bit intimidating to some, but they’re actually very enjoyable. Many people love to embrace the sourness. Let’s face it, wine & ciders balance sour with sweet fruit flavours. But if extreme sourness isn’t what you want from a beer, don’t worry! You’ll find plenty of slightly milder sours that are refreshing with a fruity flavour profile. It’s a beer style that goes down nicely in the beer garden during the summer.

Triple Point Brewing recommendation: ‘Catharina: Strawberry and Lime’ (4.5%) – a vibrant Brazilian sour beer from Santa Catharina, with outstanding strawberry and kalamansi lime flavours. A super-fruity yet zingy, refreshing summer-style beer. The ultimate beer garden brew designed to refresh in the hot sun.

Stout & Porters

A classic Porter or Stout can’t go amiss. Particularly as the weather cools. Both are easy to identify thanks to their rich dark appearance. But what about the flavour? Stout and Porters tend to present deep flavours of chocolate, coffee, roasted malt, and sometimes a little smokiness. It’s a style of craft beer that goes down a treat during the winter months.

You’ll find traditional English stouts and porters are smooth, with a velvety mouthfeel. Whereas imperial stouts and barrel-aged variants can be bold and bit more intense. It’s a nice variety. Triple Point Brewing recommendation: ‘Tinto’ (10.3%) – our mocha Imperial Stout brewed with Altura Arabica coffee from our pals over at Cafeology in Sheffield. Although it’s strong, it’s easy drinking and enjoyable. With big coffee on the nose, creamy chocolate from Bullion Craft Chocolate (also based in Sheffield) and some Belgian chocolate powder for good measure.

So, there you have it. Five different styles of beer that are extremely popular in the UK and beyond. Next time you’re in a brewery taproom (hopefully ours), give one of these a try. You won’t regret it!

#TheBeerComesFirst

With the weather getting warmer, it’s finally beer garden season. Which can only mean one thing… A trip to your local! But when you come to a taproom like ours, it can be overwhelming knowing what to drink – unless you’re a seasoned craft beer drinker of course. Lucky for you, we’ve put together a list of some must-try beers this summer. Backed up by a few of our brews for additional inspo.

Sours

First up, sour beers. The ultimate thirst-quencher thanks to its acidity and layers of fruitiness. Sours are becoming increasingly popular with more and more breweries experimenting with different fruity flavours – us included! ‘Catharina’ is our latest fruit sour beer loaded with peach, raspberry, and vanilla. Gently hazy with soft aromas and, in the words of our team, ‘it’s $@#*! delicious’.

Lagers

If you’re after something fruity, refreshing, and hoppy, you can’t go wrong with a session lager. Our ‘Helles’ is a classic everyday slurper, bursting with character and drinkability thanks to its Admiral, Mittelfruh, and Amarillo hops. Session beers are usually lower in alcohol compared to other types of beer, making it a better shout for those long days at a BBQ or summer party.

Pilsner

A light and crisp pilsner is also hard to beat. Served extra cold for extra deliciousness. Our Cryo-hopped Keller Pils ‘Tangelo’ is a fruity take on this classic style, with tangerine and pink grapefruit flavours and Amarillo, Cryo Amarillo, and Cryo Citra hops.

Cask Beer

Next up, cask! We love cask beer at Triple Point. But too often we’ve made it a seasonal thing for us, only brewing winter-focused cask, like Bitters, Golden Ales, and Stouts in the cooler months, and a shifted focus to hoppy pale ales in keg during the summer. This year we’re brewing cask beer for the summer too, designed for beer garden drinking in the sun. Our Fresco is a 3.5% hoppy pale ale with Admiral, Cryo Amarillo, Cryo Citra and Cryo Mosaic. Its big fruity notes at a super session strength, it was made to be enjoyed in your favourite beer garden!

Indian Pale Ale

Finally, a New England Indian pale ale (NEIPA) is ideal for those lazy summer evenings. They tend to be more tropical, or fruit flavoured than other IPA’s. We brew NEIPA’s a lot. They might be one of our favourites to brew – and drink. While stocks last, we recommend trying ‘Round T’ Corner – our latest collab with Sheffield’s most iconic live music venue – The Leadmill. A juicy NEIPA filled with Amarillo, Citra and El Dorado hops. No wonder it’s gone down such a treat. Well, there are five for you. But, of course, there are loads of other tasty beers to try this summer. So, grab a cold one and soak up the sunshine! Hopefully, see you in our beer garden soon. Cheers! #TheBeerComesFirst

If you’re looking for a thirst-quenching sour that’s uber-drinkable and loaded with light, fruity flavours, you’ll be buzzing to hear all about our latest ‘Catharina’ sour beer. Say hello to Catharina: Strawberry and Kalamansi Lime (4.5% ABV). Brewed with summer in mind, our goal was to create the ultimate beer garden brew that you’ll love drinking on a hot, sunny day – whether you’re an avid craft beer lover or not. And, following in the footsteps of our last peach melba-inspired Catharina, it does exactly that. People are loving it. It’s our second brew of the series this year, and the fourth in the series overall. Trust us when we say, they just keep getting better and better each time – so we can’t wait for you guys to try this one.

The Beer

A 4.5% strawberry and kalamansi lime sour beer. Vegan and gluten-free. Featuring a little bit of El Dorado hop and a lot of love from the Triple Point team. A quenching Brazilian style sour that’s gently hazy, with soft aromas and designed to refresh in the hot sun. Perfect for beer garden drinking. If you’re unsure about what a sour beer is or you haven’t tried our Catharina yet, here’s everything you need to know.

What Is A Catharina-Style Beer?

Generally, sours are a type of beer known for their distinct acidic, tart, or sour taste. They don’t follow a strict brewing process, so they all vary in flavour with some being super sour, and others light and fruity. Some of the most popular sours come from Belgium, but Catharina is a Brazilian-style beer that originated in southern states, such as Saint Catarina. It’s wheat-based with fresh fruit added after the fermentation process, resulting in a fruity sensory profile that can be enjoyed pint after pint. Or can after can. The style evolved from a strong German influence in southern Brazil, where German-style beers like Berliner Weisse were popular. Today, these types of beer are still very popular and influential (unsurprisingly). Given how hot it is in Brazil, the main goal of a sour beer is to refresh. This is ideal because it’s getting pretty hot in UK summers too! Unlike some sour beers which can be overly sour (which we wanted to avoid), Catharina sours are typically light and carbonated, making them perfect for hot weather and beer garden drinking.

What Made Us Want To Brew A Catharina

Our head brewer spent some time in South America judging one of the world’s biggest beer competitions where he was inspired by the Catharina style. When he came back and told us about it, we knew we had to brew our own version. Because no other brewery has really done it in England before – not in Sheffield. And especially not a vegan and gluten-free sour beer. We wanted to make something novel. Something refreshing to go down in our beer garden. So here we are. We kept the name nice and simple, calling it ‘Catharina’. And it bangs. This isn’t our first rodeo. We brewed two Catharina sours last year. Strawberry and guava. And mango and passionfruit. And a peach melba one this year. Will we brew another? Probably. Watch this space. Available on our website and at beer shops across the UK. Why not try it for yourself? Shop Catharina here. #TheBeerComesFirst

Cirrus/5%/ Hazy Pale Ale We brewed Cirrus because it’s the beer we all want to drink. Big flavour, great body, and a sessionable ABV. It looks beautiful and it tastes beautiful. Ever since starting Triple Point we’ve looked to the best in the industry for our inspiration. Our intent hasn’t been to copy, but to raise our sights and then aim to do something at a similar standard, but in our own way. The Solo and Dyad series were inspired by The Kernel in London, who have been brewing beautiful pale ales with a focus on hops for around 12 years now. We took the idea brewing a fixed base beer and altering just the single hop, or two hop combinations. The plan was to showcase the taste of an individual hop, or to explore how two different hops interacted with one another. Cirrus – A white, whispy, high altitude, cloud of tiny ice crystals. We were “blown away” by Northern Monk and Magic Rock’s Taprooms and whilst we haven’t got to their level yet, it’s where we want to be. And we will get there eventually. When we went into lockdown, we bought a lot of beer from a lot of breweries, locally from the likes of Abbeydale and SMOD and nationwide from; Deya, Verdant, Brew by Numbers, Whiplash, North and more. We wanted to see how our beers compared and what we could learn. And to be totally honest, we felt that with the hop-forward beers we were okay, but not in the upper echelons of the beers we were trying. This was frustrating, “why aren’t we at the top?” was the ever-haunting question. We’ve got an incredible brewer, an incredible brewery, Sheffield water which is the perfect canvas on which to brew a beer, what is it that’s holding us back? I think the reason was, as we became busier and busier as a brewery, we just didn’t take the time to step out of our box and look at what everyone else was doing and honestly compare ourselves with the best. We were just comparing ourselves against yesterday (we tended to do quite well in that comparison). The one good thing that came out of lockdown for us was that it gave us the opportunity to look at what the best were brewing and then experiment. My personal pick of the bunch was always DEYA, we ended up going through every Something Good or Saturated in… that we could get our hands on. While those were the hype beers and were fantastic, the real win of getting a DEYA order in was the 4 pack of Steady Rolling Man that was inevitably ordered alongside the other beers. The fact that we looked forward to the 5.2% Pale ale when it arrived next to all these new hop monsters, always seemed crazy. In the world of craft beer, so much of the industry is about what’s new this week, I mean, even DEYA’s social media channels were all about ‘what’s new this week,’ even so, we’d always get a few STR’s in. We had to try to brew something in that space!

So… Cirrus…

Our Aim – Make a juicy, pillowy, soft beer with a big, beautiful, bouncing hop load. It had to be super drinkable, and super tasty. So people (i.e. we) wanted to drink loads of it. Let’s start with the malt, extra pale marris otter (to make it look pretty and give it a strong base flavour), lots of wheat and the most oats we’ve ever used in a brew, to get that soft, pillowy, medium bodied mouthfeel. As always, we’ve used Sheffield water, and added Calcium Chloride for softness. Combined with our house ale yeast which provides a gently fruity, floral flavour and nose. Now onto the main attraction, the HOPS. After some experimentation we’ve ended up with 5 different hops in the brew, and 5 separate additions. A combination of T90 and Cryo hops. The aim with this is that no one hop stands out, and instead we have a selection of hops that create a tropical, citrussy party on your tongue. It’s also Gluten-Free Certified and Vegan, so everyone can enjoy. We called it Cirrus because we wanted the beer to feel like a floaty, hoppy cloud in your mouth. Despite sounding slightly lame as a name justification, we actually quite like it, so we stuck with it. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do. Cheers!

After choosing the name Triple Point for completely unrelated reasons, it keeps tempting us to “play around” with triple versions of some cracking beer styles (and tongue twisters). And where better to start than a twist on the “mother of all triples” a Belgian Trappist Tripel. The Trappist Abbey in Westmalle was founded in 1836 and first brewed a “table beer” in the same year. By 1856 they had added a stronger brown beer known as Dubbel (“double” in Dutch) and then in 1936 they added an even stronger (9.5%) pale ale which they called Tripel (the first of its kind). Generally, the more malt is added to a brew, the more fermentable sugar is collected and the greater the alcohol strength of the finished beer. A middle-age tradition was to indicate beer strength on casks with a single X for weakest, XX for medium and XXX for the strongest beers. Three X’s became synonymous with the word “tripel”.

Tripel Karmeliet

Tripel Karmeliet was launched in 1996 and has received great acclaim ever since. It is a favourite of ours and it was to this beer that we turned, quite literally, for the source of our own Tripel. At its heart a Tripel is a pale ale. And it has to be pale. To achieve that we need the palest ale and lager malts, though malt alone tends not to get us to the lofty heights above 9% alcohol. One of the distinctive characteristics of a Tripel is the use of Candi sugar. Fully fermentable, adding no colour, yet leaving an aroma reminiscent of candy sweets which beautifully complement the typical pear, apple and peach fruit aromas so characteristic of the Belgian ale yeasts. In our case we selected and cultivated the Tripel Karmeliet yeast from a handful of bottles (nothing went to waste!). It was this yeast that gave us a three stage (another Tripel!) fermentation to achieve the final 9.3% ABV.

Fermentation Curve

We haven’t seen a fermentation curve like this before. Have you? After decades of training, maybe this yeast just knows that it needs to have 3 goes at a Tripel. Like all good pale ales, there’s a balance between malt and hop character. In fact, the bitterness IBU’s (International Bitterness Units) of a Tripel equates to that of many an IPA, so it’s got sufficient to balance the malts, sugar and alcohol without being cloying. Typically, the hops used will be understated, noble European varieties such as British, Belgian or Slovenian Goldings, Czech Saaz or Hallertau varieties. Added at the start for bitterness and a little late aroma for a balanced, integrated character. There is certainly no dry-hopping in the classic Tripel. Having seen very few craft variants of the Tripel style, the opportunity of play a twist with the hops seemed too good to miss. We had managed to get hold of a small amount of Australian Galaxy (no mean feat) paired with New Zealand Wakatu and Wai-iti for late boil and whirlpool additions. The passionfruit and peach, floral and lime characters mingle with pear, pineapple and peppery spice aromas from the Karmeliet yeast for a complex, mellow yet assertive flavour we hope you will love.

What Would The Trappists Say?

We have tried to carry this theme through to our packaging. An abbey style image with gold letters acknowledging the source of our inspiration (and yeast), but then instead of a traditional bottle, a somewhat irreverent New World can. What would the Trappists say? With a low yield, the majority of our New World Tripel will be available in 440ml cans, however we have snuck a portion into our 400L Sauvignon Blanc wine barrels for a bit of extra maturation. Watch this space to see how that goes. Santé!

Dyad – a group of two…a pairing that creates strength or power… There are some great beers around that showcase a single hop. Oakham Ales Citra is an absolute belter and opened the UK’s eyes to the Citra hop and The Kernel are, as always, freakishly good when they do their single hop pales and IPA’s. So, over a beer, we were “kicking around” how we might emulate these but with some new hop varieties. We really liked the idea of getting to know a hop by tasting it on its own, but every time we came up with a new hop someone would say “wouldn’t that be great with…”. Eventually we had to accept that we were just much more excited about creating 2 hop combinations. That was the easy bit, agreeing a name for this new series of two hop beers took us ages! As always, the beer came first… Eventually we came up with Dyad; ‘something that consists of two elements or parts’ and a term used in music, chemistry, biology, sociology and philosophy. Also, as any Star Wars devotees will know, a dyad is a pairing of two Force-sensitive beings creating power as strong as life itself. So we can have some high hopes for our new series of hop dyads! To really showcase the hops we chose a NEIPA (New England IPA) style and selected a malt base of Maris Otter Pale Ale; Wheat, Oats & Rye and a target ABV of around 5.2%. Unfiltered and unpasteurised (as always) and un-fined, so we get the freshest and fullest flavours possible and hazy juicy beer. After refining this base with a few pilot trials and experimenting with using our house ale yeast but fermented slightly warmer and with more oxygen at the start to encourage Ester formation, we were ready to start playing around with hops. We add the hops late (in no less than 5 kettle and whirlpool additions) for low bitterness and to make the most of the hop aromas on show. Now we had our basic recipe we were ready to choose our first hop Dyad for a full-scale brew! Given our inspiration from Oakham Ales and The Kernel we wanted to start off with Citra, if only we could get hold of some! Until now we’ve only been able to get the occasional 5 or 10kg and even that has involved Alex bringing some back in from India in his suitcase, so we were left “open mouthed” when we read that Oakham Ales are now using 25 tonnes of Citra hops each year! Then Covid happened and to set against the enormous misery everywhere, there has been one small positive, we could buy some Citra! What to pair it with? We wanted to avoid making the beer over-citrussy and after some deliberation we opted for El Dorado. Which was nice as we already had some in stock! El Dorado is ideal as, for a modern American hop it’s non-citrussy, whilst exhibiting some gorgeous soft fruit aroma’s. More subtle than many, but hopefully an ideal partner for the bold Citra. DYAD # 1 turned out pretty much as we hoped, although to try increase the “juiciness” even further, we added an extra dry hopping stage to recipe for Dyad 2 onwards. We also decided to “tag team” the hops, so one hop will change each time and all the hops will gets two chances to shine. DYAD #1 = El Dorado + Citra Dyad #2 = Citra + Wakatu (bringing floral and lime aromas) Dyad #3 = Wakatu + Hallertau Blanc DYAD #4 = Hallertau Blanc +?? etc We hope you will join us on the journey and find your favourite hops and combinations – keep a record as we may bring back one or two of the most popular.

Artwork

Just in case anyone wants to know about our can designs… Out of necessity we’ve developed a simple (inexpensive) formula for our artwork. We get our team and/or others who have helped with the beer, to hand write a few versions of the name in their own style and we then pick which we think works best for the beer. Then everyone claims that it was their writing that was the one finally chosen. The DYAD handwriting came from one of the team at Charles Faram “Hop Factors & Merchants Since 1865” and we like to think that they will now argue about whose. We then had to choose colours. We used our ale yeast, so it had to be a black can. The beer is all about hops, so we wanted a hoppy colour for the writing. Then a lightbulb moment, Sean shot off to the beer garden and returned with a photo of one of our growing hop plants, which became our background image.

Alex, our Head Brewer, was truly bitten by the Bohemian Pilsner “bug” when working for Staropramen in Prague, back in the 90’s. He’s been on a mission to perfect a craft homage to the style ever since. Sheffield has superb soft water, fresh from the northern peaks, similar in fact to Plzen water and ideal for brewing lagers. Not surprisingly then, Pilsner (Czech-style) was Triple Point’s gyle, or brew number -001. Although, as it takes such a long time to properly “lager” it certainly wasn’t the first beer we got to drink! The Pilsner tasted great and was soon a firm favourite with the rest of the team and in our taproom, but we gradually realised we hadn’t got it quite right. The beer always behaved beautifully at the brewery tap, but it would sometimes “fob” excessively when we packaged it into kegs or cans and sent it elsewhere. Trying to understand this pattern of “mis-behaviour” and getting feedback from people who said they loved the taste of the beer, but just couldn’t cope with the amount of foam, has nearly driven us nuts. Not only that, but we decided that we had got the name wrong too. We generally like simple beer names that “tell you what’s in the can” but ‘pilsner’ is probably the most over-used and abused word in common beer language. How can people know what to expect when so many beers that have no similarity or right, claim a bit of the pilsner heritage, when most of them aren’t even Bohemian style pilsners. In fact the Czechs complained to the Germans about calling their tribute lagers pilsner, as they clearly weren’t from Plzn. The compromise, pilsener (in the pilsner style) was adopted. So, after kicking the problem around over many an after-work beer, we decided we had to go back to basics. Could we evolve the beer, retaining all that we loved yet make it more… Well just more?  

Including A Twist

We were determined to stay faithful to the Bohemian style, but also to retain a couple of “twists” that make it ours and not just a pale imitation. We use floor malts from England’s oldest working maltings, appropriate we think, because it was English progress in malting techniques and development of pale ales that enabled Josef Groll to brew the first Pilsner (the World’s first ever pale lager). Ask any Czech brewer and, given the choice, they will select floor malts for a genuine Ležak (Pilsner lager), so we did. We also dry-hop our pilsner. This practice, adding more hops during late fermentation or conditioning, is normally used in IPA’s and pale ales and allows intimate contact between the hop essential oils and the beer to maximise flavour and aroma. Lagers are not normally dry-hopped.   Alex went over for the hop harvest at the end of August 2019 and was treated to the best of Czech hospitality. Starting with the beer, “Oh, the beer!” Two nights and a full day on the farm gave him the insight he wanted into the delicate, fragrant, yet spicy hops which add so much distinctive, authentic character to our beer. From field to kiln, to bale he was, with humbling modestly, shown everything, including the restored hop museum kiln, wood-fired and alight for the annual hop harvest festival.  He came back buzzing.

Žatec (pronounced zya-tets)

Alex re-thought our recipe and every detail of the brewing process, crucially adjusting the minute details of the softness of the water (liquor) and the dry-hopping in late fermentation to ensure the best conditions for flavour transfer to the beer. This ensures we re-ferment the additional sugars released as a result of dry-hopping, that may otherwise cause a phenomena known as ‘hop creep’, which sounds like a character in a nerdy beer mag, but was in fact the cause of our old fobbing problems.  Our ode to Bohemian pilsner is now different. The beer is a little stronger than the previous Pilsner (4.8% vs. 4.6%) and we think it’s now cleaner, slightly more crisp, but with more character at the same time. Drunk cold it is as refreshing as any fine lager, but as it warms in the glass (if you can leave it that long) the richness biscuit and caramel flavours of floor-malted barleys plays foil to the freshness of the hops, delicate and floral, yet at the same time spicy and with hints of tropical lemongrass and fruit. It was clear to us all that our Bohemian style pilsner, which owes so much of its character and its heritage to the hops, should be named after them.  Pilsner is now Žatec. This does now tell you what is inside the can. And the handwriting of Žatec on the outside of the can, belongs to Petra. Cheers! (or in Czech,Na Zdravi!)

Our first collaboration was with Le Trou De Diable, a micro-brewery based in Québec, Canada, with a quite staggering international reputation and collection of awards. As with all good collaborations, our aim was to do something different. Something that combines the strengths and provenance of our two breweries. Hoping to seek out where the magic happens, where 1 + 1 = 3. Given the relevance to Triple Point of the number 3, we decided to attempt a beer triptych, inspired by works of art designed to be appreciated in 3 parts.

Brew day – 3rd April 2019

Both Head Brewers are fans of pilsner beers, so we decided to brew a pilsner, but differently and in three parts. We had been using oats in our ales but not yet in lagers, so we decided to use a high proportion of oats in the mix. Le Trou Du Diable are masters of barrel ageing, an art that we are keen to develop, so this would form part of the plan. We were keen to introduce some elements, flavours or ingredients from each of the collaborators Nations. As we’d decided to brew a German style Pilsner, in England, with Quebecoise (French Canadians) we decided to incorporate some French hops and what could be more Canadian than Maple Syrup? We managed to get hold of four French Oak barrels that had, for 4 years, been used to mature Sauvignon Blanc. Once the dry-hopped oat pilsner had been matured in our Sheffield stainless steel vessels for 100 days, it was split into 3 parts. The first, T1, was put into conventional kegs and some reserved for bottling. The second, T2, was used to fill two of the oak barrels, with the addition of a generous serving of Canadian maple syrup and champagne yeast. The remainder of the beer was decanted into the other 2 oak barrels with the addition of Gold Medal winning sour beer, L’Ours. This sour culture from Le Trou Du Diable has had previous contributions from Cantillon and Hill Farmstead. We are enormously grateful for the donation of “bugs” with such high pedigree, to our fledgling barrel ageing programme! The “Triptych” handwriting on the bottles belongs to Andrè, Luc & Micho. TRIPTYCH #1 – OAT PILSNER – abv 4.6% – The original oat pilsner. We use floor-malted barley, golden naked oats and French hops. Dry-hopped with Strisselspalt hops for a refined, floral and grassy aroma. One super smooth Pilsner. TRIPTYCH #2 – BARREL AGED BRUT OAT PILSNER – abv 5.5% – the original oat pilsner aged in Sauvignon Blanc barrels for over 100 days, with added Champagne yeast and maple syrup. TRIPTYCH #3 – BARREL AGED OAT PILSNER SAISON BLEND – abv 5.7% – the original oat pilsner aged in Sauvignon Blanc barrels for over 100 days, with added L’Ours (Le Trou du Diable sour saison) and maple syrup. Santé