LBW19 - Black Lodge

It was an obvious choice to collaborate with Black Lodge for this year’s Liverpool Beer Week – not only do they sponsor Liverpool Beer Expo, the culmination of LBW, but they are on our doorstep and it was great to work in their recently opened location on Kings Dock.

After stopping for coffee at Red Berry Club around the corner, we were fashionably late for the morning brew.  We met with Sean, the head brewer at Black Lodge and made our way around the back entrance where an open barrel fire was already roaring, ready to cleanse some barrels the rustic way.  Although Black Lodge have expanded into their new space, we were working from the some of the old kit, which although not as shiny as the new equipment, are a token reminder of their smaller beginnings but no less effective.

After heaving the bags of grain and malts in, we got stuck in with the mash tun.  Both Angela & Natalie had turns mashing in as this was a hefty amount of oats, making the mash begin to turn quickly into the consistency of a thick and almost cemented porridge – this made for very tough work.  As Sean was feeling experimental, we added a thick layer of flaked oats to the top, to release more sugar, body and oaty-flavour into the brew.

After another coffee break (the oats making the brew take while longer than usual during the mash/sparge), both Angela and Natalie clambered up the step ladder to dig out the mash which satisfyingly slopped into the empty malt sacks, ready to be taken to the farm to be reused.  With Rammstein’s deep guitars thrumming in the background, we went into the coldroom to have a sniff of the hop stock and pick our weapons of choice for the collaboration brew.  We eventually settled on varieties of Waimea and Aurora, something Sean hadn’t tried together before.  With the hops weighed, out came the snacks and beers – some popcorn, pretzels and nuts with a side of Knoxville Girl. We then added the sour pitch at 27 degrees, the temperature aiming to restrict the sourness, adding a hint of cleansing acidity rather than a full punch of puckering power. 

Black Lodge’s new taproom on Kings Dock street has everything the original place had but better – including a bit of sunlight! They will be hosting our Liverpool Beer Week launch party happening Friday 21st June and will include food, drinks, music and a special art exhibition from artbyvolume.co.uk featuring our collaboration brews including this one.

Black Lodge and the Liverpool Beer Collective present, a DDH Sour IPA; Behind the Curve (5%), which we be available to try at the LBW Launch Party this Friday!