Round Are Way & Canvas

“I think we’ve had a “west coast” from the start - If we’re talking about it as a big, hoppy, American style pale ale” Rich Andrew tells me, who himself - like west coast beers, has been with Blackjack from the start. Asking him what his earliest experiences of one might be, he says “I think my first probably has to be something like Phoenix Arizona”.

Talking about someone’s earliest experiences of “craft beer” is an often repeated conversation and invariably leads back to discussing beers from the American west coast in one form or another. For beer drinkers of a certain generation, this stronger, more bitter, more aromatic take on pale ales and IPAs was a gateway.

“So mine would almost definitely be Sierra Nevada Pale Ale at The New Harp Inn in Hoarwithy, Herefordshire, of all places in 2004” Joe Bird tells me, when asked the same question,  “But I do remember we also had Rogue coming through at that point… Liberty Ale was another biggy”. Joe has opened the floodgates on a Whatsapp group discussing the subject:

“I think I was similar to Joe in terms of Sierra Nevada, but I’ll be different... It’d be Marble’s Dobber or Summer Wine’s Diablo, when I moved next to The Marble Arch in 08/09. When they had it on it was an absolute treat” chips in Rich Fowell,

“Diablo is a massive shout!”

We go on discussing the likes of other UK breweries and some of the beers around that time producing the mega hoppy IPAs of the time – The Kernel, Thornbridge, Moor…

We’ve been getting dewy-eyed and nostalgic for our formative drinking years as the first of our May seasonals is exactly the kind of beer that got us all into drinking beer in the first place. Round Are Way is a west coast IPA true to form; a big old 6.5% amber dose of Centennial, Chinook and Cascade. 

“I want a buzzsaw of hoppiness in the mouth.” Kieren Johnson, our headbrewer tells me “…I think the C hops are important for the west coast style, but generally, I am looking for hops that bring dank, resinous, piney, pithy character.” The term west coast itself, whilst not a new term, has certainly only become common lexicon since the appearance of it’s east coast cousin. What you might have once more commonly seen called an American Pale Ale has gained it’s Californian moniker over the last decade with the rise of a sweeter, less bitter, more aromatic style of pale ale from the American north east.

Our second May release is a great example of balancing beers’ four ingredients in a completely different way to still produce a hoppy, drinkable pale ale. Canvas is a New England pale ale with a giant New Zealand hop bill. Where Round Are Way’s malt bill is straightforward with malted barley and a small amount of specialty malt for colour and chewiness, Canvas is bolstered with oats and wheat to provide a softer, gently sweet body. The sweetness is helped along with chloride additions to the water where Round Are Ways profile is based on the classic Burtonised water profile.

Motueka and Pacific Sunrise make up the dry hop in Canvas “For New England style beers, I tend to think go for the juicy and fruitier varieties. I am looking for tropical fruits, or chewy sweets”. The bitterness of west coast style beers is almost completely gone and the citrus, pine aromatics replaced with full tropical, almost bubblegum notes.

These two takes on pale ale are as different to look at as they are to taste; Round Are Way is pin bright and rich amber, a light cream head forming in the glass with bubbles so fine it looks like the can has been poured through a sparkler. Canvas is almost completely opaque and gentle yellow, you can see the sweeter body in the way the beer fills the glass as you pour it.

The opaque haze of New England beers is a familiar sight on pub and bar tables these days but this hasn’t always been the case. The clarity (or brightness) of beer is a debate as old as the industry, as Kieran can testify

“Hazy beers were always a thing, I remember long conversations with brewers from The Kernel, Redemption and Camden talking about haze and people arguing that if you are removing something, you must be removing flavour in some capacity. There was a good split of people talking about whether it was just lazy brewing, or the 'real way' to enjoy beer. Over time, as new breweries came along things became even hazier, even softer, even juicier.”

The way the sweeter, more aromatic take on pale ale has swept the UK palette has been something incredible to witness from a brewing and bartending experience and a fascinating challenge for the Blackjack team.

“Brewing New England beer is an interesting question. It feels like the first 3 years or so of me being a brewer were like the hop wars; more IBUs! more dry hop! At some point that suddenly switched towards bitterness being less favourable and slowly New England beers crept in.”

With New England styles now comfortably filling the pots of UK beer drinkers, were peoples first experiences of them as important as those first sips from California back in the noughties?
Joe brings up our friends and fellow Mancunian brewers “I can’t really remember my first New England beers but I’d probably say they had to be Cloudwater. They massively pushed the envelope before anyone I can remember”.

Rich Fowell heads slightly further afield before bringing it back to another outstanding Manchester brewery that specialises in New England styles;
“[My first experience of New England beer] was probably a trip to Other Half’s original taproom in the depths of Brooklyn, then coming back and also having some of the Track DIPAS to launch at Altrincham Market in the reasonably early days.”

I would love to hear any stories you have of your first experiences with either west coast or New England style beers, any great examples you’ve had travelling or closer to home. Please let me know on Blackjack social media or with the email address provided below and we can share peoples stories in a follow up post.

Round Are Way is available in both can and cask, Canvas is available in can and keg. Both are on our webshop and available to trade now.

George

George@blackjack-beers.com