Refresher course isn't easy

The closure of Brakspear's Brewery in Henley-on-Thames last year threw up the intriguing question of whether it would be possible to successfully reproduce the beers when they were brewed several hundred miles away at Burtonwood near Warrington. My experience of tasting beers moved from one brewery to another is that it is difficult, if not impossible, to make even a close match. Much-admired beers such as Fremlins and Wethereds quickly disappeared when their breweries were closed and other companies took on the production: drinkers didn't like the new versions. I suspect there is no great gulf between drinkers and licensees on this issue. Sensible licensees know that cask beer may be a minority product these days but the choice of hand-pumped beer sets the style and tone of a pub. If the character of a particular cask beer changes, then regular and discriminating customers may move elsewhere. I found, when I visited Henley last week, that that is certainly the case where local publicans are concerned. They face a period of great uncertainty. There are rumours of pub closures, and the site where the beers are brewed could change again if the owner of the brands, Refresh UK, is able to build a new brewery in Oxfordshire. So the quality and consistency of the Brakspear beers they sell are of paramount importance. Above all, the new versions have to taste the same as the beers brewed in the town until last autumn. I went to three Brakspear pubs, the Anchor, the Little White Hart and the Row Barge, in the company of a small group of local Camra members. We tasted the two regular beers ­ Ordinary Bitter and Special ­ and we got the chance to speak to both licensees and customers in the pubs. The Camra members are long-standing drinkers of the beers. They approached the new versions objectively and with open minds, not with the attitude of "they're bound to be worse". They all told me that both beers had improved considerably in recent weeks. Before Christmas, there was a problem with "green" or immature beer being delivered to pubs. Since then, the beers have been consistently clear, sparkling, with a good head, and with plenty of aroma and flavour. But they all agreed vehemently ­ and at least one publican supported them ­ that the aroma and flavour were not the same as in the days of the Henley brewery. The main complaint was that the Burtonwood beers are thinner and less complex. Ordinary Bitter, to my mind, was a remarkable beer. With a modest strength of just 3.4%, it had an abundance of flavour, depth and complexity. Juicy malt was balanced by a tangy bitterness, while yeast and hops gave the beer a rich orange fruit character on the aroma and palate. The new version is a perfectly sound and drinkable beer. But it lacks the sharp hop bitterness of the old beer, the orange fruit note has disappeared, and there is a curious hint of barley sugar at the back of the throat. At 4.3%, Special was a beer of awesome complexity, with rich malt and fruit balanced by great depth of hop bitterness. The new version doesn't have that complexity. The aroma is certainly fruity ­ reminiscent of Maynards Wine Gums ­ followed by a big malty and fruity palate, with that curious touch of barley sugar sweetness in the finish. The balancing hop bitterness is not there. When I spoke to David Taylor at Refresh, who has masterminded the matching of the beers at Burtonwood, he expressed surprise at my description of Special as "thin", as he thought the brewery had been more successful with Special than Ordinary. He said the main problem they were still tackling was the vigour of the multi-strain Brakspear yeast. At Henley, the yeast produced a characteristic known as diacetyl, which gives a butterscotch note to beer. That was missing at Burtonwood, and the brewers were changing fermenting temperatures in an attempt to get the diacetyl back. I hope they succeed. As one Henley publican told me: "Where Brakspear is concerned, I'm just selling another beer now. It's no longer special." It's a problem that needs to be addressed if Refresh's new brewery is to prove viable. www.protzonbeer.com