New Products: A caffeine dream from Siren Craft Brew

Following a hugely successful 2017 debut, Siren Craft Brew’s Project Barista is returning with four exciting new beers that continue the brewery’s annual investigation of coffee’s diversity, intensity and personality.

The first 2018 coffee beer, Cold Brew, is a 5% cold-steeped schwarzbier. A take on the classic coffee beer, Cold Brew is dry and light as opposed to sweet. Siren cold steep all the dark grains overnight to develop coffee and chocolate notes with minimal burnt/bitter flavours, while a delicate hopping of Amarillo & Ekuanot hops bring some fruitiness to the lager.

The big hitter of Project Barista, 9.5% Breakfast Shake, is an Imperial Wheat Stout with Coffee & Cacao. A classic German wheat beer yeast is used to offer banana notes, while Siren use 13 different speciality malts to drive rich coffee and chocolate flavours

Returning to the fold in this year’s collection is capHeine, a hibiscus and berry led coffee sour. The beer is lowered to a pH of around 3.5 before the boil, with further acidity coming from the coffee post-fermentation.

Affogato, a 6% Coffee & Ice Cream Ale, rounds of the Project Barista collection for 2018. The base beer here is pale, fermented to leave a touch of residual sugar and then loaded up with lactose to offer ice-cream like body and the perception of sweetness. Vanilla goes in for the full ice-cream affect, as well as Cypress wood. Try it with a Biscotti for the full authentic experience!

Or you could try

Magic Rock Common Grounds Coffee Porter - ​If you like your coffee beers to, well, look like coffee, then Magic Rock’s delicious Common Grounds porter may be just the ticket. It’s a full bodied, decadently smooth coffee beer made in collaboration with local roaster Dark Woods. 7 different malts combine with 7 different coffees added at 3 different points during the brew to create a sweet toffee, rich fruit and chocolate depth, accented with notes of vanilla, and hazelnut.

Best of the Rest

A modern mead​ – London’s only mead maker, Gosnells, has launched its gently sparkling 5.5% ABV mead in a new size, with new packaging and a more refined recipe. The new 75cl bottle format will retail at c.£10-12 a bottle in shops, or c.£20-25 a bottle in bars and restaurants. It is gluten free, and best served chilled in Champagne flutes or white wine glasses.

Savoury gin​ - Tanqueray Lovage is the new limited-edition innovation to be added to the gin-makers portfolio. Inspired by an original recipe by Tanqueray founder Charles Tanqueray, this savoury gin has all the signature botanicals of Tanqueray alongside a savoury twist with the inclusion of the English garden herb, lovage.

Low alcohol Harvey’s​ – Sussex brewing icons Harvey’s has become the latest brewery to jump on the low alcohol bandwagon, producing 0.5%ABV versions of its classic Best and Old Ale recipes. The beers are produced identically to the original recipes, and the alcohol is removed prior to bottling. The beers cost £27.12 for 24 bottles from the brewery’s website.