Sauvin so Good was an idea brewed up by Mark Tranter of Burning Sky Brewery and Georgina Young, brewing director at St Austell Brewery.
The pair got chatting about a collaboration at a beer event last year, with Tranter heading down to Cornwall from East Sussex to bring the beer to life as part of St Austell Brewery’s Cask Club series.
Having thrown a few ideas around about beer styles, they settled on brewing a punchier, ultra-hoppy version of Proper Job, thanks to Tranter’s love of the flagship IPA.
Pepped it up
Young said: “I did think we might be brewing a funky cask sour but Mark’s admiration for Proper Job ended up being the inspiration for this beer. We have experimented with the classic recipe though.
“We have brewed the version of the beer we do for bottle and can, and then pepped it up with some Nelson Sauvin, Motueka and lashings of more Chinook hops. If you love extremely hoppy beers, this is one for you.
“I’m a huge Burning Sky fan. I enjoy Arise and Aurora to name but a few of their cracking beers. It’s exciting to be collaborating with them for our Cask Club series.”
Sauvin so Good, a 5.5% ABV New Zealand IPA will have big, punchy tropical fruit flavours including lychees and grapefruit.
A real treat
Burning Sky brewery in East Sussex was a dream made reality by head brewer, Tranter, who has a love of punchy hop-forward pale ales and the Belgian beer tradition.
He said: “Knowing my fondness for Proper Job, George shared a few bits of the recipe with me and we were both keen to brew a slant on it using New Zealand hops, which we both love. We also used malted spelt, which we use a lot at Burning Sky, and a proper big dry hop.
“Having a day at St Austell Brewery was great. Being able to see around the whole brewery and how it was modernised to meet with new marketplace demands was a real treat.”
St Austell Brewery’s Cask Club sees a variety of experimental beers brewed in its small batch brewery each year, giving brewers the freedom to innovate.
Sauvin so Good will be available for a limited time from Friday (5 April) in cask at selected pubs and at the visitors’ centre.