Castaway, the beer that was prototyped in my kitchen and subsequently brewed by myself and Mark Nixon with Delcan down in Yellowbelly, went down so well that we (well, Mark) decided we make it a trilogy of beers in a similar vain.
Can you guess the fruit?
Number 2 in the trilogy, Castaway's successor (currently nameless) is sitting in a tank in Hope Brewery souring away and will be released in around 6 weeks from now. The fruit in this one was somewhat inspired by a beverage I had sitting on my balcony one sunny July morning in Salt Lake City as we chatted over WhatsApp. I won't give it away yet, but have a look at the photo. This combination hasn't been used in an Irish beer before, so we're super excited and a little nervous! We've dialled back the sourness ever so slightly on this one as we feel that it will go with the fruit a bit better. If you're a fan of sour beers, in general, you won't be disappointed -- it's still going to be well puckering!
We brewed 2,000 litres on September 7th in Hope's super shiny new brewery beside Howth Junction DART station, to be released mainly in bottles but also a limited number of kegs, as a Hope product primarily, but it will be co-branded with Yellowbelly and myself.
One of the things I picked up in the US was a 360-degree camera. Embedding 360-degree photos in a blog is not straightforward, but below is a shot of Hope's lovely Caspary brewhouse, with myself, Declan and Mark on the deck. You can pan and zoom with your mouse.