Look, Mister, Just Let The Pig Drive, Okay?
Written: May 01 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Classic Yorkshire-type ale. Delicious ale character.
Cons: Can take some getting acquainted with, but worth it.
The Bottom Line: If you are a Sam Smith Pale Ale or Winter Welcome fan... save your money and buy this. If you love English ales, welcome home. Masterful stuff.
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| beerfly's Full Review: Shipyard Old Thumper Extra Special Ale |
Ever seen a boar spear?
When there were wild boars in England 700 years ago, before the English hunted them to extinction, men would hunt them with a boar spear. It was long, and had a leaf-shaped blade, but its most important characteristic was a sturdy crosspiece right in back of the blade.
The crosspiece was vitally important (in the strictest sense of the word "vitally"), you see, because when the boar charged and you impaled it on the spear -- assuming you didn't miss and get torn to shreds by tusks and trotters -- the crosspiece kept it at a safe distance while it expired. Without the crosspiece the boar would simply chug its way up the spear, ignoring the wood grinding through its guts, because the only thing on its piggy little mind, burning in its glowering red eyes, was to rip you a large and ragged new bellybutton. This is something that was learned by the hunters through bitter experience (and a few new navels).
This is medieval kind of stuff, of course. If I were going hunting for wild boar today, I'd take a civilized weapon, something that takes cartridges the size of my thumb and preferably capable of full automatic fire. Boar is serious business, and I have to guess that's why there's a particularly mean-looking one on the label of Shipyard's Old Thumper.
Because this is serious beer. It is, as Shipyard brewer Alan Pugsley is always quick to point out, brewed under license from the Ringwood Brewery, in Hampshire, England, where the beer was first brewed. Why license it? Well, aside from the beer's having been named Champion Beer of Britain in 1998 (not too shabby, eh?), Pugsley knows the beer and its background pretty well.
Pugsley brewed with brewery founder Peter Austin, a man he calls "the godfather of microbrewing," there back in the 1980s ("I started on January 4, 1982," Pugsley told me recently, "I'll never forget the date."), and that's where he met what became known as the Ringwood strain of yeast. He would be Austin's point man in the U.S., selling brewery systems and the Ringwood yeast to dozens of brewers.
There's a lot of nonsense that's been written about Ringwood, so let's get some straight dope from the man in the U.S. who knows it best. "The yeast strain is well over 150 years old," Pugsley began. "Peter had used it at the North Country brewery in Hull, where he was a brewer from late 1940s through the 1970s. That was the yeast they had used from the brewery's advent in the 1800s. It had originally come from the old Halifax brewery." When both of the older breweries had shut down, the yeast officially became known as "Ringwood."
That's why, even though the Ringwood Brewery is in Hampshire, they make Yorkshire-type ales. Ringwood is a Yorkshire yeast strain. What's that mean? Full attenuation (it ferments fully all the available sugars in a beer), which means dry beers; lots of esters (the fruity aromas generated by ale yeasts); open fermentation (the top of the fermentation tanks must be open to the air); and diacetyl (a fermentation by-product that smells of butter or butterscotch). Old Thumper has all that, and probably has the most diacetyl of any of Shipyard's beers.
Diacetyl is the boogeyman of American beer knowitalls. "Pah, Ringworm, butter beer!" they'll spit, and turn away in disgust. Yet these same people will lap up Sam Smith ales, which are brewed with a similar strain of yeast and also touched with diacetyl.
And Ringwood's diacetyl output is easily controlled. Bob Johnson, the head brewer at Magic Hat, another big Ringwood-yeast brewery, has it down. "We do diacetyl rests. We have full fermentation in 2 or 3 days. Then before we chill it, we let it just drift [in the tanks] for 24 hours. Any post-fermentation diacetyl will dissipate at that time, and that's the beauty of open ferment: it will dissipate." It's not the yeast; it's the brewing.
Here's something most people don't know: "It is a multi-strain yeast," Pugsley told me, "and the strains have to be grown up separately and blended in the right proportions at the right time. I know some brewers have taken a sample from a bottle but... you don't get it right, it's not Ringwood. It can't be, it behaves differently if it isn't grown up the right way.
"It has to be grown correctly to be the Ringwood yeast," he continued, "and only Ringwood [Brewery] and I can access it from the yeast bank. You can buy something called Ringwood from yeast labs, but I know for a fact it's not the same, the mix isn't right."
That's Ringwood, and that's Alan. This is his beer. There's a lingering parchment head, tight-capped with tiny bubbles, over a beautiful amber beer that's just barely shy of clear; there's a faint hint of translucence. A whiff pulls out British malt character (dry graham cracker, a hint of molasses) and Goldings hops (an earthy aroma with a hint of herbs).
But Old Thumper really shines when you get stuck into it, bury your nose in the head and drink deep. Gawd! It's a mouthful! What a challenging mix of sweet, dry, bitter sensations, a classic Yorkshire ale with a hint of butter rum flavor and a bit of chew in the back of the mouth. This is not a hugely full-bodied beer (Ringwood is a rip-roarer in the fermenter and will eat anything that isn't locked up), but it slips over the tongue like golden syrup and really hits all the buzzers and bells.
You can really sense the brotherhood this beer has with other Yorkshire-yeast beers like Sam Smith's. There is the same almost meaty character to it that I've always found and love in Sam Smith's Winter Welcome and Pale Ale. This is a kind of ale that takes some getting used to -- or may be an instant love at first sip for some lucky devils. It's a textured taste, the beer almost seems to hump up and thump (forgive me) the roof of your mouth with a wash of malt sweetness right back by the molars.
It's easy to see why the judges at the Great British Beer Festival picked this beer as Champion Beer of Britain. It is a classic; big (for a Brit beer, that is) yet drinkable, dry on the finish but full of character in the mouth. And thank God it doesn't come with a crosspiece, because it does get right into you.
Sorry about the lecture, but it's like Don Feinberg at Brewery Ommegang always says: "The more you know, the better it tastes." Since I got to know Alan and his old friend the yeast a lot better, Old Thumper tastes so good to me I thought I'd share the secrets.
Hope I didn't boar you.
[This review notes my being named an Advisor in the Gourmet section of epinions. I thought if they were going to make me an advisor, the least I could do was write my first new review in two months... Whoops.]
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
beerfly
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Member: Lew Bryson
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Reviews written: 88
Trusted by: 82 members
About Me:
One bourbon, one Scotch, one beer, eh? I'll take Kentucky Spirit, Scapa, and HopDevil.
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