Great British hop combinations?

[seymour]

Has anyone tasted this beer? I haven't, but it sure looks like it would be delicious:

Sambrook's Pumphouse Pale Ale
Sambrook's Brewery, Battersea, Greater London, England, UK
ABV: 4.2%
Grainbill: 100% Maris Otter?
Bittering hops: Admiral, First Gold
Aroma hops: New Zealand Hallertau, Celeia
Colour: clear golden

Other familiar brews which use Admiral hops:
Adnams Oyster Stout, Hook Norton Flagship IPA, and..........drumroll please..........yep, John Smith's Extra Smooth Bitter widget cans. No joke, but for the sake of full disclosure, they blend Target, Admiral, and Magnum then high-alpha hop extract post-fermentation. Weird. It's tricky work making beer that bad, eh?

[beer gut]

Hi I went to the competition at the salataire brewery but I am in a powered wheelchair so I could not get to the talk which is up stairs, never mind. Like I said in my last post I loved Flyer when I first brewed my bitter but as the beer matured out the Flyer just faded away, Flyer is alot like challenger on the bittering front both have good clean bitterness but challenger has good strong punchy flavours that only get better with time unlike what I found with Flyer as the beer matured. This is only my opinion you might find Flyer the completely different to what I found when I brewed with Flyer.

[oz11]

Has anyone tasted this beer? I haven't, but it sure looks like it would be delicious:

Sambrook's Pumphouse Pale Ale
Sambrook's Brewery, Battersea, Greater London, England, UK
ABV: 4.2%
Grainbill: 100% Maris Otter?
Bittering hops: Admiral, First Gold
Aroma hops: New Zealand Hallertau, Celeia
Colour: clear golden

Had it a couple of times

[beer gut]

I have just had thought no one has mentioned Northdown. This is my go to hop for Dark ales and it blends so well with EkG, progress and Bram X. I must admit when I have used Northdown in Bitters I did not like the results but that was down to my recipe. I do agree on what you said about progress being a super charged fuggles, when I started brewing I was told that progress is a very undervalued hop and for along time I agreed but now I am finding progress is finally getting the attention it deserves.

[seymour]

...I loved Flyer when I first brewed my bitter but as the beer matured out the Flyer just faded away, Flyer is alot like challenger on the bittering front both have good clean bitterness but challenger has good strong punchy flavours that only get better with time unlike what I found with Flyer as the beer matured. This is only my opinion you might find Flyer the completely different to what I found when I brewed with Flyer.

I believe you, but my Flyer Best has only been in bottles/mini-casks less than two weeks, so it obviously hasn't had much time to fade. I'm very happy with how it turned-out, but I'm taking one of the mini-casks to a guild meeting tonight to see what other brewers think.

To me, Challenger has those irresistable, distinctly English orange marmalade, dried apricots, warm drizzled honey notes. Flyer strikes me as similar but darker, heavier, spicier, wilder, a little rougher around the edges, maybe leaning toward other UK high-alphas such as Northdown, Brewer's Gold, or Bullion (but more refined than those, in my opinion), with some cedar and burnt orange like Polish Marynka... Needless to say, I'm loving Flyer so far.

Out of curiosity, was your recipe pale or dark?

I have just had thought no one has mentioned Northdown. This is my go to hop for Dark ales and it blends so well with EkG, progress and Bram X.

That's good to know. I've had a couple Northdown beers, and liked them, but found the flavor a little harsher, with more of that composty, hot tomato plant aroma, than more noble-ish UK cultivars. That's just me though, and my mind's not made up against them. The Schlafly brewers really liked their Northdown trials, which means a lot in my book.

[seymour]

Has anyone tasted this beer? I haven't, but it sure looks like it would be delicious:

Sambrook's Pumphouse Pale Ale
Sambrook's Brewery, Battersea, Greater London, England, UK...

Had it a couple of times

Cool site. Are you the "long lost old mucker who walked in"?

[beer gut]

Wow your taste buds are outstanding. My bitter that i used flyer in as been in the bottle 4 and half months and the only flavour you get is from the Celeia. Last year i tried using sovereign with Challenger and i had great results but some people don't like sovereign, what i found with sovereign is it's like goldings blended with fuggles unlike the rank WGV which i can't stand. I have a award winning 80 shilling ale that I used Northdown in and the judges said the ale tasted of Rich dried dark fruits with really clean bittering. I am planning on brewing a chocolate stout using Northdown and progress for bitterness and EKG for the last 10 mins.

[oz11]

Has anyone tasted this beer? I haven't, but it sure looks like it would be delicious:

Sambrook's Pumphouse Pale Ale
Sambrook's Brewery, Battersea, Greater London, England, UK...

Had it a couple of times

Cool site. Are you the "long lost old mucker who walked in"?

Ha!! No, for once, that wasn't me.. as far as I know

[Dennis King]

John Smith's Extra Smooth Bitter widget cans. No joke, but for the sake of full disclosure, they blend Target, Admiral, and Magnum then high-alpha hop extract post-fermentation. Weird. It's tricky work making beer that bad, eh?

Very true Seymour very true, I always thought John Smiths had never seen a hop.
Interesting to see Admiral mentioned. I've got a 100gm vac pack of Admiral I bought about a year ago and forgot about, time to open it I think.

[koomber]

Been thinking about doing a brew with Bramling Cross, anyone familiar with it cand got a suggestion for some pairing?

[beer gut]

Hi I have used Bram X quite alot especially in dark ale styles, where I have used Galena for bittering and Bram x for First wort and in the last 10 mins of the boil. I have used Bram X in my red bitter where I have used Challenger for bittering and used Bram x for finishing. The only hop I have found in my experience that clashes with Bram X is sovereign and I don't know why. Another hops that goes well with Bram x is Northdown and fuggles.

[lancsSteve]

Bramling cross is my achilles hop - I absolutely LOATHE it in any and every beer it's assertive in. If you REALLY like ribena then maybe it's for you. I respect its work and can see how it can work well in milds and stouts with that blackcurrent hint mixing with roasted malts but I really really really dislike it.

[Goulders]

So you don't like Bramling X then Steve?

[beer gut]

Hi all I was thinking the other day about a blend of hop I would like to try. That blend is Pilgrim and Endeavour I would try this blend in Red,Dark and Pale ales but mainly in the dark/red styles. I would use Pilgrim for bitterness and flavour and Endeavour for FW addition and flavour as well. What do you guys think.?

[seymour]

Hi all I was thinking the other day about a blend of hop I would like to try. That blend is Pilgrim and Endeavour I would try this blend in Red,Dark and Pale ales but mainly in the dark/red styles. I would use Pilgrim for bitterness and flavour and Endeavour for FW addition and flavour as well. What do you guys think.?

I haven't personally used either, but I've tasted several delicious and highly-rated Schlafly beers containing Pilgrim, it seems to be a major go-to bittering hop for their UK styles:

Schlafly Pale Ale, Schlafly Export IPA, Schlafly Porter, Schlafly Scotch Ale, Schlafly Winter ESB

It's also one of the aroma hops for Goose Island IPA, which we've talked about before. So, that sure makes Pilgrim sound like an all-around winner.