Kelham Island - Pale Rider

Well, the first of my additional beers is Pale Rider, another multi-award winner. This one I know well from Sheffield, where it is brewed (and where bottles are available from Tesco), though I introduced it to Patric and Simon when we discovered it on draught at the Doric Arch at Euston. They agreed with me that it is one of the best beers of its kind and no wonder it won the Supreme Champion Beer of Great Britain at the CAMRA Great British Beer Festival a couple of years ago.

In 1990, Dave Wickett fulfilled his dream of bringing craft brewing back to the city of Sheffield, with the aim of brewing a series of traditional ales that would rival the best of British beers. The Kelham Island Brewery was purpose built in 1990 on land adjoining the renowned Fat Cat pub in Alma Street in Sheffield. The area is known as Kelham Island as the land is on an island formed by a mill race, leaving then running back into the River Don. The brewing equipment was purchased from the Oxford Brewery and Bakehouse and allowed for full mash brewing of approximately twenty barrels a week. The first brew was in September 1990 and it meant that The Kelham Island Brewery was the first new independent brewery in Sheffield this century.

Due to its success in its early years the brewery moved into new, purpose built premises at Kelham Island, very close to the original brewery, in March 1999. The new premises has five times the capacity of the original premises. The original brewhouse has been converted into a visitor centre. Since The Kelham Island Brewery opened, all four of Sheffield's large breweries have closed. leaving The Kelham Island Brewery as Sheffield's largest brewery.

The Kelham Island Brewery is a full mash pure beer brewery which brews beers using only the finest malted barley and wheat, hops, yeast and water. No sugar is used or anything that might compromise the quality of the finished product. It is the policy of the company not to ape the commercially led practices of modern brewing, the sole aim is to produce beers of the highest quality from pure brewing ingredients. The range of beers brewed by the brewery has grown considerably from the early Bitter and Celebration beers and they currently have four beers always available one of which is Pale Rider. See www.kelhambrewery.co.uk for more.

Pale Rider is a full bodied straw pale ale with a good fruity aroma and a strong fruit and hop taste. Its well balanced sweetness and bitterness continue in the finish. It is included in Roger Protz's book 300 Beers To Try Before You Die where he says "The beer has a pungent aroma of perfumey floral hops, tangy citrus fruit and biscuity malt. Hop resins, piny notes, tart fruit and sappy malt fill the mouth. Creamy and juicy malt builds in the long finish, balanced by a continuing citrus note and bitter hop resins."

Not much detail is given away about the ingredients, other than it contains wheat and barley. ABV is 5.2% and it is not bottle condidtioned.