Toast a decade of Chestnut with Eastern Gold, a beer brewed with Barsham Brewery. This golden ale boasts a rich hue, long-lasting flavour and balanced notes of British hops with subtle citrus. A true tribute to our region!
As a collection of pubs in an area renowned for its agricultural heritage and fields of award-winning malt, marking our anniversary with a limited-edition beer was an exciting prospect. Alas, we didn’t have any brewing equipment and only elementary knowledge of beer, namely by taste! So, this is where David and Barsham Brewery came in to the fold…
DAVID, THE RECIPE CREATOR
David, who has been a chef for over twenty-five years and at The Eight Bells for eleven of those, has a somewhat-secret passion for brewing his own beer in 'The Brew Shed' at the end of his garden. Having been shortlisted in a number of craft-beer competitions for his own creations, David was asked over six months ago whether he would be interested in taking on the task of creating our standalone beer. We knew the challenge ahead and that David was the right man for the job, so going into this wasn't going to be easy, but we were confident that David would throw his all into it and create something special. Not only does he have the creativity, David also uses the same grain and maltings in Norfolk as Barsham, so we were one step closer in knowing there would be consistency when scaling up his test batches.
"If you’re going to do it, do it well" is David's moto.
Not only did David come up with the recipe for our golden ale, he was crucial when testing - and testing again - as the recipe was scaled up and then he played brewer for the day at Barsham Brewery, assisting Hamish with the final large batch creation.
BARSHAM BREWERY
Although David's experience with small-scale brewing and recipe building is brilliant, we still needed a brewery!
This is where Barsham Brewery came in to our 10th Anniversary creation; In an area renowned for its top-quality agricultural soil, sea air and unique micro-climate, the fourth-generation family brewery, Barsham Brewery, was producing some of the best malting barley in the world (coincidentally already being used by David), used as the base malt for all their Norfolk beer, so they were our top choice when planning this special drink.
"We were over the moon to be asked to work with Chestnut on the Anniversary Beer! Being a small batch brewer we have the flexibility to work with people on projects like this but what has made this such a fun beer to be a part of is working with David, from The Eight Bells." says Tom, Managing Director of Barsham's.
THE FINISHED PRODUCT
Out now at all of our pubs, Eastern Gold 4.5% is available on tap and will be launching soon by the bottle. Using four British hop varieties with notes of citrus, the beer is an ode to our agricultural region. So, whether you're just popping by after a countryside stroll or enjoying one or our hearty Sunday roasts, it's the perfect accompaniment.
With the help of Barsham's Brewery, David's usual 20 litre batch has been turned into an initial brew of 800 litres.
FIND OUT MORE
Over the course of September - our 10th birthday month - we will be celebrating in many ways, including releasing more blog posts about the brewing process and creation of Eastern Gold, so keep your eyes on our BLOG to read more.
Club Chestnut members will also be treated to a variety of surprises, so if you're not already, sign up HERE.