Old Chimneys
Started in 1995 by a master brewer, Alan Thomson, Old Chimneys Brewery occupies just a couple of rooms in an old farm building in rural Norfolk. Rarely seen and still unknown to many a beerist, this micro brewery has nevertheless carved itself a dedicated following amongst the informed. Could I be their latest fan? Well, I’ve bought myself a good selection of their beers to get acquainted with, and here’s the first two.
Parnassus IPA (5.5% abv) is an English IPA created from blending a cask overwintered imperial English IPA (Horn of Plenty, coming up next...) with fresh golden ale. The result blew my tiny lil mind! Okay, it's an English IPA so none those freshly squeezed citrus and tropical fruit hop flavours our transatlantic cousins do so well. Instead it's loaded with vibrant floral, herbaceous, and hedgerow fruit hop notes balanced by a solid malt base. There's a splash of sweet flower petal perfume, a mixed grass salad, pear crumble, a scattering of candied citrus peel, and rich toffee biscuit malts. It's light-medium bodied, nicely carbed, bittersweet, and for my taste buds, fudging glorious!
Horn of Plenty Imperial IPA (9.2% abv) is the unblended stock ale used as a base for Parnassus, an imperial English IPA featuring a substantial malt base, dry hopped with Pilgrim, and laid down for the winter. Big earthy, herbal, musty flavours abound, like licking the wall of a damp cellar that’s been smothered with toffee sauce and then had dried flowers thrown at it. Think an English style barley wine aggressively hopped with English varieties then forgotten about for half a year before you stumble across it again at the back of a dusty old cupboard and y’r there. Aye it’s gonna piss off the man-bun and excessively turned up too-tight blue jean wearing hipsters that only read “Imperial IPA” and expected alcoholic Tropicana but ignore those whinging non-prescription plastic framed glasses wearing patchouli scented dingbats. It does what it does well.
So yeah, Old Chimneys are fine by me. Horn of Plenty was interesting and tasty, but Parnassus, wow. The single most surprising beer I’ve had in a good long while, riotous and righteous, a supreme creation. Cheers, all!