Our First World Beer Cup Success!

We woke up to the amazing news this morning that Odyssey 008 had picked up Silver in the World Beer Cup Wood and Barrel-Aged Sour Beer category.

  More than 8,000 entries from 66 countries competed at the ‘Olympics of Beer’, held every two years. 295 expert judges were appointed to call the shots. We truly value this recognition, no other competition has such a high standard of entrants and such a strict criteria of judging, so it makes the achievement all the more important to us. We're proud and humbled to pick up the medal. Our love of barrel ageing began on day one with Maiden and still epitomises what we're about as a brewery today. It's testament to the hard work of the whole team here, but in particular we have to single out our Barrel Manager Steve, who also happens to be among the first people ever employed in the brewery. Odyssey 008 was a labour of love that he did a superb job with.

Odyssey - a series of beers journeying through barrels and blends

Odyssey 008 is a blend inspired by dark Belgian wood-aged sour beers, and based on the character of a few unique and long-term aged beers in our barrel store. It consists of red wine barrel aged Liquid Mistress; white wine barrel fermented Funky Feet; white wine barrel aged Ratchet; red wine barrel aged Maiden; red wine barrel aged Broken Dream; red wine barrel aged smokey Jack Tarr; red wine barrel aged Acid Jam and fresh from the tank Calypso. After blending the beer we returned 008 to red wine and bourbon barrels for another three months before a small addition of cherries and blackcurrant. The resulting beer has a gorgeous oak character with prominent red wine tannin influence, bramble & berries and a fruity acidity on the palate. Tasting also picked up floral notes, almonds, umami and a delicate funkiness. You can read the full story on our blog, here.

To celebrate the win, we'll be pouring complimentary samples of Odyssey 008 at the brewery Tap Yard in Finchampstead. Click here for further information and directions!