Restoration
Hopshackle in Market Deeping, Lincolnshire, England 🏴
Belgian Style - Strong Ale Regular|
Score
7.10
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Bottle; Brewed annually.
This beer was inspired by some of the strong ales of Belgium and contains five different malts and two hops. In early 2007, when the local church "St Guthlacs" needed to raise funds for repair work and improvements, it was agreed with the Reverend Philip Brent, the vicar of St. Guthlacs that a competition would be run to name a new beer from the brewery and for every bottle sold a donation of 25 pence would be given to the church funds. The winning name was of course, "Restoration". It is only made once a year and the Reverend Brent blesses the beer whilst it is still in the primary fermenter.
Once the initial fermentation is over the beer is transferred into a conditioning tank, placed in the brewery cellar and aged for a period of six months. This allows the complex flavours to develop before the next stage which is bottling. The beer is reprimed with sugar and a fresh dose of alcohol tolerant yeast, bottled and then placed in a conditioning room between 25-30oC. After 4-6 weeks the beer is checked for carbonation levels, taste and other quality parameters. If all is well, then it is ready to be sold which is usually around November or December. As the beer is only made once a year there is a limited supply each year which is usually around 1600 bottles. Every bottle is numbered and marked with the month and year of production and is therefore unique. It is deep copper in colour with an aroma of rich fruit and malt with a hint of apple. The taste fills the mouth with flavours of vinous fruit, cherries, plums and malt leading to a warming finish of alcohol. This beer tastes great straight away but will improve with aging over many years. A number of cases are kept back each year and the intention is to use these for vertical tasting sessions i.e. comparing different years with each other.
This beer was inspired by some of the strong ales of Belgium and contains five different malts and two hops. In early 2007, when the local church "St Guthlacs" needed to raise funds for repair work and improvements, it was agreed with the Reverend Philip Brent, the vicar of St. Guthlacs that a competition would be run to name a new beer from the brewery and for every bottle sold a donation of 25 pence would be given to the church funds. The winning name was of course, "Restoration". It is only made once a year and the Reverend Brent blesses the beer whilst it is still in the primary fermenter.
Once the initial fermentation is over the beer is transferred into a conditioning tank, placed in the brewery cellar and aged for a period of six months. This allows the complex flavours to develop before the next stage which is bottling. The beer is reprimed with sugar and a fresh dose of alcohol tolerant yeast, bottled and then placed in a conditioning room between 25-30oC. After 4-6 weeks the beer is checked for carbonation levels, taste and other quality parameters. If all is well, then it is ready to be sold which is usually around November or December. As the beer is only made once a year there is a limited supply each year which is usually around 1600 bottles. Every bottle is numbered and marked with the month and year of production and is therefore unique. It is deep copper in colour with an aroma of rich fruit and malt with a hint of apple. The taste fills the mouth with flavours of vinous fruit, cherries, plums and malt leading to a warming finish of alcohol. This beer tastes great straight away but will improve with aging over many years. A number of cases are kept back each year and the intention is to use these for vertical tasting sessions i.e. comparing different years with each other.
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5.5/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 5
Texture 6
Overall 5
[Bottle from brewer’s own stand at the Chilterns Festival of Food, Great Missenden] Deep amber-brown. Sweet with hints of banana and honey. Flavours are weak considering the strength. A disappointment. Agree it should be a Belgian strong and not a tripel.
Tried
from Bottle
on 05 Apr 2010
at 16:14
7.3/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 8
Bottle 275ml.[ Courtesy of Fin & chriso ]. Unclear medium amber color with a average, frothy, fair lacing, mostly diminishing, off-white head. Aroma is moderate to heavy malty, caramel, nutty, chocolate, spicy, alcohol. Flavor is moderate to light heavy sweet and bitter with a average to long duration. Body is medium, texture is oily, carbonation is soft. [20090307]
Tried
from Bottle
on 28 May 2009
at 02:54
6.4/10
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Appearance 4
Aroma 6
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7.5
Bottle at ZBF09. Roasted aroma, some soy. Muddy brown colour. The flavour is roasted, funky and spicy. Quite sweet as well. Tastes a bit of soy, too. Strange and interesting.
Tried
from Bottle
on 18 Mar 2009
at 17:30
8.3/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 9
Texture 6
Overall 9
Bottle at home... Huge thanks to FIN for this rare high Scoring UK ale ... Lovly deep copper brown ... vineous nose plums date and rasisins little yeasy little strawberry... quite sweet yeastyness ... again a little plums and the strawberry is more noticeible (very odd but very nice)... nice bready fruit linger ... low bitterness...medium body with a light carbonation...
Tried
from Bottle
on 04 Oct 2008
at 13:35
8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
Bottle picked up at the Vale Brewery shop, Brill, Bucks 02-07-08 This bottle was numbered and was no: 80. This opened with quite a gush, still it had been in the back of my car all day and whilst I should have left it to settle for a bit it was in the house for ooohhh about twenty minutes before intrigue got the better of me. Poured murky brown with an off white head, possibly light beige? What yeast there may have been in the bottle was most certainly now in and amongst, still I’m not averse to having it like that. First thing I noticed was some sticky currants and raisins much like that first smell when you open a new packet of the dried fruits also there was a big dollop of soft brown demerara sugar. There was also the slightest hint of sourness but then I thought am I getting some soft wet wood mmhh not sure, I also get that aroma that you get from a stick of seaside rock that has been left in its cellophane for too long in direct sunlight, that soft sticky warm candy sugar aroma. The flavours are really quite interesting, dried fruits once again seem to underpin things very well, and whilst the alcohol shows I think its more evident in a warming sense rather than being harsh. There is also a quite pronounced hazelnut taste that I picked up more than once and so did Loz, the warm wet soft demerara sugar returns and there is a hint of bitterness but this bitterness is different and shows more in the sense that it actually slightly numbs the tip of the tongue and roof of mouth rather than being just bitter (if you know what I mean) There is a very good depth of flavour here and whilst I’ve just read Joris’s write up (always a great write up) I note what Joris says about this not being a Tripel and being more Barley Wine I’m not so sure I totally agree. I think it leans slightly towards Barley Wine so in that sense I agree but there is something else there and in my humble opinion I think it might be to simplistic to call it a Barley Wine, there are very definite Belgian influences here in this beer which I note Joris acknowledges. I really like this and I’m intrigued to see what Casey makes of his bottle.
Tried
from Bottle
on 03 Jul 2008
at 01:56
7.5/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 8
Deep brown with red highlights; small yellowish head. Extremely fruity-estery, with a good alcohol-dash. Aroma’s of strawberry, tangerine, orange. Stock, reduced with alcohol as brandy, rumbonen . Very alcoholic taste, with higher alcohols, esters; fruity, maybe some candi sugar, very good coloured malts underbuild. Caramel. Very well-bodied, alcoholwarming, slick, even chewy. Very nice BARLEY WINE or at best Belgian Strong ale. Guys, a tripel needs EXTREME ATTENUATION. This is one mess of restsugars! OK, it’s a fine mess, Stan, but it ain’t tripel. Thanks to Dirk, and of course, to the brewers supplying Dirk.
Tried
from Can
on 03 Apr 2008
at 15:27