An American Intern at Anspach and Hobday: Clayton's First Day

Clayton’s First Day :

I just finished my first day at my new internship at the Anspach and Hobday Brewery in Croydon, and let's just say I think it's going to be a fun six weeks. My first task of the day was to figure out where I was supposed to be going. So, as I made my way up the stairs to the main office, I noticed the impressive number of beer posters I was passing. It was interesting to see as it was almost as if I was walking through a pictured history of the brews that A&H has come out with over the years. It was quite a great insight into the history and comedic culture I was walking into, and looking back, it is impressive to see the culture of A&H captured in their advertising material. As I reached the top of the stairs, I reached the main office and quickly realized that this would be a fun job. The main office of A&H is both a functional workspace and a den of creativity, with a little mix of man cave in between. It was very cool how the entire office was adorned with their product in one way or another. Whether it is a can from a discontinued line sitting on the windowsill, posters hanging on the walls, or even the coaster board that shows various beers they've made over the past years, the whole space is covered in the company's history.

After taking in the sights, I met Jack, the company's co-founder and supervisor. Jack and I first met when I was interviewing for the role at my desk in Knoxville, Tennessee, in preparation for my time in London. I am currently abroad for the semester studying international business, and this six-week internship is a critical aspect of my semester as it is a time to use the knowledge I learned in my classes in a professional environment. After getting reacquainted, Jack introduced me to everyone on the team and walked me to their secondary building to show me my office. Once I got situated, I was given my company email and credentials to log into the various aspects of the business I would be working with. After getting set up, Jack and I began discussing my role here and some of the tasks that might be of interest that I could work on in the future. A lot of them sounded really interesting. For example, I will audit A&H's online shop and see what the P&L looks like for the various products sold there. I will also be helping with the multiple operations areas A&H has, whether the warehouse, canning, or taproom, which sounded like a blast. I'll finally be able to learn the perfect pour! I might also get the chance to help with some projects on the marketing side, which would be really interesting because marketing has never been in my wheelhouse. Still, I'm excited to get out of my comfort zone and try some different areas of business!

My first assignment of the day was to make an updated spreadsheet of the total beer sold and then make a list of the beer still in stock to help plan the upcoming production schedule. I enjoyed this task because it gave me a good overview of what types of products A&H sells and their wide variety of beers. This was an excellent first task to familiarize myself with the tracking software A & H uses in a relatively simple way so that, going forward, I can be much more capable with the site. After I had completed this, I moved on to work on a marketing slogan for an upcoming Saint Patrick's Day email to be released. Working on this was fun because, as I was working with Ellie, the leading marketing person, and Jack, it turned into a comedic history lesson surrounding Saint Patrick's Day and a spitball session about how to best market A&H for the holiday. Being able to laugh and joke around while still learning a little and working towards a goal made me feel like I am a part of the A&H family and further strengthened the feeling of belonging here.

Towards the end of my first day, Jack asked me if I would like to join him at one of the monthly London Brewers Alliance, LBA, meetings. I jumped at the opportunity because it would be great to see a group of self-employed brewers all coming together and see how they all learned and grew together from each other's mistakes and successes. On the train ride to the event, however, Jack discovered we were heading to the annual general meeting of the LBA instead of a standard monthly meeting. Upon arriving, we were welcomed into a local London brewery, Saint Monday, and began an evening of conversation, drinks, and good food. It was a unique opportunity to be able to speak with people from so many different aspects of the brewery business, whether it's aggregate suppliers, equipment sellers, or brewers themselves; the whole evening was a great insight into what it takes for a beer to make it into someone's hands. Towards the end of the evening, when the alliance had to speak on the meeting topics, there were three changes to the alliance's constitution. The first two passed with flying colors, but the third caused quite a debate. The last change surrounded the idea of whether everyone thought it a good idea to add a system of accepting new members who may not brew most of their beer in London but add a "significant" impact to the London community. There were two conflicting arguments for the validity of the bill. Firstly, some people disagreed with the change because they didn't want to allow larger companies who might claim validly or not to contribute to the London Brewing scene, produce outside of London and still potentially be a member. The other thought is that this may be a good change because as breweries currently in the LBA grow and potentially move the bulk of their brewing to a cheaper location outside of London (outside of the M25 to be precise), then they could remain a part of the LBA, but if it didn't, there was a good chance they would have to leave. I won’t say which way Jack, in his capacity representing A&H, voted but the vote was so close it is now being re-run electronically. Overall, the experience gave me a lot of insight into the brewing culture in London and some of the industry's problems, which I was utterly unaware of coming into this internship. It was the best first day I could have asked for, and I cannot wait to see where this internship will take me in the future!

Clayton

The IPA: Our unsung hero beer

As many of you will be aware, we make a great deal of The Porter being our origin-story beer, and for good reason. It was the beer that first got us noticed as homebrewers, the beer that we steadily built our reputation on, and that eventually led to the creation of our flagship, London Black. However, there are a couple of other beers that have been with us for the duration and that have quietly been growing a reputation of their own.

Whilst it was very much The Porter that formed the foundation of our brewery, our formative years as craft beer drinkers were probably largely spent drinking IPAs. We had simply never experienced beer that put hops right at the forefront before, and legendary establishments such as Cask Pub & Kitchen and The Euston Tap quickly became Aladins Cave’s of discovery and excitement. As well as a plethora of American offerings, we were also introduced to the beers of Mikkeller, Evil Twin, ToØl, and of course the growing number of UK breweries who were picking up the mantle such as The Kernel, Thronbridge, and of course, Brewdog. 

Drawing inspiration from all of these, the die was cast for what we wanted to achieve with our offering; a clean, light yet expressive malt character, providing a solid base for a precise expression of bold, fruit forward hops, a touch of dankness and a firm but balanced bitterness. (The level of bitterness in a lot of beers was much debated. After all, we grew up right in the midst of the IBU arms race, so it was easy to get carried away!)

Much like The Porter, the foundational recipe of this beer has remained largely unchanged, especially when it comes to the malt base. A lot of the American IPAs that we were drinking at the time all presented with oxidative signs of aging, specifically resulting from the ubiquitous use of Crystal Malt. When a beer with Crystal Malt ages, the toffee, almost candy like sweetness notes from the malt tend to become more pronounced, and quickly overpower any bright, fruit character that the fast-fading hops may have once displayed. Add to this the typical cooked shreddies and damp cardboard aromas associated with oxidation, and you end up with a bit of a sticky malty mess. To help guard against this, we decided to omit Crystal Malt, instead opting for more gently kilned Munich Malt. The malt gave us a bit of the colour and malt-sweetness that were typical of the style, but without putting the beer on a fast track to crystal-death. 

The biggest evolution of the beer has probably been the hop choice. We originally played around with anything we could get our hands on, gravitating towards bolder hops such as Summit, Centennial and Nelson Sauvin, rather than the softer fruit forward hops such as Citra. Summit soon became a regular choice as we iterated. Though on its own it can become a bit oniony, it can provide fantastic base aromas of pithy citrus fruits, as well as contributing a touch of dankness. It also contributes plenty of bitterness, and it's fairly robust when it comes to retaining its characteristics in the beer. 

What finally cemented the IPA into its current form was the discovery of Enigma. I distinctly remember being struck by the over-ripe mango and melon aromas that the hop contributed to the beer. This sat really nicely with the bold, pithy citrus notes that the Summit and Ekuanot (then Equinox) were bringing.

With the arrival and subsequent mass adoption of New England style IPAs onto the scene, West Coast inspired beers somewhat fell out of favour. For one reason or another, we largely resisted the opaque allure of these new beers. Whilst there were of course some fantastic examples of the style that we thoroughly enjoyed, more often than not they came across as at best indistinguishable and bland, and at worst claggy, powdery and cloyingly sweet. The style was a far cry from the IPAs that inspired us, and as such, we stuck to our guns, and stuck with The IPA. 

It's probably fair to say we have seen a bit of a balancing of the books when it comes to the West Coast/East Coast debate, and space has been found in the market for both styles to exist side by side. As such, we have seen the demand for our IPA steadily grow and it continues to justify itself as a solid part of our core offering. It is a beer that works well across all formats, and is perhaps most decorated as a cask beer having picked up a number of prestigious CAMRA awards, including Champion Beer of London. 

45 Days Later Baltic Porter - Collaboration with To Øl

About The Beer

45 Days Later is a collaboration between Anspach & Hobday, a London-based craft brewery, and To Øl, from Copenhagen. This beer is a Baltic Porter, a beer type traditionally fermented with lager yeast at cold temperatures. However, what makes this collaboration unique is that we chose to ferment it with ale yeast, a twist on the tradition.

• Style: 45 Days Later is a Baltic Porter, known for its robust, dark character with significant malt complexity, featuring flavours of dark chocolate, roasted coffee, and a blend of bitterness and sweetness.

• Fermentation: Typically, Baltic Porters are fermented with lager yeast at colder temperatures to achieve a clean, crisp finish. However, Anspach & Hobday and To Øl decided to ferment this beer with ale yeast at lower temperatures, which introduced different flavor profiles. Ale yeast fermentation at these temperatures can impart some fruity esters and a fuller body, which might not be as pronounced or clean as with lager yeast.

• Flavour Profile: Given the use of ale yeast, you can expect a richer, more complex flavor profile than a traditional Baltic Porter. The beer has deep malty notes typical of the style but with additional layers from the ale fermentation. The collaboration successfully maintained the essence of a Baltic Porter while adding its twist.

• Availability: Unless it has sold out, this beer can be found in the Anspach & Hobday webshop

The Label & Name

To Øl, have a great range of 45 day lagers which part inspired the name. We were discussing when the baltic brew would be ready and 45 days later then seemed lke an appropriate base to work from for the label, which features Jonathan and Sam from To Øl, alongside Ja zombified - Paul, Jack and our very own Eddie in from production!