Pan Galactic Pale Ale

Beerblefish Wins at London Beer Competition

Beerblefish Wins at London Beer Competition

At the fourth edition London Beer Competition, which took place in London on March 17, 2021, Beerblefish Brewing Co. won a Gold and two Silver medals, which is the ultimate seal of approval in the global beer industry. In order to receive this distinction, Beerblefish Brewing Co. needed to score highly in three different categories: Quality, Value and Packaging.

The Gold medal (one of only 15 awarded) was given to 1820 Porter (6.6% ABV), a mixed fermentation ale based on nineteenth century recipes, while the two Silver medals went to Pan Galactic Pale Ale (4.6% ABV) and Edmonton Best Bitter (4.3% ABV). Pan Galactic Pale Ale takes its fruity flavour and aroma from the galaxy hops that give it its name. Edmonton Best Bitter is a modern bitter, proudly brewed in Edmonton and this medal represents its first award – it really is the best bitter in Edmonton!

The goal of the London Beer Competition is to award and celebrate beers that beer buyers want to buy. The competition’s judges examine the many emerging and re-discovered styles which intrigue the drinker and appeal to new and lapsed beer drinkers.

Not only does the London Beer Competition recognise quality, where brewing ability and technical expertise receive peer, buyer, writer and beer sommelier accreditation, the judges also award points and medals for both value and packaging.

According to CEO Sid Patel of event organizer Beverage Trade Network, “The craft beer revolution has brought us many different styles, previously either unknown or re-found. Our judges have thoroughly enjoyed looking at and debating the many different entrants, looking at beers the way beer drinkers do. Yes, they professionally analyse the quality, but crucially make awards by adding appearance and value for money into the mix.”

The judges were selected from all sides of the industry – writing, brewing, trading, beer sommeliers, marketing and educators. During the course of judging, interviews with leading judges revealed the importance of the packaging in process. Some even reported that the packaging influenced the resulting taste and flavour, declaring that it set an expectation which in turn influenced not only how consumers saw the product, but how their senses responded to it once tasted. This underscored the importance that London Beer Competition places on packaging as an element of judging and complete assessment of sensory perception.

The holistic make-up of the judging panel consisting of beer industry experts from across the commercial buying aspects ensures that all beers selected as winners are exactly the types of beers that are favored by both the beer trade and the end consumer. Beers were judged on the basis of three primary criteria – quality, value and packaging – and then scored on a 100-point scale. Beers that scored 90+ points were awarded Gold medals, 76 to 89 points were awarded Silver medals, whilst Bronze medals were awarded to those that score 65-75 points.

“We’re thrilled that we’ve been awarded three medals in this edition of the London Beer Competition, particularly among such a variety of great beers from well-respected breweries across the globe. We’re proud to win these awards because it shows that we are making the types of beers that consumers want to buy and enjoy and that the industry wants to list,” said James Atherton, Beerblefish’s founder and managing director.

Posted by Bethany in Awards
Let’s Go Pan Galactic!

Let’s Go Pan Galactic!

We get asked all the time how the brewery got its name – there are two general starting points that enquirers have: “How on earth did you come up with such a weird word?” and, “It’s got something to do with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, hasn’t it?”

The answer to the first question is long winded and very much off-topic, so I won’t trouble you with it here (maybe one for another day). The answer to the second is, “Not really, but we’d be lying if babelfish sounding a bit like Beerblefish hadn’t influenced our decision to finally go with the name we have, and then in turn influenced some of our beer names.” 

Back in February (or eleventy billion years ago, which is what it feels like now!), I wrote about our Infinite Improbability Saison, which was actually the second of our beers to have a H2G2 name. The first was Pan Galactic Pale Ale, named partly for the gargleblaster of Douglas Adams fame, but also in honour of the Galaxy hops that make up a large part of its hop bill.

Pan Galactic started out as an experiment. Our brewers wanted to try using the same recipe for two beers but treating the water in different ways to see what, if any, difference it made to the final product. Pan Galactic was given its name and the other beer was called Goldfish Pale.

Goldfish was treated very lightly – more or less London’s finest tap water – while Pan Galactic had lactic acid added to the strike water and the sparge water to lower the pH. We also treat our water with magnesium sulphate because the water in our area is low in magnesium, which is needed by the yeast for a healthy fermentation. We use sulphate instead of carbonate or chloride because the water already has a high carbonate level and a fairly high chloride ion level.

When the beers were ready, they were both good, but we each had our own opinion on which was better. So, to decide it, we entered both into the Drinks Business Global Beer Competition in 2018.  

When the results came out, it was close – Goldfish was awarded a bronze and Pan Galactic was awarded a silver, and we decided to keep Pan Galactic in our range. In 2019, it went on to win a one-star award in the Guild of Fine Foods Great Taste Awards.

Pan Galactic Pale Ale has a typical pale malt bill. We use Crisp’s Maris Otter as the base and add a small amount of Weyermann’s CaraAroma for a slight caramel twist. We’ve been through a few variations of the hop bill since the first edition of this ale, but we’re currently using EKG as the bittering hop, with Galaxy and Ella providing the flavour and aroma. Galaxy really is the star of the show here, giving peach, passionfruit and citrus notes to the beer.

The imagery that “Pan Galactic” can conjure up in the mind was grasped upon by our friends at Art By Volume, who created a beautiful representation of the beer as an LP cover. I’ve always wondered what would be on that album!

We’ve had a few blips along the way with this one, as there was a period when it was very difficult to get hold of Galaxy hops, which are really central to both the recipe and the name! We also only very recently settled a two year “discussion” on whether the beer’s name should have a hyphen and/or a space between “Pan” and “Galactic”, as we have written it several different ways over the last couple of years.

We’ve finally settled on “Pan Galactic Pale Ale” and the next stage of its journey is a revamp of the bottle label and pump clip – watch out for those coming soon!

Pan Galactic Pale Ale is currently available in cask (firkin), 5 litre mini casks and 500ml bottles.

Posted by Bethany in Awards, Beer Styles and Recipes, Brewing, Research and Trips
Beerblefish wins three Great Taste Awards!

Beerblefish wins three Great Taste Awards!

Great Taste, the world’s most coveted food and drink awards, has announced its stars of 2019. Out of 12,772 products sent in from over 100 different countries, The Beerblefish Brewing Company Limited was awarded 2-star Great Taste awards, which means judges dubbed the product above and beyond delicious, for each of its 1820 Porter and 1892 IPA, and a 1-star Great Taste award, which means judges dubbed it a drink that delivers fantastic flavour, for its Pangalactic Pale Ale.

Judged by over 500 of the most demanding palates, belonging to food critics, chefs, cooks, restaurateurs, buyers, retailers and producers, as well as a whole host of food writers and journalists, Great Taste is widely acknowledged as the most respected food accreditation scheme for artisan and speciality food producers. As well as a badge of honour, the unmistakeable black and gold Great Taste label is a signpost to a wonderful tasting product, which has been discovered through hours and hours of blind tasting by hundreds of judges. 

James Atherton, Managing Director, explains: “This was our first time entering the Great Taste Awards and we’re absolutely thrilled to have achieved such success in our inaugural outing. It’s a great honour to receive this recognition for our products – we’re really proud of the beer we create, so it’s wonderful to know that such esteemed judges value it, too. My first brewing love will always be heritage beers, so for two of our bretted ales based on 19th Century recipes to be recognised in this way is a badge of honour for me, and the award for our modern pale ale shows the versatility our brewery has.”

Recognised as a stamp of excellence among consumers and retailers alike, Great Taste values taste above all else, with no regard for branding and packaging. Whether it is vinegar, granola, bacon or cheese being judged, all products are removed from their wrapper, jar, box or bottle before being tasted. The judges then savour, confer and re-taste to decide which products are worthy of a 1-, 2- or 3-star award.

There were 12,772 entries into Great Taste this year and of those products, 208 have been awarded a 3-star, 1,326 received a 2-star and 3,409 were awarded a 1-star accolade. The panel of judges this year included; cook, writer and champion of sustainable food, Melissa Hemsley, Kenny Tutt, MasterChef 2018 champion, author, Olia Hercules, chef and food writer, Gill Meller, Kavi Thakar from Dishoom, food writer and stylist, Georgina Hayden and author and chef, Zoe Adjonyoh, as well as food buyers from Selfridges, Fortnum & Mason, Sourced Market and Partridges. These esteemed palates have together tasted and re-judged the 3-star winners to finally agree on the Golden Fork Trophy winners and the Great Taste 2019 Supreme Champion.  

Local Press Coverage

Posted by James in Awards, Beer Styles and Recipes, Beerblefish HQ News