Text: Deniz Jaspersen
The county of Cornwall lies to the southwest of London at the extreme tip of England. Compared to the rest of the country, the climate here is rather maritime. Thus, one finds beside rough cliffs also bathing beaches, where one really likes to go into the water thanks to the gulf stream. The small harbour city Falmouth is a picturesque place with approximately 20.000 inhabitants in which at first sight everything seems to be classically English. Small houses and narrow lanes embedded in lush green hills - and the North Sea. In between, however, there are always palm trees that give the idyll a touch of the Mediterranean. The region is not only famous for its Stargazy Pie (a sardine tart that takes getting used to), but is also home to one of Europe's most exciting breweries: Verdant Brewery.
Its founders Adam Roberston and James Heffron know that on the English beer map they don't exactly live at a hotspot. Even if London could be reached in about five hours by car, it seems at least one world trip away. For both of them, however, moving away was never an option. A decision that cannot be taken for granted due to the difficult economic situation. If you want to stay here, you sometimes have to invent the jobs yourself. The region used to be dominated by fishing and mining. Both are not exactly promising branches of the economy that promise a carefree livelihood. Today, therefore, a large part of the population works in tourism. But when it is not the season, it can be difficult to find a job. And if you don't want to work in tourism right from the start, you have to think of something.
The story of Verdant 2014 also began in a quarry, appropriately. There stood a discarded shipping container that the home brewers had converted into their test laboratory. They wanted to brew the beers they liked to drink and were inspired by New England IPAs from America. For Adam and James this style offers endless possibilities and their self-proclaimed goal was to explore them. This is how the first recipes came about. Inspired by the positive feedback, Adam and James decided to pursue their gimmicks more seriously and founded Verdant. In 2016, Richard White joined and the team was complete.
They describe their beers as hop-oriented, unfiltered, bitter and always vegan. In addition to aroma and taste, they also attach great importance to the mouthfeel. Anyone can pop a beer full of hops. But to brew a really excellent beer, much more is needed. Some adjusting screws had to be turned before they met their high standards in this respect. At the beginning, they were still breeding their own yeast strands, but had to realize that this alone was almost a full-time job that distracted them too much from brewing. Therefore they decided to use dry yeast and experimented a lot with it. Most of their beers are now fermented with London Ale 3 and US 05. In addition to the yeast, the water used is also very important for the pleasant consistency. In big cities the brewers have to do a lot to get clean water. IPAs usually need soft water with a medium to high salt content. Fortunately, the water in Cornwall meets this requirement, so there is no need for complicated treatment.
In the meantime, they have become something like experts for full-bodied, cloudy and fruity IPAs that captivate with their distinct tropical fruit aromas. The beers are also so popular in England because the drinkability never gets out of focus. Gourmets are thrilled because they enjoy exciting multi-layered beers - and everyone else can simply enjoy drinking them. Verdant doesn't want to brew their beer exclusively for experts, but also to make all other beer drinkers happy. The plan seems to work: The brewery at untappd is currently the best rated brewery in England. If you've already achieved so much three years after the first brew, you might as well pat yourself on the back. But nothing would be further away from reality. For one thing, the success did not fly to the three brewers, but was the result of hard work and many travelled kilometres. While James and Rich took care of the brewery, Adam drove to as many beer festivals as possible. On the other hand, patting one's shoulders is simply not a characteristic that one would attribute directly to the three of them.
And James is still not satisfied as head brewer. He continues to develop all recipes relentlessly in order to achieve even better results. Because of his pronounced perfectionism, he is skeptical that this process will ever be completed.
But 90% satisfaction might already be sufficient. So we can be happy that there will be a lot more to come. Slowly the brewery finds its way to the mainland.
