Alan and Derrill, ably assisted by chief Co-ALE-ition ale tasters Steve and Joy Lawson, visited the Mash brewery in East Stratton (Hampshire) on Saturday. East Stratton is a very small picturesque village of 47 thatched cottages and the Mash brewery is situated in a barn on a farm and the only interruption to total peace and tranquillity was a low flying pheasant in an adjoining field.
They were met there by brewery owners Graham Turner (Chief Brewer) and John Willmore (Sales and Finance) and, Andy Wythes, Head of Marketing. The Mash brewery first opened for business in 2013 using a 1 barrel plant but is now operating as a 10 barrel plant.
We were able to sample four of the Mash brewery ales – Mash Pale, Mash Bitter, Mash Gold and Mash Amber.
The decision taken after sampling these four ales, was that the award winning Mash Gold was our unanimous choice to become the next Co-ALE-ition ale for the Monster Raving Loony Party. The name of this new ale is Monster Mash which is a 4% abv very refreshing golden ale, blonde/pale yellow in colour with a hoppy, spicy, citrus taste coupled with a zesty bitterness from the American Citra hops. This is the perfect Co-ALE-ition session ale for the summer but high demand is also anticipated at Halloween.
The next steps now are to design the pumpclip and to officially launch this new ale before the end of April. More details will follow regarding the launch event.