A new ale from Barry Island has become the toast of London – and it’s made with grapefruit.
Barry Island Grapefruit Pale Ale impressed thousands of craft beer fans at the UK’s largest event, the Great British Beer Festival.
The man behind the exotic new recipe, 37-year-old Simon Martin, said the idea was to create a light and fresh summery taste.
'Outdoors feel'
Along with Bill Dobson, head brewer at Brains , the 4.4% fruity pale ale, described as “an explosion of tropical and fruit flavour” was created.
“With it being the summer there are a lot of pale ales out there,” Simon, from Barry, explained. “We wanted to add a bit of an outdoors feel to it so we trialled different samples before deciding on the final recipe.”
As a beer reviewer Simon started creating recipes six years ago and his popular Barry Island IPA, which was also made in collaboration with iconic Cardiff-based brewery SA Brain, has been sold across seven European countries and even become popular in Russia.
Simon described the new grapefruit recipe as a “light bulb moment”.
Like the Barry Island IPA it uses American hops to give it a natural flavour of grapefruit and also includes Brains yeast, grapefruit concentrate and crystal malt to give colour.
'Nice level of sweetness'
Simon added: “It’s a cross between a pale ale and a lovely deep blood orange colour, like a golden amber. When you pick it up you can notice the grapefruit smell, with pine tones and a touch of lemon and some spice.
“It has a nice level of sweetness from the malt and a wonderful grapefruit taste and is a good balance of bitter and sweet.”
Simon said the recipe is exactly what they had in mind when they went about creating a summer beer and said they couldn’t be more pleased with the reaction it had at the beer festival in London.
He said: “There was huge competition and all the big companies were there. It was a huge success and that is massive.”
What started as a hobby for Simon, when he decided to review a beer on YouTube, has now turned into a business and a passion.
Over the past six years he has travelled across Europe to work with various breweries, coming up with new and exciting recipes.
'I would make chilli'
Among his most original flavours are a mint chocolate imperial stout, made with real mint leaves and chocolate, and a berry beer made with blackberries, raspberries and cherries.
He added: “If I had to come up with a new one now I think I would go for vanilla pods with chilli and chocolate in a dark stout beer.”
The Barry Island Grapefruit Pale Ale is available in Brains pubs and at the Cambrian Tap in Cardiff.
