Food and Drink

Beer of the Week: Beavertown Awakening Small Dry-Hopped Sour

Joining its Tempus Project, Beavertown Brewery has introduced two brand new beers: Beavertown Awakening and Casting Circles, which join The Chariot and The Rule of Three – both launched earlier this year.

Inspired by the seasons, timed with the ancient pagan wheel, the new range of Beavertown Tempus Project beers are brewed with locally sourced ingredients, from fruit, foraged herbs, malt, or hops, each transformed using a range of slower brewing techniques. A small dry-hopped sour beer, Awakening is joined by Casting Circles, a Tempus crossover beer that goes through a transformation in the bottle, thanks to its wild Brett yeast. It’s ideally bought in pairs, with one bottle drunk fresh and the other aged.

On the launch of the new Tempus Project, Logan Plant, Beavertown Founder and CEO, said: “Tempus has been a passion project for us for a while, we’re relaunching it alongside two new tantalising beers to reach a different audience of people who are conscious about the planet and how their drinks and food is sourced. We’re hoping when each beer is sipped that people take their time with drinking it, carefully pairing it with their food. For us, this experience is about digging a little bit deeper into what the drinking experience can be.” 

Sourced with a blend of Lactobacillus Pantarum and Brevis (the kind of bacteria found in natural yoghurt), Beavertown Awakening is fermented with a natural wine yeast. Lightly dry-hopped and bottled at just 2.8 per cent abv. Golden Promise, Torrified Wheat, Malted Wheat, and Golden Naked Oats are also used in the brewing process. On the nose, aromas of toasted sourdough bread are joined by some lemon sherbet, bergamot, lime, and feint crab apple. Those yeasty, bready notes continue on the palate alongside a bold zip of lemongrass, plus sweet lime, further bergamot, and some lactose. A whisper of grape lends the beer a pleasant vinous note, also joined by some peach, akin to peach Munch Bunch yoghurts (RIP), while elderflower and green tea prevail and linger on the tart, refreshing finish. Beavertown Awakening is a remarkably easy-drinking beer with surprising complexity given its strength. Further proof that lower abv beers needn’t be thin and unexciting.

Beavertown Awakening and Beavertown Casting Circles are both available now from the Beavertown web shop.

RELATED: Big Drop Brewing Co has launched a collection of alcohol-free beers in collaboration with Nordic breweries

Jon Hatchman

Jonathan is Food Editor for The London Economic. Jonathan has run and contributed towards a number of blogs, and has written features for publications such as Eater London, The Guardian, i News, The Independent, GQ, Time Out London and more.

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