|
 Throughout
history, beer of somewhat higher alcohol and richness has been
enjoyed for the winter holidays, when old friends get together to
enjoy the season. Wassail, a festival to celebrate winter and the
beer that goes with it, predates the Christian era. Winter Welcome
is vintage-dated with a special label each year. Serve in a
traditional tankard for the holidays.
Honey-amber-colored, creamy head of small bubbles, floral aroma
and delicious malt flavor with great finesse.
Roast goose, smoked turkey with oyster dressing, rack of lamb,
candied yams, Smithfield hams, fresh pears and apples, Christmas
cake. Serve in crystal tumblers or traditional Yorkshire nonik pint
glasses.
Accolades
Silver Medal—World Beer Championships
"Best beer I've ever had."—Northwest Brew News
The Brewery
 The
Old Brewery at Tadcaster was founded in 1758 and is Yorkshire’s
oldest brewery. Samuel Smith is one of the few remaining independent
breweries in England, and further is the last to utilize the classic
Yorkshire Square system of fermentation solely in stone squares.
The
rich Samuel Smith strain of yeast at The Old Brewery dates from the
early 1900s. Hops are hand-weighed by the master hop blender, and
the brewing water is drawn from a well sunk over 200 years ago.
First introduced to the U.S. market in 1978 by Merchant du Vin,
Samuel Smith beers quickly became the benchmark ales for the
emerging craft beer movement. To this day, they remain among the
most awarded.
All
Samuel Smith beers are vegan products, registered with The Vegan
Society, as seen
here.
Tadcaster
 Tadcaster
is a market town dating back many hundreds of years. During the
Roman period, its quarries supplied stone for the great military
fortress at York. Today, ale is its principal export, brewed by
three nationally famous local companies in a centuries old
tradition. Samuel Smith is much the smallest of these breweries and
alone retains its copper vessels, wooden casks and stone Yorkshire
squares. Samuel Smith keeps grey Shire horses stabled at the brewery
for local beer deliveries. Next to the brewery are the offices, the
Little Delicatessen (selling the full range of Samuel Smith's
bottled beers) and the Angel and White Horse inn.
Midway between York, Selby and Wetherby, Tadcaster lies just off the
A64 road, which bypasses it to the south, leading to the A1. You can
access Tadcaster via public transportation (it is approximately a
two-hour train ride from London's King's Cross Station to York; then
via rented car or public transportation to Tadcaster).
Yorkshire Square Fermentation
The
Yorkshire Square fermenting system was perfected well over
200 years ago. Though it has fallen out of favor in modern times due
to the amount of time and maintenance it requires, it produces a
distinctively flavored beer that is impossible to replicate with
other factory methods. For this reason it is now mostly practiced by
the smaller, independent breweries which focus on quality, such as
Samuel Smith's and Black Sheep.
A
Yorkshire Square vessel is a two-story system consisting of a
shallow chamber approximately two meters high, above which is a
walled deck. Cooled wort, the liquid extracted from malted barley,
is fermented by a special yeast in the lower chamber, while the
yeasty head settles on the deck above.
During the first stage of fermentation, the fermenting beer is
periodically pumped from the bottom of the chamber over the yeasty
head, to keep the yeast mixed in with the fermenting wort. Later,
the mixing is stopped and the beer in the chamber allowed to settle
and cool gently.
Most
of the yeast rises onto the deck, and is left behind when the beer
is drained from the chamber.
The
whole process takes at least six days. However, beer straight from a
Yorkshire Square vessel will still have a harsh flavor. Before it
can be considered drinkable, the residual yeast must be allowed to
ferment any remaining sugar, producing a little extra alcohol and
carbon dioxide, which mellows the beer and produces a wonderful
balance of taste and aroma. This conditioning begins in tanks at the
brewery and continues after the beer is filled into casks, hence the
phrase 'Cask Conditioned'.
Historically, the Yorkshire Square vessel was constructed from
Yorkshire Sandstone, but Welsh slate quickly proved to be the
material of choice. A modern innovation is the so-called 'Round
Square' pioneered by the Black Sheep brewery, which is built from
stainless steel. The round shape makes it easier to clean out (a
task that requires personnel to physically climb in to the vessels)
between brewing cycles.
Questions, complaints or compliments? Email me at:
beergeek@worldclassbeverages.com |
