Magnolia Brewpub is currently featuring the last of a special series of beers brewed with a farm-specific malt, from Branthill in East Anglia, UK.  Currently available is the Branthill Longbarn ESB, in both regular CO2, and classic British cask options. I tried both.

I started with the cask option.  Serving it out of a cask means that the head is formed by mechanical motion when pumped out into the class.  The head on top of the beer is made up of large bubbles, which quickly dissipate. The beer is served slightly cool, and has only a faint hint of carbonation.  This serving style highlights the malt character (which is what this beer is all about.) The malt tone is medium, with only a faint hint of hops, and a slightly thin finish.  I could drink this all day  - which incidentally, is the exact idea behind this sort of low alcohol beer.  Traditionally beer is safer than water, and far more delicious as well.

In contrast, the CO2 keg is served colder, and the head is made up of many tight knit bubbles which held on for the the entire life of the pint. Full carbonation dramatically changed the character of the beer – it was notably hoppier, with a crisp finish. The light malt character was still present, but had to compete with other characteristics of the beer bolstered by the carbonation.

As a homebrewer, it’s amazing to study huge differences that small changes can make to a beer.  Changing the carbonation method led to beers with different perceived hop levels, and wildly different finishes.  All of this from the same beer recipes, simply split into two different dispensing methods.

Of course, this sort of beer investigation requires sustenance, so an order of Magnolia’s duck wings was called for.

Slightly sweet with just a bit of spice, Magnolia’s duck wings are one of my favorite indulgences. All the fun of chicken wings, with an savory richness that only duck can provide.  Alongside the beer, duck displayed the agreeable food friendliness of Magnolia’s classic ales, which when served with dinner saddle up and play nice.  These are good session drinking beers, which go down with disconcerting ease. Luckily, at 4.2% ABV, it’s easy to sit around all evening, comparing and contrasting the differences.

Tags: branthill, cask, duck wings, Magnolia

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 11th, 2009 at 6:07 pm and is filed under Pairings, Taste Test. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.