Beer tasting notes

Lefebvre: Blanche de Buxelles - 4.5%
A Belgian wheat beer with aromas of coriander and orange peel, very crisp and refreshing.

Penzance Brewing Co: Brison's Bitter - 4.5%
Call it 'brizzens' (rhymes with prisons) say those from the far west of the county; call it anything you like so long as you drink it, says the brewer. A tasty, brown, best bitter, with black and Crystal malts and Northdown, Fuggles and Goldings hops. Some nice fruit flavours come through and there's a hint of honeycomb on the front. (Darren Norbury)

Penzance Brewing Co: Crowlas Bitter - 3.8%
A well-balanced session bitter, copper/red-brown in colour, made with Fuggles, Perle and Sovereign hops, with a late hopping of more Sovereign. In its first incarnation it had more summer fruit on the palate, like a lower-ABV Ringwood Old Thumper, and was 4% ABV, but it has since been dropped down slightly to 3.8% and there is a slightly nuttier flavour from the hops. A recent change of yeast (September 2009) has made it smoother and, if anything, even more sessionable! (Darren Norbury)

Penzance Brewing Co: Potion No 9 - 4%
A light, golden, hoppy session bitter, set to be the permanent stable-mate on the Star bar to Crowlas Bitter. The ninth brew from the pub's brewery, hence the name. Fuggles and Pilgrim go into the boil with pale ale malt, with Perle and Amarillo hop added later. (Darren Norbury)

Penzance Brewing Co: Prussia Gold - 5.7%
A smooth, easy drinking golden beer, very IPA-ish, with a lovely hop aroma. The hops in the taste are not so upfront as Potion No 9 or the recent Crows-an-Wra, but it's very tasty nonetheless, with some intial sweetness that bitters out well. Very clean tasting and deceptively drinkable. Soverign and Perle hops are in there, and it's finished with Mouth Hood and Cascade, with lager malt to balance. (Darren Norbury)

Quantock: Sunraker - 4.2%
originally brewed last year as a seasonal, it went on to win top prize at CAMRA's Somerset Beer Festival at Minehead later in the year. The beer is brewed from very lightly kilned Maris Otter malt, with the addition of flaked maize and wheat malt. This gives a very light, straw coloured beer, delicately hopped with German Perle hops. (brewery notes)

RCH: Steam Silver - 4.5%
A golden beer originally brewed to celebrate RCH's 25th anniversary. Hopped with Bramling Cross and East Kent Goldings.

St Austell: Black Prince - 4%
A delicious, rich mild, with plenty of roasted malt and coffee flavour. Old 4X Mild, but improved considerably by St Austell head brewer Roger Ryman. (Darren Norbury)

Penzance Brewing Co anniversary

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Star licensee and Penzance Brewing Company brewer Pete Elvin takes pride in the six PZBC beers on the bar last night

The first anniversary of the Star Inn becoming a brewpub, with the addition of the Penzance Brewing Company, is being celebrated with six PZBC beers on the bar at once.

It's quite a range, too - definitely something for everybody. For brown beer lovers there's the popular permanent brew Crowlas Bitter (3.8% ABV), a very well balanced, slightly fruity and nutty session beer, and the new 4.4% Best Bitter, which is a bit maltier with some chocolate overtones that come from the brown malt.

Potion No 9 (4%) is the other permanent brew, a golden session ale with a citrus (grapefruit?) finish that really refreshes on a hot summer day, and there is also a re-appearance of a past special, Lodestar (4.2%) which bangs in a bit more flavour ad has matured nicely in the cellar since it was last unleashed upon the thirsty Crowlas crowd.

Now to the top of the shop, the real talking points of this event. Lamorna Gold (6.3%) would give Martson's Old Empire, a great IPA, a run for its money any day. It's also been on at the famous Bhurtphore Inn Beer Festival, at Aston near Crewe, this week, where it got a similar rapturous reception. This is a very smooth, full flavoured brew, with a bit of sweetness that then bitters out into a satisfying fruity (orange peel?) finish. Deceptively drinkable.

And then there's the 7% Scilly Stout. Clever name, clever beer. It's got a huge shopping list of ingredients (see tasting notes below), and yet they work so well together to create an excellent, smooth drinking, flavoursome stout.

If you're off to the Star I suggest you get a bus/taxi/cajole your beloved into driving.

Darren Norbury

As recommended by ...

... Charisma, writing in the Mansfield CAMRA newsletter, after a touring (of pubs) holiday in Cornwall: "Many thanks to Bald Eagle for recommending The Star at Crowlas, home of the Penzance Brewery. I was so impressed I visited the pub two or three times. I had Penzance Crowlas Bitter (3.8%), which was alongside St Austell Black Prince, Woodlands Super India Pale Ale, which was super, Cottage Clifton Ale and Cwmbran Pink Panther (the wife quite liked that one). Pete Elvin, the brewer, had 16 years' experience at Cotleigh and is currently brewing Crowlas Bitter and Penzance Gold, but hopes to increase the range soon. A good local's local, a proper real ale pub with realistic prices and good beer, not like a lot of other pubs, which I won't mention, that sold crap beer at over-inflated prices."