Star Inn, Crowlas

Beer tasting notes

2011-05-05T09:35:00.000-07:00

Acorn: Lightness - 3.8%
A light golden Penine mild brewed with Fuggles hops. (brewery notes)

Burton Bridge: Stairway to Heaven - 5.0%
A pale beer with a distinctive, hoppy aroma, combining pale malt with Fuggles and Goldings hops. It's smooth and easy drinking, belying its strength.

Lefebvre: Blanche de Bruxelles - 4.5%
A Belgian wheat beer with aromas of coriander and orange peel, very crisp and refreshing.
Penzance Brewing Co: Brisons 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. (www.beertoday.co.uk)

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! (www.beertoday.co.uk/)

Penzance Brewing Co: Crows-an-Wra - 4.3%
The latest brew has also been bottled. It's crisp and hoppy, yet with plenty of good juicy malt balance too. The finish is dry and satisfying. (www.beertoday.co.uk)

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. (www.beertoday.co.uk/)

Spitting Feathers: Dark Velvet - 4%
An easy drinking dark mild full of roast malt and nutty flavours.

Lamorna Gold

2010-06-10T23:58:00.000-07:00

Look out for a new version of Penzance Brewing Co's Lamorna Gold this summer (it's nearing readiness in the cellar at the moment). The ABV has dropped from 6.3 to 6%, but the brewers assures me this taste is as crisp and refreshing ( and deceptively drinkable!) as ever.

Belgian beer

2010-06-10T23:55:00.000-07:00

Belgian beers have proved such a hit on the bar at the Star that a small range of Timmerman's bottle beers are now being stocked in the chiller cabinet. 330ml bottles of the Strawberry, Peach and Cherry (Kriek) variants are available and proving popular. Blache du Bruxelles, the famous and well-crafted Belgian wheat beer, remains on handpump.

Star Inn 10th anniversary

2009-12-22T07:39:00.000-08:00

The tenth anniversary of The Star re-opening under new owner Peter Elvin was celebrated with a toast from regulars and a presentation from the Cornwall branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).

When Pete bought the premises in 1999 the pub had been closed, with owner Ushers selling off its estate. Since then it has gone on become a hugely popular drinker's pub, with the emhpasis on an ever-changing range of five or six real ales. And, of course, these days a majority of those beers are from the brewery at the back of the pub, run under the name of The Penzance Brewing Company. This is a true community village pub, where conversation reigns - no sports screens or loud music here.

The CAMRA presentation, incidentally, was to mark Potion No 9's success at Falmouth Beer Festival, where it won the golden beers class and was runner-up champion Cornish beer. Pete is pictured below with the certificates.

Penzance Brewing Co anniversary

2009-07-04T01:47:00.000-07:00

copy

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 ...

2009-06-04T12:49:00.000-07:00

... 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."