The Core Range Box

About Us:

We have been brewing beneath Bermondsey’s railway arches since 2009, among a community of like-minded food and drink producers. We are committed to working sustainably and at a pace and scale that allow a contented workforce to focus on making great beer.

We brew various styles: from pales with vitality, balance and clarity; to stouts made to old archive recipes that situate us within London’s brewing history; to mixed fermentation beers in which we let brett, sourness, wood, fruit (and time) do their thing.

We hope you enjoy them as much as we do, and we’d love to see you at our taproom some time soon.

______

Rather than offer tasting notes, we recommend trying our beers to find out what they taste like: they vary from batch to batch and over time, and the experience also depends on you, and the circumstances of their consumption. And so what follows is some general information that may help to understand the beers’ flavours and composition and why and how we brew them the way we do. 

– 

Table Beer ~3%

Malt: Maris Otter, oats. | Hops: vary from batch to batch | Yeast: American ale yeast

A light pale ale (around 3% abv.) made with malted barley and rolled oats. Our first batch was brewed in 2012 as an attempt to create a low-alcohol beer that did not suffer from being thin-bodied or lacking in character, and was inspired by the cask tradition rather than that of American pales. The full body is achieved using an elevated mash temperature and oats in the grist, alongside a slightly lower carbonation. Like our pale ales, hop aromas are the focus, with bitterness in balance. We aim for a pale golden colour, real body, sweet malt flavours, a fresh hop character and a clean, refreshing bitterness alongside an intense flavour that belies its low abv.

Pale Ale ~5%

Malt: Maris Otter | Hops: vary from batch to batch | Yeast: American ale yeast

Our pales are dry and light-bodied to better showcase the individuality of the hops in both aroma and flavour. As with our other beers, a basic recipe is followed, with each batch utilising different hop varieties from around the world based on seasonality and availability.

India Pale Ale ~6-7%

Malt: Maris Otter | Hops: vary from batch to batch | Yeast: American ale yeast

A stronger, fuller beer, and with more hop intensity than the pale ale, but aiming to keep all elements in balance: no cloying sweetness, just the necessary bitterness and a malt bill muted enough to allow the hops to shine. As with the Pale Ales and the Table Beer a basic recipe is followed, with the hop content varying from batch to batch.  

Export India Porter, ~5.5%

Malt: Maris Otter, brown, black, chocolate, crystal | Hops: varies batch to batch |

Yeast: American ale yeast

We based our recipe on some of the old porters from Barclay Perkins (1855) and Whitbread (1856) that were sent out to British servicemen in India, and inspired by the Durden Park Beer Circle pamphlet ‘Old British Beers and How To Make Them’. The ingredients and equipment they used then have of course changed, as have our tastes, and so we have made some modifications. 

We’ve tempered the roast character of the original with chocolate and crystal malts in place of some of the black: too much black malt can produce overly acrid, burnt and astringent flavours. Crystal malts bring a sweetness and fullness to the beer, and a bigger texture/mouthfeel. 

The main difference though is that our EIP is hopped in the way we would hop our pale ales and IPAs: lots of late addition hops for flavour, and we then dry hop when the beer is in tank. We mostly use American hops for their intensity and fruity characteristics, but we like to experiment with the different flavours that arise when they’re combined with darker malts. Bramling Cross is our favourite for a more traditional British character, whereas Columbus works very well for a brasher, new world flavour.

The result is a dark brown beer that promises coffee and cocoa, but then the hops bring lightness, brightness and fruit, and the relatively high carbonation - unusual for a porter - make it surprisingly refreshing.