Fuller’s brews with Magic Rock Brewing Co.
West Yorkshire Brewing Company Magic Rock recently spent the day at The Griffin Brewery in London to begin brewing a collaboration beer for the Fuller’s & Friends project.
Fuller’s & Friends is a collaboration project between Fuller’s and six breweries – this time from all around the world. Each partner brewery is hand-picked by Fuller’s and paired with a Fuller’s brewer to create their own collaboration beer to feature in the mixed pack, which will be sold at Waitrose.
Magic Rock Head Brewer Stuart Ross and Assistant Brewer Fran Roe travelled from Huddersfield to kick-off the brewing process in February. While they were brewing their collaboration beer with Fuller’s Project Brewer Jo Hack-Davies, we asked them few questions about the beer they’re creating together.
Q&A with Magic Rock Brewing Company, West Yorkshire
Why did you say yes to taking part in the Fuller’s & Friends project?
Magic Rock Head Brewer Stu said: “We were very pleased to be asked to participate. Fuller’s has a famous history of brewing, and even though we make very modern styles of IPA, sour beers and imperial stouts, we see our roots very much in traditional cask beer and styles being up in Yorkshire. They’re the sorts of beers we grew up on, so a collaboration with Fuller’s was right up our alley.”
Tell us a bit about your brewery and your brewing story. How did you start out?
“Magic Rock was founded in early 2011. The idea had been growing with the founder Richard Burhouse to brew hop-forward American style IPAs in England so the beer wouldn’t need to travel so far. Often, they’d die before they got here – they needed to be fresh. That was the original inspiration for the brewery, and Magic Rock has grown a lot since then.”
What was the first Fuller’s beer you tried?
“The first time I had Fuller’s beer was probably the porter, but I certainly remember the Vintage Ale, which was a 2004 and was a few years old when I had it.”
What beer are you making for the Fuller’s & Friends project?
Fuller’s Brewing Team Leader Jo said: “Magic Rock are known for hop-forward beers and there are a lot of them out there, so we went back to the root of English beers by creating a malty, mild style beer, but Stu came up with a twist of adding rum barrel oak chips in maturation to give a sweet, nutty depth of flavour.”
Stu added: “We did some research and managed to find an old Fuller’s mild recipe from 1920 which we tweaked. I thought this would be really interesting because it’s been almost 100 years since that recipe was made.”
Above: The Fuller's mild recipe from 1920 which inspired Magic Rock and Fuller's collaboration beer.
What did you name your beer?
Jo said: “We’ve decided to name our beer ‘Misprized’, which means undervalued or underrated, because we believe that mild beers are quite underrated in a time where hop-forward beers are so prevalent. Bring back the mild!”
What has been the best part of the project so far?
Stu said: “The brew day has been brilliant, it’s been great to see the interwoven brewing systems in place here, which is quite different to our own.”
Fran added: “It has been so nice to see how the brewery works here – to be able to see the process so closely, and to meet all the people – they have been lovely. It’s been a great experience.”
Fuller’s & Friends is brewing…
Fuller’s and Magic Rock's collaboration beer Misprized will be available as part of the Fuller’s & Friend’s mixed pack launching in Waitrose later in 2019.
Read more about the Fuller’s & Friends project: Fuller's & Friends Round Two.
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