T|E|H : Meet the Brewers – Powder Monkey Brewing Co

Welcome back to the Eternal Hoptimist’s!

We have been working on this one for a while, but we’ve had a few set backs which has caused a slight delay in its release!

But fear not the wait is over, its time to have a quick sit down chat with the folks at Powder Monkey Brewing Co and see what tipples they have to offer!

Sam was fortunate enough to meet the guys from Powder Monkey at the Crafty Dogg beer festival earlier this year, who were located exactly across from Bayonet Brewing.. and you all know what we thought of their beers so we are keeping our fingers crossed for tipples of a similar quality!

More on the beers later, for now lets get to those quizzie questions!

Hello, thank you for joining us today, can you please tell us a little about how Powder Monkey Brewing Co came about and your ethos towards beer”

Powder Monkey was born out of a former gun powder magazine that dates back to 1878 and had been sat derelict for decades, now repurposed as a modern microbrewery while preserving the history of the building. The unique site inspired the branding for our brewery, ‘Powder Monkeys’ was the name given to the young boys that would carry the gunpowder onboard ships, our team have now swapped gunpowder barrels for beer barrels. This blend of heritage and modern equipment is reflected in our beers as we explore the history of different styles of beer before re-imaging them with creative twists. Our head brewer Mark uses his background in biochemistry to consider recipe development at a molecular level and has designed a core range that focuses on retaining drinkability in our beers while still packing flavour. We also release a host of small batch brews which explore a wider range of flavours, including fruited sours, tea-infused smoked lagers, and big heavy adjuncted stouts!

After doing a little research, John noticed that you have Steve Thompson on your board of directors, How did you manage to get yourselves a celebrity involved and help promote your brewery (other than the quality of your product).

Steve got involved in the project after having spent time with our Chairman Mike McGeever out in Dubai. Steve loves his rugby and his beer and has put his name to our range of ‘Hop & Hooker’ beers which were designed after an initial meeting with Mark to plan out recipe design and produce some trial batches. Steve continues to act as a brand ambassador for Powder Monkey Brewing Co.

looking at your store online, there are a few of your beers are described as BBQ beers, how did this concept come about?

Pairing beer with food has been something we have long been passionate about and have worked with many pubs to produce pairing menus for our beers at tap takeover events, after reading great books such as the brew master’s table by Oliver Garrett. We have continued this by patterning with BBQ magazine to release a series of beers that are specifically designed to compliment BBQ food. ‘Pitmaster’ is the first in the series, a rye IPA with a sticky sweet centre that works perfectly with the natural caramelisation found so often with marinated, grilled meats. The rye also lends a subtle spice that will help accentuate the spice in a dish. ‘Sizzler’ is our second BBQ beer, a white-wine inspired New Zealand pale al that is designed to pair with the lighter side of BBQ cooking such as seafood dishes that would be trampled by heavier beers.

We also see you have achieved many awards for your brewing through SIBA and rightly so, but are there any particular brewing awards that you are aiming for, and see as the Pinnacle of brewing achievement?

We’re extremely proud of the awards we have gained so far for the beers and would love to add to the tally with more regional SIBA awards, with aims to capture a national award in the near future. Our head brewer Mark has also just been shortlisted for young brewer of the year at the brewer’s choice awards so we are keeping our fingers crossed for that!

Do you have a favourite beer that you produce, and if so what do you like about it?

My personal favourite from the range is our Explosion IPA, a west coast IPA that is true to tradition, utilising classic American ‘C’ hops Chinook, Cascade, Centennial and Columbus. It doesn’t shy away from the style and has a real punchy, assertive bitterness that can be too much for some but is adored by those that like this style of beer. The bitterness is balanced by sweet caramel and toffee notes in the amber-coloured body of the beer from the use of crystal malts and the aroma is a blend of sharp citrus fruits and pine.

A lot of brewers have recently been collaborating, if you were given the chance who would you like to do a collaboration with? And, what kind of beer do you think you would produce?

There are plenty of breweries local to us who we have the good fortune of working with to all produce better beer. One brewery that we are really looking forward to working with soon is Sheep In Wolf’s clothing, who have produced some excellent low-strength beers, something we have been looking into a lot lately so will get the chance to pick their brains on this increasingly popular style, as well as brewing something nice and strong for balance!

What is next for the Powder Monkey Brewing Co, and where can our readers pick up your brilliant beers

We are hoping to continue to grow here at Powder Monkey Brewing Co with more fermentation capacity planned and we are looking at the installation of a centrifuge that will not only improve beer quality but also help us make the most of the capacity we have.

In terms of new beers we are continuing to experiment with sour beers and hope to see more of these releases soon as well as a range of dry-hopped pilsners. All attention at the moment has been focused on producing beers for our Oktoberfest event at the end of September which will feature 7 exclusive beers including a weizenbock, smoked marzen and fruited berliner weisse.

Our beers and tickets to any upcoming events are all available from the www.powdermonkeybrewing.com or you can try the beers at the Powder Monkey Taphouse or a host of venues across the south coast.

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Unfortunately this brings our interview to a close but we would like to thank Mark & the gang for joining us today, and for creating some choice tipples which we will be telling you more about in the coming two weeks!

If you want to check out their website, social media or purchase any of their fantastic beers, here is all the info you will need!

Twitter : @PMBrewCo
Instagram: Powder Monkey Brewing CO
Website and Online Store

Until next time, drink responsibly, and have a good one!