Truman Brewery Tom Ditto IPA
Style: IPA
Alcohol Content: 5%
From: Hackney Wick, London, England
Purchased from: Direct from the Brewery
Purchased from: Direct from the Brewery
After just over a year of penning beer reviews, I received my first sample beer direct from a brewery. The nice folks at Truman's kindly sent me a bottle of their new IPA. Working with Danny Wallace – a champion of the traditional British pub - to celebrate the forthcoming launch of his book Who Is Tom Ditto? , Truman’s brewery created Tom Ditto IPA just in time for the Nicholson Spring Beer festival. If you managed to catch this beer on draft you should consider yourself lucky as my spy's told me that it often sold out rapidly. So does this beer live up to the hype once bottled? Let's pour a glass and put some Steely Dan on shall we?
The original Truman brewery has often been described as one of the first true powerhouses of the London brewing scene. Founded around 1666, the Black Eagle Brewery was established on a plot of land next to what is now Brick Lane in London, E1. It grew steadily until the 18th century when, under the management of Benjamin Truman, and driven by the demand for Porter, it expanded rapidly and became one of the largest brewers in London. In 1873, it purchased Phillips Brewery in Burton and became the largest brewery in the world. However, as with most things in life, nothing lasts forever. By the middle of the 20th century Truman’s struggled to come to terms with the rise of lager, cheaper competition from imports and the consolidation of the biggest names in British brewing through mergers. The brewery was eventually sold to Grand Metropolitan in 1971 and by 1989 the decision was made to retire the Truman brand and shut the Black Eagle Brewery site.
Colour: Pours a deep amber with a brilliant white head, which will eventually dissipate down to a heavy dusting of foam in the glass. This foam helps to provide excellent lacing throughout the duration of your drinking experience.
Aroma: Full of juicy, tropical pineapple mixed with an ever so subtle hint of delicate elderflower. As the drink warms, the aroma matures into notes of sweet apricot and zesty lime.
Body: Extremely soft carbonation helps to ensure a very pleasurable drinking experience. This beer will fill your mouth and tingle the back of your throat on every sip. This carbonation helps to ensure no clogging on the back of the throat, lovely!
Taste: Just like the nose, the taste begins full of juicy pineapples. This is then playfully intertwined with subtle notes of caramel and a earthy malt base. Resisting the popular tend to hop IPA's to death, Truman's use a subtle blend of three hops in this beer; Challenger, Centennial and a new experimental hop called Wallex. These three hop musketeers impart a relatively low level of bitterness and create a smooth citrus aftertaste to cleanse your palate. I must be honest, this beer was a hell of better than I was expecting. If you managed to try some of this beer at the Nicholson Spring Beer Festival, congratulations you have backed a winner. Hopefully this beer will make a reappearance very, very soon for the masses to enjoy. Top work all round guys!
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