Morrisey Fox

I first heard about the Morrisey Fox adventure at Beer Exposed earlier in the year. Then the 3-part TV show followed which showed them starting their own brewery - which I sky plussed (is that a verb) but couldn't be arsed to watch.

Importantly, I then found the beer, Morrisey Fox Blonde, at the Willoughby Arms Hallowe'en beer festival last month. Although I have read reports that the beer is brewed in at least four different places - Cropton, Marstons, ANOther, and their brew pub at the back of Ye Olde Punch Bowl Inn, in Marton-Cum-Grafton, North Yorkshire - I thought it was excellent. A golden coloured beer but well hopped with a full bitterness. I had thought the beer might be dumbed down for the masses but this was absolutely not the case.

Now they are about to roll out several new beers to the freetrade from next month.

Mulled Ale will be the first to be rolled out, from December 1. Described as “liquid mince pie” by Morrissey, it is a strong, spiced seasonal beer. It has a 6.8 per cent ABV in the Punch Bowl, but this will be lowered to 4.6 per cent for the freetrade - another pointer to me that the brewing for the free trade is out-sourced

Morrisey added that expanding their range of beers was “important if we’re going to be taken seriously as a brewer. If we just sat on one product, it would be purely a marketing exercise and that’s not what this is.”

Now is becoming a golden age for beer and real ale as can be seen by celebrities such as Morrisey and Fox and Oz and James jumping aboard the band wagon.

While remaining slightly sceptical about their content, this is definitely a way to reach the man (or woman) on the Clapham omnibus in a way that CAMRA has been unable to embrace.

I raise a glass to them.