Made an interesting discovery today! A new craft beer brewery has opened up during lockdown about 3 miles away from my house, in a Berkshire village called Hurst. The firm is called "Crafty Cats" and they make a variety of modern style (American hops) IPA's, pale ales and dark beers, sounded promising! Since it was such a nice day today we decided to take a little drive a couple of miles out to the outskirts of Twyford where there's a vineyard called Stanlake Park, they have a little walled garden and some tables where you can sample their wines, they also stock Crafty Cats beer! I went for their session pale, called "Tail Ale" it was a pleasant American IPA style beer with Mosaic, Simcoe, Cascade and Amarillo hops. Classic grapefruit vibes but with a nice malty core, decent. My wife had a glass of Stanlake's Burgundy style white called "King's Fume", it was a little lacking in body and finish compared to wines from warmer climes (as most English wines are) but the flavours (fruit and gun-smoke/flint) were very good, I could certainly place Chardonnay in the blend and it was oaked well. On our way out I picked up a couple of cans of Crafty Cat's other brews so I'll report back on those later! I do love a bit of lunch-time local wine and beer action on a warm Summers day!
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