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We were fortunate enough to be involved in a beer tasting at one of our excellent new local micro-breweries a couple of weeks ago. Over two evenings we sampled the full range of regular beers produced by Thornbridge Hall Brewery. This gave us a chance to fully appreciate the flavours of the beers. We had tried them before, but in the two locations I think we got to sample them at pretty much their best. I have reviewed some of the others before so I decided it was time to introduce you to Kipling.

~~~THE BREWERY.

Thornbridge Hall Brewery is based in an outbuilding in the grounds of a small stately home in Ashford in the Water, Derbyshire. They began brewing in October 2004 in their small brewery known as The Baby Brewery - the brewery has worked closely with award winning brewery Sheffield brewery Kelham Island and started up as the offspring to the larger and older business. Thornbridge have since become award winners and have "grown up"! They try to use interesting, locally sourced ingredients in their beers and have produced a range of popular and successful beers. The beers have already become firm favourites with drinkers at beer festivals and in pubs.

Look out for their beers at pubs nationwide. I am lucky because I live near to quite a few regular outlets and also get the chance to go and taste the beers at their source in the brewery bar. Among their regular and occasional brews you may find Brock (a lower gravity stout at 4.1% ABV), Jaipur IPA (a strong golden ale at 5.9% ABV) and St. Petersburg Imperial Stout (dark and strong at 7.7% ABV). Their core range of upwards of six beers is complimented by specials and seasonal selections - for example their Christmas beer is a 4.8% winter warmer called Hark.

~~~THE BEER.

*A Bit of Background*

According to the people I spoke to at the brewery there is a really good reason that they decided to name the beer Kipling. They like to try and keep some sort of connection between the Hall, the people there, the local area and the beers they brew. The story has been passed on that, when the Hall was a college, one of the buildings had a window in it that had originally come form Rudyard Kipling's house. The building was commonly known as The Kipling Hut. Eventually this structure became the Headmaster's office, but it was eventually demolished in the 1980s. People who visit the Hall who knew it from the college days still refer to the area where the brewery now stands as the Kipling area. When they were looking for a name

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