Crafty Cumbrians
Cumbria is full of talented people.
We know this because we work with them every day. They’re the people who produce fresh ingredients we use in our beer. They’re the ones who use our by-products to make great products themselves.
In fact, a big part of why we enjoy what we do so much is because we know that we’re not just helping Eden grow. We’re part of a network of talent, with everyone helping each other.
Over the next few months we’re going to spend a bit of time tipping our hat to some of these people and telling their stories.
First on the list is 21-year-old Elinor Prescott, a third year graphic design student at the University of Cumbria. Elinor got involved with the brewery through our Crafty Can project, which we are running with the university.
Alex, from the Westmorland Family, Elinor, Jason and Jim, who leads the graphic design course at Cumbria Uni.
A can do attitude
Every year we are going to challenge graphic design students to come up with their most imaginative designs for the cans for a special range of original beers. This will give us the chance to experiment with a few more beers every year at the same time as bigging up some of Cumbria’s young talent.
This year we asked students to develop a striking design for two new beers: Smoooth Sippin’ Coco Chino Ale and Thirsty Dog IPA. Elinor answered the call with two striking cans which are going on sale across Cumbria. The Westmorland Family are also taking part in the project by selling the beers at Tebay and Gloucester Services, as well as Rheged.
Coco Chino beer
Smooth Sippin’ Coco Chino is a collaboration with another of our brilliant local suppliers, Carvetii Coffee, in Threlkeld. Carvetii roast the best high quality coffees in Cumbria. We’ve worked with them on a number of beers in the past and the full flavour of their espresso resonates through our Coco Chino ale, combined with French Fuggle hops, coconut milk and Carifa 3 malt. The result is a super smooth and silky ale, which drinks like a pale, looks like a porter and has delicious undertones of coffee and coconut.
Thirsty Dog IPA
Our friend Dan, from Hakuba Brewery in Japan, helped us come up with the recipe for Thirsty Dog IPA when he was back visiting Cumbria in May. We drew inspiration from some of Dan’s delicious Japanese brews to create an outrageously fruity IPA, overflowing with flavour.
The most distinct characteristics of Thirsty Dog IPA come from the intoxicatingly fragrant tones of Azacca hops. Azacca is so deliciously pungent it’s the kind of thing we’d love to use as pot pourri let alone to make a beer. We added Amarillo, Citra, Summit and Cascade to create something intensely tropical with a deeply complex and lingering finish.
These two colourful, creative beers really needed some special packaging to do them justice and we think Elinor’s designs do a fantastic job.
We’re sure you’ll join us in wishing her all the best in her future career. If these cans are anything to go by, it should be a pretty good one!
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