News reports on 24th January suggest that the Magic Rock tap in Huddersfield has closed. The brewery was reported to be in administration earlier this month. It is a sorry tale of what happens when Big Beer (in this case Lion/Kirin) buys a (very well regarded) craft brewery can’t make it fit its business model and then ditches it again.
Below is a memoir from 2018 of the annual launch of one of Magic Rock’s classic beers- Cannonball
On Monday Megan and myself were going to Cambridge (to the 45th CAMRA beerfest) but ended up near Cambridge Heath near Mother Kelly’s
Why? Megan had spotted that MKs were launching the 2018 versions of Magic Rock Human Cannonball
The original beer at 9.2% dates back to 2011. Unhuman Cannonball appeared in 2013 and this year has been added a New England version neo-Human Cannonball.
We sampled thirds at that strength.
I think there are two things to be said in general. Firstly back in the day you’d have expected beers of that strength to be sweet and cloying. The brewers art has moved on (for some anyway) and that is far from the case. They remain dangerously drinkable.
Secondly 2011 and 2013 are a long time ago in the craft beer world so while the Cannonballs may once have been cutting edge there are of course lots of DIPAs and TIPAs out there now. Indeed but the beers we sampled yesterday remain top notch examples of the styles.
What of the neo-human version. It is more like a juice bomb and definitely murky. The fact that the yeast involved is called London fog obviously endears it to me. However while I enjoy drinking such beers I often find it quite difficult to distinguish one from another. Some I like a little more, some a little less. The neo-human Cannonball was fine, the un-human Cannonball was superb.
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