BREWING HISTORY

The Purple Moose Brewery was first conceived in the late summer of 1995, a name devised by Lawrence Washington to adorn the bottle labels for his new hobby of home-brewing. Although the 5 gallon operation was based in his house in Cheltenham, the brewery name had been thought up during a weekend carrying out voluntary work on the Ffestiniog Railway in North Wales.

The choice of name was obvious. Purple is Lawrence's favourite colour, and moose, well, everyone loves moose. Just some more than others!

Early brewing methods involved boiling up 4oz of hops plus a few handfuls of malt in a pressure cooker, then straining the residual liquid into a fermenting bin along with a couple of tins of malt extract and some sugar thrown in for good measure. These early brews inevitably ended up quite strong, and after some time it was decided it may be wise to actually measure the ABV, purely on health grounds!

Individual recipes were created for every brew, right from the very beginning. No home-brew kits were used in the making of this brewery!

1) STARTLED MOOSE - Brewed September 1995
Challenger hops and black malt - Result: Quite bitter. 2/5

2) OLD WOBBLY ANTLERS - Brewed November 1995
Fuggles hops and roasted barley - Result: Very rich and smooth. 4/5

3) STAG 'N' ANT ALE - Brewed February 1996
Goldings hops and crystal malt - Result: Weird taste, just drinkable. 1/5

4) MUDDLED MOOSE - Brewed March 1996
Fuggles & Goldings hops, roasted barley, crystal malt and black malt - Result: Good flavour, very strong and very drinkable. 4/5

5) OLD WOBBLY ANTLERS - Brewed April 1996
Fuggles hops and roasted barley - Result: Weaker and blander than No.2. 3/5

6) ANNIVERSARY ALE - Brewed June 1996
Fuggles & Northdown hops, roasted barley and black malt - Result: Rather pleasant, good flavour. 3-4/5

7) DARK SIDE OF THE MOOSE - Brewed August 1996
Northdown & Bramling hops, roasted barley, black malt, brown sugar and black treacle - Result: Very, very nice! 5/5

8) MERRY EX-MOOSE - Brewed September 1996
Fuggles & Target hops, roasted barley, brown sugar and black treacle - Result: Pretty good, not quite as rich as No.7. 4/5

9) MERRY EX-MOOSE - Brewed October 1996
As No.8 - Result: As No.8. 4/5

10) STAG NIGHT ALE - Brewed March 1997
Goldings & Target hops, roasted barley and black malt - Result: Good flavour, went down very nicely! 4/5

11) STAGGERING SUCCESS - Brewed April 1997
Northdown hops and roasted barley - Result: Quite strong, with interesting flavour. 3-4/5

12) STAG NIGHT ALE - Brewed May 1997
As No.10 - Result: Much the same as No.10, but seemingly stronger! 4/5

13) DARK WOBBLY ANTLERS - Brewed June 1997
Fuggles hops, roasted barley and brown sugar - Result: Very, very nice. Quaffable. Rich flavour, not too heavy. 5/5

14) ANNIVERSARY ALE II - Brewed September 1997
Fuggles & Northern Brewer hops, roasted barley and black malt - Result: Much the same as last year's. 3-4/5 ABV 6.95%

15) MERRY EX-MOOSE - Brewed 9th October 1997
As No.8 - Result: Same as last year! 4/5 ABV 7.1%

16) MERRY EX-MOOSE - Brewed 1st November 1997
As No.8 - Result: As No.15. 4/5 ABV 7.1%

17) MINFFORDD TERMINATOR - Brewed 19th December 1997 (Brewed for the final party at the old volunteers' hostel in Minffordd on the Ffestiniog Railway.)
Goldings & Target hops and roasted barley - Result: Good flavour, not too rich, not too strong. 4/5 ABV 4.6%

18) MINFFORDD TERMINATOR + - Brewed 26th December 1997 (Brewed for the final party at the old volunteers' hostel in Minffordd on the Ffestiniog Railway.)
As No.17 - Result: Strangely not quite as No.17, but pretty close! 4/5 ABV 4.9%

19) OLD WOBBLY ANTLERS - Brewed 15th February 1998
As No.2 - Result: Pretty much as No.2. 4/5 ABV 7.2%

20) LIGHT SIDE OF THE MOOSE - Brewed 12th May 1998
Northern Brewer & Bramling Cross hops, roasted barley and crystal malt - Result: Strange at first, a bit yeasty, but later much better. Possibly a bit thin. 3/5 ABV 4.5%

21) MUDDLED MOOSE - Brewed 4th June 1998
As No.4 - Result: Good flavour, as before. 4/5 ABV 6.7%

22) STAG LIGHT ALE - Brewed 30th June 1998
As No.12 except half the sugar - Result: Very long time to clear. Not tasting good for several months. 3/5 ABV 4.4%

23) HEATHER'S HERBAL HICCLE - Brewed 3rd September 1998
Wild heather from the Stipperstones, Shropshire - Result: Stayed cloudy and tasted like scrumpy! Different! 2/5 ABV 6.5%

24) MERRY EX-MOOSE - Brewed 7th October 1998
As No.8 - Result: As before. 4/5 ABV 7.0%

25) MERRY EX-MOOSE - Brewed 18th October 1998
As No.8 - Result: As before. Tasted much better after 5 months! 4/5 ABV 7.0%

26) DARK SIDE OF THE MOOSE - Brewed 18th December 1998
As No.7 - Result: Tasted excellent after 6 months. Black treacle had blended well. 5/5 ABV 6.8%

27) THE GOLDEN CALF - Brewed 9th June 1999
Fuggles & Target hops - Result: Quite refreshing. A bit of a bite to it! 4/5 ABV 6.3%

28)

In November 2000 a home-brew 'mash tun' was acquired, along with other equipment, making it possible to carry out 'full mash' brewing and replicate commercial brewing in miniature.

The majority of the beer made from this full mash brewing was bottled as test brews and given to a carefully selected panel of tasters in order to gain some information on taste preferences.

From November 2001 to February 2003 Moor Beer Co. of Somerset very kindly allowed the occasional use of their brewery for some serious test brewing on a commercial scale. This gave the opportunity to trial recipes and put some ales on sale to the general public through Spooner's Bar in Porthmadog.