The List
(in date order, newest first)

The fourth of the Britannia beers, and this one is near blonde in colour with a fairly subtle (for us) level of bitterness & hop flavours. 

Actually a blend of Golden Plover & Royston Red (hence the name...).  We never actually got to try any in the trade (beer tastes different in the real world compared to here at the brewery), but feedback was positive, so you never know, we may do it again!

Not being satisfied with the 5 or locomotive 'types' we were already using for beer names, we added a third - the LNER A4 class (of which the famous 'Mallard' was a member).  This beer was a trial for a new 'Challenger' style beer, and we seemed to get it right first time.  So it will be a new regular - so it might be a while before we do any more A4's.  Maybe.

The third of the Britannia beers. A Golden best bitter - admittedly not very original these days, but that is what sells!

Ever happy to experiment, we had long entertained the idea of 'pimping' a core beer into something a bit stronger.  This is something done by a number of breweries, and so we thought we'd go one better than just upping the abv.  This then was the result, a blend of two drinkable beers, at the top and bottom end of our range, and from two different camps style wise.  Make no mistake, Highwayman Porter WILL return.

The second of the Britannia beers, and the first brewed to 4.4% to directly replace our old core beer 'Britannia' (which ironically was never named after a train...)

A ruby-red bitter, named after an LNER A1 class locomotive.  It seems the LNER re-classified their locomotives more often than they built new ones, but on the whole Redgauntlet was an A1.  I get a little confused by it all.  They never did that sort of thing on the GWR.  Well, not much.

Golden brown in colour, and brewed using Boadicea hops.  This was the first in a range of beers named Britannia class locomotives, this one being called Boadicea.  Do you see what we did there?  We don't just do these things at random you know...

Awaiting image

A mid-brown summer ale?  Well, it's not exactly summer is it, so why not.  Brewed with a splash of Cascade hops.  Blink Bonny was yet another steam engine, and as with most of the others, named after a once-famous racehorse.

A pale, if not indeed blonde, summer ale (just in case it should arrive (oh it did, for two hours on Tuesday 17 July) at some point.  Brewed using a trial dwarf hop variety called 'Irene' (all trial varieties are given ladies names you see), so a true experiment, and definitely a one-off.  The real Western Harrier was a diesel railway locomotive, now long since scrapped.

Not only another steam train beer, but we couldn't even be bothered to change the pumpclip much from the last special beer (below).  A deep golden summer ale, this beer is basically a weak version of Silence, but brewed with Mild Ale Malt instead of Lager Malt.  We just wondered see what difference it would make.  Trouble is, it so sold so well we had little chance of doing some serious research & testing work on it...

A dark brew with a good dash of honey thrown in to each cask, just for good measure!  Named after yet another steam train, designed by some guy called Gresley.  Can't have been very good though, as there doesn't appear to be a copper top to the chimney...

Originally a festival special for the Ely CAMRA Beer Festival 2007.  Copper-brown in colour with a balanced maltiness, and a citrus hop finish.  The name refers to an Ely Innkeeper who ran a coach service to East London, via what is now the A10, which is where we come in, the brewery being but a short flight by Lapwing from the A10.

No specials for 8 months, then 4 in 6 weeks...  The arrival of 100 new casks, plus a dozen 'missing' or indeed 'borrowed' ones that also came back to the nest, helped to up our capacity to the point we could do specials again.  Brewed for the CAMRA 2007 Leicester Beer Festival, which had a bus theme.  And so we named the beer after an obscure (and now rare it seems) coach.  And of course another trial of a recipe, although perhaps a bit more 'leftfield' than the others.

And another anorak special, and a again steam locomotive.  A sort of trial for a new beer we were planning, but a tad darker.

Back in our Leicestershire period, we did a range of beers with a 'Western' name theme (yes, they are all railway engines...).  We did about 10 or so out of the 72 names we could have used.  So, we decided after about 18 months since the last Western beer it was time to do another (and 8 months since our last new beer - too busy with the regular ones).

Silver - CAMRA/Round Table Hitchin Beer Festival Mar 2007

A floral & citrus noted pale ale, brewed with a blend of pale & lager malts, and a cocktail of Columbus & Fuggle hops.

Silver (Best Bitters) - CAMRA Leicester March 2006
Bronze - CAMRA Letchworth Beer Festival Sept 2006

To b fair, this was a weaker, slightly tweaked version of the St Paddy (below). 

Another anorak special, and a steam locomotive this time.  There are loads of names to choose from yet, so don't be thinking we going to run out of steam in this theme just yet...

Brewed with the aid of the eponymous Pete West, and the celebration of his passing 'ticking' 10,000 different beers.  Beer ticking involves sampling as many different beers as you can over time, and keeping a record of your score.  No, really.  Now you know why some breweries never seem to make the same beer twice.  Or at least use the same name twice....

Brewed as festival special for Cambridge CAMRA beer festival.  A best bitter in style, and named after a popular train that used to run between London Kings Cross & Cambridge until the 1980's(?)

Brewed using Marynka hops from Poland, and named to commemorate the role of Polish Pilots based locally in WWII.

The Pasque Flower is a tiny, rare, species that grows in abundance on the chalk downland around the brewery.  So we brewed this to honour it's flowering (usually around Easter).  May is CAMRA's 'Mild Month', so to celebrate that we did this beer in April.  Well, the early bird & all that....

Having done St Patrick, we couldn't leave St George out of the picture - so this was our St Georges day brew.  A traditional style bitter-ale.  Trouble is, we can't help thinking our patron saint should be at least be an Englishman (can we say that?).  But that would mean reverting to St Georges predecessor - St Edmund.  And you can imagine which brewery would make much of that.

Our spin on a traditional Irish Red Ale, brewed and named at the request of Leicester CAMRA for their beer festival, held over St Patricks day you see, and organised by a railway enthusiast.  Which explains the railway engine on the pump clip.  Not to hoppy, malty and reddish-brown in colour.

Gold - CAMRA/Round Table Hitchin Beer Festival Mar 2006

Actually a blend of Oatmeal Stout & Challenger, mid brown with a malty bitterness.  Named after a steam locomotive, the first sign of anorak tendencies in 2006...

A Christmas beer, in case you hadn't worked it out.  Sort of reindeer brown in colour, with a malty kick.

The very first brew out of Therfield - literally the very first.  Intended as a test brew only, it was actually more that good enough to sell.  So we did.  Light brown, with English Pioneer hops, which apparently means the name works on 2 levels.  Trials at a tower block in Surbiton proved though the name was actually working on all 14 levels.