Something exciting has been brewing...

Back in early January, New Inn manager Sam - along with Jenny and Stu - went on a very exciting trip to the mainland. They visited Marco and the team at St Ives Brewery who were brewing something special...

Inspired by the stretch of water between Tresco and Bryher known to islanders as the Channel, our food & beverage team have been working with Marco to create a brew that embodied the feeling of walking along the seafront in the sunshine. After settling on the confetti bush as the Tresco plant they wanted to use to enhance the beer - and several confetti bush-laden helicopter trips from Tresco to Penzance! - Channel Hazy IPA was born: a beer that aims to capture the turquoise blue waters, white sands and salty air of Tresco.

'For me it just had to be done!' says Sam. 'We needed our own beer and the confetti bush is just perfect for brewing - there just isn't a better beer after a salty day exploring Scilly.'

After months of back and forth, we are delighted to finally have the finished product on our shores.

'The Channel Hazy IPA is a fantastic project that I and the brewing team really enjoyed working on,' says Marco, founder of St Ives Brewery. 'The discussions opened up in the winter about the possibility of using something grown on the island to intensify the connection between St Ives Brewery and Tresco. We began looking at plants that could enhance the notes we look for in our beers. Citrus, Floral, pepper, bitterness etc. were the kind of things we wanted to utilise.

We settled on Confetti Bush and the plan was to have some sent over for brew day. Sam and our Brew team looked at the beer we were selling the most of at the New Inn and agreed that Slipway our 5% Hazy IPA would be the best beer to work with. We agreed a slightly reduced ABV to make the beer easier to drink in the sunshine.

The brew team and head brewer Tomasz decided that the best place for the confetti Bush would be in the Whirlpool. The Whirlpool is where we reduce the temperature of the boiled wort and add hops to extract the more delicate oils. Hops are carefully analysed for Alpha Acids and other flavour imparting oils. The dosing rate is carefully calculated for consistency. With the addition of a new ingredient such as Confetti bush we were mindful not to impart unwanted flavours within the beer. The lower temperature helped extract some subtle notes of spice and citrus from the plant that carried over into the fermenting beer.

The Channel IPA was then dry hopped after fermentation. We used some titans of the hop world. Citra, Simcoe & Idaho 7. The finished result is a juicy balance of stone fruits and citrus with a subtle bitterness and spice. The haze comes from a healthy dose of Wheat and Oats in the brewing process coupled with the dry hop addition. The balance of these give the beer a hazy yellow appearance and a thick mouthfeel.

We have thoroughly enjoyed the process of working with the Tresco team. The highlight for me was tasting the beer in the New Inn for its launch. The hospitality was incredible.'

Whilst Channel is available across the island all year round, we are particularly delighted that it will be sold at our biannual Low Tide Event. There is simply no better place to drink a beer inspired by the channel than in the middle of the channel itself! It was a joy to see it served at the sand bar back in April and we hope that those of you joining us for our next event in September will get a chance to taste it too.

Thank you to Marco and all the team at St Ives brewery for your work on this fantastic drink!