Following on from last year's successful launch of the Festival Premium Ale range, Ritchies have released a brand new kit - Razorback IPA. It is a pale straw coloured, heavily hopped IPA, designed to be around 5.7% ABV.

Last year, Hambleton Bard added a Malbec style red wine to the popular Cantina range.

It was released as a Limited Edition kit, but proved so poular that it sold out within a few weeks. It is a smooth, full flavoured, medium bodied red and best of all, like all the kits in the Cantina range, it ferments out and is ready to bottle, and drink, within 5-7 days.

Due to popular demand, it has now been re-released as a permanent addition to the Cantina Range and is once again proving popular.

Hambleton Bard have finally released the long awaited and much anticipated Bulldog Beer Kits range. This brand new range is made from Premium Quality Malt Extract and is produced and packed exclusively by Hambleton Bard on their brand new production line in their Chesterfield Headquaters.

The first supply of Christmas Ales arrived today with the delviery of the Santas Winter Warmer, Dasher the Flasher and the Brewferm Grand Cru. I am still waiting for Ritchies to release the latest batch of Bah Humbug stout, but expect that it will be available around Mid October. I haven't ordered in any of the Milestones Donner and Blitzed, but will order a box in if anybody would like some.

After what seems like an interminal wait since their launch was announced, the brand new Festival Premium Ale range from Ritchies has finally arrived in store. They have already proved so popular with the retailers that Ritchies are close to running out and have already begun producing a new batch of each.

Ritchies have announced the release of a brand new range of premium quality, two can kits which will contain 3kgs of Malt Extract, Genuine brewers yeast strains to match the beer style and packs of hop pellets to allow home brewers to boost the aroma and flavour of their brews.The new range will be marketed under the "Festival Premium Ales" brand and will initially comprise six varietal beer kits that aim to match well known beer styles and allow you to create your own mini Beer Festival at home.

We had a bit of excitement yesterday when the whole of Severalls Business Park, including the part in which we are based, was brought to a standstill becasue of a mystery chemical/fume release. A group of council workers in one of the nearby buildings reported feeling unwell as a result of inhaling fumes and before we knew it, the estate was cordoned off and a 400m exclusion zone had been created. At one point we had numerous police cars, 6 fire engines and 12 ambulances in the area and even the BBC Look East news crew.

Fortunately, nobody was seriously affected and we even managed to get a nice advert on prime time TV as one of the shots showed two of the firemen walking back towards the control post:

The estate returned to normal about 7.00pm last night and we have been allowed to open as normal this morning.

As the air temperature starts to increase, the pressure in barrels will start to increase as well and even barrels fitted with a pressure vent system may well start to leak from around the tap.

Woodfordes and Muntons have finally released the Sundew Ale kit that has been created as a replacement for the withdrawn Great Eastern Ale.

We received our first batch on our delivery after the Bank Holiday weekend. I requisitioned one pack to put on as a taster, but as both of my fermenters were in use (making all grain brews of Hop Back Summer Lightning and a Ruddles County) my kit didn't go on until this weekend. It is described as a cross between a lager and a pale ale

Hambleton Bard have recently introduced a brand new range of floppy pouch beer kits that contain between 1.8 and 2.1kgs of malt extract and make 40 pints of Lager, Pilsner, IPA, Yorkshire Bitter, Brown Ale, Mild or Stout. Each kit is made up of specially selected Malt Extracts from a variety of specialist malsters (ie these are not Munton's Kits) and matched with an appropriate strain of yeast in an effort to produce a more authentic version of the particular beer style than would be available from kits made with generic brewing yeast.