Tooth and Claw is made up of a collective of employees from Camerons at the Lion Brewery based in Hartlepool. Camerons is the largest independent in the North East. However it encourages Tooth and claw to make experimental and innovative beers in the small pilot brewery. I cannot imagine a more sensible way of using the talent you have in your business.
Several decades ago I was briefly in the Wine Trade. On the way to a meeting in Notting Hill I stumbled across an Off Licence called Grog Blossom. (Grog Blossom is an old expression for an acne like rash that sometimes forms on chin of somebody who has drunk too much) In this shop I discoved that there was more to beer than I ever imagined. This was the first place I discovered beer flavoured with fruit. In the early nineties there were a great deal of drinkers who were poorly educated in beer. These Framboise and Kriek beers were described to me as "girly" and "not proper beer"; they really were uninformed times with bigotry and ignorance running wild (not to mention sexism). I have always felt that beer and fruit worked well together and have become a bit of a fruit beer evangelist.
Kvass is a "type" of beer made with bread which, of course, makes it the perfect product for the Toast companion box. Kvass tends to be found in Eastern Europe and the Balkans. This one is made with sourdough bread and is flavoured with Raspberry and Cranberry. Surprisingly on the nose there is not a lot of fruit, Pilgrim hops are more up front and centre. On the palate there is buckets of fruit and the low alcohol content (1.7%) makes it really drinkable and delicious. I don't think I've ever learned so much about a beverage in such a short time. Fascinating drinking.
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