Meet the team working on their hop magic at London brewery, Fourpure.

<p>Located along London’s famous Bermondsey Beer Mile, Fourpure Brewery prioritises quality, passion and craftsmanship. We catch up with Nicole Kingma and Andrew Walton from the  team to find out more about the delicious <a href="https://groceries.asda.com/aisle/beer-wine-spirits/beer-lager-ales/craft-beer/1215685911554-1215345814764-1215548879308?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=article_meet-the-tastemakers-craft-beer&utm_campaign=Good-Living" target="_blank">craft  beer</a> they produce exclusively for us. Let’s pour…</p>
<p>Andrew Walton samples the ale – a job to make anyone smile. He says: ‘We feed the yeast, the yeast creates the beer and we take all the credit!’</p>
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<p>Now in its 10th year of trading, south London’s iconic craft brewery, Fourpure, has gone from strength to strength since being founded by two brothers, Daniel, and Tom Lowe, back in 2013. From operating out of one unit and packing crates by hand, the team has since scaled up production, but craftsmanship, precision and quality remain at the forefront.&nbsp;</p>
<p>‘It’s all about using the very best quality ingredients and getting the most out of them and our equipment,’ explains Fourpure’s technical brewer Andrew Walton, who is responsible for creating Fourpure’s craft beer. For Andrew, a love of craft beer was cemented in 2003 when  he attended university in the UK. ‘The beer in the UK was very different to what was available at home in Canada. It was so flavourful and unique. It got me thinking a little differently about beer, and I started home brewing shortly after that.’</p>
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<p>Swapping home brew kits for more formal training, Andrew trained to become a brewer at the prestigious Siebel Institute Of Technology in Chicago before moving to the UK to join the Fourpure team in 2016. After a stint at Goose Island brewpub in Shoreditch, he returned to Fourpure, where his UK brewing career began.</p>
<p>‘I fell in love with the first craft beer I tried – it was back at home in Australia,’ Nicole Kingma, Fourpure’s head of off-trade – who works closely with Andrew and also the Asda team – tells us. ‘Quality is central to our offering. Fourpure actually stands for the four pure ingredients that go into beer: water, hops, yeast and malt.’</p>
<p>Today, Fourpure is responsible for producing three delicious beers exclusively for Asda.</p>
<p>‘We started working with Asda back in 2017,’ explains Nicole. ‘The relationship has since expanded, and we now produce the Asda West Coast IPA, the Asda Hazy Pale and the Asda Velvet Stout exclusively for them.’</p>
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<a href="https://groceries.asda.com/product/ip-as/asda-west-coast-ipa/1000383142278?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=article_meet-the-tastemakers-craft-beer&utm_campaign=Good-Living" target="_blank"><img src="https://ui.assets-asda.com/dm/asdagroceries/5060393853220_T1"></a>
<h3><a href="https://groceries.asda.com/product/ip-as/asda-west-coast-ipa/1000383142278?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=article_meet-the-tastemakers-craft-beer&utm_campaign=Good-Living" target="_blank">ASDA West Coast IPA</a></h3>
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<a href="https://groceries.asda.com/product/pale-ales/asda-hazy-pale/1000383142146?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=article_meet-the-tastemakers-craft-beer&utm_campaign=Good-Living" target="_blank"><img src="https://ui.assets-asda.com/dm/asdagroceries/5060393853206_T1"></a>
<h3><a href="https://groceries.asda.com/product/pale-ales/asda-hazy-pale/1000383142146?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=article_meet-the-tastemakers-craft-beer&utm_campaign=Good-Living" target="_blank">ASDA Hazy Pale</a></h3>
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<a href="https://groceries.asda.com/product/stout/asda-velvet-stout/1000383142214?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=article_meet-the-tastemakers-craft-beer&utm_campaign=Good-Living" target="_blank"><img src="https://ui.assets-asda.com/dm/asdagroceries/5060393853244_T1"></a>
<h3><a href="https://groceries.asda.com/product/stout/asda-velvet-stout/1000383142214?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=article_meet-the-tastemakers-craft-beer&utm_campaign=Good-Living" target="_blank">ASDA Velvet Stout</a></h3>
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<h2>Beautiful Brews</h2>
<p>‘They’re a really nice range of beers,’ says Andrew. ‘The stout is malt-driven and a traditional Englishstyle beer with a Fourpure spin on it. It has lots of complex caramel, toffee, coffee, and chocolate notes. The two IPAs are very hop-forward. The West Coast IPA is a traditional style IPA with citrus, floral and tropical and stone fruit flavours, while the Hazy Pale is like a tropical fruit salad with lots of mango and pineapple notes. We also use oats in the Hazy Pale, which gives it a rich mouthfeel,’ Andrew explains.&nbsp;</p>
<p>So how are these tasty brews created?  ‘We essentially feed the yeast, the yeast creates the beer, and we take all the credit for it!’ explains Andrew, modestly. But anyone who has attempted home brewing will know it’s slightly more complicated than that: beer brewing is a delicate interplay of art and science – something that Andrew, who divides his time between developing new recipes alongside overseeing the smooth production of the beer, knows all about.</p>
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<p>‘I like to stay on top of academic research as well as popular ingredients and new techniques. I love to experiment, whether it’s taking an existing recipe and playing around with it by altering the hops or trying something new,’ he says. ‘Coming up with new products and making existing one’s taste better is my passion – you can make a great beer, but there’s always something you can tweak to get a little more flavour out of it.’</p>
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<h2>Craft and create</h2>
<p>Andrew also oversees the beer production process meticulously. ‘I get to craft and experiment with the beers but also see them being scaled up and created in our big brew house. At times, we might be creating up to 10 different beers a week.’</p>
<p>At the heart of Fourpure’s operations is their big brew house, a 50-hectolitre GEA Craft-Star.  ‘It’s a wonderful piece of equipment,’ says Andrew. You’ll also find over a dozen 160-hectolitre fermenters as well as ‘all sorts of nifty gizmos’, including one that crushes hops in order to amplify the unique flavours in their beer.</p>
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<p>Creating Asda’s exclusive beers is a process of many steps. At the heart of it is 100% British malt, which Andrew says is ‘some of the best malt in the world’. The malt arrives as kernels, which are crushed to extract the fermentable products – essentially the sugar that reacts with the yeast – before a variety of hops are added at varying stages, depending on the type of beer being created, to add bitterness and accentuate flavour.</p>
<p>During the brewing process, the point at which the hops are added plays a central part in defining the unique profile of the beer. ‘The Asda Hazy Pale doesn’t have a hop addition at the start of the boil – the hops are added in the whirlpool, which is the second stage after boiling,’ explains Andrew. ‘The liquid isn’t actively boiling in the whirlpool, so fewer bitter notes are extracted from the hops, and more aromatic flavours can be released.’  The liquid is then cooled down before brewer’s yeast is added for the fermentation stage.</p>
<p>‘People are always amazed by how long the beer brewing process takes,’ says Nicole. ‘It’s not overnight – it can take 30 to 40 days to create a can of beer from start to finish. It’s definitely a labour of love. Being able to build and create new products alongside the brewers and the rest of the team is one of my favourite things. There’s nothing like creating something from scratch and seeing the finished, packaged product. It makes me so happy!’</p>
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<h2>Feeling inspired by our Tastemakers story?</h2>
<p>Try this <a href="https://www.asda.com/good-living/recipe/spicy-beercan-chicken?recipe_id=95dd63c6-0b99-11ee-86e9-27f4d64caf7b" target="_blank">Spicy beercan chicken recipe</a>, a succulent dinner laced with <a href="https://groceries.asda.com/product/ip-as/asda-west-coast-ipa/1000383142278?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=article_meet-the-tastemakers-craft-beer&utm_campaign=Good-Living" target="blank">Asda West Coast IPA</a> and a spicy relish – who needs a Sunday roast?</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.asda.com/good-living/recipe/spicy-beercan-chicken?recipe_id=95dd63c6-0b99-11ee-86e9-27f4d64caf7b" target="_blank"><strong>Spicy Beercan Chicken</strong></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.asda.com/good-living/recipe/spicy-beercan-chicken?recipe_id=95dd63c6-0b99-11ee-86e9-27f4d64caf7b" target="_blank">View recipe</a></p>
<p><strong>Serves:</strong> 6</p>
<p><strong>Ready in:</strong> 1 hr 30 min</p>
<p><strong>Price per serving:</strong> £1.50</p>
<p><strong>Recipe info:</strong> Egg-free, 1 of your 5-a-day</p>
<p><strong>Faff-factor:</strong> 2.5 out of 5</p>
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<p>Why not try our chicken recipe, inspired by Andrews's production story, for yourself? Make sure to stock up on everything you need at <a href="https://groceries.asda.com/?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=article_meet-the-tastemakers-craft-beer&utm_campaign=Good-Living" target="_blank">Asda</a> or pop into <a href="https://storelocator.asda.com/" target="_blank">your local store</a>.</p>

Craft Beer - Meet the Tastemakers

By Asda Good Living,1st August 2023

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