Already celebrated for pulling the unexpected out of the hat the White Horse at Parsons Green does it again when it holds its Belgian beer festival over the August Bank Holiday (August 28-31) .Accompanying the 20 Belgian cask ales brought in for the occasion is a special importation of Budvar’s fabled yeast lager.
Hailed by those UK drinkers, who have had the privilege of tasting it, as the ultimate lager experience it has until now, because it is unpasteurised and therefore with only a short life, only been enjoyed by them at its home in the Czech Republic, and then only at one of the 50 nominated outlets chosen by the Budvar for the quality of cellar and dispense management.
According to White Horse manager Dan Fox who did the ground-breaking deal with Budvar, the White Horse has passed the Budvar test to become the first retail outlet in the UK to dispense the beer. According to Budvar UK Technical Director Tony Perkins there is no mystique about installing unpasteurised beers “As long as you observe scrupulous hygiene standards and give the keg sufficient time to settle after delivery you will be fine” he says.
Brewing notes: The initial process for the yeast lager is the same as Budvar’s classic original. Both have an ABV of 5 and are brewed in a 100 day cycle from the same natural ingredients: water from the ice age lake under the brewery, whole hops and Moravian barley malt and the brewery’s own strain of yeast active since 1895. The beers diverge when rings, or living yeast cells, are added to the yeast lager when the fermentation cycle is at its high point.
After kegging (the only format in which the beer is offered) a further level of fermentation takes place giving the brew its unique taste. In the glass it has a golden-yellow colour and the yeast causes it to be non -sparkling but with a light opalescence with a compact and stable head.
