Friary Guildford Band and Hogsback Brewery’s relationship was further solidified on Wednesday 23rd April as one of Friary's Solo Cornet players, Simon Persin, attended an exclusive tasting session. Read on to see what he found out about Hogsback's brand new beer, Hopping Hog IPA.
As a member of the exclusive Hogsback Tea Club, I was invited to attend the event to welcome this new addition to the Hogsback beers. The event was very well attended and was an informal opportunity to meet fellow beer enthusiasts, ask questions of the brewers themselves and, most importantly, sample the beer itself. The beer is so new that the brewers are still experimenting with the recipe. That very afternoon, they decided that the beer might benefit from having some additional dry hops added to the mix to increase the flavour. Despite being only in the barrels for a matter of a few hours, the difference in taste was clearly evident.
Never one to miss a marketing opportunity, I made sure to wear my new Friary Guildford Band jacket complete with Hogsback branding, resulting in a number of positive comments about the quality and styling of the jacket. The Hogsback staff were quite envious, so perhaps Friary's Band Manager should be preparing himself for further orders from the sponsors themselves!
Wearing the jacket also helped to increase the awareness of the existence of Friary Guildford Band in the local area with many of the attendees surprised to hear that there was such a top-class brass band virtually on the doorstep. Hopefully, this will help spread the word about Friary’s upcoming engagements, however given the volume of beer consumed, I think some of them may have forgotten the Band come the morning!
You’ll be pleased to hear however, that I resisted the urge to over-indulge to ensure I was still in fine form at Friary Guildford’s rehearsal later that evening.
For more details on the Hogsback Tea Club or the new Hopping Hog IPA, please visit www.hogsback.co.uk