On 13 July 2018 Lervig will launch House Party, a new session beer to complement its core range, with a series of themed house parties around the UK.
The beer, which is designed to make a great easy-drinking house pale ale, plugs the gap between the accessible core range and more experimental seasonal range that has produced some of the world’s best New England IPAs and imperial stouts. It takes the exciting flavours of Lervig’s bigger hop-forward beers but puts them at an ABV and price point where pubs can put the beer on permanently.
House party is brewed to be clean and robustly bitter with a healthy dose of grapefruity Citra and pineapple-loaded BRU-1 hops making it a thirst quenching pale ale best drunk by the pint or straight from the can.
Inspired by the traditional after parties of Norway social life, the beer will be launched by importer Cave Direct with house parties around the country (see the list below) with everything from talks and tap takeovers to beer pong, DJs and red cups.
Lervig head brewer, Mike Murphy says: “We have long winters and short summers in Norway, where we often daydream of being on a island paradise. But more often than not we just end up at a friend’s house party all night long and what we drink is House Party – super-clean malt allows the hops give their juicy/tropical fruit flavours an unobstructed pathway to your palate. It comes in a can, and it’s completely crushable.”
Neil Kitching, Sales Director as Cave Direct, says: “We’re really impressed with how clean and drinkable House Party is, but it’s still got that signature juicy hop aroma we expect from hoppy Lervig beers. At this strength and price point it’s going to be a fantastic house pour for both specialist craft beer bars and less beer-focused pubs and bars.”
While the beer may sound like a departure of Lervig, who have made a name for experimenting and pushing the boundaries of different styles, it actually recalls the reason Lervig was founded. Hailing from Stavanger, Norway, Lervig opened after Carlsberg bought and closed the only brewery in the area in 2002. Unhappy with being forced to drink imported lager the townspeople founded a new brewery, Lervig, to make a new local pilsner. Since joining in 2010, Mike Murphy has brought a huge range of exciting styles, but always produced easy drinking beers for locals and export markets too.
The beer will be exclusively available from Cave Direct, Lervig’s importer and the UK’s leading speciality beer wholesaler. For more details on the Lervig, the beer or the launch email Jonny Garrett (jonny@cavedirect.com). If you want to stock the beer, email info@cavedirect.com. To sample the beer, get down to one of the parties on 13 July, being held at:
THE WOLF, Birmingham
KONGS, Bristol
THE REEDS, Liverpool
EUSTON TAP, London
THE PATRON, Manchester