Brew la la

What an historic occasion this is turning out to be. If you have not already been swept up in the excitement of the Tour de France coming to Yorkshire then you may be very shortly – even if you prefer pub bars to handlebars.

Across the region, brewers are getting their beer into gear and coming up with new one-off ales to help celebrate the event. Less ooh la la, and more brew la la, you could say.

If you’ve been on another planet for the past few months, let’s bring you up to speed. In early July, Yorkshire will be hosting the opening stage of the world’s biggest annual sporting event, the Tour de France’s Grand Départ (it’s seemingly pronounced ‘grong dehparrrrr’ if you want to sound suave and is French for ‘big set-off’, apparently).

Tourists are likely to mass across the region and York’s population is expected to double on the first weekend in July, and businesses are positively giddy at the potential boom in trade, peddling pedalling with all their might.

So who can blame the brewers for wanting a piece of the action? Ossett Brewery will launch their Tour Yorkshire later this month. Little Valley have produced Stage Winner and Wharfebank have produced Lanterne Rouge (the nickname for the last-placed cyclist in the Tour).

Great Newsome, Brown Cow and Wold Top have created Maillot Jaune, On Yer Bike and Hello Velo respectively, while Pedal Power has been created in Harrogate.

Many more will no doubt follow over the next couple of months, but for now it is the turn of our very own York Brewery to lead the peloton.

The second batch of its Velo-city was brewed yesterday using an apposite combination of Yorkshire malt and French hops, namely Triskel and Bouclier.

Velo-city is the latest beer in York’s “Off the wall” series, which runs throughout 2014, and it is a bright golden colour, in honour of the Tour’s famous yellow jersey. It will be an enjoyable summer beer but the bottled version we tried had a pleasant caramel twist to it as well. That version has an ABV of 4.5 per cent, but the cask version that hits the bars will be only 2.8 per cent, to make it a safe session beer that can be enjoyed after an exhilarating bike ride, says Neil Arden, the brewery’s brand manager.

York Outer MP Julian Sturdy (vice-chair of the 2014 All Party Parliamentary Group for the Tour de France) and York singer and composer Alistair Griffin, who is writing the official Grand Départ anthem, teamed up with brewers Alan Hardie and Nick Webster yesterday to muck in with the hard work but the ideas all came from the brewery’s experts.

Nick says: “The brewers got their heads together and I know we have created something very special indeed. It’s really great that Julian and Alistair have decided to spend time with us brewing it, hopefully giving the beer a little extra je ne sais quoi!”

He describes it as a “delicious mélange of fruity-floral notes over herby undertones, with a subtle Mediterranean twist of lemon and spice on the finish”, a colourful description that suggests more than a little French influence.

Local drinkers may be a tad less flowery in their descriptions when they get the chance to try it. The cask version will hit the bars just before the Tour arrives and the first bottled batch is available to order now.

SHORTS

• There are beer festivals all this weekend at The Goodmanham Arms and The Rook & Gaskill in Lawrence Street, while Ripon Cathedral has its annual beer festival from 11.30am to 5pm on Monday.

• The Gillygate has closed for a £500,000 refurbishment. It is due to reopen around June 20. Meanwhile, work is continuing on The Fox in Holgate, which is due to reopen in mid-May under the management of Ossett Brewery.

Twitter: @pintsofview