Published on June 26, 2023.
Part of the Balfour Hush Heath Estate.
Jake’s is a collection of craft beers and ciders from the winemakers at Balfour Winery. As with their wines, the beers and ciders are made with the same skill and pioneering spirit. They combine the best local ingredients, a winemakers touch and a vision for producing drinks of elegance and balance.
All Jake’s ciders are made with 100% juice from the Kentish dessert apples Russet, Cox and Bramley. Grown on the Estate’s orchards, each variety is fermented separately, then blended by their winemakers to form Balfour’s signature wine-like character: clean, crisp and bursting with Kentish fruit flavours. Three Estate-grown apples combine to form a drink fit for dedicated cider traditionalists and curious wine purists. 100% of the juice is from these Kentish dessert apples. Treated like a sparkling wine, each apple variety is fermented separately using wine yeasts. A balanced blend leads to a clean, wine-like style delivering a pure, refreshing and crisp craft cider that sits between dry and sweet with delicate, sweet aromatics. It also provides a great body and richness to the blend with an acidity and freshness to form the cider’s backbone.
To create Jake’s beers, the winemakers combine their knowledge with the expertise of Cellar Head, a local Kent brewery that Balfour Winery has a partnership with, drawing on Kent’s heritage for growing the finest hops, reviving forgotten varieties and combining them with modern hybrids to create beers with a clearly defined personality. Complex yet balanced, each beer is an individual, authentic expression of terroir, ingredients and the art of brewing.
Jake’s Lager is a flavoursome craft lager created with a traditional Kentish hop and an American classic. Showing plenty of patience, Balfour’s Winemakers, Owen and Fergus Elias, leave the lager in tank for up to two months, allowing the rich flavours to fully develop. This lager is bright with a fresh aroma of caramel. The taste of lemon rind merges with a touch of sweetness from the malts. A traditional pilsner style with an English twist. The blend of East Kent Goldings creates a lavender, honey and thyme aroma on the nose, giving a mildly bitter taste with sweet, silky notes which brings through earthy spices with citrus fruit elements.
Jake’s IPA is a blend of three Kent hops; one classic, one modern and one almost forgotten. Owen and Fergus carefully selected each locally grown hop to concoct a unique blend of the traditional with a modern twist. This delightful session IPA delivers a smooth, nutty flavourthat are developed by four malts that blend into a light-bodied bitterness. The dark amber hue sits under a delicate, creamy head. Boadicea gives a delicate aromas of orchard blossom and adds light bitter flavours and bramling delivers low alpha acids and possesses smothering, aromatic qualities.
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About the author
Chloe Lewis
Chloe looks after all copywriting and proof-reading for Drink Warehouse UK, working with the Marketing team to deliver educational content to all our customers. She has spent many years in the hospitality sector, moving from behind the bar to now helping venues to stock their own. You can find more from Chloe about beer, cider, spirits, wine, non-alcoholic, soft drinks and RTDs all over our blogs, website, social media and Set The Bar magazine.
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