They take time over beer down on the farm

By Phil Mellows

Way back in the days before the pandemic, the British Beer Breaks team rolled up at a remote farm deep in the Norfolk countryside to check out an unusual new brewery.

Occupying a cluster of barns beside a ruined priory by the village of West Acre, Duration Brewing was just coming together, but it was already clear this was going to be something special, from the founding ethos of a brewery rooted in the land to the vivid artwork on the cans.

The people behind it (pictured) inspired confidence, too: Miranda Hudson, brimming with enthusiasm for the project with a firm grip on the commercial realities, and a laconic brewing genius from the Appalachian Mountains known simply as Bates. This had to work. And the beer wasn’t bad, either.

At the time of our visit there was excitement about the arrival from America of three giant oak barrels known as foeders, where beers are matured to gain depth and complexity over many months.

Under the Fermata label and packaged in tall bottles, these ‘slow’ beers are at the heart of what Duration is about. They include the first products fermented in Duration’s own coolship, a broad, flat, open-topped fermenting vessel that invites wild yeasts in the air to give the brew a sour edge that softens in the charred oak of the foeder.

Styles vary. The ‘house’ Fermata release is Bet the Farm, a 5.2% farmhouse pale with aromas of tropical fruits, the name hinting at the gamble Hudson and Bates took with this ambitious project.

Tracing Time is based on a Belgian stout, weighing in at 8.6% abv and aged for 16 months. Difficult Takes a Day is a 5.2% abv wild cherry saison, or farmhouse beer, that’s been maturing for even longer – 19 months.

Dropped Limb, a collaboration with Cornwall’s Verdant Brewing, features another innovation – logs dropped into coolship to deepen the oak notes in this 7% abv ‘rustic’ saison.

As you might guess, these are beers that should be slowly savoured to respect the time they’ve taken to reach your glass, and perhaps the best way to get to know them is at a bottle-share – like the one Duration hosted at its second birthday party last November.

In fact, for pubs and bars interested in these kind of beers but nervous about being able to sell a whole bottle, sharing events are a nice solution that get people together and introduce them to new tastes.

Or, you can head to the brewery itself. The Barrel Store tap room is now open on Fridays and Saturdays from midday to 6pm.