We’re famous for our pale and gold coloured beers at Oakham Ales, but we’ve brewed some great black beers over the last 30 years and Hawse Buckler showcases just what our brewers can do in that area.

Hawse Buckler (first brewed in 2006) was an excellent Black IPA a long time before the Black IPA category was even invented!

We’ve been perfecting the recipe ever since and as the Oakham team’s unanimous choice as our favourite black beer, Hawse Buckler was always going to make it onto the “Oakham 30 Years” line-up.

This spicy, rich and unique beer has a backbone of chocolate and coffee malt brilliantly balanced by fruity hop flavours.

Oakham’s Cask Aged beers command a lot of the brewing team’s care and attention and these award-winning beers prove that it’s time well spent!

The process starts with great beer being brewed in the usual Oakham way, but at the end of the initial fermentation, yeast cells are removed from the beer.

This is because yeast gets tired and a bit bad tempered after working hard in the fermentation process and this can cause undesirable aromas and flavours.

So fresh yeast is introduced to complete the fermentation – a process known as “Krausening” and the method which ensures that Oakham’s Cask Aged beers taste so smooth and drinkable.

The beer is then racked in casks and cellared like a fine wine to allow development of the remarkable flavours and conditioning that characterize the Oakham Cask Aged range.

All of the Oakham Cask Aged beers are aged for at least 6 weeks – usually for much longer, with Hawse Buckler being aged for at least 3 months.