Fathom, beer review
Brewery: Jaw Brew Style: Stout/Dark Ale ABV: 4.0%
Jaw Brew, a Hillington-based brewery a couple months short of its first birthday, is run by husband-and-wife team Mark and Allison Hazell. Born from a passion for home brewing and a throw of the dice (Mark Hazell was made redundant from his job at an IT firm at the beginning of last year), Jaw Brew is slowly making its way into pubs and specialist retailers. Mostly stocked in the greater Glasgow region, the brewery is reaching eastwards via a couple of places in central Scotland and a sole retailer in Edinburgh. Fathom is the duo’s third and newest beer, following Drop, a hoppy pale ale, and Drift, a crisper bottle that foregrounds its malt content a little more.
Jaw Brew’s Fathom is a flat and smooth ale with plenty of personality - but its manner is understated, even tactile once it swishes around in your mouth. The Hillington brewery dark liquid - oily in colour, but not quite so viscous - is not the stuffy concoction its appearance might suggest and its chocolatey colour encourages you to think of it as being rather sweet. So long as you don’t refrigerate it (it takes away a lot of the beer’s earthy flavours) it serves as an excellent companion that can be supped slowly, to better savour its silkiness, and at reasonable length.