To celebrate the start of the Six Nations, we are releasing our first seasonal ale of 2012 – Truman’s No.8.

No.8 is a superbly drinkable ale – full of flavour (think a little fruity, with a dash of hoppy zing) – that weighs in at just 3.5% abv. Perfect, then, for those long afternoons spent watching the rugby – or doing anything else, for that matter. (For those of a technical persuasion, the hops are Cascade and Challenger, with both white and crystal malts used in the brew.)

In typical Truman’s style, it’s a beer that you are going to want to drink and drink… and drink.

It will be going on the taps from this weekend, so keep out an (eagle) eye.

Ever since we re-established Truman’s, we’ve been wanting to bring its production back to East London. As regular readers of the blog will know, we’ve even considered taking over part of the Olympic site once the games are over. Although a number of the potential developers have been interested in this idea, it’s become clear to us that we don’t want to wait until 2013 to get a spade in the ground.

We’ve been looking very hard for a new site over the last few months. And despite a few near misses, we’re still looking. But East London is a big place and not every potential site is currently on the market. As such, we thought it would be wise to tap into the local knowledge of our blog readers and ask you to help us find the perfect site for our new brewery.

We’re not asking you to work for nothing, however. A year’s supply of beer – 500 bottles of Truman’s Runner ale – is on offer to the person that sends us details of the site that eventually becomes the Truman’s brewery.  A 12-bottle case of Runner will be given to anyone that sends in details of a site of real interest and all of those that enter will be invited to the opening party at the new brewery.

Potential sites must meet the following criteria:

– In East London (boroughs of Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forrest or Newham)

– Commercial premises

– Between 5,000-10,000 square feet (around two to four tennis courts)

– Good access

– Part of the site must be convertible to ‘double height’ (five metres and above)

Entries can be made by sending an email to brewery@trumansbeer.co.uk.  Please include the address of the site (including post code), current status (leased, vacant, derelict, etc.) and the contact number of the site owner (if known). The more details provided the more likely you are to win some beer. Entries must be in by March 1^st 2012.

Happy hunting.

Now owned by Vice magazine, the pub is famous for its live music nights. NME dubbed it “East London’s most notorious venue” and the “world’s coolest pub”. We are the only ale that they are sell in there – and it has gone so well that they keep selling out. (Hence the upturned beer glass.)

As you can see in the photo above, one of the pub’s most notable features is an original Truman’s mirror – on an epic scale. The Old Blue Last was long one of the breweries most treasured pubs and according to company folklore it was where Porter was invented. We are delighted that Truman’s is being drunk there once again.

Your hunt to find the perfect Christmas present for the ale-lover in your life is over. Step forward the new Truman’s T-shirt, resplendent with the Truman’s Black Eagle.

This is the first T-shirt we have printed since the company was reborn and we are making them available for sale to all Truman’s drinkers. (Disclaimer: unless you come and pick one up from our office in East London, it is highly unlikely that you will get it by Christmas.)

Three sizes are available: Medium, Large, and Beefy. We are selling them at an entirely reasonable  £15 each plus £3 postage (within the UK). This is a strictly limited print run of just 10 per size. So get ‘em before they go. To order, please email us at trumans@trumansbeer.co.uk.

We will be producing more in early 2012 (including smaller sizes and a new black version), so keep a watch of the blog and Twitter for updates.

And remember: a Truman’s T-shirt is for life… not just for Christmas.

Steve Hart recently sent us this photo of a beautiful old Truman’s pub complete with gothic signage the likes of which we’ve not seen before.

The photo is an old family heirloom and he is trying to track down the name and address of the pub.

A couple of bottles of Truman’s to anyone who can help.

The end of our glorious Indian Summer and the start of Autumn may make for heavy hearts, but the change of seasons is not all gloom.

October marks the return of ‘Truman’s Runner’, our copper-coloured classic British bitter. A 4% bitter that drinks above its weight, ‘Runner’ is a great session beer that has proved very popular ever since we made out comeback last year.

Enjoy.

A little over a year ago, the first pints of  the new Truman’s Runner were sold in London pubs.

It’s been a very busy 12 months – and we’re immensely proud of the progress we’ve made. But rather than bore you with all the details, we thought we’d give you a quick review of our first year…  in numbers.

• 300,000 pints of Truman’s drunk
• 20,000 beermats printed
• 4,000 firkins brewed
• 300 pump clips manufactured
• 90 pubs selling Truman’s across London
• 4 types of malt used in the mash
• 3 Truman’s beers – Runner, Summer Runner and Three Threads
• 2 (re)founding partners

….And 1 great beer brand saved from the history books.

A sincere thanks to all of those who have helped us over the last year. And that includes each and every one of you that has drunk a pint of Truman’s Runner.

We hope you enjoyed the beer as much as we have enjoyed bringing it back.

With the temperature steadily rising, it is now time to unveil our latest creation – Summer Runner.

Rather than launch a stand-alone summer beer, as is the norm in the industry, our flagship beer, Runner , has had its recipe adapted to suit summer drinking.

One of the things we noticed when researching old Truman’s beers, was that the ingredients used in the brew would change quite a bit from month-to-month. Indeed,  before the days of mechanised, temperature-controlled breweries, it was common for the taste of beer to to change throughout the year, as the ingredients and heat of the brew moved with the season. Although this was often more by accident than design, we decided to try and re-create this historical quirk and have released a new version of Runner, just for the summer.

We have used more hops and lighter malts in to produce a more refreshing, crisper beer.  The key factor for us is that Summer Runner will still taste like Runner – but a Runner designed for summer drinking.

Come September, the beer will revert to its former self. Until then, those of you who desire a hit of the deeper, darker version of Runner will be able to find it in bottle.

As many of you will know, we have put in a proposal to use some of the Olympic Site as the location for our new brewery once the Games have finished.

We’re pleased to say that our proposal has been short-listed and is being put to potential partners.

The whole process could take till the end of the year before a decision is made – we’ll let know as soon as we get a step closer to returning Truman’s to London.

We’re recruiting and we hope you can help.

We are looking for a part-time Accounts & Administrative Assistant who can help us grow.

If you’re interested, and have a experience and qualifications in bookkeeping and basic accounting, then click here.

If you know anyone who fits the bill, then please send them the link. It is a big appointment for us, so anyone who helps us find the right person will be getting some free beer.