Graeme Mitchell has years of experience in marketing beer. It shows in the way he has launched his own brewing business.

Graeme once headed the speciality beers side of the Whitbread business. He’s also worked for Carlsberg and a drinks strategy and design company called Drinks Works.

Six months ago, Graeme founded Mitchell Krause Brewing in Workington, Cumbria. The company name is an amalgam of that of his parents – an English father and a German mother. The presentation of the company has been excellent. But what of the beers themselves?

Well, let’s start by saying that Graeme is playing to his strengths and is not, at this stage, brewing himself. He leaves the recipes to his brewing consultant, former Boddingtons head brewer Paul Buttrick, and production to his contract brewer, Hepworth & Co. It’s a wise move: the products are good.

As for the range of beers, the clue lies in the company’s logo, which reads ‘Mitchell Krause World Beers’. Put more expansively, it means that Graeme is looking to produce beer styles from around the world, rather than simply focusing on the British tradition.

His rationale-cum-sales pitch runs along the lines of ‘why import these beers across thousands of miles when they can be brewed to a high standard closer to home?’. In a sense, it’s an echo of what Samuel Adams has been doing in the USA for a quarter of a century.

Three beers make up the package. Number 1 on Graeme’s beer list is simply called Czech Pilsner. It’s very pale golden in colour, with quite a strong citrus-lemon aroma for a pilsner, but with some appropriately creamy maltiness and herbal notes behind.

The taste is bittersweet, crisp and refreshing, with herbal and lemon notes from the Sladek and Saaz hops leading over malt. Herbal hops linger nicely in the very dry, increasingly bitter finish.

The ABV is only 4.2%, however, which would slot it just into the 11 degree bracket if actually brewed in the Czech Republic, as opposed to the fuller-bodied 12 degree that most Czech beers that are shipped abroad fall into. So, while it compares exceptionally well against the Carlings of this world, it might look a little lightweight against the Budvars.

Numbers 2 and 3

Number 2 is American Pale Ale, inspired, no doubt, by Graeme’s two-year stint in the USA, where he launched Boddingtons. From the name you’d expect fragrant, citrus notes in aroma and flavour, and that’s certainly what you get, courtesy of Liberty, Chinook and Cascade hops.

The taste is bittersweet and dry, with floral and grapefruit notes that continue into the equally dry finish. This is a quenching, golden bitter, but surprisingly low in alcohol for the style at only 3.8%.

The last of the three initial beers (and I hope there are more) is Bavarian Hefe Weiss. It’s a golden, 5% beer with an apple sharpness to the aroma, which also features creamy banana, a touch of bubblegum and some clove.

Stewed apple tartness leads in the mostly sweet, slightly bready taste, supported by creamy cereals, a warming, clove spiciness, a hint more bubblegum and just a little banana. Clove bitterness is the main feature of the dry, bready finish, which – in keeping with the house pattern – is not particularly full.

Mitchell Krause is a good concept, well executed. The branding, in Graeme’s own words, suggests an ‘understated elegance’ and the same can be said for the beers, which, while certainly clean, enjoyable, tasty and fresh, are, to my mind, a little underpowered.

But there is a reason for this. Graeme has deliberately aimed the range at drinkers who have yet to appreciate the great beers of the world, and so he’s set the ABVs close to British mainstream ale and lager brands.

Thumbs are up, though. A lot of time, money and experience has been invested in this project and it deserves to succeed.