Brewery Speed Dating at Beer Now

Its been a full 18 months since I last participated in one of these; so may be a bit rusty. Bear with me; I'll try to repost the blog after each new beer but sometimes can get caught up in the conversation and actual drinking! Follow along pics on +Steve Lamond and I'll add them to this post when I get a chance.

I'm sat on a table with Jim & Laura from Mashtun and Miaow; Adam from Brewbie; Andy Parker, blogger emeritus & homebrewer turned pro brewer; Veteran #EBBC attendees The Baron & Chris & the inimitable Jules of Beer Revere, Hop Hideout & Sheffield Beer Week - great company indeed.

First Up is James & Alex from Thornbridge part of a 50 strong team from Thornbridge with their nip bottle of Eldon. Roasty, Fruity


Second is a nice palate cleanser Lost Industry/ Steel City collab, not normally a fan of peach but this one is excellent. peach melba fromage frais with a hint or tartness

Andrew And Rachel from Sharps Brewery presenting their smoked Boscawen now, only 12 casks made.  Familiar Northern Ireland accent from Andrew - not far up the road from me at Limavady. Classic rauchbier aroma, rather sweet amber ale with lovely full body, great mouthfeel and fruity finish.

"Hi I'm Dan, I'm a cancer, how are you all doing?" good introduction from Abbeydale's sales and marketing director. Heathen IPA from a can - ooh trendy. Had this on keg yesterday actually, fruity mosaic, orange yoghurt and slight sweaty guava notes, clean, moderate bitterness, aggressive hooping. Trial brew #6 originally. First batch to be canned, 3000 canned on Sunday. As a brewery we mustn't forget cask, taht enables us to do all of this fun stuff but its very much our bread and butter. 30BBL brewery, 200bbl sales/ week with capacity for 300, new special every week. 'If we were to present this to the traditional drinker they'd say "its off, its cloudy" we've had a few stand up rows at SIBA this week!'

Fifth beer is Twisted Barrel Soup Dragon, 50% rauchmalt & 50% pilsner malt in mash, 250g chipotle & hand grated 110 limes for 1kg zest added five mins from end of boil. fermented with saison yeast which alongside a hint of smoke covers the nose. the taste really develops from first to last, sharp lime up first, fruity saison esters, loads of smoke then some warming heat from the chipotle. Unsurprisingly for something with a lot of my favourite flavours in its very enjoyable.

Alex from sentinel pouring his RRG a rhubarb and rosehip gose now. good as apertif, could make a sorbet from it, tonight tehy're steaming mussels in it. they make a rosehip tea (rosehips from Denmark) Yorkshire rhubarb added 5mins from end of boil, 4kg of each also "dry rhubarbed". Low salt level to avoid impact on drinkability, sits there on tip of tongue but acidity main driver. Took 5 years to find right site and pull money together.

And finally a familiar brewery for me, Ilkly Lotus. taking the end position at Edinburgh beer bloggers conference a few years ago now, they've gone through a few iterations. First consideration "what hops did we not want to use - no citra, cascade, columbus, etc no amrillo, no mosaic, no summit, no simcoe, no galaxy - to try and push us to use some more progressive hops. So we used eureka, equinox and comet" We stopped it at 5.9 which is about as high as you can go and still drink in quantity without losing your faculties. Matt from Ilkley presenting. really drinkable. Canned in brewdog, centrifuged too to prevent clogging of canning machine - more visually appearing but perhaps lost a bit of itself vs keg but keg doesnt have quite the crispness of it on can.

A taste of the Ridings

I've always felt an affinity for Yorkshire, it feels similar in part to my home county of Somerset but with friendlier, more down to Earth people. After being welcomed with open arms to Leeds for the beer bloggers conference last year and numerous trips to York, I find myself wishing I were living there. One of the Leodesians playing a significant role in the organisation was Leigh Linley (of The Good Stuff) who ably led a group of maybe 40 thirsty beer bloggers around town on the Thursday evening; so when I heard he was writing a book on Yorkshire beer I knew it would be a great read.

The book!
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After receiving Great Yorkshire Beer I can say I certainly wasn't disappointed. It perfectly catches Leigh's personality that's shown so well on his blog by providing a whirlwind tour around some of the choicier movers and shakers in the Yorkshire brewing scene, interspersed with beer reviews, food recipes and other choice tidbits. I'll definitely have to try the beer battered mussels which sound like a perfect beer snack.

Its great to have a "book-shaped" book after most of my last book purchases have been abnormal sizes and shapes...they're OK for coffee table usage but not practical to take in hand luggage! I like the pump clip design for the front cover and wonder when Leigh is going to turn his hand to brewing ;).

For me its interesting to hear some more of the back story for breweries I know and love, plenty of familiar faces of people I've shared pints with in the past but also the chance to put a face to a name for some of the other breweries I love. Alongside these better known brewers are people that not even I have heard of, which I'll try to rectify ASAP! This book is very much about the stories behind the beers and breweries with the tasting notes as an aside.

Leeds Brewery's Hellfire

There are also plenty of fantastic pictures throughout, and the font is a sensible size for all of you whose eyes have become weary over the years.I think Leigh's doen a great job at picking a variety of breweries to showcase the region and I'm on the look out for the beers as we speak - though if you're looking for an exhaustive tick list, look elsewhere.

There are a few layout bits I would have done differently, not least having the brewer contact details at the start of their sections as it took me a while to find them! Also, I was surprised to not find twitter names alongside the more traditional addresses, given what Leigh said about the breweries' use of social media. Not even his own account or blog link is given! Would have been good to include at least the postcodes of the pubs mentioned as well.  I think all of these data plus some handy Google maps could be included on the Great Yorkshire Beer page of Leigh's blog which would add some great functionality and allow for periodic updates in the same vein of Des De Moor's London pub guide. A few of the beer pictures/ pumpclips don't match up with the tasting notes opposite, which may cause confusion particularly if you're reading after sampling a few Great Yorkshire Brews...
Would also have been nice to have a beer index and bibliography/ further reading section, though that's probably the inner list geek in me speaking!

Beer taps at Magic Rock, Huddersfield

Overall a fantastic book and I'd love to see more regional efforts cataloguing the rise and rise of local brewing, that's a challenge to you, dear reader to get out and chronicle your own counties! You can pick up the book for the reasonable price of £10 post paid on the publisher's website or if you're within travelling distance the fantastic York Tap is hosting a launch party next Thursday 30th (details here).

A tale of three taps

Dome window at York Tap

Pivovar. A Czech beer importer and owner of Pivni bar in York. But this year it has also been the driving force behind the opening of three excellent bars, the Sheffield, Euston and York taps respectively. I've been fortunate to visit all three within the last half of 2011. Although similar in terms of beer range and proximity to a station they all have their own unique charms.

The Euston Tap was my first visit back in August for the Bieres San Frontieres staff party. Housed in one of the Doric Arches outside Euston Station, its a fairly tiny venue, but there are more seats hidden upstairs. The beer tap arrangement has to be seen to be believed and there are both cask and keg beers available from all over the UK and further afield. I enjoyed some Bristol Beer Factory Acer and Saison.

Later that same month I visited the Sheffield tap. Right on the platform and  with an hour to spare until my connection I indulged in their comprehensive beer menu, tasting the Hawaii coconut porter and an old favourite, Schlenkerla rauchbier marzen. On draught I plumped for the Thornbridge Burton Ale and a half of Camden Pale. I found the bottle prices to be reasonable so bought a couple for my train journey too.

But the jewel in the Pivovar crown is the newly opened York Tap. Based in the original station waiting room which has been lovingly restored, including the stained glass dome windows. There is a fully navigable island bar with beers down three sides and fridges in behind, with a smallish but exciting bottled selection. There's also real fires, very handy for drying off in front of when its been hammering it down in York. I visited twice last week and could have stayed all night. I had far too many tasty beers to recap on them all, there's something for everyone, the staff are friendly and helpful and the pub has the excited buzz of conversation that indicates a quality establishment and the best I visited in 2011, hence my Golden Pints nomination.

I shall certainly endeavour to return to all three in 2012 and suggest you do too.

Bonus Question:

(There may be a prize)

Can you identify all three beers?