– Culture Club 05/11/17
CULTURE CLUB
Sunday 5th November 2017 / 6-9pm
A monthly meet up to discuss and share all things fermented. Beginners and professionals welcome. Bring down whatever you’ve been pickling, or just come down with open arms and ears.
Photograph: wellandgood.com
– Craft Ale Bar of the Year 2017
Huzzah!
This week we were crowned CRAFT ALE BAR OF THE YEAR at the 2017 Manchester Food and Drink Awards, the 20th year of the awards. Thank you to all that voted and for your patronage this year. Onwards and upwards!
CHEERS!
– IMBC 17 Review by Cameron Steward
IMBC 17 Review
by Cameron Steward
It’s never fun queuing in the rain, but taking “pineapple selfies” whilst awaiting entrance into the North’s (perhaps even the UK’s) most revered beer festival certainly helped pass the time. To those who weren’t social media savvy our group must’ve looked like idiots, but when Beavertown take to the airwaves to plead for certain tropical plants you gotta step up, especially when there’s a mysterious prize involved… turns out that mysterious prize(s) were a can of Lupuloid IPA (6.7%), some Beavertown Extravaganza pins and a poncho. Now that’s a post-Brexit exchange rate I can get behind.
I realise the following sentence may get me blacklisted from all of Manchester’s finest bars and speakeasies, but I’ve definitely got hop haze fatigue. I’m all murked out, y’all! Thankfully, plenty of breweries have many other strings to their bows and served up slices of chop-smacking sours to satisfy my tarty tastes. Fierce Beer’s Very Berry (4.5%) and Brew By Numbers’ Cuvee 2017 (6.2%) were fantastic examples of wild ales at their biting best.
I usually keep my distance from Room 3 – it’s dark and the music is a bit rave-y. It reminds me of Laser Quest birthday parties; being gunned down by the local teenagers who would corner me until I was “back in play”, then shoot me down all over again – live, die, repeat. This year I decided to put my 90s-based traumas aside – plus my brother thought one of the DJs was very attractive… Turned out to be a great decision as Redchurch were delivering some of the best sours of the festival – Dry Hop Sour (5.4%) was ace but On Skins: Cherry (6.5%) was a face-contorting highlight. Suddenly I thought I heard a dance track I knew, and then remembered I’m old and boring so moved on to a different room.
Buxton brought along their soft serve machine, which although a bit gimmick-y, totally elevated their already great Original Blueberry Slab Cake (7%) to an astral plane. I even went a bit crazy and got soft serve Trolltunga (6.3%), their gooseberry sour IPA. Sacrilege, I hear you cry! Judge not, that ye be not judged… Or something to that affect, I would reply.
Making a lunch decision is always the hardest part of IMBC, and a last minute choice to get a Dirty Burger from Patty Smith’s turned out to be an excellent one, especially when paired with Wild Beer’s Wild Goose Chase (4.5%). Boom! Dessert was a Pecan Slab from the ever-amazing In Truffles We Trust, washed down with the frankly insane BA Imperial Chocolate Stout, Speyside Cacao (12.5%) by Dugges and Stillwater Artisanal.
Other beers were drank but haven’t been listed because they weren’t as good as the aforementioned (plus you’d get a bit bored reading about them) but the hit rate, as ever, was ridiculously high. And that also makes Indy Man a 6 for 6. Yep, 6 mother-flipping years and consistently the best thing that happens in my otherwise meaningless existence. Roll on 2018!!
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– Now open from midday every day!
Yes yes y’all! As of Friday 4th August 2017 Port Street Beer House will be open 7 days a week from MIDDAY. Come visit us for a liquid lunch or pick up a pie or a scotch egg…or all of that. New times…
WEEKDAYS
Midday-Midnight
SATURDAY
Midday-1am
SUNDAY
Midday-Midnight
Ta-da!
