– A day of board games
Hear ye! Hear ye! Travelling Man are upping sticks from their Dale street location & making the arduous trek to Port Street. They come in peace & they bring copious amounts of board games, big and small. Join the Travelling Man takeover of our upstairs room for board game demo heaven & ample opportunity to play along ALL DAY LONG.
Sunday 9th August 2015 / 12pm-late / Port Street Beer House / free entry
– Track & Squawk Tap Takeover
Join us Thursday 16th July for the double delight tap takeover from two of Manchester’s most treasured new breweries, Track Brewing Co. & Squawk Brewing Co.
There’s going to be casks aplenty from both breweries, a couple of kegs each and an all-new collaborative beer. Here’s what is confirmed so far…
TRACK on cask:
Mazama – 5.5%
Sonoma – 3.8%
Zaka – 4.8%
SQUAWK on cask:
Porter – 4.5%
Rhubarb Pale – 5.5%
Pale – 4.1%
Come down and wade in it, meet the brewers and sample a rich vein of local craft output.
Squawk
“A new-kid-on-the-block, experimental craft brewery based in Manchester. Using techniques old and new to create complex tastes and powerful sensations. Committed to craft beer. Not afraid to mix it up and experiment with far out flavours. Selective about rules, because great beer can come from strange beginnings. For intrepid beer hunters on the lookout for bold flavours and brave brews.”
Track
“The brewery is born from a taste for adventure and experimentation – something we want to impart to the beers. Born on a solo, round the world cycle ride, Track Brewing Co sees beer as a landscape as diverse as the route. From hop driven pales and IPAs, oatmeal and imperial stouts to red ryes and saisons, the beer range aims to take drinkers on a journey. The end point being a balanced and refreshingly drinkable experience.”
TRACK & SQUAWK TAP TAKEOVER // THURSDAY 16th JULY 2015 7pm // PORT STREET BEER HOUSE // free entry
– Nómada / Northern Monk Mini Tap Takeover
Aw, so cute! The tiniest of tap takeovers has just landed on our doorstep all wrapped up in a tidy bundle. Leeds favourites, Northern Monk, have recently done a collaboration with Nomada of Sabadell, Spain. Frate Nero, an Imperial India Coffee Stout. To celebrate we’ll be pouring their collaboration along with one keg apiece from the breweries.
As well as these three taps, we will also be carrying a veritable bevy of Nómada bottles. Northern Monk have imported a whole host and we were only too glad to accept this rare spread. Imperial Papaya IPA anyone? Imperial chilli chocolate stout with a whole chilli in it? Taste buds tingling in anticipation. You will also be able to try out the Frate Nero collaboration in bottle alongside the keg.
A great chance to get a taste of these lesser seen Spanish beers – and to rub shoulders once more with our most trusted monk from across the pennines.
ON KEG
MARACUYA
Nómada
Passion Fruit Pale Ale
3.5% ABV
FRATE NERO
Nómada / Northern Monk
Imperial India Coffee Stout
9.5% ABV
MYSTERY BEER
Northern Monk
To be confirmed
?? % ABV
IN BOTTLES
FRATE NERO
Nómada / Northern Monk
330ml
9.5% ABV
TUNDRA
Nómada
Golden Ale
330ml
6% ABV
ESTEPA
Nómada
Red IPA
330ml
5.5% ABV
MOLE NEGRO
Nómada
Imperial Chilli Chocolate Stout (7 types of chilli and sugar cane)
330ml
8.4% ABV
PAPAYA CRASH
Nómada
Imperial IPA with Papaya
330ml
8.8% ABV
NÓMADA / NORTHERN MONK MINI TAP TAKEOVER
Thursday 25th June 2015 / from opening at 4pm
– Moor Tap Takeover / review by Cameron Steward
It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for Moor. Established in 1996, success came quickly for them and why wouldn’t it? Old Freddy Walker (7.3%), Revival (3.8%) and Hoppiness (6.5%) all made a big impression wining a multitude of awards at festivals and flying the flag from the highest tor of the Somerset-Levels area. However they became a victim of their own success, outsourcing production resulting in a dip of quality and by the mid-00s they needed shaking up to return to their celebrated past. Enter ex-US Army officer Justin Hawke who drilled the brewery hard, restoring it beyond former glories and eventually expanding to a 20-barrel brew length and bottling line, putting Moor front and centre of a revolution.
Tonight they’ve infiltrated Port Street Beer House with a regimented line up of 4 keg and 7 cask, all looking formal and all very inviting. Justin Rivett from the brewery gives a succinct introduction, reinforcing Moor’s stance on unfined and naturally hazy brews, a process in which they take great pride. He’s also delighted to have brought the 2015 incarnation of Fusion; their old ale aged in Somerset Cider Brandy barrels. They had me at “aged” but sitting at 8%, I’ll be saving that for the end of the night.
And so I begin with keg offerings Ready Made 2 (5%) and their flagship IPA, Hoppiness (6.5%). The former glows in the glass with a prickly sense of Autumn on the nose and a chorus of hops, singing in tune with the toffee stickiness. It’s insanely quaffable and gone in an instant. I actually preferred RM2 to Hoppiness, which presented an ocean spray of tropical hops and is still of course a class act but didn’t quite have the punch of the “fruity porridge” for me.
My next samples meander down a mellow path with Half & Half (4.1%), a traditional cask mild combined with their no nonsense Bitter, Raw. My mind is cast back to Partizan’s ‘Mild’ and the gorgeously nutty and rounded mouthfeel proves that Moor are entirely competent with contemporary beers as well as archaic styles. A zip of citrus and a veneer of dark chocolate confirm that I could have stayed with this one for more than just the third I ordered. Confidence (4.6%) continues down the road less brazen but satisfies in its earthy and rustic debonair.
It’s then a trip to the dark side with Sloe Walker (7.4%), which takes their “liquid Christmas pudding” Old Freddy Walker and combines in cask with foraged sloe berries. It’s dark, rich, roasted and silky smooth. The berries offer a sour acidity which threads through the old ale, with no hint to the alcohol – this was probably drink of the night.
Return of the Empire (5.7%) is a clean and zippy IPA which wears it’s distinct Britishness like a proud soldier coming back from war, as opposed to a particular Greene King swilling idiot. The modern British hop Jester is front and centre showcasing its tropical credentials, something not often associated with English hops. I enjoy this so much I can almost hear the haunting refrain from “Land of Hop and Glory” resonate through the building, bringing a tear to me eye.
Those tears however were vanquished with my next beer Fusion (8%), which blends their old ale with Somerset Cider Brandy. This mature beer is a complex delight when it reaches my lips: funky, punchy, roasty, oaky and smooth as a mountain goat with the sweet acidity of apples lingering long on the palate. Fusion illustrates Moor’s innovation and passion in one superbly melded beer.
With it getting on a bit and having talked at length about Game of Thrones with a couple of nurses I sneak in a couple of solid cask offerings in the form of Brit Hop (4.1%) and Revival (3.8%) before closing the proceedings with the sparky Ready Made 2 again.
Moor has long been on my radar and I was only familiar with a handful of what was on offer tonight. With ease they won me over with their patrol of first class artillery, seamlessly integrating modern and traditional, innovation and passion, evident in every sip. When can I have some Moor?
Words and photos by Cameron Steward. Author of hit blog All You Need Is Beer
Moor Beer Co – http://moorbeer.co.uk
