– PSBH Scottish Beer Festival 2011
“O ye’ll tak’ the high road, and Ah’ll tak’ the low (road) And Ah’ll be in Scotlan’ afore ye”… Hang on a minute there’s absolutely no need for that, because starting this week Port Street Beer House will be saturated with beers made by our friends north of the border. Beginning 6th September and possibly the following week as well (yes that’s right we do get a little carried away picking beer for you guys when its this good!) we intend to showcase a selection of the finest beers from the best craft brewers in Scotland. There will be a range of cask, draft and bottled beers of various different styles to choose from, so no matter what your preference this should be a week to suit everyone’s taste. The breweries that will be involved are Black Isle, Brew Dog, Fyne, Harviestoun and Highland and just to give you an idea of why their beers are so good here is a bit of background information on each brewery. (more…)
– Dusseldorf / Altbier / Veltins – Port Street on tour.
Not wanting to rub it in but, we just had a little jaunt over to Dusseldorf courtesy of Veltins. Which combined a couple of nights out making the most of Dusseldorf’s famous Altbier brewpubs, a visit to Veltins’ brewery, some ace meals all topped off with some Killepitsch, the cities favourite digestif (think a nicer version of Jagermeister). Anyway if you ever get a chance I can heartily recommend a trip, it’s a really nice, clean, vibrant city with the Altbier pubs providing a unique touch to the whole experience. (more…)
– Event / Meet The Brewer with Red Willow
Meet The Brewer with Toby Mckenzie from Red Willow
Monday 26th September at Port Street Beer House, Port Street, Manchester
Our third instalment of Meet The Brewer comes from the ever excellent Red Willow. They have quickly become a very popular tipple in our establishment, regularly showing up on Common’s guest pumps as well. We are excited to welcome Toby Mckenzie to our bar to chat and drink about his distinctive beers, if he ever needed the excuse!
Here is a little piece about Red Willow straight from the horses* mouth:
“The intersection of a premature mid life crisis and a passion for brewing beer led Toby to the insane idea quitting his job as an IT Director and starting a brewery, luckily for him Caroline said yes.
Based in Macclesfield, brewing started in the last week of November 2010 with a core range of 6 beers; which where later joined by the experimental Faithless series. We recently won a bronze in New Brewery Class for Smokeless (our 5.7% smoked porter) at the Peterborough beer festival, so maybe it was not a completely insane idea.
We make the kinds of beers we want to drink and generally have fun doing it”
* We’re not calling Toby a horse.
Throughout the evening we will be sampling four halves of Red Willow beers and selected snacks will be be provided.
Monday 26th September 2011 – tickets are £8 advance – available from behind the bar. Doors open at 6pm (talks starts around 6.15pm) finishes at 8pm / bar open until 10pm.
– Women and Beer / By Alex Humphreys & Rosie Setterfield-Price
In the beer world it seems to be a mans domain. Many women who have an input are easily dismissed or their efforts go unrecognised, this is the result of our cultural and industrial development over time and seems ignorant to the industry’s foundation and past.
Traditionally, it was the woman’s role, as a brewster, to brew beer for the household and certain laws state that the tools to brew were solely the woman’s property. Through various historical and sociological developments this is no longer the case so much so that the opposite is almost true. In Medieval times monastries started to brew beer on a larger scale for passing travellers, when the industrial revolution came about it transferred brewing from the home to the marketplace, resulting in the decline of women brewing at home. Men claimed the local taverns and women drank less beer. There was an increase in male brewers and it has been so ever since. Obviously female brewers are active today yet they don’t get the recognition of their male counter parts, this industrialisation of the beer industry does not adequately explain why most women, when choosing a beverage feel a distance between themselves and beer.
Women’s roles in today’s beer industry tend to be stereotyped with the dispense of beer, from female bar staff serving beverages to the female figure being the main image on a beer’s pump clip in the hope that it will sell more. Beer marketing as such does tend to highlight men as the target audience, this alone does not seem an ample explanation for the high numbers of women who don’t appear comfortable both drinking and sampling a wider range of beers. It’s time that the culturally accepted and prescribed gender roles regarding women and beer were more actively challenged.
At Port Street Beer House we try to broaden everyones view on the beer industry, with varying degrees of success. Whilst it is a refreshing change to serve male customers a half of fruit beer, this is a more common occurrence than serving female customers a pint of porter or stout for no discernable reason other than a willingness to experiment with different beer styles and flavours. All our staff have a keen personal interest in beer and have all been trained to a equal level. We are ready to help you with your beery needs.
This week at PSBH we are hosting ‘ladies week’. With a selection of cask ales brewed by women. Come along and build a beer bridge.