– End of year review / Best Beers of 2012 – a collective poll
2012, how was it for you? It seemed to be a pretty good year at Port Street Beer House, couldn’t of asked for a better twelves months. We began with our first anniversary, making an exciting beer with Summer Wine Brewery, Red Willow, Quantum, Magic Rock and Darkstar, it was inventively called ‘Anniversary – Saison DuPort’. We are led to believe there are some rare bottles of this to be brought out on our 2nd Anniversary! Talking of which we are making a brand new beer for our 2nd birthday, you can read more about that here.
As the year unravelled we hosted our first proper exhibition by the ever wonderful Teacake, thanks to all those who have bought a print, you can still purchase them from the bar. We also held quite a few festivals this year, they included our now annual fare of The Festival of Britain (s Beers), American Beer Festival, IPA Day (with added Dirty Dogs), Eurotoberfest, Old and Dark festival and a little something called the Independent Manchester Beer Convention.
Indy Man Beer Con proved quite a big hit, we are super proud of the event at Victoria Baths, if you weren’t there last year then we will definitely see you at the next one, tickets go on sale March 1st 2013.
We also hosted our best line up of Meet The Brewer events, they included an esteemed list, featuring the likes of Marble, Brodie’s, Darkstar, Hardknott, Buxton, Odell, Camden, Ilkley, Roosters, Schlenkerla, Kirkstall and Hawskhead! It wasn’t just about the beer, we introduced the world to our small ‘pop up food events’ held in our small but perfectly formed beer garden, special thanks to Dirty Dogs, Great North Pie Co & Fire and Salt for braving the elements and serving up their delicious wares.
So what does 2013 hold you may ask? Well SO much we can’t fit it all in. We have booked in the first quarter’s Meet The Brewers in 2013, there is a 2nd Anniversary beer launch / birthday weekend beginning on Thursday 24th January and much more to behold!
To finish of 2012 we asked some of good friends to compile their favourite beers of the past year, if you would like to add your favourites in the comments section, that would be grand. Hope you enjoy lists?
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Name: Ben Hodgkinson (James Clay Beers)
1) Brooklyn – Sorachi Ace
2) Goose Island – Bourbon County Stout
3) Goose Island – Madame Rose
4) 3 Fonteinen – Oude Gueuze
5) Summer Wine – Cohort
6) Schneider Weisse – Tap X Mein Eisbock Barrique
7) Flying Dog – Single Hop Imperial IPA (Citra)
8) Hawkshead – NZPA
9) Augustiner – Edelstoff
10) Saison – Dupont
Best Beer Based Experience of the Year:
Best event of the year was undoubtedly IndyManBeerCon – a fantastic two day extravaganza that celebrated the best things about the beer industry and its product, and disregarded all the worst.
Best experience was trying Christmas in New York, a beer-based cocktail in Miracle on High Street (Manchester). They managed to markedly improve one of my favourite beers (Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout).
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Name: C J Jazwinski (customer)
1) Haand – Krekingol
2) Mikkeller – Tripel
3) Kirskstall / Odell – Aqitance
4) Hawkshead – Imperial Stout
5) Hawskhead – Damson & Vanilla Imperial Stout
6) Black Jack – Four Of A Kind
7) Darkstar – Belgium IPA
8) Ilkley – Siberia
9) Marble – Decadence
10) Quantum – Blood Orange Pale Ale
Best Beer Based Experience of the Year:
Indy Man Beer Con!
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Name: Claudia Asch (Port Street Beer House / IMBC)
1) Brodies / Kernel Collab – Scanners
2) Kernel Export India Porter
3) Lovibonds – Sour Grapes
4) Red Church – Old Ford Export Stout
5) Toccalmatto – Zona Cesarini
6) Thornbridge – Evenlode
7) Darkstar / Magic Rock Collab – Rockstar
8) Bitches Brewing / Quantum Collab – Chocolate Chilli Stout
9) Ithaca Brewing Co – Cascazilla
10) Summer Wine Brewery – Aoraki Red
Best Beer Based Experience of the Year:
Visiting the cellar of The Grove and Indy Man Beer Con!
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Name: Jay Krause (Quantum Brewery)
1) Brodie’s – London Sour
2) Pied Bull – Matador
3) Marble – Dobber
4) Dark Star – Revelation (keg)
5) Summer Wine – Cohort (cask)
6) Redchurch Brewery – Great Eastern IPA
7) Hawkshead – NZPA
8) Magic Rock – Tequila Barrel Aged Cannonball
9) Marble/Fullers – Old Manchester
10) Blackjack Brewery – Aces High
Best Beer Based Experience of the Year:
Far too many to choose one, but here’s a few:
Camping for Hawkshead Spring and Summer Festivals and all the carnage that entailed; Leeds International Beer Festival & IMBC raising the standard for beer festivals; Brewing collaborations with Marble, Pied Bull, North Tea Power & PSBH, and the glorious Colin Stronge; Witterfest at King William IV; Meeting myriad wonderful folk through this excellent industry.
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Name: Richard Burhouse (Magic Rock)
1) Pizza Port Carlsbad – Poor Mans IPA
2) Alpine – Hoppy Birthday
3) Ballast Point – Sculpin
4) Tilquin – Oude Guezue (4% draught)
5) Russian River – Pliny The Elder
6) Brasserie d’Orval – Orval
7) Russian River – Supplication
8) Hawkshead – Windermere Pale
9) Alpine – Exponential Hoppiness
10) Thornbridge – West Coast IPA
Best Beer Based Experience of the Year:
Haandbryggeriet festival in Norway/Indymanbeercon
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Name: Hardknott Ann
1) Rhetoric I
2) Vitesse Noir
3) Colonial Mayhem
4) Duchesse De Bourgone
5) Brewdog – AB10
6) Queboid
7) Kirkstall – Framboise
8) Cool Fusion
9) Azimuth
10) Infra Red
Best Beer Based Experience of the Year:
Meet the brewer night drinking Rhetoric and English Experiment then HardknottDave having to drive home.
Sorry my beer choices are biased but it’s all I usually drink.
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Name: Dominic Driscoll (Thornbridge Brewery)
1) Lovibonds – Sour Grapes
2) Summer Wine – Oregon Pale
3) Hawkshead – Imperial Damson and Vanilla Porter
4) Ashover – Moscow Imperial stout
5) Mallinsons – Citra
6) Magic Rock – Clown Juice
7) Lovibonds – 69 IPA
8) Black Isle – Black Run
9) Roosters – Pentathlon
10) Marble – Pint
Best Beer Based Experience of the Year:
IMBC of course!
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Name: John Clarke
1) Summer Wine – Cohort (cask version)
2) Hawkshead – Windermere Pale
3) Marble – Decadence (2012 version)
4) De La Senne – Zinnebir X-Mas (draft)
5) Emelisse – Red IPA
6) De Dochter van de Korenaar – Peated Oak Aged Embrasse
7) De Cam – Oud Faro
8) Brouwers – Verzet Oud Bruin (cask)
9) Victory – Prima Pils
10) Thornbridge – Beadeca’s Well (whisky cask version)
Best Beer Based Experience of the Year:
A tie I think between Borefts Bier Festival at De Molen Brewery and IMBC
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Name: Mark Dredge (Camden Brewery)
In no particular order…
1) Camden Town Brewery – USA Hells
2) The Kernel – Table Beer
3) Russian River – Pliny the Elder
4) Thornbridge – Tzara
5) Odell – The Meddler
6) Everything brewed at Pizza Port Ocean Beach
7) Pretty Things – St Botolph’s Town
8) Hill Farmstead – Arthur
9) Three Floyds – Gumballhead
10) Santorini Brewing – White Donkey (unreleased; from tank)
Best Beer Based Experience (s) of the Year:
Judging GABF and then going to the festival, plus some brewery tours around Colorado – Odell, Funkwerks, Crooked Stave, New Belgium. A beer and food crawl around Chicago. Drinking at Cantillon Brewery with my dad. Discovering how good Greek craft beer can be
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Name: Dave Hardknott
1) Azimuth
2) Continuum
3) English Experiment
4) Colonial Mayhem
5) Vitesse Noir
6) Cool Fusion
7) Infra Red
8) Code Black
9) Queboid
10) Rhetoric II
Best Beer Based Experience of the Year:
Leeds International Beer Festival
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Name: James Clay
1) Brooklyn – Fiat Lux
2) Cask Schlenkerla Rauchbier
3) Schneider – Eisbock Barrique
4) AMA – Mora
5) Founders – Breakfast Stout
6) Lagunitas – A Little Sumpin’
7) Brooklyn – Cuvee Elijah
8) Nogne O – India Saison
9) Hatachino Nest – White Ale (specifically with Sashimi)
10) Moa – Methode
Best Beer Based Experience of the Year:
Brooklyn Fiat Lux in the Brewery bar.
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Name : Garret Oliver (Brooklyn)
Best Beer Based Experience of the Year:
Going to Brazil and brewing the collaborative Saison de Caipira with my friends at the Wals Brewery in Belo Horizonte. We went out to sugar cane fields, cut the cane, and brought it back to the brewery, where we had a cane crusher. We crushed the cane juice straight into the kettle, where it made up 15% of the sugars in the wort. We hope to get some funky, grassy sugar cane flavors. It was a great time, and I still have my cane machete!
Read more here : http://brooklynbrewery.com/blog/news/brewmasters-journal-brewing-saison-de-caipira/
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Name : Al The Viking (Port Street beer House)
1) Flying dog – Single Hop Citra D.I.P.A
2) Speedway – Stout
3) Redchurch – Chinook D.I.P.A
4) Redchurch – Greta Eastern IPA
5) Jester King – Black Metal Stout
6) Kernel – Imperial Brown Stout
7) Kernel – London red Brick Rye
8) Red Willow – Soulless
9) Brodies – Citra For Breakfast
10) Mikkeller – Beer Hop Breakfast
Best Beer Based Experience of the Year:
Spending a week at the Brewdog brewery / Aberdeen bar, helping our brewing. Good times.
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Name : Euan Summers
1) Summer Wine Brewery – Sin City
2) Jester King – Farmhouse Black Metal
3) Toøl – Ov-ral
4) Zona – Cesarini
5) Jolly Pumpkin – Madura Obscura
6) Rooie Dop – Double Oatmeal
7) Green Flash – IPA
8) Blue Moon (I have a feeling someone else filled this in, as it’s in different handwriting – Editor)
9) Cromarty – Red Rocker
10) Camden – King Crimson
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Name : Terry and Allison (customers)
1) Hawskhead – NZPA
2) Darkstar – Green Hopped IPA
3) Summer Wine – Diablo (cask)
4) Summer Wine – Oregan
5) Magic Rock – Cannonball
6) Black Jack – Shuffled Deck
7) Hawkshead – Windermere Pale
8) Black Jack – The River
9) Summer Wine – Glacier
10) Darkstar – Hophead
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Name : Jamie Hancock (Port Street Beer House)
In no particular order
1) Btiches Brewing – Chocolate Chilli Stout
2) De Dolle – Oerbier Special Reserva
3) Cantillon – Mamouche
4) Stringers – Mutiny
5) Dupont – One Year Aged ‘Avec Les Bons Voeux’
6) Jolly Pumpkin – Madrugada Obscura
7) Darkstar – Critical Mass ‘Aged and Bretter’
8) Toøl – Ov-ral
9) Birra Toccalmatto – Zona Cesarini
10) Brodies – London Sour
Best Beer Based Experience of the year
Finally being able to brew half-decent beers at home, and of course IMBC!
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– A Port Street Brew Day Outing / 2nd Anniversary Beer
What a busy time of year! Christmas is just days away, as is the New Year, and that also means that Port Street is nearly two years old. Yes, that’s right, our second anniversary is fast approaching on January 24th. Without giving too much away, a few of the staff went on a brew day yesterday at Outstanding Brewing in Bury — we won’t tell you what we brewed, because of course we hope you’ll come to try it and celebrate with us in January!
Here is a bit of photographic evidence from the day for you viewing pleasure, and feel free to try and guess what went into the brew. Thanks to the gents at Outstanding for having us, looking forward to tasting the results.
Cheers!
(Words and photos by Claudia Asch)
– Review – Kuhnhenn Brewing Company / Fourth Dementia Old Ale – By DJ Adams
Just over one week to go before Christmas, and the shoppers in Manchester are in full swing, dashing round town, bags in hands, pensive thoughts on faces. A few spouses are holed up here at Port Street Beer House enjoying some peace and quiet, and some great beers. A lot of darkness in glasses, the cold weather is properly upon us. Dark nights, dark ales. Heavy beers to warm us slowly from our core outwards. And with that context in mind, I’m about to have my personal and loose definition of ‘beer’ stretched a little bit.
Nestling at the bottom of one of the fridges behind the bar is a brown bottle with a black label and, with that label announcing “Kuhnhenn Brewing Company, 4th D Olde Ale, 13.5% ABV, aged for 9 months”, quite possibly dark secrets. Sitting down at the table, I’m taken completely off track, although not unexpectedly. This old ale sits in the glass like liquid mahogany, barely a trace of head, and what head there was after pouring has quickly dissipated and become a tan ring round the glass. Before I even get the brew to my lips, my nose is hit by the heady raisin, rum and bourbon tones which are as sweet as they are boozy. This is very clearly a sipping beer – hardly any carbonation, and very heavy. So I ready myself for the first sip … and it’s like a Cadbury’s Caramel heavily diluted with bourbon and black cherry liqueur. Gosh. The mouthfeel is just the same, a syrupy malt lacing that fades delightfully turning from obvious sweet to muscovado.
This Old Ale, properly called “Fourth Dementia Olde Ale”, is from the Kuhnhenn microbrewery, in Warren, Michigan, a town due north of Detroit. Looking at the beers on offer, this dark, strong malty and caramel ale fits right in, with Imperial Creme Brulee Java Stout, Bourbon Barrel Barley Wine, Sticke Alt and Hairy Cherry coming from the same stable. That stable was originally a family run hardware store, and when faced with the prospect of losing out to a larger hardware chain that had moved into the area, the Kuhnhenn family, specifically two brothers Bret and Eric, decided to turn their home brewing know-how into a brewery business and reinvent themselves. It wasn’t as unusual a transition as you might expect: Eric had been bitten by the home brewing bug at college, and selling home brewing supplies had eventually become a significant part of their hardware business. Having made the transition to a full brewing business, Kuhnhenn’s is now a highly industrious eight barrel microbrewery.
The folks at Port Street Beer House have a knack for sourcing beer from passionate brewers, and this is no exception. If you’re passing by, or wanting an escape from the cold outside (or the heat and chaos inside the myriad shopping areas) come in and spend a half hour getting to know this old and dark ale. You won’t regret it. And you’ll leave with a warm glow from within, like so many Ready-Brek kids of yore, but with a smile on your face.
Brewer: Kuhnhenn Brewing Company
Brew: Fourth Dementia Ole Ale
Style: Old Ale
ABV: 13.5%
Words by DJ Adams www.pipetree.com/qmacro/
– Festive opening hours
Seasonal greetings to you all!
Hope the year 2012 has treated you well? The past twelve months have been pretty great round these parts, we will be publishing our end of year review next week, alongside a collection of ‘Top Ten beer lists’ – collated from our faithful customers and some of our favourite breweries.
Meanwhile, here are our opening / closing hours for the next couple of weeks :
Tuesday 18th / 4pm – 12am
Wednesday 19th / 4pm – 12am
Thursday 20th / 2pm – 12am
Friday 21st / 2pm – 12am
Saturday 22nd / 12pm – 1am
Sunday 23rd / 12pm – 12am
Monday 24th / CLOSED
Tuesday 25th / CLOSED
Wednesday 26th – CLOSED
Thursday 27th / 2pm – 12am
Friday 28th / 2pm – 12am
Saturday 29th / 12pm – 1am
Sunday 30th / 12pm – 12am
Monday 31st / 4pm – 1am (pre book tables in the saloon from 8pm – more info here)
Tuesday 1st Jan – CLOSED
Wednesday 2nd Jan / 4pm – 12am
Then we are back to our normal opening hours.
Hope this finds you well… All the best for the festive seasons – from all at Port Street Beer House