– Up and Coming / Hopcraft
Every once in a while, pretty much just by chance, you taste a beer that you have never heard of before, have no idea who brewed it and your jaw drops. Recently I was lucky enough to have one of those experiences here at Port Street with a beer from a fairly new brewery named Hopcraft.
Hopcraft Brewery in Pontyclun, South Wales, has been in full production for almost half a year now and has been in the public eye since mid 2012. It is a partnership of Tom Barlow and Steve Lewis from Pixie Springs and Gazza Prescott from Steel City in Sheffield. Together they have opened up a new 10 barrel brewery to fulfil their needs, a place to make Pixie Springs beverages on a bigger scale, and also for Gaz to have a place to make crazy hoppy liquids.
Considering they’re relatively new, Hopcraft have made quite a number of beers. As their name suggests they’re not afraid of using hops liberally and have a tendency to use them well, a good example of this is their highly drinkable Mosaic Plus, this is a common theme throughout their beers. The guys have also made some pretty exciting, quite different beers such as Graveyard Eyes a Sorachi Aci porter that has wowed staff and customers alike. As they are already demonstrating a high proficiency in their hop use and a pioneering attitude towards making new and interesting beers it seems highly likely we can expect more good things from this brewery.
– Up and Coming / Burning Sky
Burning Sky. Kind of Old Testament apocalyptic, no? Death raining from the sky, that sort of thing. Well you’d be quite wrong to think that. Actually, if you did, shame on you. It’s more like a Slayer song title.
Amongst other things, Burning Sky is a song by Paul Weller-led erstwhile Mods, The Jam, who split up and then Paul Weller, for some reason, formed the Paul Weller-led The Style Council. He now makes solo records under the name ‘Paul Weller’. He’s a caution, that one.
Burning Sky is also a skydiving collective that jump out of planes over spectacularly tedious hippies/hipsters-in-the-desert festival, Burning Man. Their parachutes are, alas, in tip-top condition.
More important than any of these, though, if you are a lover of beer, at least, Burning Sky is the new brewery from Dark Star co-mastermind and all round good egg, Mark Tranter, very ably assisted by Tom Dobson.
Now, anyone who knows beer surely knows the Sussex brewery Dark Star, which started life under the Evening Star pub in Brighton in 1996. We’ve sold them here at Port Street since we opened, such is their quality and consistency. There were bemused stirrings on the Internet when Mark announced he was leaving to pursue other ventures. What would it be? Where would it be? How long until it opened?
All these questions were answered earlier this year when, in typical understated fashion, Mark announced Burning Sky would be starting up in the autumn, located on the Firle Estate in East Sussex, upon which Mark also lives (he’s not a big posh sod with plums in his mouth, though, he just rents a cottage there). They are based in a converted stable in a tiny village with a crazy (in a good way) vicar.
Burning Sky are ‘Artisan Brewers and Blenders’. Blenders. That’s what excited me most of all. It suggests one of my favourite types of beer, the sours of Belgium. I was lucky enough to visit the brewery just after it was finished, but before brewing had commenced. They had a test batch of the Saison a la Provision that I willingly accepted a sample of. Well, a half. And then another half. It’s remarkable, it really is. Fruity, tart, slightly spicy – everything you’d expect from a Saison, and the best I’ve tasted outside Belgium.
Anyway, all this bluff and nonsense is leading up to our announcement that we have taken delivery of five of their beers – Saison a la Provision (6.5%) in keg, Saison L’Automne (4.2%, with rosehips – keg), Plateau Pale Ale (3.5%, cask), Aurora strong Pale Ale (5.6%, cask), and Devil’s Rest IPA (7%, cask and keg). We’re very excited about this development, and we hope you are too. They’ll be on sale in the near future, so keep an eye on our Twitter feed, @portstreetbeer, where we’ll be posting when they go on sale.
– Festive Opening Hours 2013
Hello.
It’s soon turning into the season of much joy, frivolities and very fine ales. So we have extended a couple of extra opening hours plus we are welcoming you to spend some time with us on a Monday?!? Who would have thought it, Port Street opening on a Monday, it must be Christmas!
Thursday 19th – 2pm until 12am
Friday 20th – 2pm until 12am
Saturday 21st – 12pm until 1am
Sunday 22nd – 12pm until 12am
Monday 23rd – 2pm until 12pm / Open for festive fun(S)
Tuesday 24th – CLOSED
Wednesday 25th – CLOSED
Thursday 26th – CLOSED
Friday 27th – 2pm until 12am
Saturday 28th – 12pm until 1am
Sunday 29th – 12pm until 12am
Monday 30th – CLOSED
Tuesday 31st – 2pm until 1am (bookings in the saloon from 8pm – more info HERE)
Wednesday 1st Jan 2014 – CLOSED
Thursday 2nd Jan 2014 – Back to normal – HAPPY NEW YEAR!
– Up and Coming / Northern Monk Brew Co.
Our ‘regular’ feature of Up and Coming breweries raises it head once again, this time with Bradfords’ finest Northern Monk Brew Co. Here are a few words direct from the the monks mouth :
Established early in 2013. We are currently nomadic brewers and take our inspiration from what we feel is the best of the global beer scene; the history, heritage, provenance and tradition of a quintessentially British drink, combined with a progressive and open approach to branding, brewing techniques and dispense. Our aim is to follow in the footsteps of some of the more forward thinking breweries in the region and build on the developing beer scene in Northern England.
Since the release of our first beer in June and our launch party at The Sparrow Bier Cafe we have enjoyed the support of some of the best of the UK’s speciality Beer pubs, bars and bottle shops and have just returned from Birmingham and our maiden beer festival at the fantastic Beer Bash. Brewing awesome beer, helping to raise the profile of Northern British craft beer and having some fun along the way is our goal, and we plan to bring you more collaborations like our Belgian Triple – Bad Habit – with Weird Beard Brew Co in the coming months. With Leeds International Beer Festival just around the corner and with exciting plans for next year, we are brewing once a month to add to our New World IPA and establish our core beer range. Being on the bar at Port Street means a lot to us and we can’t wait to drink our beer at one of our favourite pubs.
Our New World IPA is inspired by and intended to be reminiscent of IPA’s of old through using a similar approach to technique and hop ratios used in the 1700’s but re-inspired with the addition of New World hops; Cascade, Centennial and Chinook from the US and Galaxy from Australia.
Words by Russell Bisset
We will serving ‘New World IPA’ on keg especially for #IPA Day – TOMORROW (Thursday 1st August) read more here
http://www.northernmonkbrew.co/
https://twitter.com/NMBCo
