– Moor Moor Moor!
Well, we finally managed to organise getting some beer from one of the UK’s most highly regarded breweries, so here are a few words to give you an idea of what the fuss is all about. I had better write this pretty quick as the beer is practically walking out the door.
Tucked away, down a picturesque Somerset lane is the recently expanded Moor brewery, the brewer is one Justin Hawke, an American brewing there since taking over in 2007. Justin’s beers are multi award winning and it’s a struggle to get them out of the county, so we feel very privileged that he sent some up for us. His Californian roots and west coast brewing attitude are evidenced in these beers, particularly in his liberal use of hops. However, these are far from US clone beers, these are some of the finest contemporary English ales you are likely to find, packed with flavour, a perfect blend of innovation and tradition. That, I suppose is what has lead to such huge demand, accolades, awards and general all round kudos.
Justin, it strikes me, is a man of strongly held beliefs, which, admittedly is prevalent among brewers. One of these beliefs is about finings and the use thereof, Justin speaks at length about this here. We’re happy to be showcasing some of his unfined beers over the next week or so, all his dark beers are unfined and we have waiting in our cellar a couple of firkins of unfined Revival. So how important is a clear pint of beer to you? Finings inevitably strip out a lot of flavour giving funk from the beer and it could be said this is purely for aesthetic reasons. Why go to all the trouble of making a full flavoured beer only to fine it clear and lose some of the character, I suppose it’s the same argument brewers have about filtration, pasturisation, etc but taken one stage further. Please let us know what you think on the subject and what you think of the unfined beers we have from Moor, and whether you want to see more unfined beers on the bar.
Finally before you ask we weren’t able to get any of the famous JJJ IPA as there isn’t any, potentially until next year. Maybe we’ll try and get some Moor beers next year, if he’ll let us! Boom boom.
– Meet The Brewer with Jay Krause (Quantum) – Monday 31st October
Meet The Brewer with Jay Krause (Quantum Brewery)
Monday 31st October / 6pm until 8pm (bar open until 10pm)
£6 advance – limited to 50 places
available over the phone (0161 237 9949) and from behind the bar
includes four beer samples, snacks AND your chance to win prizes in our special Halloween beer quiz!
info about the brewery :
“Quantum is all about experimenting with modern, forward thinking recipes but with a huge focus on flavour and quality of ingredients. The beers are mostly hop forward but not exclusively so – it’s far more about balance. As a new brewery we’re still finding our feet and don’t have a core range as such, but that has given us chance to experiment and focus on specials, series beers and collaborations.”
follow them here: http://twitter.com/QuantumBC
– Mikkeller Hop-topia Tasting
We just wanted to have a bit of a follow up to our fantastic Mikkeller Hop-topia tasting on Monday, hopefully you all enjoyed it as much as we did. Alas as the night went on our ability to make meaningful tasting notes diminished, so I thought this might be an opportunity for you to submit yours, let us know what your favourites were and why.
Also here’s some photos of the evening:
– A Shot In The Dark / by Jay Krause
Autumn is in the air. The cool mornings of summer are giving way to the crisp early hours of my favourite season. The evenings are getting shorter and the cars are switching on their headlights sooner. The midday sun is present but weaker, getting further away in accordance to our orbit. In the early evening, bars in pubs are becoming places of sanctuary and the pumps are seeing the introduction of more and more seasonal dark beers.
This is all very welcome to me, and one of the reasons autumn is my favourite season. I absolutely love dark beer, in all its forms. Stouts, Porters, Dark Milds, Schwartzbiers, Dunkels, Black IPAs, and every other type of beer which absorbs light – I love them. (more…)