– Budapest beer explorations by Niall Lecoustre
When people think of Hungary they think of amazing architecture and possibly good wine but certainly not beer. Hungarians keep most of their best wine for the domestic market and don’t seem to export their beer. By chance my visit to Hungary coincided with the Sorfesztival, a celebration of Hungarian mainstream and craft beer, also offering some decent stuff from Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic and even Brewdog. The majority of Hungarians seem to drink lager and dunkel style beers but under the surface there is a growing interest in craft beer and small breweries are experimenting with less traditional styles.
The Sorfesztival (29 Aug- 2 Sep) took place in the spectacular location of Budapest castle, east of the river Danube in the Buda part of the city. The castle was worth exploring and its courtyards provided an ideal backdrop for the beer festival. Each brewery had its own wooden stall with the majority serving draft beer and the odd one offering bottles. So was the beer any good? Well the majority was pretty average but one or 2 offerings were worth seeking out. Armando Otchoa runs the beer shop Csak a Jo Sor (Only good beer) and his Grabanc IPA was supposed to be available at the festival. Despite searching every inch of the courtyard, disappointingly I couldn’t track it down. When I met Armando a few days later he informed me that his latest batch wasn’t ready for the festival and would only be available after I had left town! I started the festival with Sefforas IPA; the first IPA brewed in Hungary and a pretty flat, watery affair on this showing. Next up was Koleses Sor, a pale, refreshing beer ideal for the hot weather.
The festival took a turn for the better with a visit to the Bors brewery stand. Despite all their beers being bizarrely named after characters from Robin Hood, they certainly seemed to make some of the more interesting craft beers available in Hungary. On draft Little John pale ale was a bit cloudy but still had plenty of flavour. The bottle version was even better, a bit yeasty with nice hints of fruit. Tuck Barat a Belgian style double, was a tasty, well-balanced affair with hints of caramel and dark fruit. The Bors brewery is still a work in progress but they are definitely a brewery worth watching and their beers are well worth trying. Next, the Gyertyanos Kriek was a nasty cherry beer best avoided. This was followed by Buza from Szeles and Szeles, an instantly forgettable wheat beer sold in plastic bottles by the likeable brewer.
The beer of the festival and probably the best Hungarian craft beer of the trip was Keseru Mez brewed by Foti. This was a well-balanced, honeyed beer with fruit notes and a subtle hop bite which was quite moreish. It was popular with the locals in Skanzenclub and also came in decent 500ml bottles. The Sorfestival cost £7 including a couple of beers and was an enjoyable affair and a good introduction to Hungarian craft beer. It also provided a chance to wander round the grounds of the fantastic castle. The Hungarian scene is still in its infancy but a couple of breweries have the potential to up their game and enter the export market. Budapest does have some great bars worth visiting to escape the generic mass produced lagers that dominate the city. Csak a Jo Sor is a small but excellent beer shop/pub run by the knowledgeable Armando. The shop sells some of the best Hungarian beer and also has a good selection of craft beer from heavyweights including De Molen, Brewdog and Flying Dog at very reasonable prices. The fruit beers from the Bekesszentandrasi brewery were definitely worth trying, especially the plum beer which was extremely refreshing after traipsing round in the hot summer sun. Other places worth checking out in Budapest include Skanzenclub, Bier Beer, Piratos Pub and the IF Café. Skanzenclub in particular was really fun. It is an unlicensed pub which doubles as a tobacco museum where you pour your own pint and pay for it in a collection tin. The bar served really good draft Kesuru Mez and the local crowd were very friendly. Budapest is certainly a great city to visit and although the Hungarian craft beer scene is very much a work in progress, if you search around you might find something worth drinking.
Words by Niall Lecoustre
– Eurotoberfest – Monday 24th September – Sunday 14th October 2012
Hello & welcome to our European festival.
During the course of the three weeks we will have a few events and some pretty special beers. It all kicks off on the 24th September with ‘An evening with Schlenkerla’. This sees us pour their world famous Rauchbier straight from the oak barrel for the first time in Manchester.
We will also have some new special beers coming through in bottle and in keg from some of Europe’s finest breweries as well as a few german Oktoberfest gems.
Look out for the extra events to be announced throughout the three weeks, we will keep you posted on updates!
Breweries featured will be:
To Øl
Mikkeller
Naparbier
Schneider
Erdinger
Hacker-Pschorr
Lowenbrau
Schlenkerla
Nogne Ø
3 Fonteinen
Dupont
Brouwerij Boon
De Molen
Augustiner
– Port Street Pop Ups with Great North Pie Co. and Dirty Dogs
To celebrate the launch of our amazing beer festival Indy Man Beer Con, we are giving you a sneak preview of the mouth-watering delights that will be available at Victoria Baths. Setting up in our lovely beer garden, it’s limited supplies of the finest pies and dirty hot dogs around, matched up with some fantastic beers.
Great North Pie Company – Thursday 20th September / 6pm
For the first time in Manchester as a ‘pop up food stall’ we welcome Great North Pie Company. Serving up their new autumn menu, all the pies will be served HOT with the finest peas and gravy.
Their new menu will include Goosnargh chicken, roast yorkshire pudding and bacon cream pie, scotch style steak and Red Willow ale pie with pearl barley and root vegetables PLUS the classic Lancashire cheese and onion. All their pies are hand crafted using all butter pastry.
We had the opportunity of tasting some of their pies for the forthcoming IMBC event, the quality and standard is very high indeed! We cannot wait to get them set up in our beer garden and serving you their latest creations, all the pies are limited and are served from 6pm onwards.
Here are some lovely quotes about their pies:
“There’s no plans for world domination, just a pure focus on quality and taste” – Neil Broomfield
“Just unbelievable, I was blown away by the quality of the pies” – Simon Rimmer, TV Chef and owner of ‘Greens’ and ‘Earle’ Restaurants
Best Vegetarian Pie in Britain – The British Pie Awards 2011
“The best cheese and onion pie I have ever tasted!” – Robert Owen Brown
Dirty Dogs – Saturday 22nd September / 1.30pm
Dirty Dogs are hot, that’s the tagline, but they definitely are in more ways than one. Having appeared at Port Street IPA day (and selling out in under two hours) this fledgling pop-up are back again on Saturday 22nd to serve up more of the best dogs in town.
The dog list is ever evolving, previous toppings included Pulled Pork, Mexican style Salsa and Beer steeped Sauerkraut, all on the finest franks of beef and pork (there was also a massive smoked pork polish style option) to find out where, when and what they’ll be cooking up on the grill, you’d better follow them on twitter @dirtydogsarehot
Excitement mounts as to what dogs they will be cooking up, check them out exclusively at Port Beer House!
Dirty quotes :
“Catch them if you can!” – Northern Quarter Manchester.COM
“Doesn’t matter if it’s on trend at the moment; Dirty Dogs’ hotdogs taste good and I don’t care if it’s so now, so last week, or if it was never in anyway – the food tasted good and that’s all I care about.” – North West Nosh
– Review – Haandbryggeriet Norwegian Wood / By DJ Adams
Haandbryggeriet – what a mouthful, and we haven’t even got to the name of the brew yet! Actually, when you break it down, this name is from two Norwegian words and simply translates to “Hand Brewery” – in other words, an extremely small scale operation. Four guys, working on a voluntary basis, brewing by hand in a small building in Drammen, southwest of Oslo. At this scale, and with the enthusiasm that oozes from the pages of their modest website, it’s clear that the brewers are fantastic amateurs, in the original, complimentary sense of the word – working the brewery for the love of it. (If you’re curious about this reclaiming of the word ‘amateur’, read Paul Graham’s essay “What Business Can Learn From Open Source” here: http://paulgraham.com/opensource.html)
For a small operation, Haandbryggeriet has certainly produced a wide range of beers – from a wheat stout called “Dark Force”, through an Akevitt barrel aged porter, to a hop-free Gruit beer made with herbs, brewed as a guest beer in cooperation with the de Molen bewery.
Norwegian Wood is a Haandbryggeriet beer available at Port Street Beer House on tap, and is brewed all year round. It’s a traditional Norwegian beer that has been recreated in memory of the farm brews that abounded when old laws required them to produce ale (farms were sometimes confiscated and went to the church and the king if they didn’t). In fulfilling their requirements, the farms usually kilned the malt over an open fire, giving each brew a smokiness that has been recreated here. The brew was enhanced with the traditional spice for all Norwegian beer at the time – juniper. The juniper spice comes not only from the berries themselves, but also from the twigs that are placed in the mash tun.
So many miles and years away from these traditional Norwegian farms, I sit here with a serving of Norwegian Wood. As I observe the hazy copper colour and the fading creamy head, there’s an intense aroma of pine and smokiness. Not an unpleasant or strong smokiness, but something more subtle, akin to pipe tobacco. There’s a taste of pine and a hint of cooked juniper berries, and rather than smoky, the flavour is more nutty and slightly sticky sweet, with an undercurrent of charcoal or cinder. The first sips also had a fruitiness about them but towards the bottom of the glass this had been replaced with a decent hint of malt that was very pleasant.
Haandbryggereit brews Norwegian Wood with smoked malt from Germany, along with other malts including crystal and chocolate. There’s a wealth of aromas and flavours in a small glass of this traditional ale, and the smokiness is by no means the dominant feature. I wouldn’t describe myself as a fan of smoked beer in the classic “Rauchbier” sense, but I definitely would order this again. With pine, hazelnuts, juniper and cinder in there, this beer is not only a mouthful to pronounce, but a very pleasant mouthful to enjoy.
Brewer: Haandbryggeriet
Brew: Norwegian Wood
Style: Traditional Ale
ABV: 6.5%
Words by DJ Adams www.pipetree.com/qmacro/