– Review: Dark Star Saison / By DJ Adams
A dusky Saturday evening finds me in Port Street Beer House in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. An escape from the Champions League final, and respite from the constant threat of cloudburst. A usual warm welcome and conversation turns to Dark Star’s Saison, which their own website describes as “Nothing like what English beer should be”. That sounded like a challenge, and a delightful 568ml later I’m tending to agree with them. (more…)
– Those Hoppy Belgians / By John Clarke
Belgium has one of the most diverse beer cultures in the world (perhaps now eclipsed by the USA but that’s for another time) and for many beer enthusiasts it is something of a mecca. Almost every beer style you care to mention is made in Belgium – and very often the Belgians got there first and have been doing it better and for longer than anyone else. With one exception.
A feature of the craft beer scene here, in the USA, in Scandinavia and the Netherlands has been the creation bold hoppy beers, using New World hops, primarily from the USA and New Zealand. Centennial, Chinook, Amarillo, Nelson Sauvin and many others. All names to get the hop head drooling with eager anticipation. (more…)
– Brewdog ‘Bitch Please’ launch.
On Monday 23rd we held our first event. A tasting session with one of our favourite breweries, Brewdog. We arranged to open especially on a Monday, the evening was conducted by the breweries rep Josie Ludford. With just over 60 people sampling some outstanding beer, one of which had never been tasted in public before!
The event was great, really good atmosphere and wonderful beer, from the queue outside, to the penguins locking us in, we loved it. A special thanks to Josie and Brewdog for making the event possible.
Hopefully this has wet your appetite for future events as we will be hosting many more. Think beer tastings, meet the brewers and a beer school over the next few months.
Watch this space.
– Becoming a Microbrewer / By Jay Krause
I got into brewing in my mid-twenties, brewing at home at first as I was short of cash and wanted to continue drinking decent beer. The learning curve is steep; I chose to get straight into all grain brewing and all the science surrounding it. The more I read, the more I understood. The more I understood, the more I practiced. The more I practiced, the better the results. I also discovered that what is needed more than just theory and scientific knowledge, was the confidence to do things differently and attempt to hypothesise the outcome, to explore different beer styles and use strange ingredients. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it failed, but the knowledge I gained was invaluable; I simply loved brewing, and the desire was there to brew on a larger scale.