– Meet The Brewer with Eric Wallace (Left Hand Brewery / USA) – Sunday 11th August 2013
3pm – 5.30pm
£15 advance – available from the bar or call 0161 237 9949
Left Hand Brewing Company can trace its origins to December 1990 when co-founder Dick Doore received a small home brewers kit as a Christmas present from his brother. According to Dick, “it was all downhill from there.” His obsession with homebrewing led him back to Colorado in August of 1993, where he met up with a former college buddy and soon-to-be Left Hand co-founder, Eric Wallace.
It didn’t take the two long to start brewing beer. Dick had been homebrewing for years, and Eric had traveled extensively internationally, seeking out great beers wherever and whenever he could. After brewing several batches that impressed their friends and lucky neighbours, they became more confident in their craft. It was only after drinking quite a lot of really good dry stout that Eric had brewed that they had their epiphany: “Let’s start a brewery.”
A few weeks later, in September of 1993, they incorporated as Indian Peaks Brewing Company in honor of the serrated ridges and jagged peaks of the Indian Peaks wilderness. In just a few weeks, the brewery was starting to take shape, labels were being produced, kegs and bombers were purchased. The place was hopping. However, the euphoria was quickly sidelined when a conflict of interest surrounding the brewery name surfaced. Indian Peaks was being used by another brewery for a beer style. So, not wanting to start off on the wrong foot, they quickly changed the name of the company to Left Hand, in honour of Chief Niwot, whose tribe wintered in the local area. (The name Left Hand is derived from the southern Arapahoe word “Niwot” meaning left hand.)
And the rest is history as the say! 2010 saw Left Hand grow 30% in production, breaking barrelage records each year, even making the Brewers Association’s Top 50 Craft Brewers list in 2012. What started as a humble brewhouse extension in 2008, has turned into a 5 year $9 million expansion, as the brewery races to keep up with their thirsty fans. In recent years, the brewery has added no less than six 480 barrel fermenters, an additional 500 barrel bright tank, and a new KHS keg line. Moreover, they also expanded the Left Hand property, purchasing the warehouse across Boston Avenue to house offices as well as the site of our new cooler, bringing the total brewery acreage to 5.5 acres. In the fall of 2012, they welcomed their most anticipated renovation, a new bottling line that runs four times as fast than our previous system and fills 200 bottles per minute!
On the first night of the 2011 Great American Beer Festival, Left Hand changed craft beer history forever with the introduction of Milk Stout Nitro in a bottle. Left Hand is both the first American and the first craft brewery to master the science of bottling a Nitrogen beer without a widget. To our fortunate & delight, the beer has met overwhelming excitement and reception, as fans can now enjoy the draft experience of a Nitro beer from home!
Starting out 20 years ago, they’ve racked up 18 medals & 1 honourable mention at the Great American Beer Festival, 8 medals at the World Beer Cup, 4 medals at the European Beer Star (3 gold), a Gold Medal at the International Stockholm Beer & Whiskey Festival, and a growing loyal customer base in 26 states and throughout Europe.
– American Beer Festival / Monday 24th June – Sunday 7th July 2013
We are back with our annual fare of all things state side, we are giving our overseas cousins a whole two weeks* to celebrate the US of A in our American Beer Festival.
A tap take over will include the following breweries : Stone, Flying Dog, Ommegang, Brooklyn, Anchor, Sierra Nevada, Founders, Ska, Odell and SO much more (we will do another blog piece in a couple of weeks with an updated list!)
To give you a sneaky peek at the ‘goods’ on offer we are hosting an Audience with the ‘American Ambassador’ Mr Andreas Fält, this will take place on Monday 24th June and will include upfront tastings of five lovely beers and some tasty food thrown in for good measure, tickets are priced at £12 and are on sale now from the bar or give us a call on 0161 237 9949.
The following week on the 4th July we will be hosting a very special ‘independence day’ pop up event with two of our favourite street food traders, Dirty Dogs and Fire & Salt, expect a big meaty cook off as these two go head to head to create the ultimate meat fest!
We hope to see you celebrating the United States Of America, Port Street style.
/ Includes :
An Audience with the ‘American Ambassador’ – Mr Andreas Fält
Monday 24th June / 6pm until 8.30pm – beer tasting and food! £12
Port Street Pop Ups with Dirty Dogs vs Fire & Salt
Thursday 4th July / 6pm – massive ‘cook off’ in our beer garden.
Artwork by Steve Hockett
* actually 13 days, but hey who’s counting?
– Meet The Brewer with Mad Hatter / Monday 29th July 2013
5.30pm – 8pm (event starts at 6.15pm prompt)
SOLD OUT
Mad Hatter is the brand new and rather exciting brewery of Gareth Matthews a veteran home brewer of 20 years who finally saw the light and fled academia to start a microbrewery in Liverpool. His brand new and rather dinky brewery on average produces approximately 7 casks a week. Be assured that what his beers lack in quantity they make up for in quality with his favoured styles being those of the massively hopped persuasion or big stouts and porters. Port Street has had the excellent fortune of being the first to have his beer on draught this week we have his IPA (on at the moment and going very fast!), Mild, ESB and Rye Amber and look forwards to getting his beers on keg and in bottles too soon.
Gareth produces and plans to produce a wide range of beers with a number brewed with some exciting ingredients. Some that we at Port Street are looking forwards to are his ‘Imperial Porter’-the staff have already tried this and it’s a doozy, ‘Rhubarb and Rosehip Wit’-a refreshing and rather tart wit, ‘Gooseberry Fool’-a sour gooseberry beer, and ‘Minimal Difference’-black IPA with Cascade, Centennial and Columbus. But there are many more and Gareth has big plans regarding the sour side of life-fabulous stuff! In his own words “In terms of beer, I am glad to be around in a time when many brewers are making inroads into the world of experimental, thoughtful, truly artisanal techniques that refuse to conform to rigid style guidelines.” This is an apt description of both Gareth’s outlook and the kind of beers we can look forwards to getting from him.
For more information, head over here – www.madhatbrew.co.uk / @MadHatBrew
Artwork by Emily Warren – www.thestealthyrabbit.blogspot.co.uk
– Photos / An Audience with the ‘American Ambassador’ – Mr Andreas Fält – Monday 24th June
A great start to our American Beer Festival, Andreas Fält hosted an evening of tasting beers which included Rogue – Good Chit Pilsner, Ska – Modus Hoperandi, Sierra Nevada – Belgian Blonde IPA, Southern Tier – Iniquity and Flying Dog – Imperial Green Tea Stout.
Thanks to everyone who came down and enjoyed the beers and our very tasty chilli dogs!
You can sample all of the above beers and plenty more until Sunday 7th July 2013.
