Over in Chester, the premises formerly known as Kash Taps was occasionally pretty divisive; the level of décor/atmosphere/comfort was often a talking point, but the serving of beers from a brewery with a rather naff selection of pumpclips often got many people’s backs up (they were pretty sexist). Having only ventured there a handful of times myself, it was never a must-visit venue in the way that other places were for me. Things have changed hands; a few days since getting the keys and Deva Craft Beers have scrubbed, painted and exacted their own plan on the premises near Chester train station and stamping some authority on the pumps. They are making the place their own and have got a chef who is taking a beer snacks type menu very seriously, putting out some rather great food to go with the missed selection of Deva brews, guest beers and a healthy can and bottle fridge selection. The food menu changes depending on the ingredients available and what the season provides, with the visit I write about giving me homemade oatcake with whipped goats cheese, nduja on crackling flavoured crackers and some excellent sourdough with smoked butter. Everything and I do mean everything, was superb. Anyway, back to nuts and bolts for the Deva Tap, I had an afternoon in the place and had a good chat with Deva Craft’s Nick and Aidy Gilbody, with Nick being kind enough to give a proper interview of sorts… Hi Nick, good to talk to you, let’s start with an easy one… what made you want to set up your own Brewery Tap? ”Primarily it is so we can sell our product directly to the consumer - this is for increased revenue for reinvestment into the brewery, face to face feedback and its really fun to run a tap room.” So why did you choose Kash? ”Geographically we like the location and the building. We have The Artichoke, Cellar Bar and the Cornerhouse close too so wanted to add to the Chester beer scene and also try and make this corner of Chester the place to go for a good beer. The owners of KASH were looking to move onto other ventures so the timings all worked out nicely.” Was there a lot of work in getting things ready? ”It was so much work it was untrue! Got the keys on Sunday 26th Feb, opened 4pm Thursday 2nd March. The hours that were put in by ourselves and all the volunteers who came down to help made that turnaround time a reality. Couldn't have done it without all the help we received.” Do you have any plans to do exciting things from the Tap, aside from the sale of your own brews and the output of the rather excellent food? ”We are looking to do quite a few things in the next few months. The décor needs adding to and we will be increasing the size of the menu and increasing the amount of cask and keg lines available. It will go up to 6 cask lines and 10 keg - with the possibility of another 2 keg lines extra in the summer! We are going to be running beer tastings, food pairings and spirit tastings such as Gin, Whiskey and liquors. We will be changing the seating layout to get more table space and looking at making the best use of the outdoor space we have at the front of the building. We will also be tying in possible brew day experiences where small groups come down to the brewery, make a beer with us then back to the tap for dinner - all transport included. Meet the brewers too! Oh and a beer festival every 3 months throughout the year. So yeah its going to be one busy year!” Will this hold you back from making appearances at any other festivals this year, having a stall etc? ”We're actually at Chester Food and Drink at the end of April, Hoole Street Festival in the Spring and have a few other events we are looking into locally over the summer. We have a few meet the brewers planned as well. The main priority is making sure we have adequate supply for all of our customers and the tap. We'll have to see what else we can squeeze in.” And so what are the longer term plans now for the brewery given you have taken on a relatively large responsibility with this venture? ”We are brewing at our maximum capacity at the monument so we need more capacity. My hope is in the next 12 to 18 months is that we upscale to a 12 to 15 barrel brew kit with another small outlet and look at exporting. To further improve our beers we will be moving onto a house yeast strain. We also hope to be serving up some really fantastic food 7 days a week.”Was there a lot of work in getting things ready? ”It was so much work it was untrue! Got the keys on Sunday 26th Feb, opened 4pm Thursday 2nd March. The hours that were put in by ourselves and all the volunteers who came down to help made that turnaround time a reality. Couldn't have done it without all the help we received.” Do you have any plans to do exciting things from the Tap, aside from the sale of your own brews and the output of the rather excellent food? ”We are looking to do quite a few things in the next few months. The décor needs adding to and we will be increasing the size of the menu and increasing the amount of cask and keg lines available. It will go up to 6 cask lines and 10 keg - with the possibility of another 2 keg lines extra in the summer! We are going to be running beer tastings, food pairings and spirit tastings such as Gin, Whiskey and liquors. We will be changing the seating layout to get more table space and looking at making the best use of the outdoor space we have at the front of the building. We will also be tying in possible brew day experiences where small groups come down to the brewery, make a beer with us then back to the tap for dinner - all transport included. Meet the brewers too! Oh and a beer festival every 3 months throughout the year. So yeah its going to be one busy year!” Will this hold you back from making appearances at any other festivals this year, having a stall etc? ”We're actually at Chester Food and Drink at the end of April, Hoole Street Festival in the Spring and have a few other events we are looking into locally over the summer. We have a few meet the brewers planned as well. The main priority is making sure we have adequate supply for all of our customers and the tap. We'll have to see what else we can squeeze in.” And so what are the longer term plans now for the brewery given you have taken on a relatively large responsibility with this venture? ”We are brewing at our maximum capacity at the monument so we need more capacity. My hope is in the next 12 to 18 months is that we upscale to a 12 to 15 barrel brew kit with another small outlet and look at exporting. To further improve our beers we will be moving onto a house yeast strain. We also hope to be serving up some really fantastic food 7 days a week.” Thanks to Nick and the rest of the team at Deva Brewery and the Tap and am sure we all wish them the best of luck with whatever the future holds for their adventure. As ever, places like this need continuous support… the old adage ‘use it or lose it’ applies here too. Get down, eat, drink and be merry and support an excellent local business who currently deserves to go from strength to strength. Cheers Pedro. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to Alex and Nick for additional photos used in this article. These photos are property of Deva Craft Beer or of The ElectroKemist. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Deva Tap 121 Brook Street, Chester.CH1 3DU Phone: 01244 401777 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DevaTapChester/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DevaTapChester Web: devacraftbeer.co.uk/
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Nearly a year has passed since the last major MTB event at the Clove Hitch/23 Club in Liverpool; a whirlwind of Fourpure's wares in the run up to the Liverpool Craft Beer Expo 2016. This time, it's a relatively unusual choice for some, in Staveley based Hawkshead Brewery. I say unusual, as these Meet the Brewer events are often a 'proving ground' for up and comers; we have had pre-canning and hype Beavertown, early Anspach and Hobday, Brass Castle, Brewfist and the relatively heavyweight Buxton in a change of gear. This time Hawkshead provide a much more established proposition, having been around a while prior to the current purple patch; they have been brewing since setting up in an old barn in 2002, providing many very good quality cask beers up until a shift in gear more recently to join in with the 'craft beer movement'. Hawkshead Brewery have also been involved the last few years with the Rainbow Project, brewing with the highly rated Crooked Stave and they are currently slated for the 2017 and 2018 iterations to be collaborating with Modern Times to generate more Anglo-American delights. During the course of the evening, I did try to tease out where the shift in gear from producing 3-4 solid cask beers to upping the roster to include a lager, then a range of wit beers, sours, pales, IPAs and imperial stouts (particularly the excellent Tiramisu, brewed in collaboration with another highly rated US outfit in Cigar City). Sadly, the 'teasing' didn't seem to lead to any pinpointed moment for Hawkshead on where the influence to experiment came from. The hiring of a brewer from New Zealand coincided with a transition to using some Antipodean techniques and ingredients, but this was dismissed as not the sole catalyst for change by the night's hosts, Mark (brewer) and James (sales, brewing and a little bit of everything). Hawkshead's current sensibilities on dispense are plain to see; they are happy sending beers out in cask, keg, bottle or in can and their only concern seems to be about the quality rather than the method of serving. They have a strong workforce of around 30 people who allegedly happy about their business and all manage to have a turn with the brewing team, regardless of their own personal remit in the business. Regarding the business, the potential elephant in the room was called out very, very quickly on the evening. A potentially sensitive subject was tackled pretty much head on within the first two questions or so; Halewood International have bought a majority share in the business to expand their portfolio and take on their first brewery (having bought out Liverpool Gin last year, already involved with alcopops and some other spirits businesses). A case was well made for the purchase, with founder of Hawkshead Brewery, Alex Brodie unlikely to be able to continue running the business forever, a different solution was needed and looking at the available press releases and listening to what Mark and James said at this MTB it is big positive step to securing the Brewery's future and to also enable further growth. The 20 barrel output brewery had reached a point where they simply couldn't take on new accounts; this enables some further growth and a chance for the Brewery to return to more experimentation with recipes and keep existing customers happy. This all possibly sounds too good to be true, but time will only tell, that and the keen tastebuds of customers who will move on if the quality should ever stray from the benchmark set. Given the brewery doesn't have room or access to a pilot kit, a lot of the brews have to be full invested producing large amounts of a beer which potentially might not shift units is a gamble too far, so the transition into better funding might provide some more experimental brews; Mark said as much when he suggested that a Sorachi Ace brew may be on the way in some fashion this year. We'll come back to the evening round up anyway, there are six of Hawkshead's beers to discuss first... Cumbrian 5-Hop - 5% One of Hawkshead's most ubiquitous ales is the Cumbrian 5-Hop, which is a golden ale, this time served from keg, appearing a golden, lightly hazy beer with a heavy white froth on top. The aroma is massively malt driven with hints of orange and wood. The flavours deliver a metallic cereal tang along with more wood and orange. It's actually very easy to drink and gives a bitter and malty finish. Mark and James agreed that this is one of their 'gateway' beers, in that it is easy enough for lager drinkers to make a transition to ales from this beer. The hop profile changes for this beer depending on what is available and what has produced a good quality harvest in the English hop farms, occasionally there may be 6 different hops present, but on the aroma they do sometimes include US Citra or Amarillo. ITI New Zealand Pale - 3.5% This is the little version of Hawkshead's NZPA (as Iti means 'small' in the Maori language), this delicately pale and thin ale has the simplest malt bill of any of their beers and is hopped using varying amounts of Nelson Sauvin, Pacific Jade, Green Bullet and Motueka. The nose goes from a green plummy note through to some light butterscotch, conveying the same theme into the flavours. The thin but refreshing mouthfeel leads into a rich malty finish which is actually slightly sweet given how light this beer is in every other aspect. NZPA (New Zealand Pale Ale) - 6% This is the bigger brother to the Iti and hopped using the same profile, Hawkshead claim to have made this prior to the fashion of making New Zealand Pales. Its an amped up version of the Iti for sure, deeper in colour, deeper in flavour and finish. The mouthfeel isn't quite comparable, due to the NZPA being on cask and the Iti on keg dispense, but there are good contrasts to be had in tasting. On the night, Mark and James said there may (along the lines of never say never!) be a double version of this on the way at some point, given the line of questioning from the crowd. Session IPA - 4.7% Oddly, for such a simple style and premise and for such well balanced beer, this is the first time I've seen or tried Hawshead's Session IPA. It pours a light gold colour with a thin white head, the carbonation is good and makes the mouthfeel quite spritzy. Aromas of tropical fruit and citrus come through along with some sharper green fruit, including gooseberries and rhubarb. The flavours are pretty much the same, but this is very easy drinking and has a round malty and fruit balanced finish. Probably the beer of the night for me and one to look out for! At the moment, the 'Session IPA' moniker is possibly temporary, but it has a diverse malt bill in the use of caramalt, oats and crystal before the loaded hop profile driven by Centennial, Citra, Simcoe and Mosaic (with much more focus on late hopping) are put into the beer. IPA - 7% A bigger brother to the session IPA, this relatively new Hawkshead brew on keg is full of New Zealand and US grown hops including Centennial, Citra and Simcoe, though the aroma of this is mostly woody, it has a big rich quality which drifts into slightly dank and fruity areas. The roster of hops changes based on what Hawkshead have available and what works with the malt bill. Decent, but not as rounded and accomplished as the session version. Jantar - 4% A really odd way to end an MTB, with something quite light in ABV in relation to, admittedly, pale ales. This Polish style amber ale is very malt driven and similar in many ways to a Best Bitter style beer. The aromas are malt driven, along with some berry fruit, giving way to flavours of blackcurrant and raisins and considering it is only at 4% abv, it punches well above this level in terms of how rich and deep the beer is. Plenty of red fruit and citrus come through on the finish, a very good brew from Hawkshead. The food on the night was supplied by the Black Lodge located (at time of writing) pop-up restaurant Oktopus, which provided some excellent talking points and 3 absolutely delicious courses to match with the beers. The goat's cheese and carrot dish was wonderfully simple and executed well, the mains of Skrei Cod was succulently brilliant and the dessert, a chocolate cake was moist, rich and delicious, although one minor gripe would be that there wasn't a beer that really worked with it; the red ale was close, but no stout or porter which would have been a perfect accompaniment here. On this last point, we do have a bit of a sticking point on the roster of the Hawkshead Beers; considering the pedigree and usual remit on MTB of providing a range of beers that show what a brewery can do, 5 pales and a new recipe amber ale simply doesn't do justice to the brewery. A more diverse roster would have potentially included the Solar Sour, the Great White Wheat Ale, Imperial stout in the Tiramisu, even some Brodie's Prime which is rather different to what was provided. A massive opportunity to really push the boat out was missed here; there may have been issues of availability on certain lines, but it's perhaps something the brewery can bear in mind for their next outings. The evening was still very enjoyable and the two hosts from Hawkshead were a credit to their brewery, best of luck to them whatever the future holds! Cheers, Pedro. ------------------ Hawkshead Brewery Mill Yard, Staveley, Cumbria LA8 9LR Brewery Tel: 01539 822644 The Beer Hall Tel: 01539 825260 Email: [email protected] Twitter: https://twitter.com/hawksheadbrewer Web: http://www.hawksheadbrewery.co.uk/ So, 2017 is now three months in and things are ramping up in the world of beer and brewing. As I am writing up and putting the final touches to this article, I am letting the news sink in that Hawkshead Brewery is the latest name to be bought out by a big firm, though on this occasion it's not Diageo, AB or Heineken, it's a firm local to where I am based. Halewood International, the company that has managed brands such as Crabbies and Lambrini (and more recently acquired the Liverpool Gin brand) has taken a majority stake in Hawkshead. The noises are all positivity from both camps - that Halewood will plough funds in to allow increased scale for Hawkshead and expansion to a bigger brewery whilst affording those in charge of Hawkshead to continue their day-to-day business, whilst this is the first foray into beer for Halewood International so strictly speaking, unknown territory for them. The whole thing has been dressed up as an investment deal, rather than a take-over. Time will tell whether anything will change with the Hawkshead brews, but it is likely that with the expansion, their cans, clips and bottles will become a lot more visible to people at some point in the next couple of years. Anyway, moving along briskly, here are the beers I managed to find time to assess during the first month of this year...
And that is about your lot for the first foray of 2017! As ever, hopefully you enjoyed the read, if you would be so kind to give a share or a retweet on your way out, it would be gratefully appreciated!! Take it easy and I'll be writing to you again soon. Pedro. As with my previous review of Maray, this is another restaurant that it had taken me some time to get to following numerous recommendations from friends. There are such a number of new places opening at the moment, it really is quite difficult to keep track of where to prioritise. Liverpool isn't one of the most forward thinking of cities when it comes to vegetarian cuisine, only the Egg Café springs to mind when most people used to ask me where to go, but Sanskruti does fit the bill rather well - as long as you are a fan of Indian Punjabi and Gujarat cuisine. Luckily for you dear reader, I am. Tucked away on Bixteth Street, by Mercury Court and the old Exchange Station on Liverpool's Dale Street is a below-street-level establishment, which has been a Mediterranean restaurants amongst its other incarnations and it now houses Sanskruti. Sanksruti eschews the traditional 1970s British curry house look of carpets, ornate but tight wooden booths, crushed velvet fittings and garish décor in favour of something a little less ubiquitous. There is a sensitivity to a customers personal space with more of an open canteen feel, along with a slightly more terracotta and tiles look in place. It is comfortable albeit a bit more spartan with the soft furnishings, but not an overload on the senses. Service was polite and timely throughout the experience, with staff happy to discuss any of the dishes and friendly enough to make you want to indulge in discussion. You can't ask for a lot more. The food was overall, very very good and hugely enjoyable to eat. Looking enticing on the plate is one thing, but delivering upon hitting taste buds and providing a pleasing texture are another matter. Sanskruti's wares delivered on pretty much every front, with great contrast between spice and cooler elements, crisp and harder textures with softer, chewier and the more fluid. The first foray into the Sanskruti kitchen experience was with the puri; recommendations to come to restaurant had come with the caveat that we simply had to give some of the street-food elements a try here and they proved to be correct. The Sev Puri had a wonderful punch to them, an array of textures in a single mouthful along with fruity notes, deeply savoury and a balanced pinch of spice. The dahi puri were gilded with pomegranate (isn't everything these days?!) stuffed with potato and chickpeas and again, ticked all the boxes in providing an enjoyable appetiser. Having watched videos of professional chefs trying to master the technique for cooking and preparing dosa (large rise and lentil pancakes to the uninitiated), I have a huge amount of respect for cooks who can provide something flattering on the eye as well as providing a balanced and spiced filling. Sanskruti's kitchen provided this without fuss. Lightly chewy, crisp and with a lovely spiced potato and beetroot filling, the mysore dosa ticketed a few boxes. The chickpea and paneer curry was a welcome saucy dish to go with the array of bread, dosa and puris that we ordered and as with the other items, the balance of the dish was excellent. No over-reliance on chilli to provide some punch, this was a wonderfully subtle dish on the side. The only bum note of the whole evening was more a matter of personal taste; perhaps we had made a mistake in ordering the sahi naan, which was heavily perfumed, flavoured with cherries and was too heavy on the tang of rosewater for many of the other dishes we had ordered. It was also simply too sweet. All in all it was a very pleasant and rounded experience eating at Sanskruti, service and food were very good, although the menu does have some pockets of confusion. Switching between Garbanzo peas and Chickpeas is a bit odd (there are subtle differences, along with channa and gram) considering to the ley person, it doesn't mean a huge amount. The drinks menu was good on cocktails and non-alcoholic drinks, but given other places are now catering for more discerning drinkers, it would have been nice to see some IPAs, pale ales or saisons present to provide something more flavoursome than kingfisher to wash down such lovely food.
I'll finish with this anyway; any vegetarian restaurant that can make you smile at the competency of the food and forget you've not eaten anything with meat is okay in my book. Pedro. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sanskruti Bixteth Street, Liverpool, L3 9NA Tel: 0151 236 8886 Web: http://www.sanskrutirestaurant.co.uk/liverpool/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/sanskrutil3 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sanskrutiliverpool/ |
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