British Bank Holiday weekends are invariably washed out affairs, much more suited to sitting wistfully on a window ledge staring outside at the rain trickling down the pane. Luckily, the last two Bank Holiday weekends in May of 2013 have been gloriously bright affairs. That type of weather definitely lends itself to sitting out with friends in a Beer garden, having a picnic and a few cold drinks in the park with the family or even better, attending a beer festival. There have been a few of late and there are a few more to come in Liverpool over the next few months. I spent the first May bank holiday at the Eagle and Child beer festival in Bispham Green (near Parbold/Mawdelsey). Typically, this festival experiences excellent dry weather and is generally superbly run and friendly affair. The addition of hand pumps to a few of the cask ales on offer this year is a definite improvement and a step upward from the usual high standards in the grounds of the pub owned by the Ainscoughs (of Racquet Club fame). The most recent Bank Holiday weekend was also spent investigating a slightly smaller scale beer festival, this time by the banks of the River Mersey in Otterspool at the Otter’s Café at Active Adventures. Having ventured down on the Saturday and Sunday, the clientele was mixed to say the least, with a market having brought some people out and the remainder either those wandering along the promenade for a walk and an ice cream or those specifically for the beer festival. There was even room for a Hen do oddly enough! Rather than a pub or association running this event, the crowds were treated to some local brews organised by the Mad Hatter Brewing Company. The Mad Hatters Brewing Company is the newest addition to Liverpool’s ever-increasing craft beer and real ale scene with Head Brewer Gaz and partner in crime Sue, initially taking things a little more seriously in 2007. With the burgeoning interest in Liverpool (as with the rest of the UK) in food and more pertinently, drink, driving the demand for fashionable food and beers with character, there is certainly room. The latter of these demanded items is something that the Mad Hatter is able to provide in abundance. This is more than evident, with some 16 different styles of beer lined up at the brewery, perhaps more once confidence has grown – and a range of brewing techniques not generally used in the UK. Some departure from academia up in Lancaster, I am sure most would agree, but a brave and highly welcome decision for a lot of us. At the festival, there were a few ales on offer from some of the usual suspects on the Liverpool Beer scene in the shape of Liverpool Organic Brewery, Liverpool Craft Brewery, Wapping, Brimstage Brewery from Wirral and another newcomer in the shape of the promising Melwood Brewing Company. The undoubted stars of the show at this festival were the beers on offer from the Mad Hatter Brewery. The unusually potent ales conceived by the Mad Hatter himself were present in fridges, which were stocked full as to be curiouser and curiouser; leporine artwork by Emily Warren of Stealthy Rabbit adorning a variety of exciting bottles promising much. Emily's thoughts are given in a bit more detail than I can divulge right now over on: [http://thestealthyrabbit.blogspot.co.uk/]. Over the course of the weekend, I made it my duty to try and characterise as much of the wonderland made real by the brewery as possible. However, with an ABV of usually over 7%, care must be taken – an easy task it was not!! The brewery was keen to provide something as an alternative to the usual session beers on the market, offering viable alternatives for food pairings to the usual fallback of a bottle of wine. Here are a few of the tasting notes I made whilst I was able to stave off falling down the rabbit hole:
2. Imperial IPA: Using Simcoe hops, the pine notes in this beer are deeply embedded and very obvious, at 7.3% it packs quite a punch and has quite a sharp edge with some good acidity. Very, very hoppy!
That’s your lot for what magnificence I tried on offer at the Beer Festival, but your extra reading after this blog is to go and check out the Mad Hatter Brewing Company website (conveniently located here: [http://madhatbrew.co.uk/] and for more up to date information, search facebook for Mad Hatter Brewing Company, or follow them on twitter, @MadHatBrew] with a run down of their beers and details should you need to contact them. Their beers will be available from the following outlets: Beers are available in Liverpool from: Stamps Too, (CAMRA pub of the year, Liverpool) The Dispensary, Renshaw St The Ship and Mitre And also soon from: 23 Club, below the Clove Hitch Pod, Allerton Road Manchester: Pie & Ale, Northern Quarter, The Port St Beer House, Northern Quarter And also soon from: Joshua Brooks, Oxford Road The Magnet, Stockport (CAMRA pub of the year, Greater Manchester) Unfortunately, you can’t buy from the Brewery direct at the moment, so you’ll have to go hunt down these bad boys from one of the outlets above if you’re feeling impatient!! A tip of the (mad) hat should also go to the guys down at the Otters Café for putting on the mini market and beer festival. They have an aerial assault course in the vein of Go Ape! there alongside a maze and the café and lovely riverside views. The coffee and cakes is pretty good there too! Full details of the venue are just a click away: [http://www.activeadventuresliverpool.co.uk/]. Until next time guys, I’ll see you through the looking glass! Pedro x
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It’s been a busy few weeks for me, not only because the day job underwent some serious intensity and lots of weekend hours but because of trying to keep tabs on all the great beers and wine I’ve been trying out of late. Sadly, I didn’t get to note everything down, plus I am sure there is more than enough for you all to scan through here to keep your interest sated until the juicier titbits of events/beer festival updates and recipes come along (there are plenty lined up!! As those who have been following the twitter feed can attest). Let’s start with some beverages, which are now freely available somewhere near you. First up is something in a very fetching blue bottle (not Blue Nun, seriously… you people), which has been brewed and marketed slightly differently by Adnam’s Brewery (of Broadside Bitter fame). Adnam’s Spindrift is held within a very flashy container and premium at 5% abv, although the handpulled beer is only at 4%. This blonde style beer is a heady citrus blend with some wheat beer character thrown in at the end of the tide, the drink is deeply pleasant and has plenty of flavour but will also be something I will stock up on for Summer, available for £1.50 (at time of purchase) from Morrison’s supermarkets – I recommend doing the same. New World Chardonnays – Available from a supermarket near you!
As some of you might have noticed, I have gently plugged the next ElectroKemistry event here and on the Facebook page, tickets are going to be available very soon, stay tuned to the twitter feed for release. With this event in mind, there was a fair amount of research to be done in terms of wine selection for the lucky punters to attend. I’ve drunk a fair amount of new world Chardonnay to try and pick something out to give people a fair crack of the grape. I’m not going to spoil the surprise of the selected wine, but here’s some of the others (in reverse order of how I ranked them) that were tested with a brief review and ranking in case anyone wants to go seek them out…. 5. McGuigan Bin no.156 Chardonnay (2012) – Australia (SE) - £5 at Sainsburys/Tesco An example of melon and peach flavours in a Chardonnay, though slightly less pronounced than most of the others reviewed. There was some vanilla sweetness present and a smoothness to the body of the wine and slight biscuity undercurrents. Unfortunately, there was a touch of unpleasant sharpness and the wine was pretty short, all things considered. 4. Wolf Blass Winemaker’s Selection Chardonnay (2012) – Australia (SE) - £6.99 at Morrisons Definite white stone fruit are at the forefront of this wine and the melon ripeness is highly evident. There is some oak, but not strongly defined on the palate. The wine is, overall, nicely balanced with a crisp finish, alas there is a lack of length as with number 5. 3. Redbridge Creek Chardonnay (2012) – Australia (New South Wales) - £7.99 at Sainsburys This wine was full bodied with a slightly creamy mouth feel, there were plenty of peach and apricot present and a good spritz of citrus to bring balance to the wine. There was, alas, very little by way of length here to follow on from the fruit. 2. Crux Gisborne Chardonnay (2011) – New Zealand - £7.99 at Morrisons This Chardonnay is very drinkable with a cream and good balance, there are plenty of tropical fruit and some honey notes in the flavour. The wine is very fresh, fruity and well balanced, the finish is also distinctly fruit laden. 1. Hardy’s Nottage Hill Chardonnay (2012) – Australia (SE) - £5 at Asda, £8.99 in Sainsburys The Nottage Hill Chardonnay was well rounded and as full-bodied as a Chardonnay can be, there was some faint vanilla and a creamy/buttery mouth feel to follow from some storage in oak. There were good levels of acidity and tropical fruit and melon flavours providing balance. The wine had a pleasantly dry finish with some lingering fruit. ------- ElectroKemistry Review - Amber Wine Bar, Rose Lane, Mossley Hill Having heard quite a few glowing reports about the establishment (apparently) made famous in that god-awful ‘Desperate Scousewives’, both through social media and in a few online reviews by those who had made a visit prior to my fellow diners and myself I felt it was time to give the place a visit. Our visit was on a Sunday afternoon, looking for somewhere to provide a roast dinner plus other options for those not particularly fussed on a Sunday tradition. The interior is pleasing enough; it looks somewhat like a cross between a bistro and a current-fashion living room with suitably comfortable seating arrangements. The service and greeting were good, no issues with the demeanour of the staff who were helpful and smiles. Upon being greeting by the sound of babies in stereo, there was slight feeling of deflation having hoped for a relaxed quiet affair; the sound of Sinatra was just at the right level, alas the sound of three babies competing for oxygen and attention was not really in keeping with what we had hoped. Onward and upward, nevertheless. The menu on a Sunday comprises a set 1, 2 or 3 course dinner with incremental pricing, all of which it has to be said are pretty reasonable. The wine menu looks good enough for a bistro style restaurant with no insane mark-ups on the white or the red wines; however the fizz does take a leap into the deep end of pricing, comparatively speaking. The only major aberration on the drinks menu would be the absence of any decent beers for those who are not planning on drinking wine. One awful (nitrokeg) bitter and two average lagers do not exactly set the world alight, for myself at least. When the starters arrived in the form of a chicken liver pate, it has to be said they were definitely on the generous side, although the pate was rather sloppy. A side salad, onion chutney and toasted ciabatta were all served with the pate, which despite the perplexing texture, tasted pleasant enough. The main courses were at differing ends of the spectrum from delicious to disappointing; roasted hunks of lamb served with ample pools of rich gravy, watercress and neat spoonfuls of mashed potato looked excellent and judging by the willingness of the lamb to fall from the bone, were cooked as such. The roast potatoes were anaemic and undercooked, the mashed potato was a touch overseasoned in compensating for the lack of seasoning for the lamb, but the other vegetables, gravy and texture of the meat were pretty much spot on. The fish and chips with mushy peas presented a different set of highlights and disappointments; the fish itself was excellent with huge flakes of sweet cod wrapped in a golden sepia batter shell, alas the chef had failed to drain the oil from the fish completely and the bottom of the fish was soggy, as were the chips unfortunately. The desserts were well presented and received no complaints from any quarter. It was certainly a case of missed opportunities with the meals on our table; some good, some bad with a frustrating level of execution in some areas. The basic things are all there, decent produce and a solid menu (at least for a Sunday) are promising, but these small errors provided the snake to the hard work and presentation’s ladder. A return visit to sample the a la carte menu midweek will be a further requirement before solid judgment is passed. For the moment and based on this visit, there can be some satisfaction drawn from the efforts; but the undercurrent is that of being underwhelmed. --------------------- In other news, the Electrokemistry Introductory Wine Tasting event is now settled - 20th July and will cost £12 per person for the wines and cheese, it will start at 4pm promptly. The location will be divulged upon receipt of an email confirming interest at: [email protected] - be very quick though as most of the places have already been booked!!! That's all for now folks!! See you next time. Pedro x |
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