And so the season for some excellent beery goings on is hurtling towards us at a rate of knots! The Liverpool Craft Beer Expo looms on the horizon and there is much buzz about things and many other events taking place around Merseyside and Liverpool over the same period; as such I have made an attempt at trying to ringfence everything and corral the information into one location for you lovely people... just so there is an 'at hand guide' for the following weeks. The date spread is from the first weekend in June and through until just after the Craft Beer Expo finishes, so read on and see if there are any places that you think you need to be in June! Saturday, June 3rd Brewery Open Day and Tap at Connoisseur Ales, St Helens (12pm until 10pm). Over in St. Helens, the first Saturday of most months sees family run Connoisseur Ales open their doors for impromptu brewery tours and a chance to try reasonably priced and brewery fresh cask or bottled beers from their range. Entry is free and there is usually a range of up to eight cask beers on, only a 30 second walk from St Helens Central train station. [Wolverhampton House, 121-125 Church Street, St Helens, WA10 1AJ] [email protected] / www.connoisseurales.com Monday, 12th June Founders Love Left Hand - Summer of Love Event at Dead Crafty Beer Company will be taking place, with representatives from both Founders and Left Hand breweries present from 7pm onwards, ready to chat and with many of their beers for attendees to sample (2 are included in the ticket price). [98 Dale Street, Liverpool. L2 5TF] www.deadcraftybeercompany.com Tuesday, 13th June Dead Crafty will be hosting another round of the Dead Good Bottle Society, Ben from Top Rope Brewing will be presenting and talking through a selection of beers stocked in the Dead Crafty fridges. The event starts at 8pm prompt and includes at least 4 beers to try. Tickets are £15 per person and the more people attend the tasting, the more beers there are to try. [98 Dale Street, Liverpool. L2 5TF] www.deadcraftybeercompany.com Wednesday, 14th June The Wildly Different Dinner event - Oktopus will play host to Bristol’s Wild Beer Co.; there will be a paired dinner with beer from the brewery consisting of 5 plates and matched beers. The event takes place at Oktopus restaurant in Hardmans Yard from 7pm until around 10pm and costs £30 per person. Wild Beer Co’s Andy Gibson will be on hand to compere the event. The link for tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-wildly-different-dinner-tickets-35015536412?utm-medium=discovery&utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&aff=esfb&utm-source=fb&utm-term=listing [Hardmans Yard, Hardman Street, Liverpool. L1 9AX] https://www.oktopus-restaurant.com/ The Dead Crafty Beer Company is hosting the Liverpool leg of the Juicebox500 tour from Fourpure Brewing Company. The event will launch the brewery's excellent IPA - Juicebox and there will not only be the beer to try, but merchandise and cans available as part of the event, which will coincide with the ever fun Dead Crafty Quiz night starting around 7-8pm. There will be a fee for participation in the quiz, to be confirmed. [98 Dale Street, Liverpool. L2 5TF] www.deadcraftybeercompany.com Also on the 14th June, Brewdog Liverpool have got a Tap Takeover and Meet the Brewer Event taking place at their bar featuring beers and representatives of Danish outfit, Dry and Bitter. The event starts at 6.30pm and runs all evening; admission is at the very agreeable price of... free! Beers likely to feature are the Christian Bale Ale, Citra Bale Ale, Body Pillow APA and many more! https://www.facebook.com/brewdogliverpool/ Thursday, 15th June - Sunday, 18th June The Liverpool Craft Beer Expo takes place at Constellations on Greenland Street in the Baltic Triangle area of Liverpool. Sessions include Thursday evening, Friday evening, Saturday day, Saturday evening and all Sunday. This event usually sells out (in fact at time of writing, the Saturday afternoon is full), so get tickets rather than chancing it on the door. The event is one of the best beer festivals around with a great atmosphere, excellent beers from around the UK, Europe and the US and a mix of indoor and outdoor areas means a chance to mix things up if the weather allows! [35-29 Greenland Street, Liverpool. L1 0BS] www.constellations-liv.com / www.liverpoolcraftbeerexpo.com Across the same range of dates as the Expo, Deva Craft Beer are hosting a four day Best of British beer festival at their Deva Taps in Chester. The festival will feature over 30 beers on keg and cask along with a range of ciders and gin. The event starts at 3pm on the 15th June. Keep an eye out for some newer Deva beers including a smooth mango IPA and also get ready for their new menu launch soon too with plenty of food at the festival! [121 Brook Street, Chester. CH1 3DU Tel: 01244 401777] www.devacraftbeer.co.uk The afterparty for the Expo will take place at Black Lodge for another Tap Takeover in Liverpool, this time by Beavertown; the event is free to attend and the Black Lodge will be open for business until 3am. Brave and thirsty? To make that time you will need to be! [4 Kitchen Street. L1 0AN] http://www.blacklodgebrewing.co.uk/brewery/ Dead Crafty Beer Company will also play host on this evening to Hawkshead Brewery for a Beers with the Brewer event. A six-tap (allegedly with some special kegs) takeover will be launched at 7pm, with the representatives from Hawkshead talking through their beers and brewery. Tickets are £5 per person and includes a beer on arrival for the event. [98 Dale Street, Liverpool. L2 5TF] www.deadcraftybeercompany.com Friday, 16th June The Black Lodge Tap Takeover part two is hosted by Firestone Walker; as ever, loads of their beers will be on and the venue will host an afterparty and be open til 3am. No door tax either. [4 Kitchen Street. L1 0AN] http://www.blacklodgebrewing.co.uk/brewery/ Saturday, 17th June Red Star Ales host a Brewery Open Day and Tour at their site in Formby. The brewery tour will start at 1pm and runs until 4.30pm, the tour costs £20 per person and includes food and unlimited cask beer to go at, brewery fresh. [54b Stephenson Way, Formby. L37 8EG] www.redstarbrewery.co.uk Black Lodge will host its final Tap Takeover afterparty event for the Expo, with the lines being handed over to The Kernel for their beers to be poured. As ever, Black Lodge will be open late and entry to the event is free. [4 Kitchen Street. L1 0AN] http://www.blacklodgebrewing.co.uk/brewery/ Sunday, 18th June This Father's Day Brewdog Liverpool will be hosting a Stone Berlin Beer and Whisky Pairing with Zippo from Stone Berlin. The tasting will include 5 Stone Berlin beers, 5 amazing whiskys, and lots of paired German-style small plates. All that, with a branded glass to take away as a memento for each attendee. Tickets are limited and on sale at £31.85 per person. The event runs from 7pm until 10pm approximately: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/beer-whisky-pairing-with-stone-berlin-tickets-34321388196 [8 Colquitt Street, L14DE.] https://www.brewdog.com/bars/uk/liverpool Good luck to everyone planning on attending all that – physically impossible as it may probably be, but there is something to whet your appetite for beers going on thick and fast over the coming weeks around Liverpool and the Northwest (including some things over at Manchester Beer Week – post-Expo). Hope you found this guide useful! Pedro.
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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/ 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/ Maray has been open for around two and a half years now on Bold Street and I am fairly ashamed to admit that I have never actually darkened its doorway... (waits for the gasps of horror to cease). In my defence, there has been rather a lot going on and it's been one of those things that has been filed under 'get round to it soon' for probably well over 18 months. Fret no more anyway, as I managed to drop by the recently opened sister to the Bold Street eatery on Allerton Road to check out what all the fuss was about. The fuss was very palpable for a while with the Bold Street premises, numerous friends and acquaintances had eaten there and were generally flowing in their praise; even The Guardian's food write Jay Raynor, one of the hardest of critics, was also remarkably generous in his review. He stated that in lesser hands it could have been a car crash but was very competent in its mission to bring together many Mediterranean and French influences along with some Scandinavian and American influence thrown in with good measure. So, the burning question is whether the Allerton Road establishment backs up the big talk? Maray on Allerton Road is a strange beast, the bright interior décor and large glass windows appear on the face of it a rather stark dining environment, but being seated upstairs, the use of exposed and fatigued brickwork actually brought a comfortable contrast and overall, we did feel quite relaxed. The approach and demeanour of the staff helped with this no end too, service was brisk, competent and timely from start to finish. The menu on first glance appears fairly scattershot, with some clear north African and middle eastern influence, but there are other elements which have clear French bistro or Asian heritage to them. Nonetheless, Jay Rayner was correct in his assertion that all this did come together quite well, nothing felt clumsy about the food that we ordered and was put in front of us. From the sourdough loaf with chilli butter to the excellent, tender smoked duck with raisins and aubergine there was a lovely array of textures and flavours to get involved with. The lamb koftas retained plenty of moisture and a huge amount of flavour and nearly ran the meal off the rails due to their strength, but using the softer elements of the superb whipped goats cheese and honey with crisp flatbread and the gentle saltiness of the larger than expected whitebait, there was some come back. Overall, the food was brilliant aside from one or two dishes suffering from a bit of heavy-handed seasoning; not usually a gripe - it seems most complaints in the industry are about underseasoned food, but then it might just be a personal preference to take the salt content of some food down a notch or two? Sadly there was no room for dessert, but the selection did look incredibly tempting, notably espresso kulfi and hazelnuts for me. In terms of drinks menu, there is a heavy, heavy slant towards cocktails and from what I can gather a little something for everyone. The wine selection is short, but looks to have been very well thought out, with the top end selections in both white and red coming from some surprising regions instead of the usual Italian or French safe bets. The beer selection was (for admittedly, someone who is primarily a beer writer these days) pretty disappointing. A couple of lagers, a Vienna-style lager and Icelandic brewed Einstok pale do not give the range which could best work with this menu.
Summing things up, it's worth your time. The food is well sourced (they are fairly open about their suppliers online) and put together for enjoyment in a competent and reasonably attractive fashion. Things are continuing to be on the up in Liverpool, they are also thankfully filtering out quite nicely into the suburbs, with this latest addition to the Allerton Road scene, there is now some additional substance. Pedro ------------------------------------------------------------------ Maray 57 Allerton Road, Liverpool, L18 2DA Tel: 0151 709 5820 Email: [email protected] Web: https://www.maray.co.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarayLiverpool Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marayliverpool/ A year on from the article presenting Neptune, Rock the Boat, Parker, 3 Potts and Red Star to a wider audience, things have progressed in the Liverpool beer scene once again. We have another slew of breweries opening their doors, mashing and sparging into our pubs, bars and bottle shops. There is a healthy spread of styles too on this occasion, with some cask brewing accompanied by a couple of keg only brewers, meaning there could be some very different beers hitting Liverpool’s taps over the next few months. Whilst one or two (or even more, for those with an attentive ear to the ground) might already be known to people, they have only really gotten going in the last twelve months and hopefully, we shall see more for an ever-burgeoning scene. The addition of Mad Hatter Brewing Company growing into a very impressive new site, Rock the Boat, Ad Hop and Melwood all beginning to bottle beers for local shops and other breweries on the scene looking to expand into bigger capacities and bigger premises is a good indication that things are healthy here on Merseyside. This provides a fertile pool into which the newbies can dip their toes. So who are these new brewers ready to sate our thirsts? We have a few cask based brewers in the shape of The CRAFT Brewery in Southport, Big Bog Brewery who have opened a second site in Liverpool and the politically charged Republic of Liverpool Beer Company. The other more wild card entries are the honey-fuelled Moonsugar, exciting craft newcomers Glen Affric, the fictional brews of Chapter Brewing and the squared circle stalking Top Rope. So, what do they all offer? Read on… The CRAFT Brewery, Southport Head Brewer, bottle washer and all rounder, Robbie from The CRAFT Brewery gave up some of his time for a little interview. Thankfully there were no awkward questions, just enough to tease out what his brewery stands for, what he brews and where we can find it. Hi Robbie, what made you take the leap from whatever you were doing before, to becoming a brewer? (what were you doing prior?) Well, prior to setting up The CRAFT Brewery I was a Software Sales manager covering Europe for a US company. The travel and commitment to them was huge all I wanted to do when I got home after spending time with my wife was go to the pub but conference calls between 7am and 10pm updating status' and reporting to people who didn't know how Europe "worked" was a up hill struggle. There were two bottle shops in Southport the Inn Beer Shop and the Tap and Bottles where I could enjoy something different from the normal John Smiths or generic Bitters. What I didn't see was a local brewery that was making what I liked to drink flavourful hoppy beers. So my wife convinced me to start brewing my own at home and after some time, had enough spare to share bottles with the CRAFTY Tasters the rest is history! Did you think the market would be accommodating, given Southport has a solid number of breweries at the moment? (Southport, 3 Potts, Parker and possibly up to Red Star). At the time of setting up there was only Southport Brewery and Parker who were doing traditional ales, they’re both great breweries whose beers I like, but I saw there was room for what I wanted to make. 3 Potts came along about the same time and concentrate on stronger beers, which as an afternoon drinker personally meant they are not the sort of session beers I wanted to make. Red Star Brewery hit the scene just after I had started selling my beers commercially too. What sort of styles do you brew and what dispense... (Cask/keg/bottle/can) and would you consider changing things around? What are your core brews? Initially I started experimenting with different styles and gave them Masonic themed names such as Labour to Refreshment Masters Maul and Brethrens brew. Eventually, I settled on three key styles; an IPA, a Golden ale and a dark ale packed with flavour and easy to drink. These are available in Cask (Pin and Firkin) and bottles. Where can we generally get your beers from? Southport has been my main target market while I get set up (to reduce travel costs) selling to the bottle shops, bars and restaurants and event venues in town. What sort of size kit are you on and do you have any plans to grow if things go well? I'm currently brewing on a 100 litre system from Powell Brewing. Expansion has to be organic as I'm self funded I have replaced my initial 6x60 litre fermenters with 3x210 litre fermenters allowing me to help meet demand at the moment expansion in to Liverpool and Preston are on the cards having 2 current customers in these areas. What breweries have influenced you in terms of what you wanted to brew and what do you aspire to, as a company? Rick from Parker brewery and Peter from the Inn Beer shop have been instrumental at looking at the bigger picture and are always happy to offer advice; both having lived through the growing pains experienced as a start up. But everyone I meet Les from Neptune and John from 4Ts who I only met recently are happy to give advice and support. I have to add, there is a big debate at the moment with CAMRA between what is Craft and what is real ale and whether they can be the same. My beers are real ale and hand Crafted the only machinery I use is a pump I even sparge by hand so as long as the beer is good does it realty matter? I think everyone should support their local breweries; give them a try you never know, you might like what you find! Moonsugar Brewing Company, Hunts Cross Moonsugar have been hovering around the scene for a little while to date, without a product actually being released though they are on with pushing things along and awaiting a few bits of paperwork to come through before they can really start hitting the scene with their curious brews. Their focus is mainly on mead and braggot, along with a few other pale ales, stouts and IPAs which we were lucky enough to try on the Liverpool Beer Collective Tap Takeover weekend at The Dead Crafty Beer Company. Hi Matt, can you tell us who is involved with Moonsugar Brewing? Moonsugar Brewing is made up of just two of us Matt Longmore and Stuart Kidd. What made you all decide to go into opening a brewery? Stu had been into brewing long before Matt and had always brought what he'd made round to try. When Matt got into brewing there was the shared interest and heads were put together recipe ideas produced and that led to test batches. We really enjoyed what was being made so we tested it it out on friends and they all went down really well, so we decided we wanted to see if we could turn it into a business and all our ideas kind of exploded from there. Do you think there's much more room on Merseyside/Liverpool for new brewers in terms of supply/demand across the North west? What size kit are you going to be brewing on? We would like to think there is room for us in the local brewing scene as we feel we're bringing something a little bit different from what other breweries are producing in the local area. We're currently still working on a relatively small kit but that suits us fine we don't want to over stretch ourselves initially and the small batch suits us as well l, after all our core brews could be considered a bit niche. What will be the core brews you'll be doing? We won't be focusing on a huge core range but there will be a few recurring brews but we've found certain styles that we're good at and we aim to bring different variations of those. Will you be doing anything in terms of styles that the other local brewers aren't covering, any exciting new brews? I think there are definitely styles we will be concentrating on that aren't heavily produced locally. Our main focus for the future is our brews made with honey primarily mead and braggot, which is exciting because there are so many ways you can change the tastes of these it leave a lot of space for variation. What existing breweries out there would you say have influenced you guys in the set up, style and brewing? I don't think there's been any particular breweries that we can say have influenced us to set up shop. When we had the idea to set up we didn't think about how other breweries did it or what kind of brews they produce. There are breweries we love to drink though, we're both fans of Siren, Atom and a few well established traditional breweries; we like a bit of everything. Do you think much about expansion at all, in case things really do take off for you at all? Expansion is something that always gets thrown around in discussions but we're miles from there at this current time so it's all just talk. If it did turn out that we raised the capital needed to expand we've a fairly good idea about how we might go about it. For now though we're going to keep tweaking till we're happy (nearly there honestly) and keep focused on our launch prep which we are confident should be in early 2017. Thanks to everyone who's helped us out, tasted brews, given feed back and for being so patient with us. Glen Affric Brewing Company, Birkenhead A new brewery that started their operations at the end of September 2016, Glen Affric is named after the area near Loch Ness where Craig and Calum McCormick initially looked at setting up their brewing near to the family home. The idea of setting up a bar and microbrewery was quite daunting given the levels of renovation needed on the property they were considering, so plans for development up in Scotland were placed on hold. Over the last few years and having worked in Shanghai and Hong Kong, the brothers and their Dad got some insight into the craft beer movement over in the far east, with brewer Craig having completed some work experience with Boxing Cat Brewing alongside working in recruitment and in landscape photography. The younger of the McCormick brothers, Callum, had just finished a degree at the University of Liverpool and with a family home being in Heswall, property was found, ideal for setting up their brewing operations in England. Good transport links, ready made market and ready-made industrial premises made the decision to locate here a little easier. The set up will be an initial 2.5 barrel set up, to produce kegs and hopefully for Glen Affric, an early 2017 canning production. Their brewing premises also has scope for use as a brewery tap which again, will sell only kegged beer, as they look to keep their brand firmly away from cask dispense. Craig McCormick will be handling the brewing operations, having completed the Brewlab [LINK] course up in Sunderland, he stated that they will be keeping the brewing relatively simple at first; standard yeasts and a focus on malts and hops for their first core recipes, hopefully exploiting their links to China and Hong Kong to bring in some more exciting gear. There is a definite lean in the brewing towards West Coast US sensibilities with their initial core brews being a Session IPA at 4.4%, a New World Pilsner at 4.8% (this will be brewed using extra pale pilsner malt, pale malts and some caramalt) alongside an American Pale Ale at 5%. Although they are barely started, Glen Affric have a very definite sense of direction and high ambition for their operations, looking to potentially expand into coffee roasting (as Craig is a self confessed coffee-geek, having roasted his own beans (ooer) for some time and their father has experience in distilling. These extra facets to their brand may also have an effect on their brews and both Craig and Calum were very positive how these things would tie together. Exciting times, new brews and potentially Birkenhead getting its second brewtap (after the sadly, recently closed Peerless Brewing Company Thirsty Thursdays). Republic of Liverpool Brewery, Liverpool The Republic of Liverpool Brewery sprang up rather quickly, a few very vague articles did the rounds on local media later and some interest has been stoked, so I thought I would contact main man, Tony Rothwell to get the low down on the initiative with the rather fetching tee shirts. “The Republic of Liverpool Beer Company is an aside to the existing Stamps Brewery, which remains their business. The Republic of Liverpool was set up to produce beer and sell T shirts, expounding Liverpool's rebellious spirit, so to this end, it may last or it may not! The Ship and Mitre brews on the same kit once a week as an HMRC registered 'Cuckoo brewery' and we are presently searching for new premises into which we can expand to accommodate demand. The Ship will come with us to this end.” I asked Tony what their core brews would be when they get going… “Yes, we intend to produce 3 Rep beers, all with their own clips, reflecting Liverpool's rebellious spirit. We will launch the first in approx 4 weeks. The website/Facebook is functioning, and is already selling tee shirts, we will be selling bottled beers as well. Beers will be sold from our loyal customer pubs in Liverpool only, as we will be only making limited stock. At the moment, only my son is brewing the beer, but we have a team of 5: designers, website/facebook operator, sales of T shirts and beers, etc.” So there you have it, some information has trickled out, hopefully we will see some indignantly delicious brews to match the rebellious tee shirt designs. Top Rope Brewing, Childwall Top Rope is the brainchild of beer and wrestling enthusiasts Ben Jackson and Neil Rothwell, who recently popped onto the scene by their involvement with the Liverpool Homebrewer’s Club and like Moonsugar, by holding a formal tasting of their beers for the Liverpool Beer Collective’s #LIVEBEER Tap Takeover event at The Dead Craft Beer Company. The set up is small at the moment, with a very pragmatic approach to putting the kit together for their brewing. Ben’s parents provided space to the back of their Childwall home for the brewery, whilst Ben, Neil and parents Rob and Pam all provided some elbow grease to get things moving. I managed to catch up with Neil and Ben to find out some more: Hi guys, so, how did Top Rope Brewery become a 'thing' for you? N: We meet at a homebrew club in Brewdog and we found that we were 2 of the guys that would stay behind, drinking and chatting shit, came up quite quickly that we were both big wrestling fans and it just kinda went from there. We had another little failed experiment at something similar to this about 12-18 months ago with a couple of other people, when that didn’t work out we kept on homebrewing but the passion for it was clearly there between us and it just got to a point where we decided to take the plunge and go for it. What was the beer that made you think "Yes... we can do this, I want to brew and make beer" even at the homebrew stage? N: I started homebrewing purely by chance, I had a friend who’s Mrs bought him a home brew kit, did that with him a couple times and then went and bought one myself, did a couple of extract kits before doing all grain work and that’s also what I suppose opened me properly to the world of craft beer, going to the homebrew clubs in the likes of Brewdog and 23 Club, drinking the beers there whilst also trying all the different styles of beer people made at home. I can’t really pinpoint a specific beer but the one most likely would be Gloucester breweries Chinook that we both had whilst working at the Liverpool Craft Beer Expo back in 2015. The brewer from the company was there and we managed to have a good chat with him, getting lots of good knowledge and we initially based our Overkill IPA on that beer, which is where the heavy use of Chinook comes from so for me, I’d say it was that. B: For me, another turning point was bank holiday weekend at the end of May. On the Friday I found out I was going to lose my job, then on the Sunday 3 of our beers (out of 5) won categories in the Brewdog homebrew competition. That felt like a pretty clear sign. What sort of beers are you going to be brewing for us and where are we likely to be able to pick them up from? N: We are going with some fairly traditional style beers to start with, IPA, pale, porters that kinda thing but then we have our very hop forward spicy American style Brown ale and also the Orange Soda Gose which I am happy to say is a very unique take on the gose/sour style. We do have plans for more sour beer as and when time permits along with all kinds of experimenting and the occasional seasonal beer/one of stuff to keep things nice and interesting. B: My approach to brewing has always been sort of “traditional beers with a modern twist” and I’ve got loads of recipes already at various points of completion. Distribution wise, we’re looking at an initial area of Southport to Chester. That should keep us busy for a while! Not forgetting our official launch in The Dead Crafty Beer Co in early November of course! I spy a barrel by your brewing shed, are there plans to do some aging? N: We do. We have been gifted a couple of batches of some interesting sour yeast that will come into play in time as well but for now, we are looking at doing some aging with all kinds of different beers and even at some possible blending, see how that affects the taste of the beers and see what new flavours we can come up with. Given your set up is quite small (yet perfectly formed) how do you think you'll handle expansion going forward, it is going to be something you'll consider if your beers really do take off? N: That is something that I am very excited about and very hopeful that in the coming year or so, it is something we can very seriously look at. We are very lucky in this city to have quite a range of different sized breweries and brewers who are some of the friendliest people you could want to meet on the planet so when it comes to expansion, we have a wealth of knowledge with regards to ideal premises, setting up bigger kit, actually upscaling the brews and ensuring the quality remains the same. The aim of the game is to simply make good beer that people enjoy drinking and if that allows us to end up doing this full time and working for ourselves, then I will incredibly happy. B: Part of the reason for us starting so small was to enable us to learn on the job, narrowing the gap between homebrew and professional brewing. As Neil said, the other brewers of Liverpool are the most supportive group of people we’ve ever met so meeting any increased demand should be a fun challenge. If you were a proper tag team, what would be your finishing move and do you actually own a pair of luchador masks? N: We are in process of sorting our costumes for the brewery, can’t have a wrestling themed brewery without some of the pageantry that comes with it! We are also thinking about a possible championship belt for the brewery. Regarding a finisher, I can imagine something like the Legion of Doom’s Doomsday Device, get our opponents up on Ben’s shoulders whilst I jump off a pile of kegs to take them down. B: I agree with pretty much all of that, I never said anything about spandex though! Big Bog Brewing Company, Speke Big Bog initially set up brewing in North Wales, with them still retaining a base there, whilst the second larger site near to Liverpool Airport gets business moving. Their cask-based recipes are stated as brewed to the same standard as those previously seen on the market. The brewery has also held open days in late August, so they will no doubt continue to do so should things remain buoyant. I managed to catch up with brewer and sales assistant Chris Riley and pose a few questions to him about Big Bog. Big Bog moving up to Liverpool from North Wales is a bit of a step, as I understand it, this is the second site - is that correct and will brewing continue in North Wales also? Why did Big Bog decide Liverpool was a good location for their second site? Essentially Big Bog moved owing to geography! Paul Jefferies and Gordon Hurst (The founding fathers) both live in West Derby and it was a 200 mile round trip in order to brew. As the brewery has grown and awards came along, it was getting to 3 times a week they needed to be over in Wales. This was just not sustainable and it was decided that we would relocate to a much larger premises and install a much bigger, new, purpose built plant. Brewing of Bog Bog beers has ceased in Wales as of February 2016. What is the brewing capacity/output at the moment? The new plant is 10 barrel brew length with two Fermenters and another one on order, which will be in operation before Christmas 2016. What are the successful brews that Big Bog produce and is there a core range or are you a little more fluid in terms of producing new recipes? Please see the web site for a list of our beers (the link is at the end of the article below - Pedro). We have won several awards for Quagmire and we are currently developing a Porter for release before Christmas “Peat Bog Porter” – 4.9% abv. It will contain peated malts and liquorice. What do you see yourselves adding to the Liverpool scene with the beers and presence you offer? Paul is an established and qualified Master brewer of 30 years and an examiner of the Institute of Brewing and Distilling for the Internationally sat Master Brewers examination. He also remains Head brewer and main Board Director of Hydes Brewery in Media City, Salford. He is very experienced having brewed extensively in the UK and abroad. He has many hundreds of years of brewing in the blood as he and his family are from Burton on Trent. We hope that we can offer top quality ales building on this experience. We have no intention to diverting our attentions away from producing cask ales only unlike many other micros who ae moving towards craft keg. Paul has lived in Liverpool for over 20 years, was Head Brewer of Cains brewery when it was Danish owned and has a real love for the city. Gordon is Liverpool born and bred as to am I and my other colleague Peter Hughes. Peter has nearly 40 years’ experience in the brewing industry and I the newest staff member, bring 6 months brewery experience from Coastal Brewery based in Redruth, Cornwall. We know you're dedicated to cask brewing at the moment, but is there any chance you'd consider other dispense - i.e. bottles/cans etc for the home market? Please see above. We want to specialise in continuing the great tradition of British cask ale brewing only. Can you give us a few pubs where you regularly have your beers on? Baltic Fleet, Most Liverpool and surrounding area JD Wetherspoons, Ale house – Old Swan, Hard Times and Misery, Old Bank Ale House, Caledonia, Vernon, Ma Boyles, Magazine, Butchers and there are several pubs in North Wales where we still maintain a healthy presence. Chapter Brewing Company, Sutton Weaver I was lucky to hear on the grapevine about this interesting start up brewery and got hold of acquaintance Noah Torn to find out a bit more about what was going on with the ‘Fictional Brews’ from Chapter. Hi Noah, thanks for your time… we’ll start with a nice easy question; who is involved with Chapter Brewing? Alex Monks and myself (Noah Torn) are the founders of Chapter Brewing, we met through Paul (previously Mad Hatter and now Fourpure) and discovered that we both wanted the same things from a beer and started brewing together. Currently I am working full time with Alex coming in on brew days. We will both be full time in the summer of 2017. What made you all decide to go into opening a brewery? NT: For me I was finding that although I really enjoy trying beers and exploring the various styles, I wasn’t finding one beer that I truly loved. I vary rarely drink the same beer twice in a night and this isn’t always because I just want to try everything – often it’s because I just want to find that “perfect” beer. I thought that the beer that Alex and I were brewing was getting pretty close to what I really wanted…and it turns out that others liked it too. The opportunity came up to get a 10 bbl kit and I jumped at it. Why did you locate the brewery where it is (and also... where is it)? NT: We didn’t have a lot of choice in where the brewery is and it’s currently in Sutton Weaver, wedged in between Frodsham and Runcorn. We decided that as it was already set up there (more or less – although a lot needed to be done to get it operational) we would use it in situ for the first year; get to learn its foibles and quirks before moving to a more permanent home in Liverpool where both Alex and I live. Essentially we wanted a year to decide what we needed from a brewery space, having learnt about the kit in Sutton Weaver, rather than making assumptions about what we wanted before we’d even got it running. Do you think there's much more room on Merseyside/Liverpool for new brewers in terms of supply/demand across the North west? I think that the North West, and the North East too, is going to be the next big craft beer region. If you look at the wealth of breweries in the North, the beer they’re producing is excellent: Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle – it’s exciting and demanding is growing. Where Liverpool is concerned I think there is a gap in the market. If you look at the other major cities there are many, many breweries all living peacefully together making a thriving and exciting scene – Liverpool has some fabulous breweries, particularly real ale, but not that many that are really making that ‘craft beer’ style. We want to bring something else to the scene – something exciting, consistent and, most importantly, enjoyable. What will be the core brews you'll be doing? NT: We have a core range of 6 spreading across a fairly wide spectrum. We’re striving to have a strong core of interesting beers and although we do have a fantastic pale and an IPA, the rest of our core range is slightly different – a twist on the basic style – adding something creative and imaginative to bring in that element of intrigue without being outlandish. AM: Many of the recipes for our core range are based on beers I brewed for Christmas last year. I’ve taken what worked and tweaked the recipes to make them more suitable for commercial brewing, hopefully resulting in some pretty fun and interesting beers. Will you be doing anything in terms of styles that the other local brewers aren't covering, any exciting new brews? NT: We’re fortunate enough to have spent time at Mad Hatter in the Baltic Triangle, so exciting ideas have been running through our heads ever since I started homebrewing. We’ve got a few ideas that are close to production, particularly along the sours and barrel aging route – we’re making space for aging and I’m heading to Italy to get some Malbec barrels in the new year. A particular interest for me is pale ale: as I don’t really like them. We’re working on making a range of pales that will really inspire and interest the drinker. We’re also bringing an overarching theme to the table – something a little more than just the beer. Each beer is inspired by literature and fiction; either published by others or created by ourselves. We’re not going as clichéd as “each beer tells a story” but we’re bringing our own passions into the design of the beers and of the design of the labels. AM: Another area we’re looking at experimenting in is with the use of adjuncts. A shared interest in cooking has given us ideas for beers either based around food or ones that would complement what we like to eat. I have also recently become more interested in lager (and other similar styles) after a summer holiday to Menorca, so this is something I hope we can add to our repertoire at some point. What existing breweries out there would you say have influenced you guys in the set up, style and brewing? NT: My initial foray into brewing started with Otter Brewery in the West Country but it wasn’t until I tried Mad Hatter’s farmhouse saison for the first time that I really started to realise what was out there and the pure diversity of the beer world. Gaz from Mad Hatter and Paul from Fourpure have been particularly influential for me personally – indeed it was those two who first suggested setting up on my own. Advice and time from Terry at Liverpool craft, John at Melwood and Ben at Liverpool Organic has been really helpful in the more recent stages of setting up the brewery. There are a few breweries that I always try if I see they are on – Mad Hatter, Chorlton, Buxton and anything along the Geuze and Gose style lines. AM: The whole team at Mad Hatter have been incredibly supportive of our venture into brewing so they’re obviously a huge inspiration for me. In terms of style my main influences come from the likes of The Kernel, Mikkeller, Siren and Great Divide. My aim is for Chapter to become synonymous with quality beer that isn’t out of place amongst my favourite breweries. Easy. So there we have it, another set of new breweries with a range of beers with something for everyone.
Please keep an eye on my Twitter feed, that of the Liverpool Beer Collective and give the individual breweries a follow (links are below!) to find out more and keep up to date with what's going on. Have a great Christmas everyone!! Pedro. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you to the brewers for giving up their time to help with this article and thanks for the photos from many of them when I couldn't make it to them to get some pictures! The CRAFT Brewery Part Street, Southport Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.thecraftbrewery.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecraftbrewery/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCraftbrew Republic of Liverpool Brewing Company Boundary Street, Liverpool Email: [email protected] Web: https://therepublicofliverpool.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRepublicofLiverpool/ Moonsugar Brewing Company Hunts Cross, Liverpool Twitter: https://twitter.com/moonsugarbrewco Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/moonsugarbrewco/ Glen Affric Brewery Birkenhead Email: [email protected] Web: https://glenaffricbrewery.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/glenaffricbrew Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GlenAffricBrew/ Top Rope Brewing Company Childwall, Liverpool Email: [email protected] Twitter: https://twitter.com/topropebrewing Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/topropebrewing/ Big Bog Brewing Company Speke, Liverpool Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.bigbog.co.uk/home.html Twitter: https://twitter.com/big_bog_brewing Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Big-Bog-Brewing-Company-350961654987859/ Chapter Brewing Company Sutton Weaver Email: [email protected] Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChapterBrewing Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chapterbrewing/ It’s been a pretty hectic year so far for The Dead Crafty Beer Company and indeed, Liverpool in general as it seeks to push forward its reputation as a city mentioned in the same breath as some others when it comes to beer and brewing. One such organisation with this promotion and development at the forefront of what they are driving to do, is the Liverpool Beer Collective. Now for a quick disclaimer; I am part of this collective in so much that I really want to make a positive contribution to a scene which was for so many years, desperately barren and devoid of diversity, so I won’t wax lyrical too much on how positive I think this initiative is (I wouldn’t be involved if I didn’t think that). The Liverpool Beer Collective has been running a pretty visible social media campaign for a while now and is dedicated to promoting a number of breweries, bars and bottle shops across the region in order to provide some joined up thinking and provide for a healthy, vibrant and diverse scene in the city. Things are looking quite fertile in Liverpool at the moment; there are no fewer than another five breweries popping up lately in addition to the five or six covered around this time last year (Neptune, Parker, Red Star, Rock the Boat and 3 Potts – Black Lodge also opened up around this time, also followed by Southport’s The Craft Brewery). There have been a few extra micropubs (Beer Station, CASK, The Alehouse, Grasshopper and Skew Bridge to name a few) and bars (Hard Times and Misery, plus Dead Crafty only opened its doors in March 2016) popping up across the region with the remit to sell cask and craft beers (and small batch spirits) giving people an even more diverse number of establishments to spend their time. Back to Dead Crafty and on the weekend of the 9th until the 11th September, a local tap takeover was held – half the keg lines in the bar were stocked with beers from Liverpool Beer Collective partner breweries and there was the introduction of a loyalty card for prizes donated by members of the Beer Collective along with a tasty 10% discount in the Crosby Beer Bottle Shop for completed cards (think like those coffee cards you get at places around the city). Judging by the turnouts, the event was pretty successful. Both Dead Crafty and the Ship and Mitre shifted kegs and casks of local beers quite quickly (one firkin of a Connoisseur Ales’ Pale lasted no more than 7 hours from being tapped), with plenty of enthusiasm on the day for the takeover event from visitors. The enthusiasm spilled over for the tasting and meet the brewer events that took place as part of the weekend too, with Connoisseur Ales kicking things off on Friday evening in the Ship and Mitre, followed by new kids on the block Top Rope Brewing and Moonsugar Brewing. The events section was rounded off by Mad Hatter Brewing presenting tasters of their coffee IPA and the Wild Night Out (Elderflower) on Sunday afternoon. The talks from Top Rope and Moonsugar were particularly noteworthy, as both breweries are yet to formally release anything officially. There have been tastings at brewing clubs, but nothing to the general public on this scale and both breweries did themselves proud – the quality of their beers was nothing short of astonishing. If they can replicate what they presented at this event in future via keg, cask or bottle, they should be absolutely fine. Top Rope presented the following beers; Orange Soda Gose, Overkill IPA (a tip of the hat to the late Lemmy from Motorhead), Ryecentennial Brown and 8-Bit Pale Ale. A nice rounded and diverse portfolio, with the Gose being a very refreshing and interesting take on the style and the Ryecentennial being a very fine brown ale with tonnes of character. Moonsugar brought along their IPA, Stout and notably, some rather excellent Mead, which is definitely setting them apart from other outfits in the region. Both talks were informative and bode well for two potentially brilliant additions to the Liverpool scene and with any luck, the beers, braggot and mead will filter out from the city and find the rest of the UK (and hopefully beyond). Going forward there is the possibility of more events along the same template as this tap takeover, but the best way to find out is to keep an eye on the Twitter and Facebook feeds which have both been very well managed (so not by me, then).
What would you like to see from the Liverpool Beer Collective and Liverpool’s bars, brewers and bottle shops over the coming months? Cheers, Pedro. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Liverpool Beer Collective Email: [email protected] Twitter: https://twitter.com/LivBeerCo Facebook: www.facebook.com/liverpoolbeercollective A little later than planned, I’ve finally gotten round to writing about the resurrection of a once famous pre-club establishment, which initially disappeared with the fading of the lasers from Cream only to come back as a vegetarian bar and café/restaurant for a few years and then fall into the abyss once more. The building is still there but The Merchant now stands in what was once Mello Mello and there is quite a difference in sensibility between the two. Although the building is essentially the same, with Edison bulbs and stressed and bare brickwork now taking the place of plastered walls and music sheet lampshades, there much different about the use of the establishment. The Merchant uses much more of the space that was available that Mello Mello, with a courtyard now open to drinkers and diners, a serving hatch is present there from a burger kitchen. Nightcrawler Pizza now takes up part of the old front space of the seemingly empty next-door premises, serving directly into the bar area. Though some are disappointed with what has appeared in the place of the former tenants, there is much to be pleased with, a solidly stocked alternative venue which plays host to North Bar’s North Brewery beers, lots of local stuff from Mad Hatter, Liverpool Craft and also some Five Points and Vocation on draft. The venue has caught the current mood, but it will be interesting to see how the next 12-18 months plays out if gin, craft beer and real ale and pizzas take a dip in popularity, with people seeking other forms of enjoyment. I can’t see that happening though. I managed to grab a few moments to speak to Lewis Boardman, who is involved with the Merchant venture and involved with the same guys who run Circus and Chibuku, to ask him a few questions about what The Merchant will be bringing to the Liverpool scene. Hi Lewis, What is the Merchant about and what will it bring to the Old Mello Mello site and what's different about it to other places in the area? The Merchant will be focusing on craft beer, gin and our great food offer. We have a strong selection of craft beers on tap including Mad Hatter / Wylam / Cloudwater / Five Points plus a great can selection too. Then we have a great offer on gin goblets before 7pm were you can buy one get the second for a £1. Then we have Nightcrawler Pizza, were you can get half price slice also before 7pm with some amazing toppings and even better names. What sort of beers can we expect you to be getting in? Will you be looking to get some more of the 'experimental' craft stuff in, or is it mostly going to be tried and tested beers? The beer selection has gone down really well and impressed a lot of people through out the UK, and is something we are looking to improve on every week. And yes we have some specials on the way! I've heard from the guys at LCB and Mad Hatter that you're going to be stocking their beers... are you going to look to expand the support of the local brewers on the pumps and in the fridges? 100 % yes, we are huge fans of both Mad Hatter and LCB and are looking to support all local brewers in both food and drink. Do you think that the market will continue to expand with more bars, given Liverpool City Council's reticence over the last few years of having more 'nightlife spots' spring up in what is sometimes perceived as a saturated scene? Since we have opened 4 days ago we have found out that 4 new bars and a restaurant are planned and on the same street, so yes its only going to grow and grow. Cheers to Lewis and maybe see you down there! Pedro. ------ The Merchant / Nightcrawler Pizza 40 Slater Street, Liverpool. Web: http://www.themerchantliverpool.co.uk/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/merchantpub / https://twitter.com/nghtcrawlrpizza Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheMerchantLiverpool The tables are lined with schooner goblets (2/3rd of a pint size, for the uninitiated) and cans of Fourpure's Session IPA as people filter into the conservatory at the Clove Hitch, ready to hear what Fourpure Brewery's John and Sophie have to say at the latest Meet the Brewer installment. As the cans are snapped open and poured, John is filling people in on his background and experiences of drinking back home in the United States followed by how he happened upon his opportunity to brew for Fourpure. The commentary ran from him discussing culture-shock of drinking lower abv beers when he moved to the UK from New York, where his drinking experience in the US was centred around much higher percentages north of 6%. Essentially his observations starkly highlighted how political the landscape actually is in the UK, not only based on scales of brewers, but also on the occasionally fractious relationships between traditional cask drinkers and those embracing beers served from kegs. John's move from London saw him working for Meantime Brewery before he met with Dan and Tom Lowe and setting up shop as Fourpure, so named after the four main ingredients used in their beers. Fourepure, as with another Bermondsey outfit covered in the blog around this time last year are surprisingly recent to the brewing scene. Another one of those breweries whose brand seems to have been around a lot longer than it actually has; they are barely 3 years old, having set up in 2013 and began their canning of beers in early 2014, which is very soon in most breweries’ lifespan. The brewery feel this is better for their beers due to protection from light and oxygen, but also a lesser impact on the environment from a sustainability and materials point of view. What about the materials within those materials? Session IPA A 4.2% glugger, pale, refreshingly simple and works excellently from can. The Session IPA uses a four hop combination of mosaic, simcoe, cascade and centennial to give a slightly hazy but pine and tropical fruit laden aromatic beer. There is some florality on the nose, along with a lot of pine and citrussy notes. Against Johns' high abv sensibilities, the percentage was squeezed down but without too much detriment; a solid base for the malts of golden promise, wheat and some caramalt balance things out quite nicely and the level of acidity in this along with a perfect amount of body gives a very rounded and easy drinking pale ale. On a side note with the canning, the labelling is very, very good; information about content etc is an excellent touch. Amber Trail A deep copper to red ale, the Amber Trail is 5.4% in strength and is based on Vienna lager style, with an effervescence and malt profile to provide something with a level of refreshment along with plenty of flavour. The nose is rich and malty, with red berries and a bready yeasty punch at the back along with some caramel around the edges. This beer also uses German tettnanger hops to retain a Germanic presence in the beer, truer to the origins of the style. Southern Latitude An American Pale Ale style 4.7% beer with tonnes of hop character to boot. This is apparently the first ever seasonal beer that Fourpure have brewed and looks golden to straw coloured with loads of aroma thanks to the use of Galaxy, Topaz and Cascade. The nose is full of tropical fruit, jolly rancher sweets, grapefruit, mango and even some blueberry for good measure. The body is mildly chewy and the carbonation is strong to keep things very acidic and fresh, though it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere, it is Winter down under and this is bound to put a summery complexion on things there! Who thought a freebie pile of galaxy hops would lead to something so accomplished? Flat Iron American Red Another 4.7% US inspired ale, this time red in name, red in body and full of woody, sweet cedar and caramel notes on the nose and in the flavour. This beer is named after the red hills over in the US, near Boulder, Colorado. An interesting bit of trivia was posited by John at this point, that if Boulder was upscaled in terms of population/size to that of London, there would be in the region of 1192 breweries located there, such is the passion for brewing there. Impressive. The Flat Iron beer itself (back on topic) uses crystal malt along with a combination of colombus, cascade, equinox and citra hops to give an overtly dry red ale with unripened fruit character, a cap nip/marijuana aroma and hints of green peppercorns and some coffee around the edges. There is a real depth to the freshness of this red ale, thanks in part to the acidity which is not out of balance. Vertical Drop IPA With the appearance of a hazy wheat beer, white and cloudy with a thin white head atop, this ale carries some seriously pungent aromas. At 5.9% it is brewed using fresh orange, coriander seed, US yeast strains, cascade, centennial and citra hops, this is a tribute to what John regards as the style which has driven much of the 'craft beer revolution', especially in the United States. This is a very, very bitter beer with tonnes of flavour in the form of tropical fruit, citrus and pine as would be expected from any punchy IPA, but the acidity giving such a juiciness in the mouthfeel is excellent and gives almost a lingering orange cordial flavour. There is so much going on, but the undercurrent of brioche and spice in this wit/IPA hybrid adds some depth to a very accomplished IPA. Burnt Ends So named after the classic barbecue dish or by-product (depending on your stance), this ale gives everything you would expect from the moniker. Burnt Ends is a 5.8% take on a German rauchbier, which imparts smoke onto the grain during kilning and this translates into a smokey flavour in the beer. Brewed using around 30% smoked malt and 10% roasted rye, with chocolate malt and black malt also making up the grain profile, this gives deep smokey and roasted coffee driven brew. There is also some dark chocolate in the flavours and aromas with some salted caramel and bacon. A very deep beer which would benefit from pairing with some cheeses, cured meat or even chocolate cake rather than being a chug-alone drink. Drhop Kick Dropping back down the strength spectrum to 4.5%, this American Pale Ale is back on track of the usual Fourpure offerings; pine, tropical fruit including mango, lychee and pineapple this is a bit of a hop bomb. The malt profile works excellently, proving a good foil of toasty cereal to the dry controlled finish and five (simcoe, citra, mosaic, cascade and centennial) hop combination. Simple, fruity and very effective. Shapeshifter IPA Another fruit overload and slightly heavier in the kick with a 6.4% strength, the Shapeshifter is an amber coloured IPA which has plenty of aroma in the form of pine, lemons, tropical fruit (almost confected, like jolly ranchers!) and other woody notes. The mouthfeel, balance and finish are all brilliant in this, the acidity brings a juicy freshness to counter the grains and for a first iteration of this brew, they've got it pretty close to the mark of what I think it should be. John admitted to agonising over the recipe for some time, trying to figure out the ideal hop combination for this resinous west coast IPA with a controlled aggression in the finish. Hopped in equal parts with citra and mosaic, this is a great bit of brewing for a first effort on a new recipe. As ever, along with the numerous lovely brews for the event, the Clove Hitch kitchen put on some excellent food – a barbecue on this occasion no less. Superb with the range of beers on offer.
So that’s all for this installment ladies and gents, hope you enjoyed the read and I’ll see you all again next time! Pedro. ------------------- Fourpure Brewing Company22 Bermondsey Trading Estate, Rotherhithe New Road, Bermondsey, London, SE11 3LL Web: http://www.fourpure.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/fourpurebrewing Email: inf[email protected] Twenty Three Club / Clove Hitch23 Hope Street, Liverpool, L1 9BQ Web: http://www.theclovehitch.com/# Twitter: https://twitter.com/TwentyThreeClub or https://twitter.com/theclovehitch Email: [email protected] or [email protected] So given the digging around on various social media streams I have been doing, plus piecing together some conversations with the powers that be (or beer, as it were), there is an awful lot going on during the run-up to the Liverpool Craft Beer Expo on the 16th June 2016. This is even before we consider that an hours drive down the M62 motorway, Manchester Beer Week will be in full flow with a rather hectic and exciting line up of their own… but this stuff has seemingly sprung up out of nowhere and may leave many beer aficionados wishing for a second liver and several weeks of sobriety in the aftermath. Regardless of wants and needs, there is a glut of events on in Liverpool in the run up to the Expo weekend (stay tuned to the Liverpool Beer Collective account on Facebook and Twitter also for regular updates and happenings) and I have done my best to cobble these together into one lovely and coherent list for you all… Wednesday 8th June Ladies that Beer Social @ Dead Crafty Beer Company The Ladies that Beer will be attending Dead Crafty and holding their regular social night to meet up with the other members and encourage more ladies to involve themselves in beer and brewing, there will be a few people on hand to answer any questions about getting involved and they will be looking to score highly in the Sphinx Quiz! Friday 10th June Fourpure – Meet the Brewer @ Brewdog, Liverpool Paul from Fourpure is back in Liverpool to host an evening of Fourpure beers paired with some food prepared by the kitchen at Brewdog. Time of the event is yet to be confirmed, but it is a bargain at £20 a ticket and they are running out VERY fast. Sunday 12th June 10 Line Tap Takeover Event @ 23 Club – Featuring Omnipollo This will feature 10 excellent beers from Omnipollo (including Perikles Pils, Chocolate Brown Ice Cream Ale and Leon Belgian Blonde) which will go on the taps as a pre-Expo celebration; advance tasting cards will be available for £20 and these will be around until two days before, on the 10th June. The event will run from 3pm until 10pm. Monday 13th June BEERS WITH THE BREWER @ Dead Crafty Beer Company – Northern Monk Brewing Company Starting a 7pm, there will be a 6 line tap takeover featuring some of the beers from Northern Monk’s stable (including Neapolitan, Eternal and The Forgotten Sin). This will also feature a launch of their new 822 Double IPA and tickets are a very reasonable £5 each – which includes a glass of the Eternal session IPA as I understand it? Wednesday 15th June 8pm QUIZ NIGHT @ Dead Crafty Beer Company - Sphinx Quizzes & Four Pure Colab Quiz Rob from Four Pure is a quiz master, so he will be collaborating with Sphinx regulars Chris, Liam & Stuart to hold a quiz at Dead Crafty’s premises. There will be a Four Pure tap takeover plus Four Pure Jackpot prize, along with spot prizes of merchandise and every team member will get free cans for taking part! As a bonus… American Pizza Slice will be supplying the half time prize as usual. Tickets are £5, which will get you entry into the quiz plus your first drink. Thursday 16th June 7pm BEERS WITH THE BREWER @ Dead Crafty Beer Company – Jopen Brewery Jopen Brewery will be bringing 6 beers over from The Netherlands. It will be an informal affair where you'll be able to chat with the guys over a beer or 6! The beers slated for inclusion are: Adriaan, Gerstebier, Hoppenbier, Imperial Pils, Jacobus and North Sea IPA. Tickets will be sold at Dead Crafty for £15 each. Also, for the Liverpool Craft Beer Expo (16th – 19th June), there has been the announcement (following my last pre-Expo blog) that Hop and Barley will be hosting their own bar at the Expo, plus Northern Monk will be indulging in a spot of tap takeover action. Another point of note is that Wednesday 15th June is also the annual Beer Day Britain [http://www.beerdaybritain.co.uk/], which has been gaining momentum since its inception. As this date comes in line with the pre-Expo run up and also right in the middle of the Manchester Beer Week, there should be a lot going on and a lot of social media traffic generated to keep you abreast of something going on in your area. People are encouraged to raise a glass, take a photo of them with a beer and post the picture on social media at 7pm using the hashtag #CheerstoBeer. I don’t know about you lot, but I am exhausted just thinking about it; still thirsty though too. Pedro. So here we go again, the fourth year of the Expo and its second to be based in the Constellations venue just off Jamaica Street in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle. Have you been before? Have you read the reviews from the last few events yet? If you answered ‘no’ to either of these questions, then you’re in luck, as I’ve dug out the links to the ElectroKemist Review of the events as per below: 2013: http://electrokemistcuisine.weebly.com/blogs/liverpool-craft-beer-expo 2014: http://electrokemistcuisine.weebly.com/blogs/liverpool-craft-beer-expo-2014 2015: http://electrokemistcuisine.weebly.com/blogs/liverpool-craft-beer-expo-2015 Each year that has gone by has seen a shift in the way the event is run; with ever more excellent beers being brought into the Baltic Triangle, it is very hard to keep up. Luckily last year saw me finding my feet with a writing rhythm and being very prepared for taking notes and remembering each of the beers that I had tried. Hence forming a solid top ten of the event. Give it a read, you might have had some of those beers over the last twelve months or so! Anyway, I was lucky enough to have a catch up with Paul Seiffert and Rob Tuffnell, two of the event’s organisers, they provided a bit of information with what we can expect in terms of layout and brewer presence at the Expo this time around. Thought there is no formal interview this time around, in which Paul can’t insult my very manly hands (they’re not small at all). There will be around 250 beers and 40 different ciders on, along with the absence of the Whiskey Den this year, there will be even more room for beers and some more food stalls. This time, the dispense of the beers will be from brewery led stalls, rather than from rows and rows of indistinct bars where consulting an ever shifting programme or massive chalkboard can be problematic. There was a hint of this at the last Expo, with Wylam, Cloudwater, Beavertown, Camden, Liverpool Craft and Fourpure all having their own stalls set up. This year, it will pretty much be all brewery-led aside from the cask bar, which is rumoured to be outside this time rather than at the back of the venue indoors – and the line up is actually quite exciting. The line up so far: AD HOP Brewing Company Alphabet Brewing Atom Beers Beavertown Big Hug Brewery Blackjack Brewery Black Lodge Brewing Company Cloudwater Five Points Brewing Company Fourpure Liverpool Craft Beers London Beer Factory Mad Hatter Brewing Company Thornbridge The Wall Wild Beer Company Wylam Brewery This isn’t to say more won’t be added at some point soon, not to mention all the breweries represented in cask beers and individual keg offerings. We also have the return to Liverpool of the excellent Karkli (Hi Kumar!) who has been frequenting a lot of Beer Festivals over the last 18 months and is set to continue with his rather brilliant beer snacks for the foreseeable future.
The event is running from Thursday afternoon 16th June and has sessions on Friday evening, Saturday daytime, Saturday night and all Sunday 19th June. If you need to grab your tickets head here: [https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/liverpool-craft-beer-expo-2016-tickets-21586784654] and if you want some more information on the event, then look no further than here: [http://www.liverpoolcraftbeerexpo.com/]. So we’ll see you there then? Pedro. |
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