The Abbey, most recently, then before that it was called the 'Old Monk' augmented by it's dancefloor 'Monastery of Sound' at the back. Since the middle of September, the venue on Hanover Street has been taken by Liverpool's second iteration of the Head of Steam pub. Those with a good recent memory will remember Head of Steam being located in what is now is Wetherspoon's the Great Northern on Lime Street, immediately next to Lime Street Station. The first Head of Steam gradually dissipated from Liverpool in 2015 and was replaced by the Wetherspoons newest addition to the city, though the Head of Steam pub was at a pretty low ebb for a few years before this. Poorly kept cask beers and very limited choice became its nadir following a patch where it was one of the better cask outlets in the city. This new version has opened with a much more promising remit dipping both into waters familiar to CAMRA enthusiasts and craft drinkers alike; numerous cask lines are bolstered by a solid Belgian and US craft selection with a few extra keg lines also present. The new slant is apparently based on the success that Head of Steam have experienced with their Sheffield branch. Upon the opening, the bar was already prepared for local brewery, Neptune Brewery, to come down on the following Friday evening and host a Meet the Brewer event in the back bar area. Plenty of Neptune beers were present, but also other locals were represented including the likes of Mad Hatter, Rock the Boat and Chapter present in bottle and cask. Mad Hatter were slated for a Meet the Brewer evening in early November following the presence of Arrogant Beers (Stone Brewing) and Belgian powerhouse Chimay, so things have started with intent. I managed to grab Simon Ritson from Cameron’s Brewery for a quick chat about how things will go with the new Head of Steam in Liverpool… What made HoS feel the time was right to come back to Liverpool and why the site on Hanover Street? The old HOS site and part of original HOS group was hard to manage due to being so far from Newcastle and why it was run as a tenancy until being sold. With Cameron’s expansion and plan to open 6 bars a year for the next 5 years, Liverpool was always on the map and the Hanover street site was similar to our Sheffield site in size. How much of a focus will there be on supporting local brewers? As with all our bars we strongly support local breweries and HOS Liverpool will showcase the best of these from the area. How often will you be running MTB events and will they always be free, or will some events be ticketed? The first ones were free to showcase the bar, we will continue with free ones but some due to cost of the beers and some cases food will have a cover charge but these will include rare and special beers or spirits. They will most likely be every 3-4 weeks depending on brewery or ambassador availability as we don’t want to do events for the sake of doing them and more take interesting opportunities. How much of the keg line is planned to be open to 'craft' beers? Will more lines ever be opened up to more craft as opposed the macro brewed stuff? Liverpool has 5 rotational lines and the 4 in the tasting room. The other lines offer a selection of drinks to suit all tastes being a city centre bar. We don’t promote these products but don’t want to eliminate non-craft drinkers. So with the cask lines too that's 19 available lines for Cask & Craft beers as well as the Chimay, Delirium, Brooklyn fonts. Here's raising a glass to better longevity and a solid contribution to the Liverpool scene from Head of Steam, they've started well, hopefully some tinkering and some improvements can be made and then more success garnered for their stay and for the Liverpool beer drinker.
Pedro.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
April 2022
Archives
April 2022
Click ^ the RSS Feed to follow me
Categories
All
|