BEERS #3 - That's my bit of lager!

[phes]

Here are the pubs hosting Zwanze Day 2024

(Cantillon Tap Takeover, v special, exclusive stuff)


Great Britain • six°north, The Marine Hotel - Stonehaven • Moor Beer - Bristol • That Beer Place - Chester • Belgium and Blues - Southampton • Hanging Bat - Edinburgh • Beermerchants Tap - London • Parish - Huddersfield • The Free Trade Inn - Newcastle

Hanging Bat is an interesting bar. I think it's the one with a tiny brewery onsite that takes on students and people like Vault City and Campervan were placed there once upon a time

[shoulders]

Parish in Huddersfield seems an odd place  to host a sampling of traditional Lambic and Gueuze, it's a live music venue really. Sportsman would have been the obvious choice, or Grove.

Not sure what Stonehaven is doing there either but good luck to them.

[Blinder Data]

Not sure what Stonehaven is doing there either but good luck to them.

that hotel is owned by six degrees north, a NE Scotland brewery inspired by Belgian beers. they used to have bars in Glasgow and Edinburgh but looks like COVID fucked them off

their website says the hotel has 16 keg taps and 4 cask hand-pulls! phwoar

[king_tubby]

Ransomware attack halts Duvel production.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-68512156

[boki]

Parish in Huddersfield seems an odd place  to host a sampling of traditional Lambic and Gueuze, it's a live music venue really. Sportsman would have been the obvious choice, or Grove.

Haven't managed to get up there since the Parish moved to its new gaff, but keep meaning to - loved the old place for gigs.

[shoulders]

https://awards.untappd.com/top-beers-in-england-2023/?selection=top-beers-in-england-2023

Untappd started doing this, gives you an idea not necessarily of which are the best beers but the breweries people who use Untappd think are the best.

It's also genuinely useful to show what styles certain breweries specialise in ie. Braybrooke and Utopian specialise in lager styles so feature in those categories.

Repeating names? Kernel, Siren, Cloudwater (still?), Torrside, Track, St Mars of the Desert, Mills.

[phes]

St Mars are genuinely great but seem to appear about thirty times on account of being the only brewery making that beer/that people have heard of.

Same with some of those Kernel beers. I can't think of many, if any that stand out as extraordinary. But as a brewery, taking everything into account, they wipe the floor with almost everyone craft.

Nothing has changed in about 15 years with scores tied strongly  to abv in the popular drinks market: Top rated session around 4.1, top rated triple NEIPA around 4.4. The borderline undrinkable Chubbles. Always was that way on untapped and Ratebeer, pushing the idea that ingredients and abv to the absolute max is how breweries best showcase the ingredients and their ability.

[king_tubby]

Steve Holt will not rest until he is the Beer Baron of Leeds.

https://www.kirkstallbrewery.com/news/kirkstall-brewery-takes-tetley?

[shoulders]

So they're finally actually building the public park? That was mooted 15 years ago. Might bring the punters in during warmer months. It's a classic Kirkstall style venue tbh. Makes complete sense - providing the area gets a necessary uplift.

Surely Adelphi will follow if that falls into trouble. It's never been a bad place but so far off reaching its potential.

I had their Special Mild last night at the Bridge. Lovely stuff.

[shoulders]

https://twitter.com/DavidJesudason/status/1770134307668931044?t=49JZ0aPgNTRf94Skp4HbKw&s=19

For the last 48hrs Beer writer David Jesudason has been sending a string of anonymous insider anecdotes about working for, let's say, a notorious large Scottish brewery with a chain of pubs.

Best to go on his main profile and start scrolling down.

[Norton Canes]

From Desi pubs to deso pubs, then

[shoulders]

https://twitter.com/DavidJesudason/status/1770757225205617134?t=a965_Rq4IqADEDJso74L6Q&s=19

He's still going

(Tw: disgusting raw meat)

[king_tubby]

Do we have any desi pubs in Leeds?

[shoulders]

No, but he featured one in Shipley. Most of them are in the West Midlands or South London.

To be fair I think he could have covered East Midlands better as there are a few I've found even before this came out that intrigued me.

I have to say the Desi Pubs book from a pub point of view is deeply disappointing - all barring maybe 6 are not pubs, and not just from a narrow white perspective, they are just clearly not pubs. CAMRA published it too and they've got stick as there is hardly any real ale to be found, but good on them for doing so anyway, a good example of forward thinking in a sometimes stale institution.

On the plus side shitloads of interesting places for grub and a good mix of people.

[king_tubby]

Yeah, guessing here that our Asian origin population is more Pakistani/Bangladeshi Muslim so far less likely to open pubs than the more Indian Hindu/Sikh midlands.

This place came up on Google though, I'd never heard of it.

https://thesheepscarbarandgrill.co.uk

[shoulders]

Ah yes, I've heard about that one but not been yet. Sheepscar has a few breweries these days so could do a Desi dinner and a few beers I guess.

Sorry to sound like Saruman but what is Sheepscar but a set of sliproads

[king_tubby]

I mean yeah, I am never going to Sheepscar for a night out.

[shoulders]

Tilquin Gewürztraminer sour bottle pour at Northern Monk in Leeds this lunchtime. As part of their takeover this weekend.

It ain't cheap but it's sour so you don't need much, this is what a glass of good Pet Nat would set you back, so seems fair enough.

As for the beer, this is how to do sour. The Gewürz elements are background level subtle but make the beer both delicate and extraordinarily complex.

[NattyDread 2]

I'd never heard of Desi Pubs before. Are there any in Scotland?

[king_tubby]

I had a couple of pints of the Kirkstall/Sierra Nevada collab IPA this afternoon, decent enough but not £6.50 decent. Anyway I was chatting to the barman about Sierra Nevada being one of the originals that got me in to the whole over hopped craft thing, then we started reminiscing about other old favourites like Founders All Day IPA and he was 'shame they're massive racists' and I have looked this up and they are! Completely passed me by.

[shoulders]

Yeah Founders have crashed hard since the whole thing about their actual dog shit values came to light.

Personally I thought they were only good for dark beers.

[king_tubby]

The Breakfast Stout was very good.

[shoulders]

Like with BrewDog there are places on continental Europe where they still have God status, which is nigh on impossible to confront without belittling the probably sincere, well-meaning people involved.

[thelittlemango]

Like with BrewDog there are places on continental Europe where they still have God status, which is nigh on impossible to confront without belittling the probably sincere, well-meaning people involved.

In the last few months I've noticed a couple of places outside of the UK that looked atmospheric and interesting and as I got closer saw a giant Brewdog sign protruding from the side of the building.

In London my instinct when I see that is generally to avoid as it will be one of the places that arsehole owns, whereas in continental Europe the places I saw were independent and instead wearing the branding like a point of pride.

[Norton Canes]

Bye, IndyMan

[shoulders]

Ah yeah, saw that. Craft beer has well and truly peaked I'm afraid. Consolidation and more corporate influence is the obvious short term trend. Still, the legacy is huge and obvious so no complaints.

[phes]

Eebria In administration too, apparently

[shoulders]

Probably not worth panicking just yet. Some brewers have been unable to deal with the heavy weather last few years but the wider situation is strong to the extent that corporations are aggressively trying to corner and destroy each threat. I wish I could say the family brewers, Theakston, TT's, etc were against it but they aren't. They are the brewery equivalents of Armando Iannnucci.

[phes]

BeerTickers, a glimpse into the Ale completionist sausagefest on the very threshold of craft, focusing on Sheffield, finally upped to YT. Fascinating stuff (with footage of Thornbridge's original brewery with the cross-path pipes that would freeze in winter) 

[shoulders]

Is there a less enticing cover image than that? They don't have pointy white hats on