Turning Point - Yates's, Blackpool & Caffrey's!!

I talk to plenty of beer drinkers in my line of work and almost without exception love every damn minute of those beery conversations, finding out the favourite beers, favourite breweries, discussing pubs and comparing hangovers!!

One subject I really love though refers to 'turning points', that time, sometimes that minute, when the real ale/craft beer journey began for us modern day beer drinkers. I'm not talking about our first sneaky taste of booze, that swig of cider down the park or that day dad bought us our first half of bitter... I'm talking about that time in our lives when we made the choice, turned left at the traffic lights instead of right and went off on our journey to here, to now.... to the Siren Tickle Monster 12% Triple IPA I devoured about an hour ago. How did we get here?

My 'Turning Point' was in a very famous place, it was in a well known pub.... who'd have thought it? Yates's in Blackpool I thank you, you turned me round, you sent me to here!!

Dublin

I always hated booze, I didn't like the taste, it took the edge off my character and made me sleepy!! I drank because the lads drank and I wanted to fit in. I occasionally had lime in my pint to make it taste nicer, but only when it was my round, I couldn't ask a mate for a bit of lime!! We once went on a stag-do to Dublin, a cracking trip, but in the first pub the order was 14 pints of Guinness and a bottle of Bud! Yes, the plain fizzy lager was mine and I didn't even like it!!

Grand National

The dawning day was back in 1999, a scorching hot day, and four of us (me, Deb and her mum and dad) jumped on a day-trip coach to Blackpool. It's a place I've always disliked, but it was only for the day..... we ended up at the Pleasure Beach and after a quick go on The Grand National we stopped off for an afternoon thirst quencher. My choice was a pint of Carling and part way down my first of the day, I gave in..... I could not drink a drop more of it and despaired at what lay ahead, what the hell could I have now, the lager was awful and I'd given in to the fact that I didn't like it after 15 years of trying!

We left the rollercoasters behind and walked north, heading back towards the town centre and inevitably wandered up to Yates's on the front. What the hell would I have? I loved a Strawberry Daiquiri but the small amount of Alpha Male in me made sure that was a well kept secret.... I wasn't going to become Barnsley's cocktail king even though I may have got away with it in Blackpool!!

I actually went up to the bar and asked for a pint of Carling Premier, the smoother lager option available back in those days. I didn't like it, but it was better than 'normal' fizzy lager and my reputation would not have been tarnished by any strawberry nonsense! "It's not on" was the reply from behind the bar and I felt the pressure beginning to build, the sweaty hot day wasn't helping as I scanned the bar for a not-to-be-seen alternative. It was then that a voice came to my eternally grateful rescue.... it was the father-in-law, Tommy. He suggested a pint of Caffrey's Irish Ale and I quickly grasped at his help and the creamy cold pint was pulled. I drank it, found it to be better than Carling and its creamy texture was a relief from the acidic, gassy fizz of the lagers I'd reluctantly been drinking for years. For the rest of the day I had very plain and standard ales and bitters and managed to survive with a spring in my step, perhaps a door was beginning to open.... perhaps it was time to change my ways.... thank god I did, thank god for Tommy and that pint of Caffrey's.

Saviour

.....and so it progressed, Copper Dragon Golden Pippin and Castle Rock Harvest Pale became supermarket favourites and the real ale journey trundled inevitably onwards, towards today, towards a Triple IPA hop monster that hit the spot about 15 years to the day since that pint of Caffrey's Irish Ale.   

Who'd have thought it, I have Yates's and a pint of nitro-keg creamy Irish Ale to thank. Do you know what, the next time I see it available in a pub, I'm having one, I'll raise a glass to Blackpool and my 'Turning Point'.

If you have a 'Turning Point' let us know.... @BeerCentralLtd #turningpoint

Cheers, You Fancy Another?

Sean
x
     

Bottle Share 2 - (Bottle Share 1 was before we became full time bloggers!)

So where do we begin? Perhaps the beer? Maybe the venue? How about the weather? Nah, let's kick off with the stars of the night, the people!!

Gav lines up the bottles!!

..... and so there were 12 of us! 

Angela, Laura, Kirk, Laura, Jim, Claire, Gav, Alex, Hali, Kieron, Sean & Edd. 

12 beer lovers, 12 excited bottle sharers, 12 semi-drunken, quiz winning swearers by the end of the night ;-)

We met at 7pm, Thursday 31st July. The night was balmy, the Bath Hotel was buzzing along and 12 of us squeezed nicely into the private back room. Glasses, water jug, sausage roll plates, a sexy guest bottle... the room was set up perfectly!

The aim of Bottle Share is to bring a few people together, share a few beers, share a few stories, and have a bit of a laugh... it seems like we succeeded!! We also scored each beer individually and came up with an average for each.... rapid, instinctive scoring.... it was brutal!!

Drinking in ABV order (allowing each beer to sing its beautiful song) Kirk kicked us off with a 2.8% Half Mast QIPA from Siren... a low ABV superstar beer that sets the new standard for low ABV flavour (scored 7/10).... he's normally an IPA monster, but Kirk was showing us his softer side! Next up was Padstow Pale Ale (scored 5.5/10), a fresh 3.6% bottle snapped up whilst Hali was on a recent holiday in Cornwall and then Angela delivered us a Five Points Railway Porter (4.8%). She'd had this previously on a memorable blind date, and the beer had been the highlight of that particular night (not the leopard skin undies) ;-) Tonight, its smokey, roast flavours proved popular (scored 6.5/10).

Claire proudly uncapped a Thornbridge Chiron (5%) and, only being a recent convert to beer, this particular American Pale Ale had been the first bottle she had been able to finish in full back in the Spring.... Claire had shared with us a bottle that had started her beer loving journey (scored 5/10). Laura rolled out the first big 660ml bottle of the night and everyone got stuck into the 5.1% smoked tea excellence (scored 7/10) of Wild Beer Co's Put it in Your Pipe, secured on that day from York's legendary House of Trembling Madness. Up next was Jim & he shared the first stronger IPA of the night. Jim's love of Metallica & Weird Beard inevitably led us to Hit the Lights (5.7%), a mixed up IPA (scored 7/10).

Alex turned the evening orange for a short while by offering up a beer from Dutch outfit Brouwerij 't IJ. This was called Natte and the murky bottle was thought to be anything over six years old... we held our collective breath but had nothing to fear, a typical Dutch/Belgian style 6.5% Dubbel was enjoyed and savored with relief (scored 6.5/10). Gav turned us back towards tea with a share of his Marble Earl Grey IPA (6.8%) (scored 5.5/10) and then offered up some of his own tea infused homebrew as well (scored 4/10). One was rated good, one not so good... Marble will be relieved to hear that they just came out on top in the Gav Tea Challenge!

Share, taste, talk, laugh, share, taste, talk.......

Alex revisited the 'very old bottle theme' with another from Brouwerij 't IJ and this was their flagship 8% Trippel called Zatte. Again there was a fusty old bottle trepidation, but again the beer delivered a very drinkable and distinct flavour (6.5/10). Edd from the Bath was on stage next and his bottle had a bit of 'superstar' about it. From somewhere in the darkest corner of the Bath Hotel cellar he had unearthed a grand looking bottle of Pond Hopper. A collaboration brew from Thornbridge & Odell. At a meaty 8.9%, this Double Extra Pale Ale came with plenty of oomph, but a well balanced flavour got it high scores and plenty of praise (scored 7.5/10) 

Science teacher Kieron took out his test tubes and delivered up a 10% 'double bill', perhaps the Morecombe & Wise or Torvill & Dean of the beer world.... a bottle each of Evil Twin Yin and Evil Twin Yang were eagerly anticipated and of course the suggested blending of the two was inevitably attempted with mixed reviews (scored 6/10). 

Siren Odyssey 001

........ at this point Laura F Bainbridge started to swear like a filthy trooper. The tone of the night turned blue, but the next beer was black.... we opened Laura's Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout and this 10% choc monster was very much a pudding beer, thick, inky and powerful (scored 7.5/10).

We finished off the bottle share with a return to Siren Craft Brew... one that Sean had pinched from his shelves, a 12.4% Imperial Stout 'beast' called Odyssey 001. A limited edition journey beer, aged in Banyuls wine barrels and then blended with fresh Liquid Mistress, it goes without saying that this hit the spot!! Bullseye!! (scored 9/10, the highest rated beer of the night).
  
As we finished the bottle share we started the quiz..... amazingly we won that as well, another eight pints and we also at some point definitely shared a Bad Seed Espresso Stout (scored 5.5/10), but goodness knows who brought it and no idea when we had it.... but the memory lingers somewhere in a dark, stout infested corner of my mind. 

Thanks again to Edd and his staff at the Bath Hotel, the home-made sausage rolls were outstanding (scored 10/10) and the venue helped towards what was an excellent night!!

The BS2 Crew were a fantastic bunch!!  How about Bottle Share 3? 

You Fancy Another?  x

Wednesday 27th August @ Shakeaspeare's Sheffield @ 7pm. Contact Sean to reserve your place. 12 max.