Indy Man Beer Con

For this latest blog I am using the "lazy boy style" 
(I'm in a rush!!)

Where? Victoria Baths, Manchester.

A nice buzz

When? Was 9th - 12 October.

Why? To drink beer, learn about beer, promote beer, drink beer, meet new friends, drink beer, meet old friends, drink beer, drink beer...........


Words that best describe IMBC....... 

Unique   Wonderful   Cool   Independent   Varied   Friendly   Informative   Value   Pretty

Busy   Comfortable   Historic   Daring   Successful   Easy   Challenging   Clever   Simple

Memorable   Fulfilling   Collaborative   Interesting   Tempting   Convenient   Remarkable

Inspiring   Improving   Craft   Real   Ale   Imaginative   Calming   Exciting   Designed 

Changing   Organised   Better   Different   Happy   Satisfying   Professional   Informal

Historic

Stick a few of your own words together to create your own paragraphs and you'll pretty much know how I feel about it.

There you go...... "lazy boy style"

You Fancy Another?

Sean x

             
          

King for a Day - brewing in North Yorkshire

Great Yorkshire Brewery

OK, I sell beer for a living, I like the shiny bottles, I like the clink the bottles make (by the way, two Wild bottles clinked together is the best clink in the business!!), I like dusting the bottles, I like the little fizz you get when the bottle cap is lifted before drinking...... I never wanted to be a brewer, I don't have the patience, I'm not into science, the beard....I don't have the beard!

.....but that all changed last week. Without a beard (just a two day growth as a nod to craftyness, but really my lazyness) I turned up in deepest North Yorkshire with brewing on my mind..... and loved it, really loved it.

Back in September 2013 I was a teacher and on my final tear filled day in the job my lovely colleagues at Barnsley College gave me a leaving gift, a voucher for a Brewing Day at Great Yorkshire Brewery in Cropton, just north of Pickering. Fast-forward nearly 12 months and here we are, I used the voucher last Wednesday and became a first time brewer.

Great Yorkshire Brewery have a lovely brewery tap, The New Inn at Cropton. After an early start I arrived just in time for a full on breakfast at 8.30am, great service, plenty of juice, toast, bacon and mushrooms...is this how all brewers start the day, no wonder most of them are tubby!! Head Brewer Alan joined me for a cuppa and a bacon roll and then he gave me the look, that 'are you ready to brew' look and I followed him down the path to the brewhouse.

Beer School

After a few hand-shakes Alan handed me over to Dave and that was it, me and Dave were the two man Great Yorkshire brewing team for the day. It was time to brew Great Yorkshire Classic (aka Cropton Two Pints until quite recently). Within just a few minutes we were staring into the mash tun as steaming hot water and malted barley poured in from above. Dave stared hard (like a boxer glaring, unblinkingly at his opponent), using his experience to watch the mash as it filled the gleaming container... we were looking for a soft liquid porridge type appearance and after a few adjustments of the flow from me, he gave the thumbs up, we had done it.... it was time to wait for nature to start its sweet magic.  

Used mash for the hungry piggies

During this first wait my lessons began, Alan spent time taking me through the brewing process, from the field to the pint pot - I learnt the lot, asked loads of questions and got well explained, easy to understand answers every time. Recent visits to study and brew in the USA had equipped Alan with an amazing amount of knowledge and he was happy to share it, great lessons!!

Back in the brewery we carefully twisted a few knobs and the sweet wort flowed into the copper and then the boil began. Again we had to wait, brewing certainly does involve lots of clock watching!! After a good boil it was time for the hops and these were added at various stages to offer bitterness and flavour to our brew. I also managed to dig out the used mash tun and after being told it should take me 10 minutes, Dave took great pleasure in reminding me that 15 minutes had passed..... but I'm thorough, you can't rush in a brewery.... the whole atmosphere and ethos just slows you down!!  

Pitching Yeast

After a heat-exchange cooling the hopped wort was transferred to the fermenting vessel (FV4) and not long after I was pitching yeast into the brew, taking very great care to be as clean and quick as possible during the process. Yeast doesn't like any surprises, it seemed that this was a particularly crucial part of the day! Our beer was left to ferment for a week, but my day was far from done.

Milling Barley with Art Brew John

After that I managed to squeeze in a session milling the following days barley with John from Art Brew, (a very clever brewer from the south west who is up in Yorkshire over the summer), I counted yeast cells through a microscope, recorded various data relating to PH, gravity and time and also managed to upload a few social media pics despite Cropton seeming to have no phone signal at all :-(

The final part of my day obviously involved a bit of research tasting, fruity Yorkshire Red Lager from the keg was followed by several moreish pints of cask Chocolate Orange Stout in the beer garden of the New Inn. All the team were there...Alan, Dave, John, Daz (logistics, they said he just moves stuff around the brewery), Shaun (the delivery van driver), Pete (think he liked to drive the fork lift) and a few village friends. The Great Yorkshire team is a great one, they made me feel incredibly welcome, showed passion for the job, and pride in their beer. They move into their new brewery soon and deserve all the success they will get.  

It was an excellent day and evening, I would do it again tomorrow and would recommend this to anyone with an interest in beer, you would enjoy an outstanding day..... I did.

You Fancy Another?

Sean
x

Brew day costs £99 - click here for more details.

Bottle Share 3 - love, laughs & a late night!!

We started at 7pm and some we're still drinking as 2am approached.... this will be forever known as the "Fairly Long Night"!!

Sharers by candlelight

Chris, Kate, Kirk, Simon, Laura, Michael, Kieron and Sean with a very special guest appearance from craft beer legend Derek Foster. Sheffield's very impressive Shakespeare's pub was the venue and beer was the subject, let the festivities begin.  

Twobeergeeks blogger Michael opened up the night with a beer from his past and occasional present. With family ties in Shropshire and the surrounding area (Wales), Michael offered up Monty's Brewery Sunshine, a 4.2% pale which was a fresh, comfortable start to proceedings. Likable, easy to drink but perhaps lacking (as it should) any real bite, Sunshine was received warmly but without screams of delight (5.25/10 was the average score). Kate got to her feet next and proceeded to tell everyone that Buxton Far Skyline is the greatest beer of all time and apparently she has had eight bottles a day for the last six weeks (she bloody loves that beer!!). A 4.9% dry-hopped berliner weisse took Kate back to a wonderful afternoon in Buxton and the beer was received very positively with an average score of 7.34 out of 10 - impressive!!

Laura was up next and blended two beers into a story of love, anguish, passion & despair. The reaction from our group was a mixture of hear-felt sorrow and juvenile giggles (by me), but Laura is a wonderful storyteller and delivered up Nook Oatmeal Stout and RAW Grey Ghost IPA for us to taste. Two contrasting beers served from two pint cartons, Laura had forgotten it was Bottle Share 3 and rescued her evening rather cleverly. Scores of 5.5 and 3.75 respectively meant that the beers went down with reasonable positivity and then disappointment!

New sharer Simon rolled into town next and served us some Californian sunshine.... well not quite.... Simon had famously enjoyed a Gibraltar drinking session on Stone Cali-Belgique but being unable to nail that particular bottle he introduced us to Stone Smoked Porter, a 5.9% bottle of darkness that scored 6.38 out of 10, a good score and an impressive first Bottle Share from Simon. Sean (me) got to his feet next and maintained the Stone theme. At the first two Bottle Shares I'd served up 11% and 12.4% beers and so I wanted to show my subtler side with a single figure ABV. We all tucked into Stone IPA, a modern classic and 6.9%. Well received at 6.63 out of 10, but generally agreed that Stone IPA gets vastly overshadowed by its big brother Ruination, a shame.    

Kieron had a confident look in his eye and as he grabbed his bottle of Beavertown Appleation he was smiling like a man who knew he had a winning lottery ticket. At 10 years old Kieron had been given a taste of Gold Label Barley Wine by his thoughtful neighbor Sue. That early taste of a famous beer had left its mark and so Kieron wanted to pay homage to this iconic style. Beavertown Appleation is a boozy (8.7%) barley wine made with Champagne yeast and bramley apples....yes, I know it sounds gorgeous....it is, and the group agreed. A very impressive 8.13 out of 10 was bagged with minimum fuss. 

Confident Kieron!

Down to the last two, and hang on..... Kirk also had the look of a lottery winning ticket holder as his hands grasped an impressive bottle of Odell Footprint. Perhaps the most ambitious beer ever, Footprint is made up of at least one ingredient from the 11 US States that Odell distribute their beers in. Ingredients included prickly pear, honey, green chilli, corn and grapefruit....all it lacked was balance and an appealing flavour - a score of 3.88 out of 10 tells you everything you need to know, a disappointment, an ambitious disappointment. 

......and finally, here comes Chris, trusted manager of our stunning venue tonight. Chris had scrapped all attempts at Locale and decided to introduce us to an 11% beer that in Norweign tradition had been sent across the globe to benefit from the temperature variations one experiences when crossing the equator.  This beer was brewed at Bridge Road Brewers in Beechworth, Australia. It was then aged in red wine barrels on its journey to Norway, before being blended and bottled by Nogne Brewery. The beer is called Aurora Australis and was acclaimed by some and disputed by others. A tidy score of 7.55 out of 10 took it very close but not quite close enough to displace Beavertown Appleation as beer of the night!! 

I left hurriedly just before 10pm, perhaps this blog represents just the start of the night, more beers were supped, more conversation flowed, more reputations enhanced.... a quite excellent Bottle Share 3!!

You fancy another?

Sean
x


        

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.

The Ball is Rolling!

Time to blog then..... and with no previous experience (other than reading many different blogs over recent years!)

So, what should we be? ...... Kind? Controversial? Honest? Exciting? Analytical? Quirky? Interesting?  

Perhaps all of those things and no doubt many more. We can certainly promise beer talk, certainly pub talk, perhaps obvious links to events and of course a slice of food. We may even be able to squeeze in a bit of Rock n Roll! We'll always try to make ourselves worth reading, right down to the last word.... and respond to current events, perhaps even a bit of politics, you never know.

We'll probably mention Beer Central quite a bit, but guarantee not to go on and on and on about our little beer shop. We're proud of it, but won't blog about it ad infinitum....

One thing we will throw out there is travel! We used to work in the tourism industry and love our beer trips, be it a quick few after work in Sheffield, a few days in Scarborough, London, Bruges....and beyond.

.... and to finish our first little blog, here's travel in reverse!! San Diego comes to Sheffield this Friday 25th July. Chuck Silva of the mighty Green Flash Brewery is over here to talk beer and promote his latest brew of West Coast IPA. Come meet him and taste his beer at our shop from 3pm and after in Shakespeare's from 5pm. Gonna be great!!

Now then, You Fancy Another?

x