Category Archives: Cloudwater

Cloudwater? I’m not Bitter!

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I read Boak and Bailey’s post and all the erudite comments yesterday about Cloudwater’s decision to no longer supply their excellent ales in cask and felt quite? Er …  I’m not sure what I initially felt, actually?

I’ve followed Cloudwater’s progress from a distance, and I’ve enjoyed supping their beers, wherever I’ve encountered them, cask and keg. Which do I prefer? Both, depends on time and place. If I’m out for a pint or four then cask wins hands down every time. That’s just personal choice, based on price, enjoyability and quaffability. I can’t visit four or five bars and have a pint of, usually, 5% ++ beers at £6.00 ++ a pint, in each one without ending up pissed and broke. I can of course enjoy sitting with a half or two of excellent keg beer, having a pleasant conversation for an hour or so, leave it at that, and keep everyone happy.

I went into one local establishment the week before Christmas to be met with the distinctive, yet quite small, Cloudwater pump clip. After peering through the strongest part of my varifocals, I was able to discern the particular brew and order a pint of cask Cloudwater Bitter. Surprisingly, the manager, who was sat at the bar next to me said, ‘You’ll probably prefer that one.’ As he pointed to a cask variety of another progressive brewers excellent ales. Now I very much like this other progressive brewers beers, but I like Cloudwater better, particularly because you don’t see it as often as I always thought it should be seen in the West Yorkshire Metropolis. Since they first started brewing, I’ve always thought Cloudwater’s cask ales were often a particularly refreshing twist on cask beer, at the very edge of modern brewing.

We exchanged views regarding the merits of both brewers and although said manager accepted that Cloudwater were an acclaimed brewer the conversation ended with, ‘Well I’ve  tried all of them Rich and I’m just telling you what I know.’

Now we could discuss the merits of two different brewers all day and what I think, might be nothing like anothers view’s, it’s a personal thing is taste, and long may that stay. Thing was, and it really surprised me, the guy was right. The other progressive brewers beer was infinitely more superior, in every department!

My immediate reaction was to ask, ‘How long have you had this on?’ I needn’t have because there were none of the flavours of off beer, or beer that had been hanging around on the bar too long. My own observations – it wasn’t on the afternoon before, and the managers reply, ‘Only put it on last night,’ confirmed this.

I was a bit dumbfounded at this point. Cloudwater Bitter, yet no vibrance, no harmony, just all a bit dull and disappointing. It bothers me not the beer wasn’t bright. Basically, nothing wrong with it, just not up to the usual expected quality. Now I don’t know what had gone wrong here, although the establishment in question is not a GBG pub, it consistently turns out well above average pints of cask ales, and keg beers. Even at £4 a pint, might have been £4.50, an easy drinking, below 5% ABV beer like this would fly out.

What I do know is that if Cloudwater’s decision to ditch cask ales means I don’t get any more of their beer like this one then bring it on. After all it’s their brewery, not mine, and they do actually say in the post on their site, ‘Cask beer should take pride of place in every bar and pub’.

Will I be drinking Cloudwater keg beers and bottled beers? Probably, and occasionally, just nowhere like as often as I have been drinking them on cask. But, unless they immediately follow this up with the release of Cloudwater DIPA v666, their decision is not going to worry me.

Left Bank Beer Festival, in Manchester?

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engine_hall_poster

If I’m honest, Manchester is a place I’ve never really got to grips with. I’ve been through it more times than I care to remember. I’ve spent plenty time at The Crown Court and visited loads of GMP Police Stations over the years. There’s some vague, 30+ years ago, recollections of the Hacienda and a party one Saturday night in a nurses home somewhere out near Wythenshawe, remember that one Micky Ryan? I even went out with a very attractive young lady called Susan Walsh from Chorlton for a while, but she dropped me for some guy out of a quite well known (mainstream) Manchester band. Very much a case of Mrs Merton’s brilliant one liner “… and tell me, what first attracted you to the Millionaire …” Or so I thought at the time.

Anyway, The Peoples History Museum was very easy to find and turned out to be a fantastic venue for a beer festival, as well as an interesting museum; river side terrace, café restaurant, exhibition galleries and the stunning Edwardian Engine Hall. I like industrial spaces and this tall, almost cuboid space, was the central focus for The Left Bank Beer Festival.

LBBF hall

Now Central Manchester CAMRA has only been going for about four months and to set up a beer festival in that time is no mean feat, especially to pull it off as successfully as they did. Apparently ‘central Manchester’ was previously covered by three separate CAMRA branches until someone noticed that all the large cities had their own branch. So, after a little heated debate, the logical progression into Central Manchester CAMRA happened.

I probably got there a little early, owing to travelling on the cheapest train (prompt for Yorkshire war cry!) but I was made very welcome and put to good use by bar manager Heather, assisting with Quality Control checks and washing drip drays and the like. I was surprised how many of the beers were still a little hazy and green, maybe half a dozen? Heather said she would have liked to have seen the beer racked a little earlier than Tuesday. Barring those that just weren’t quite right, I did my very best to make inroads into the rest of the eighty odd beers. Overall, I was impressed with the quality and standard of the, predominantly North Western brewed, ales on offer. Many of those on the bar were telling me that the Cloudwater Brew Co. Pale was better than the Bitter. Personal choice, I thought otherwise, but both were still very good. Stockport Brewing Company Cascade Bitter hit the spot for a good quaffing ale that would suit most tastes. Five Oh Brew Co. Simcoe IPA was superb but it’s very tropical fruity, hoppy without any real bitter bite and soft malt that left an almost sweet taste wouldn’t suit everyone. The one I had to go back for as ‘the last half’ was Thirst Class Ale Penny Black IPA. Please note, the last three are all small micro breweries or brew pubs.

Festival glasses were stemmed ones, lined at one third and one half pint and prices were very excellent value at effectively £3 a pint for standard strength, going up comparatively to £10 a pint for the 10% ABV, Ramsbottom Craft Brewery aka Rammy Craft Imperial Mancunian Stout which would have been hellish on a cold winters night sat by a roaring fire as an after dinner treat!

LBBF KK
LBBF Cider

Cider drinkers had a good choice at a separate bar and there was a separate post modernist key keg bar serving local and european ales which changed as they went off. Alex, the bearded Key Keg bar manager showed me the set up and I was impressed with the dispense system which had the facility to vent the beer in a small chamber between keg and post, neat. I picked up quite a few tips throughout the day on the cellar management side of things from Heather, deputy bar manager Laurent and Alex and I thank them for that.

LBBF Alex

A few beer festival points came out for me. I know the security and cash management benefits of a token style system, but as a punter I prefer straight cash and as a barman I can process cash much faster than I can tick lines off a card or take tokens/tickets plus 10p, 20p, etc. The other one was tasters, at a beer festival? I know it happens, but isn’t the point of going to a beer festival to experiment, try out, contrast and compare; not to find out which one you like and then stick to it. I guess it’s personal preference, but surely a third of a pint is a taster? I am firmly of the opinion – no tasters at a beer festival.

Overall, I had a very good day, at a really good beer festival which had an almost intimate atmosphere, that is often lacking. It was obvious that this atmosphere came from the people involved who were warm, friendly and accommodating. Okay, the charming Charmione, did say that she would be glad to see the back of me after less than half an hour of working with me. She didn’t mean it though, did she?

LBBF Charmione

I (tallish, bald bloke with glasses and Yorkshire accent) will apologise now to those who asked me about the local beers and the brewers, of whom I did not have a scooby do!  I also apologise to those drinking the  Wilson Potter Rum in The Black to whom I related the story about two lady brewers who were related to Beatrix Potter. I did discuss with fellow bar person Peter, that I could take the story further by explaining the ale was dry hopped with fragments of Beatrix Potters drawings, the crumbled late Victorian, early Edwardian ink adding that special Je ne sais quoi? He thought this was a bit too implausible, but did suggest a possible Brian Potter link which I had failed to make. I will however, apologise to the two retired lady teachers who brew this very popular beer, which seemed to go down very well.

LBBF Peter

To end, I will again thank Central Manchester CAMRA, particularly Heather, Laurent, Alex, Anne, Gail, Peter, Charming Charmione and Len, along with others whose names I forgot to enter into the memory banks.

Verdict – Top beer fest, wonderful friendly people. Thank you for putting up with me. Thanks for the t-shirt and thanks for the excellent beer.

Gloss. Yorkshire War Cry – HOW MUCH!

Why is a low cost Wetherspoon’s breakfast 50p cheaper in Liverpool than it is in Leeds?

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Rigbys exterior

Thomas Rigby’s, Dale Street

If you walk out of Lime Street station and do an ‘eyes right’,  you’re met with a stunning vista of neo-classical buildings, something Liverpool has in abundance, their semiotic presence denoting the city’s capital history. Thing is, there’s not much of a buzz, in fact mid day Thursday feels like a Sunday afternoon. Something’s wrong?

 

It was the same on Dale Street, the thriving commercial/financial centre. Or at least it was in the 80’s, it’s just chocka with ‘office to let’ signs? Thankfully Thomas Rigby’s is a) still there and b) extremely lively. We couldn’t get anywhere near the main bar, let alone a seat, so we walked round the back into the little bar/dining area where they still have waiter service.

Rigby's tap list

Rigby’s tap list

If you didn’t know where you were, you could be forgiven for thinking you were in some eighteenth century coaching inn in somewhere like Stamford, Lincs. It really has an olde world charm. Anyway, it definitely still pulls in the punters and was doing a roaring trade with the early evening, after work drinkers.

It’s owned by O’Kells (Heron and Brearley) and I had a cracking pint of their IPA, a proper English style IPA, rather than a modern US style. The mature waiter, a rarity in many pubs these days, was a real character and we had a good laugh with him and a bit of reminiscing about past times – cheers mate. All pubs should be like this one.

 

 

O’Kells also have the Fly in the Loaf on Hardman Street. A big glitzy place trying to be a bit upmarket but with lots of TV’s. They had O’Kells Bitter, IPA, etc. plus some guests and a selection of keg craft styles and lagers. Quite busy with a mixture of after work, students watching TV and a few beer tickers that were probably there for the beer fest.

Overall, a genuine friendly atmosphere and some nice bar staff. I’d definitely go again. The only problem with it being it isn’t Kirklands. Okay, it’s in the same place. It looks the same, more or less, from outside. It’s just not the trendy, almost avant garde, wine bar and music venue that I remember from my younger days. Mind you, the best things never last, do they?

Caledonia ext

The Caledonia

I think the bar maid in the Caledonia was related to the one in The Baltic Fleet. Come on love, please and thank you, and a bit of conversation with the customers, eh. We were the only people in for most of the 45 minutes we spent there and you didn’t have much else to do! Hopefully at sometime it gets a bit busier than it was at 2.30pm on a Friday.

 

Caledonia interior

Inside the Caledonia

Effectively it’s a traditional boozer that’s been un-sympathetically opened out into a single room with a stage, the only traditional bit that’s left is the shell of the building. I think it’s raison d’être is as a music venue, although there was a decent selection of ales. It’s just that the lass behind the bar didn’t know much about them, or she wasn’t willing to engage with us. Whatever, £3.20 for a half of LWC Frozen Assets and Milton Brewery Minerva, both very pale but of more than acceptable quality. The Frozen got the vote. They had a reasonable selection of modern keg styles and cans/bottles and a nice line in art work down the passage to the bogs, which were clean enough, apart from the whiff of stale urine and the fact the hand dryer didn’t work.

Underneath a very pleasant restaurant, which had real ale on is Club 23, a proper craft beer bar. You have to go through Clove Hitch to get into it and disappear down the cellar steps into the basement which was very much like the basement of the Casablanca club I remember from my student days. Probably because it’s in the same sort of house on the same street, Hope Street, number 23. If I’m honest it was a bit studenty for me, brick walls and a bit too damp for my asthma’s liking.

The beer was good, very good. A bit dear, effectively £6.50 for a pint that was actually a third plus a two thirds schooner, if you get my drift. I had a tasty  Yeasty boys/Wylam creation and Mrs C a Cloudwater Orange sour. I do like Cloudwater.

There’s an impressive bottle store with some very esoteric brews. I jokingly said I thought they had priced them up wrong, but the young barman very seriously explained that they had mostly come from America, you see. Hmmm, at £20 a bottle it might be cheaper to go over there and buy my own?

Verdict – not a pub, give it a miss if you don’t like modern key-keg styles, a hit if you do, if not a tad claustrophobic.

I had a really enjoyable three days, on my thirty years on re-visit, in Liverpool and met some really lovely people. Sadly I have to end up on a disparaging noteI because I got a bit annoyed with the old girl, with little things, things that just didn’t feel right, or bode well for the city’s future. Like why was the Trip advisor top rated Chinese restaurant closing just after 21.20hrs on a Thursday evening? FFS half day closing, in a city centre? Why have they created a new (soulless) city centre shopping area closer to the river and left a big scruffy, run down, vacuum in what was once the heart of town? Why is the Caledonia’s web site down? Why are the splendid towers atop the old Grand Central, a wonderful building, a better example of a ‘Raiders of the lost ark ’ set than a Disney imagineer could create. The Buddlea growing out of the top, as naturally as hair grows from an old man’s ears, are bigger than the ones in my garden.

Sadly, with regards to most of my disappointments, I came to the conclusion that it’s all down to the answer to the following question – Why is the same low cost breakfast 50p cheaper at Wetherspoon’s The Welkin in Liverpool city centre than it is in Leeds?

Shuffledog, the new Leeds Brewdog

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Shuffledog intLeeds Shuffledog is Brewdog’s latest bar, it’s also Leeds’ latest addition, but probably not for very long on both fronts, so I went along to have a look. First thoughts? Impressed. Will it sustain? My verdict is this is a worthy addition to the already outstanding beer scene in our fine city and I reckon it will be around for a long time to come. It’s got to be, they’ve signed a twenty five year lease!

As you walk in the first thing that strikes you is how light, airy and open the main bar is, surrounded on three sides by floor to ceiling windows on the ground floor of Crispin House, a converted factory consisting of eighty plus, loft style apartments. Those of you who have been in Leeds for more than two minutes will remember it as H W Poole’s bootmakers and even older residents, as Heaton’s garment makers. Either way it sits at the apex of this grand building on NewYork Road, in the up and coming Northern quarter of the rapidly expanding Leeds City centre scene.

Shuffledog extInside it’s a variant of the standard Brewdog post modernist fit out with it’s recycled gymnasium type floor and graffiti art. Although they are always slightly different, I always think I’ve wandered into the Crystal maze – Industrial zone, when I walk into a Brewdog. There’s seating all round the windows in various guises and a big open space around the sizeable bar. Daniel, one of the managers explained that they might look at putting some more furniture in. It could possibly do with it because at 4.30pm on a Sunday afternoon we got the last two seats and the punters were all sitting down, rather than standing up throwing it down their neck, style people

In terms of beer this is something a bit different for both Brewdog and for Leeds. Firstly there are thirty five draught beers on. I know the term might be a bit hackneyed, but think Craft beer. So what’s different there, apart from the huge range? Well, there’s no cask, no hand pulled ales, just keg. There’s no bottles either, just keg and a massive neon sign saying, ‘Craft Beer Spoken Here’. Too right it is, a comprehensive selection of the Brewdog standards, which is something the original Leeds Brewdog never seemed to have. ‘What do you mean they haven’t got Dead Pony on … again?’

Shuffledog barOn top of this there were familiar local names like Rooster’s and Ilkley, through Cloudwater to Stone, Firestone and Mikkeller and lots more esoteric ones in-between. I’ve never seen five Cloudwater ales on in one place before. My first drink in Shuffledog was an IPA from this excellent Manchester brewer – I really, really like their beers. Chris served it up for me and then started suggesting what else I might like, pushing tasters under my nose. ‘Try this, you’ll definitely like this one, it’s a Braggott.’ I tried it, I liked Siren Craft Brew Uncle Zester, a blend of mead and barley malt; sour, almost balsamic vinegary, sherbert, passion fruit and … erm … Green Giant sweetcorn niblets, to balance it all out. Wonderful, so good we went back, after touring town, for another one, even at £3.50 for a third, it is 8.5% though. Overall I thought the prices were reasonable, a bit dearer than normal, but I guess you get what you pay for and I paid £5 for a half of a decent Mikkeller brew in another excellent city centre bar that same afternoon.

The next divergence from your standard Brewdog is the food. At the minute they are doing the usual cheesey/meaty platter type stuff. Billy, one of the crew, said the food range was going to be extended soon and a more comprehensive selection of vittles will be offered. I had a look in the sparkling kitchen behind the bar, a chef was taking stock of things and it looked suspiciously like a full kitchen to me, with two big griddle plates. It’s the biggest kitchen to date in any of the Brewdog bars. Billy told me that even the staff don’t know what the menu is going to be yet, but it’s coming and it looked to me, like it would be pretty soon.

Shuffledog tableOkay Rich, so what else is different? The name; Shuffledog not Brewdog. Pretend you’re following Richard O’Brien down the stairs into the sizeable air conditioned basement (you will have to at some point, the bogs are down there) where he will offer you games of skill, tests of brainpower and even some mystery games. You could start off with venerable board games, graduate to classic arcade games or even one of three Pinball machines. You could of course miss all these out and start with the highlight, the mighty Shuffleboards which dominate the basement. Forty grands worth of highly polished precision finished wooden decks on tables. I’ve never seen anything like them before, apparently it’s quite big in America. Best described as a table top cross between bowling and curling. The idea being to precisely slide the heavy metal pucks along the deck to score points at the other end. The only problem being the other end is twenty two feet away and the pucks just fly over the microscopic silicon beads which cover the playing surface.

I played a few ends with Joe, another friendly Shuffledog crew member. He said he wasn’t an expert and hadn’t played until last week! Verdict, it’s tricky, but addictive. Mrs C could beat me hands down. There’s always a crew member in the basement to supervise the tables. It costs eight quid an hour to play and you don’t have to leave the table to get a drink. Just tell the crew member what you want and the drinks are brought to you. I think it’s pretty good value. If four of you play it’s only two quid each an hour, you can spend more playing pool or snooker in some places.

Shuffledog crowdThe outstanding feature for me was the staff. I’ve mentioned a few and I know it’s their job to promote the venture, but they were all genuinely friendly, enthusiastic and very knowledgeable about what they were doing. I really enjoyed being shown round and having everything explained to me, thanks.

Overall, I think Shuffledog is pretty cool, best range of craft keg anywhere I have been and I’m looking forward to see what the food is like. Good concept with the Shuffleboard tables and I genuinely think people will go and play this, within I month I predict Shuffleboard leagues and competitions. Whatever, this is another jewel in our string of beads (1) .

1. string of beads – Leeds, rhyming slang.