Oh Beery Me

Many years before OhBeery.Me came into being I ran another blog; a bullshit repository of a Tumblr page. I posted movie reviews, links to daft videos and, towards the end of its life, the odd beer review. 

This website served as the catalyst for this very site. Today, in a bizarre Google search, a link to my old blog appeared, causing me to revisit it for the first time in many years. It was strange to read lengthy posts I have no memory of writing. Some were quite poignant truth be told. 

One post however stood out, especially after my recent break from beer writing. I thought I’d re-post the entire thing, which was written over five years ago. It’s got nowt to do with beer but I think says a lot about what’s shaped my writing. 

I’d forgotten some of the pretty awesome projects I’ve worked on. I’ve been very lucky. And now I’m back on the writing band wagon…it’s time to dust off off the awesome and make some more cool things happen. 

To prove I haven’t made stuff up you can read the original piece here. Take a look around the site if you like. It’s essentially a diary of time wasting. But there’s some great links buried in there. 

Anyway here’s what I wrote all those years ago…

“In the final few days at one of my previous jobs I sat staring around the office wondering what had happened to my life. As one position came to an end and another job I didn’t even want was about to fire up, I found myself in a brief period of introspection. What had happened to my creativity? I thought the best way to give myself the kick up the arse I needed to get me back onto the writing horse was an overview of why I liked to write. It was pretty rough around the edges and sat on Google Docs for nearly two years, untouched and unfinished.

A lot has happened in my life this year, there’s been a hell of a lot of change, however, I still feel passionate about writing. So, in hour of frantic rewriting I finished what I started two years ago.

When I was in my final year of junior school I attended ‘Drama Class’ - this was way before I developed an aversion to public speaking. Every Monday night me and several other kids stayed after school for an hour of extra curricular activity with Mrs. Ducker. She later left the school under a cloud of financial impropriety, true story.

The lessons weren’t up to much, games played in character, things like that. Nothing you would want to use on your ‘reel. The paydirt of the Club was to put on a show in front of the rest of the school and our parents. This was no nativity, this was kids acting. The kind of thing that today makes my skin crawl. The theme of our show was television, five minute parodies of the nations favourite early evening shows. All the soaps, comedies and what not were parodied by ten year olds. It’s sounds eerily like something ITV would base their entire Saturday night schedule around. Anyway…

It was decided that my friend Dean and I would host the news segment and I would have a starring roll in Coronation Street playing gravel-voiced harlot Phylis. Both went down a treat with our audience, particularly my junior drag act. Not the kind of thing that would be actively encouraged by primary schools in our current cultural climate

It was the news report section that I remember most vividly. The script, that we all memorized was hand written and photocopied for the cast. We had added our own lines into the performance.  The one that stands out would be my crude attempt at satire. To paraphrase myself, ‘What’s the difference between Robert Maxwell and Maxwell House coffee… the coffee dissolves in water.’ A joke about the recently deceased Newspaper magnate coming out of a ten years olds mouth, cutting, nay, bleeding edge.

I didn’t join any drama clubs in Comprehensive school, mainly due to the fact that all our school put on was musicals and I a singer I am not. Also as the teenage hormones set in I was found primarily with a scowl in my face listening to my loud playing walkman. Also my comic compadre Dean was cruelly taken from me and placed in another class. None of our subjects overlapped and as new friendships were made ours disappeared. We would both admit to the not speaking to each other for five years. Strange yet sadly true.

However during our A-Level years we were thrown back into the same class and after the initial awkwardness at our five year hiatus we quickly made up for lost time. We were the main writers of the school newspaper together. Our best submissions were written under the nom de plume of Forbes Mitchell, a tragic, alcoholic food critic cum voyeur who divided his time between reviewing the eateries in our village and playing peeping tom into the after-school lives of our teachers.  It was wonderfully over the heads of most of the year group but the magazine, Whickham World, was my first attempt at writing in partnership and was some of the most fun I had in school. Years later we popped into the school only to find the magazine still pinned up in the office of our old English teacher Mr. MacKenzie. A revelation that made my heart swell with pride.

We also returned to the stage together during our annual Charity Week. We wrote and performed an hour long verion on the former BBC TV show Shoooting Stars. Teachers and students made up the teams while my Vic and Deans’ Bob made the funny. We even got the dubious honour of recreating the Din Bin; where we placed a teacher into a huge catering bin and beat the living s*** out of it with cricket bats. Cathartic to say the least. However, it was the writing of the show that sticks in my mind. Drafting and re-drafting each line into a joke, grafting in callbacks only to be  livid at the casts poor delivery of our meticulously crafted lines.

The performance in front of a fire risk full house of over 300 was fantastic. However due to idiocy on the part of our elected cameraman we have no record of what we achieved, apart from a stamped ticket stub and, more importantly, a copy of the script.

To somehow further my love of writing I managed to get myself a weeks work experience on the TV show Byker Grove through a friend I enjoyed playing table football and drinking beer with.  I shadowed Andrew S Walsh, the script editor, for a whole five days. I had a blast seeing first hand how the production process worked. Andrew was a hoot and tolerated my questions with great gusto. He also a dab hand with the plastic dart guns we bought to shot the s*** out of each other with. He also worked writing scripts for computer games. A quick Google search shows he still does, and s***load more to boot. Anyway, I got to see a very much in progress look at his work on the EarthWorm Jim game on the N64. I didn’t really think much of it at the time but that was pretty awesome. On the Grove I came up with the name for the shop two of the daft slag lasses set up to shill clothes in. I called it Tyne and Gear (see what I did there?!) It was amazing however to see something I played, abeit a very small part, in creating gracing the TV.

University life kicked off for real after a one year piss around on my initial, poor choice of higher education, The History of Modern Art, Design and Film. Although the I did get an great grade on essay I wrote on the locker room antics of James Cameron’s opus Aliens and 90% on an exam I did while still very drunk, it wasn’t for me. I swallowed my non existent pride and restarted on a new degree. Knowing what I know now, I whole heartedly wish I’d done something like Cultural Management, Human Geography, you know, the kind of real degree that gets you a job you don’t loathe. Something with an end game in mind.

Anywho, I, for my sins along with my hopes and dreams, enlisted on the educational whipping boy that is Media Production (specialising in Scriptwriting don’t you know). Man alive did I goof off in the first year. To be fair I had an almost full time job that I kept up for all of university even though most of the other students found it easier to play Xbox and smoke weed. Some still do this today, god bless ‘em.

Anyway I attended only one of my scriptwriting lectures yet somehow still aced the first year. Year Two was much of the same but with added awful short films I either poorly wrote, badly filmed or shoddily edited. However, in the second year of Uni I started writing with Andy Waugh. We spent a worrying amount of time together over the next two years and looking back it was pretty intense. Writing with Andy however was great. We produced a comic book based on the life Steve Guttenberg… well the life we created for him. I’m fairly sure Steve isn’t a serial killer who holds Tom Hanks directly responsible for stealing his acting roles in Hollywood. I’m also 99% sure he doesn’t hang around with Tom Selleck and Ted Danson, who happen to be gay lovers, although I do hope he shares an apartment with Michael Winslow.

Anyway we put out this comic book. Not only is Andy a great writer but he is a talented artist. His unique style and our Grade A funnies got us a lot of attention and some great reviews in various magazines. Outside of Uni we developed the comic book into a pitch for animation. We would spend hours in coffee shops planning how the series would unfold. As part of our degree course we visited the BBC and Channel 4 in London getting hold of names of people we could later harass. The project went from good to better. The scripts we wrote were funny and the episode outlines were great. We got a letter of intent from the BBC who were keen to see the project. It was amazing. Some friends produced a crude five minute version of the show for their final piece. Andy and myself provided the bulk of the voice talent. It got some big laughs at our final year screening. I was particularly proud of a the K 9-11 gag that I wrote into the short. The project was pretty hot property. We created a nice amount of buzz for two people who didn’t have a clue what the f*** they were doing. Hell, we didn’t even have a website. Actually, thats not true, we did pretend to be Steve Guttenberg on a blog we put up for a while attracting some deluded Guttenberg fans and legal threats. It didn’t last long.

I honestly wish I could say that this had a happy ending. I wish I could say that we ended up creating a British Family Guy with toys, merchandise and huge DVD sales but that didn’t happen. We already know this as you’ve never seen this amazing animated series about Steve Guttenberg. I’m pretty sure that some of our gags somehow ended up in the awful MTV animation Drawn Together though. After living out of each others pockets for so long our relationship had grown strained. We were asked to pitch at an animation festival to get some funding. We couldn’t make it as working for the man had begun to rob us of all our free time so some awesome friends, Andy Smith and Leonie O’Moore agreed to step up to the plate for us. Andy wasn’t happy about new people getting into the mix. He seemed to want control over the project to ensure we called the shots. I know this now, at the time I thought he was being a cock. We didn’t get the funding and Andy and I silently called it a day. We stopped calling each other and drifted apart.

After our breakup I went along to the animation festival. It was weird. A lot of people seemed to know about the Guttenberg project. Real people, people in the industry. I spent a week at the festival with Andy Smith, who had pitched for us. We met some amazing folks, hell we met guys from ILM and Pixar. It was honestly amazing. I was introduced Curtis Jobling, the guy who created the design of Bob the Builder, he was keen to work on the Guttenberg project. I told him it was finished, a great idea that would never happen. He invited Andy Smith and I to write for him instead. He had an idea for a new kids TV show. He had done some character designs and had interest from some TV networks. I stress this is all he had done. No script or nothing. It would be a lot of work for us but when someone in the industry asks you to write for them, you say yes.

And so another writing partnership was born. Over the course of six months Andy and myself knocked out several scripts for the show. I can say, with hand on heart, these scripts are the best things I have ever written. Pretty much everything I had done to this point had been, well, kinda blue. Not the kind of scripts you would want your parents reading. They were sweary and very crude. The show was sparkly clean, hell it was a kids show, it had to be. The two of us learned how to write to time, we did read-throughs, we took notes and acted on them, instead of the, “what the f*** do you know,” attitude I had previously had. And for a brief moment it looked as if everything was going to turn out great. This was about to be the anti-Gutt, the project that came off. It looked as it writing was about to be our thing.

But no, that’s not the way it played out. Curtis rewrote one of our scripts and we weren’t to fond of the results, bad juju had come to the project. Although Curtis has a meeting about possible development for the show he went another route. Again, looking at it though the courtesy of my hindsight glasses, it would be the route I would have taken. He optioned the project name and characters to [BIG NAME ANIMATION COMPANY] and that was that. It’s currently sat on a mahogany desk somewhere and I don’t know if it will ever see the light of day. If it does we have all of our work safely saved to compare against the finished project. We never got paid and I don’t think we got enough thanks for what we did. Curtis moved on to other projects like the pro he is. His latest creation, Frankenstein’s Cat has graced networks the world over and will be back for another season.

This was a kick in the balls to many. Although I did a Media course it taught you exactly nothing of how the industry actually works. How people you think are your friends really aren’t. It didn’t prepare you for rejection. Team Smith and Mitchell downed tools and never properly picked them back up.  Writing was something I did for fun and every time it started to get exciting a calamity would befall the project I was working on. Writing became a chore and as a result I stopped. There were fits and starts, some real funny but not finished ideas, a few unsolicited submissions here and there but nothing I was completely proud of. Nothing like I had done previously. I truly fell off the writing wagon and it left me for dust. I got a real job and got on with life.

Cut to 2008 and a lot has happened. I have edited music videos and behind the scene promos for both bands and business. Two of which were released on DVD. I was voted Evening Chronicle Young Reviewer of the Year. I have had my first travel article published in a local magazine. I got back into Photography and had pictures published in a number of magazines, including a National Geographic publication  cover. And this year, quite incredibly,  I am going to California to film and edit a short documentary. All this on top of buying a car, a house and holding down a well paid real job. But something has been missing, something I could never quite put my finger on.

I have decided to pick up where I left of and give writing another go. Not because its easy or even because its a hobby. I have wanted to write for TV for as long as I can remember. When we were at university and sat off shooting the s*** everyone admitted to wanting to be a director. But I didn’t, all I have ever wanted is to write, everything else I have done or am doing has been through good fortune. It’s time for me to get back to work.

So that was last year. The documentary was incredible and a ‘career’ hightlight that I don’t thick will ever be topped. However it’s time to dust off the pen once more.

And that feels good. I’m excited.

More to follow…”

Crackle*

*Buzz*

* Pop*

 *Screech*

I exhaled deeply,and then started laughing.

Being stood in front of over hundred people, each paying £20 a ticket to hear me talk, was daunting enough. A malfunctioning mic just added to the drama.

Let me back up. It was the 1st February; a beautiful blue sky had made the Newcastle Gateshead quayside more picturesque than usual as a I made my way to the Baltic Centre of Contemporary Art, my home and office for the day.

After three brew-days and several weeks preparing my lines it was time for Beer and Bites; my second annual showcase of fantastic north east breweries. Amazingly a whole year had roared by since my first outing and this time the pressure was on.

Beer and Bites Mk 1 was one of the fastest-selling ticketed events in the Baltic’s 14 year history. This year’s had sold out in half that time again. Oddly I was a damn sight more nervous the second time around. This was probably due to the extra level of complication I’d brought to the party.

Not only had I orchestrated three new beers for the event but we were having our own bar for the afternoon too. Thanks to Michael Potts and man with a van… and a brewery Mark McGarry, we were installing a temporary mini Free Trade Inn at one of the most influential modern galleries in Europe. Four kegged beers and one cask would be dispensed over two hours.

It was thanks to Mick and his mobile bar skills that this afternoon was even happening. Last year I’d served bottled beers from three local breweries. Being the glutton for punishment that I am, I wanted to improve on this. Hence brand new beers and a bespoke bar. I’ve written at length about the Free Trade and Mick in the past. I hold Mick, along with Andy Hickson from the Bacchus and Neil Amos formerly of the Newcastle Arms, as the three people who dragged Newcastle into the craft beer scene we have here and now.

Mick has transformed the Free Trade into one of the most important pubs in the north east, if not the UK. We are blessed with incredible beers, mini festivals, food events and more week-in, week-out thanks to Mick’s dedication to beer. I’m fortunate to count him as a friend, however when you see new bars opening in Newcastle, spending hundreds of thousands of pounds refitting and refurbishing, they have without doubt, used the Free Trade as a model for success.

I’ve long classed the Free Trade as my local, despite the fact it’s miles from where I live. And having a touch of the Trade helping out with the beers that afternoon made me feel immeasurably better. I still felt sick with nerves but that’s par for the course.

With the bar built, the beers in-situ and the breweries arriving, decorating the room with banners, posters and post event goodies for sale, I felt I distinct pang of pride seeing new pump clips for beers I’d helped, albeit in a sensationally small way, bring to life.

Neil from Allendale, Andy and Carl from Northern Alchemy, Mark from Almasty and Barbara from Goldbox Roastery were all along for the ride. Much to my delight Andy and Nick from Hop on the Bike had made the trip from Manchester to check out the afternoon too. And to top it off, a queue was forming. I’d taken a peek at the growing mass of people waiting for the doors. People were seemingly eager to make a start.

Mick commenced pouring Allendale’s delicious Fermata - a sumptuous 3.1% fruit packed pale ale - which was paired with a Cajun chicken nacho and guacamole. The room quickly filled and mini groups joined others on communal tables. The idea was to push people slightly out of their comfort zones and get talking about the beers on offer. With their boozy aperitifs in hand, it seemed to be working…

As the clock stuck three it was time. A brief introduction from the Baltic’s Emma Jackson and it was over to me and my malfunctioning microphone. Despite the pretty piss poor sound I chatted with the audience about the new wave of breweries in the north east and found out that more than a third of the audience was here for the a second helping of Beer and Bites.

For almost two hours I spoke about the beers, explaining the various styles and ingredients. But most importantly I told the stories of the breweries. Who was behind them and what drove them into the industry. This is what I love doing. I’ve worked in a brewery and it wasn’t for me. What I genuinely care about is explaining the modern histories of these incredibly hardworking businesses; their achievements and challenges, all while exposing people to their talents.

Writing about beer online has its ups and downs. And if you are reading this, chances are mine isn’t the only beer website you frequent. I think, after a fair few years of doing this, I care more about reaching the people who couldn’t give two fucks about beer blogging. People who just want an afternoon out with a few beers, and if I, in some small way, can draw attention to breweries and beer styles that have passed them by, so much the better.

I think back to the times when I was finding my beer footing and being shown new beers and flavours. It’s this that I’m forever trying to recapture; to distill the initial wave of excitement that washed over me when I first tried a hugely flavoured IPA or a multi layered stout. In a nutshell this is what Beer and Bites is all about.

My nerves subsided as the afternoon went on. People were enraptured by the sweet and savoury nuance of Almasty’s Caramild; opinion was split down the middle with the divisive yet delicious Northern Alchemy Pineapple and Passionfruit Sour; traditionalists received a modern twist thanks to Allendale’s delightful Bramling Brown Ale, and the afternoon was wrapped up with the voluminous Almasty / Goldbox Breakfast Stout.

Thanks to the tasting measures we’d settled on, there was more than enough beer for second and third helpings. Talk over, as I able to mix with the audience, chat about their favourite beers of the day and suggest new bars and beers for them to try. Much to my delight the yoof count was pretty low; instead families, friends and groups of all ages filled the Riverside Terrace to revel in the some of the remarkable talent the north east brewing scene has to offer. 

I thoroughly enjoyed myself. And I think the audience did too.

Thanks to the amazing team at the Baltic for working their arses off that Sunday afternoon - the bar staff and chefs were incredible. Thanks also to Emma, Emma and Sheila from the Baltic for making the afternoon go ahead so smoothly, microphone issues be damned.

Thanks to Neil, Carl, Andy, Mark and Barbara for not only supporting me on the day, taking time out of their limited free time to be there but being so patient and down-right awesome enough to get involved. Thanks to Emma (my Emma that is) for tolerating me getting increasing freaked out pre-event.

Thanks again to Mick for his professionalism and planning and to everyone who came along on That Sunday; you’re a bloody top draw bunch of booze hounds.

Richard Fletcher from the Journal did a splendid write up of the event, capturing exactly what it was all about. Looka, you can read what he said below.

Now the question is… how do I top this?

**Nearly all photos by Peter Atkinson**

Make no bones about it; The Cumby is a local institution and a wonderfully traditional boozer in Byker. From its lofty perch overlooking the Ouseburn Valley it’s been witness to many changes; the fall of major industries; the decline of the once mighty river Tyne; the closure of the potteries and the mine; the construction of the iconic Byker Wall in the ‘60s; and most recently, the Ouseburn’s bohemian rebirth as Newcastle’s artisanal Ground Zero.

This two-room bar with its roaring fires and a strict queuing policy is one of my favourite places. It’s been home to many a night of debauchery in their cosy beer garden and I’ve drank here for the best part of fifteen years. Along with a staggering array of impeccably kept beers and ciders, punters are also likely to see impromptu folk jam sessions, improv comedy, storytelling, poetry readings, Northumbrian rapper dancers, and more.

As the seasons and surroundings have slowly changed, The Cumberland Arms remains steadfast. Popping in yesterday, the pub looked exactly the same as it did when the nineteen-year-old me first visited. However, last year saw The Cumby’s biggest change when arguably the smallest brewery in the UK, Northern Alchemy, moved in.

Their brewery - a 30-foot customised shipping container - has been dubbed “The Lab”.   Northern Alchemists (and brothers-in-law) Andy Aitchison and Carl Kennedy have sited their beery lab to the rear of the pub and set about creating flavour-led, keg-dispensed beer on a 100-litre brew kit late last summer. As I sampled their debut brews in the late summer sun I actually shed a tear of joy.

Andy is no stranger to the beer world, having got his start at Blaydon’s Hadrian Border, before moving to Morpeth’s Anarchy Brew Co as head brewer. But Northern Alchemy was always his goal. A goal both he and Carl remained laser focussed on in spite of a slew of seemingly insurmountable problems. From installation delays to HMRC balls-ups, the rise of Northern Alchemy is testament to their unswerving belief in beer.

All of their beers are entirely natural, unfined and unfiltered and as small batch as it can possibly get. For almost six months Andy and Carl have pulled double brew days to meet the ever-increasing demand for their beer. In January they installed a new kit which more than tripled their capacity, meaning a far better work/life balance for the brewers and more beer for the likes of us.

Andy and Carl are two of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet; warm, kind and caring and they are incredible brewers to boot. Their inventiveness, small size and agility afford them a unique position in the north east brewing scene. I was over the moon that they agreed to rustle up a new brew for Beer and Bites, and I was even more excited because the Baltic were getting in on the action too.

We chatted about ideas, and while I was prepared to give them free reign over the beer, there was one box I definitely wanted the beer to tick. Sour.

I’m a huge sour beer fan. HUGE. Once you’ve destroyed your taste buds with bitterness, sour is the next logical step. The chosen beer was to be a Berliner Weisse; a cloudy, sour, low ABV beer harking from northern Germany. To bring even more flavour to the party, the beer was to be conditioned on tropical fruit.

I moseyed on down to the brewery after lunch one Friday in January and it was great to spend the afternoon in the company of Andy and Carl. I got to help mash in, using industrial power tools no less, and generally got in the way for a few hours. The Lab is the most bijoux of breweries. It’s warm and ruthlessly organised, thanks to the lack of space. The entire brew-house is bespoke, from remote control pumps to a one-of-a-kind mini carb tank, and even as a non-brewer I was as envious as hell of their setup.

We were joined for the afternoon by Emma Jackson and Emma Douglas from the Baltic, the lovely folk responsible for putting on Beer and Bites at the beginning of February. We cracked opened some beers, chatted shit and had a ball, although they bid a hasty retreat come clean up time. For shame!

The most intriguing element of the afternoon came once we’d got the wort into the fermenter. Unlike most beers where standardised yeast is added to ferment the beer, Northern Alchemy decided to follow a more rustic route by adding untreated malt. The malt, which is coated in lactobacillus, acts slowly to both sour and ferment the beer. 

Local green grocers were duly contacted, as pulped pineapple and passion fruit were to be added to the beer to make it more lip smackingly good rather than out-and-out lip puckering. However that was for another day. The malt needed time to sit and work its magic and we had beer to drink in The Cumby. 

It’s safe to say this would be the most leftfield of the brews served up at Beer and Bites and I couldn’t wait to see how it would go down with the guests.

There was now just the small matter for working out what the hell I was going to say on the day…

“Traffic is slow-moving pretty much everywhere this morning. We’ve got a broken down lorry just after Blaydon on the A1 and a two-car collision is causing chaos heading into Newcastle…” 

I hate traffic announcements. They punctuate my morning commute as an audio harbinger of doom. Every twenty minutes the witless local DJ interrupts my playlist just to let me know exactly why I’ll be late for work. Driverless cars can’t come soon enough. 

Yet today I was on a different commute. I was heading to Almasty Brew Co. to help brew the second of the Beer and Bites beers. And now I was going to be late. 

Tales of the Almasty, or ‘Wild Man’, the mythic hairy human-like animal said to roam the mountains of Central Asia, have been passed from generation to generation. Sightings of this infamous creature have been noted throughout Russia, Pakistan and most recently, near the Boundry Mill shopping outlet in Shiremoor.

The brewery is the latest creation from former Tyne Bank head brewer Mark McGarry. His black IPA Piccolo Black, brewed with lime-laden Yirgacheffe coffee, and US-inspired heavy hop hitter Silver Dollar, were high water marks in north east brewing, both created during his tenure at Tyne Bank. 

In going it alone with Almasty, Mark has built the brewery to his exacting specifications; ten barrels in size, using conical fermenting vessels to guarantee the best possible results. Super fresh and seasonal ingredients are at the heart of all of Almasty’s current and future beers, which is a boon for local flavour lovers. 

Based on the Algernon Industrial Estate on the outskirts of Newcastle, Mark has wisely taken on premises with plenty of room for expansion. And given the excitement that has greeted each of his beers to date, it won’t take him long to fill the brewery with new vessels and staff. 

It’s safe to say that Almasty is one of the most in-demand breweries in the UK and is causing quite a stir way beyond Mark’s home turf. But don’t just take my word for it. Edinburgh’s incredible Hanging Bat wrote of their impending Almasty ‘meet the brewer’ event: “At New Wave we have a system for ordering – which is almost always ignored , mostly by me – and Almasty are in a small sub category along with Brodies and Alpha State entitled ‘Buy whatever you can, when you can’ as instructions for anyone doing the buying. We’ve been that impressed.“

The most remarkable thing about Almasty is that it’s a one man operation. Mark took on this Herculean task single handed last August and hasn’t come up for air since releasing his Session Pale Ale and Export Brown Ale. His beers have been tremendous and all have reeked of ingenuity, balance and bold flavours. 

I was already showcasing one of Mark’s beers at Beer and Bites (his incredible Salted Caramild) but still wanted to unleash something new and exciting on the audience. If there’s one beverage I love just as much as beer, it’s coffee. OK, maybe not quite as much, but the booming coffee scene in the north east is arguably just as vibrant and exciting as the recent resurgence in local brewing.

While, Almasty, Allendale and Northern Alchemy are flying the flag for inventive breweries, Newcastle’s Flat Cap Joe’s, Pink Lane Coffee and Ouseburn Coffee’s Harvest are serving up exemplary espressos, virtuoso V60s and characterful cold-drips.

The UK coffee industry has received a much-needed double shot of reinvention in recent years, taking its cues from North America and Australia. Much like the explosive growth in British breweries, coffee is now awash with creativity. Niche cafes, baristas and roasters are moving away from bland and bitter coffee to something altogether more expressive.

For too long coffee has been an afterthought; an everyday item made quickly and drank even quicker. Flavourless freeze-dried varieties are the norm for many while supermarket shelves are stacked high with old, pre-ground beans. However, there are a number of amazing roasters in our region helping to turn the tide, including Blaydon’s Goldbox Roastery.

Inspired by Italy and based on the banks of the Tyne, Goldbox is led by head roaster Mario Croce. Mario has spent more than two decades working in some of the north east’s most prestigious restaurants. He’s always had passion for flavour and a love of espresso and in recent years Mario has swapped the kitchen for the coffee roastery. Here, Mario and his team work tirelessly to source and roast the very best beans; showcasing the flavours and aromas of each varietal.

I’d mooted a coffee beer with them a few months prior but thought that the Baltic talk would make for a pretty special launch event. I was over the moon that the Goldbox team agreed to be part of it. Mark and I visited their roastery in December and got to grips with a new Kenyan bean they’d recently sourced. It was here the idea for a breakfast stout came to pass and plans were hatched to use two separate roasts, a light and dark, each bringing different flavours to the party.  

Once I managed to navigate the traffic and actually get to the brewery, Mark and I cracked on with mashing in, adding kilo after kilo of oats to the already generous malt bill, to build a voluptuous mouth feel to the beer. However it was the addition of the coffee which most excited me. Mark wanted to make the addition not with a cold brew, but with something a little different.

Goldbox arrived at lunchtime complete with 12kg of freshly roasted beans and one huge grinder. We set about working out the ratios which we would scale up later in the day. I’m a huge fan of the V60 and know all-too-well that the perfect balance of ground coffee and water added over the correct amount of time helps to extract and conjure up a faultless cup of Joe.

Mark had fashioned giant V60 cones with filters concocted from muslin cloth; using these oversized barista tools we set about infusing the light and dark roasted coffee through 1400 litres of unfermented beer. Now this sounds relatively easy. However starting timers, adjusting flow rates, adding the beer in a slow circular motion, ensuring maximum extraction from the ground coffee, all while kneeling in what the Geneva Convention would undoubtedly class as a stress position, was slow going and hard work. 

The quite literal “brew” day took close to eleven hours. However, sampling the beer - still sweet from the unfermented sugars - we knew we’d created a potent beast. Luxuriant fruit flavours and lashings of decadent chocolate swirled in the glass. It was big. Really big. This was no subtle suggestion of coffee, more an explosion of oils, aromas and flavours. The 1st of February couldn’t come soon enough.

Thanks to Goldbox, and of course to Mark, for helping bring this coffee colossus to life. And don’t forget that there’s still time for those north of the border to get in on the Almasty showcase at The Hanging Bat on the 25 February, tickets are available here. I’ve seen the beer line up and the Breakfast Stout certainly sits in good company. You won’t be disappointed.

For the third and final beer I headed to Northern Alchemy, more on that later

The ice warning light beeped loudly and the LCD temperature on my car’s instrument panel began flashing. Zero degrees. Wonderful. 

I turned off the dual carriageway at Haydon Bridge. Writer Philip Larkin and Monica Jones, his companion of 40 years, shared a secret love nest here from 1961 to 1984. Of his riverside pied-à-terre he wrote:

“I thought your little house seemed … distinguished and exciting and beautiful … it looks splendid, and it can never be ordinary with the Tyne going by outside … a great English river drifting under your window, brown and muscled with currents!”

Local tales suggests the lovers spent a New Year’s Eve in Allendale, the same village I was currently heading to. The former lead mining town was once a bustling conurbation and mining can be traced back in the area to Roman times, with the first smelting mill constructed in the 1600s.

As I pass through Catton, a quiet and unassuming village, the remnants of the former heavy industry can be seen, with two towering flues reaching into the cloudless morning sky.

Today is Tuesday 30 December and the roads are quiet with only a handful of farm vehicles coughing and spluttering to life in the cold air. Tomorrow will look very different. Allendale might not be the industrial powerhouse it once was, however the town’s New Year’s Eve celebrations have put them firmly back on the map.

Allendale is famous for a New Year celebration where lighted tar barrels are carried on top of revellers’ heads. Quite how this Northumbrian tradition came to be isn’t exactly known. Some believe it dates back hundreds of years as a Pagan celebration. However one of the more documented stories dates it back to 1858, when a brass band, carolling to celebrate New Year, were unable to use candles to light their music due to the strong winds. Someone suggested a tar barrel be used instead.

Regardless of its origins this annual event draws in thousands of spectators to see in the New Year with the guisers, costumed men with blackened or painted faces, carrying the flaming barrels atop their heads. As the clock approaches 12 the guisers meet in the town centre, depositing their barrels to form the Midnight Baal Fire, a pyre to the old year. Cue a huge cheer and roaring chorus of ‘Auld Lang Syne’. 

However, that is tomorrow. Today, I’m heading to the Allen Mill, the former heart of Allendale’s lead mining industry, which is now home to the wonderful Allendale Brewery. Today, we brew. 

On the 1 February 2015 I was asked to deliver my second Beer and Bites event at the Baltic. The event sold out weeks before, with over 100 people heading to Gateshead’s Centre of Contemporary Art to eat, drink and hear me talk. At my last event I’d selected existing beers from the chosen breweries’ line-ups. To complicate matters this time around I asked the featured breweries (Allendale, Almasty and Northern Alchemy) if they’d each be interested in brewing a brand new beer with yours truly for the event. Thankfully they all agreed, and today I’m on brew day number one.

I’d grown weary of beer blogging of late and the beer echo chamber no longer held the appeal it once did. Instead I was more focussed on new audiences; people who had yet to be indoctrinated into the cult of craft, people who were eager to learn. This excited me. To me, beer is not only a conversational lubricant but also the social glue that can bring together disparate groups and bind them with booze.

Throughout 2014 I’d been fortunate to get to help select beers for local festivals, write for newspapers and magazines (not just my own beery blog rantings), and perhaps most interestingly, I’d combined brilliant beers with fantastic food at the multi-award winning Feather’s Inn in Northumberland. But Beer and Bites 2015 was my chance to improve on my last outing and bring something truly special to the ticket holders’ tables 

The Allendale Brewery is a real staple in the north east and their beers are ubiquitous around the region. Golden Plover; Wolf; Tar Barl - all uniquely ‘Northumbrian’ in nature. These are beers to be savoured in local pubs with roaring fires while stroking a dog.  However, in the last three years Allendale have lit a touch-paper in the north east. Brewer Neil Thomas’s incredible END range of beers has offered up a showcase of unique, flavour-forward beers. From gin-tinged botanical ales, palate-scorching IPAs and chilli and chocolate-imbued milk stouts, Neil has acted as catalyst to drive the north east’s brewing scene forward.

In doing so he has helped grow Allendale from its humble beginnings to a force to be reckoned with. A cavalcade of awards and exports as far afield as Hong Kong illustrate their prowess in the marketplace. But for me Fermata, a 3.1% pale ale, and their Sauvin Saison are masterpieces; beers of true excellence, growing finer with each iteration.

For the Baltic beer I’d asked Neil for his take on a true north east brew; brown ale. I’d have been remiss if I wasn’t going to touch on this particular drop in a presentation about the north east beer scene…

It’s been over 85 years since the world famous Newcastle Brown Ale was first released. Stick your head into any north east boozer today and you’re still likely to catch a glimpse of someone supping a bottle of ‘Dog’ from a schooner. 

As a kid the smell of brewing in the city was ubiquitous, drifting across the Tyne from the city centre’s Scottish and Newcastle brewery. However there was hell on when S&N moved production of their wildly popular Brown Ale to Gateshead. 

Traditionalists went apoplectic. However things only got worse following a buyout by Heineken when all production was shifted to Tadcaster, marking the end of industrialised brewing in Tyneside.

During my year of drinking for Beer366, Brown Ale was the first (and last) beer I reviewed. It came in high regard with beer legend Michael Jackson writing of Brown Ale in his indispensable Beer Companion: “There are richer and more assertive brown ales, but none better than Newcastle’s.” I thought it was garbage.  

So with Neil’s help we set about recreating a classic. The malt and hop bill was strictly a UK affair, with 6kg of Bramling Cross serving up a suggestion of hedgerow berries balanced against buttery biscuit base. The majority of the beers for the event would be kegged but Bramling Brown Ale was a cask affair; traditional in nature with the slightly warmer temperature offering up a more nuanced flavour and true taste of the past.

I rounded out the penultimate day of 2014 lifting bags of grain, digging out the mash tun and making the hop additions. It was a real hands–on day in the brewery and I loved it. It reignited my passion for brewing and also served as a reminder of the hard-work and creativity which makes this industry unique. For the first time in months I felt a true affinity with beer and a happiness that had been missing. 

Thanks to Neil and the entire Allendale staff for yet again making me feel incredibly welcome.

Next stop Almasty.

London, Summer 2013

We were late. Over half an hour late. This isn’t like me. The neurotic OCD switch permanently set to ‘freak out’ was causing ripples of panic. I hate being late, hate it. But late we were. Apologetic tweets were sent from the bustling bus as it wove its way through central London.

Twitter is wonderful tool, helping to democratise communication between businesses, celebrities and the common man and woman. In beery circles it seems the de facto method of chatter. Plans, posts and much more are hatched in 140-character snippets. It was through Twitter that Emma and I had agreed to meet the two gents behind the wonderful Evening Brews website.

When I say wonderful, I mean it. The duo’s insightful commentary, slick photographs and effortless design mark them out as one of my favourite websites. They cover everything from cask vs keg nights held in incredible locations to thought-provoking interviews with remarkable brewers and in-depth articles on brewery plans and techniques.  The Evening Brews help propel the conversation forward while avoiding the petty squabbles of beer name-this and definition-that.

I didn’t, however, have a clue what they looked like. The internet casts a long shadow of anonymity and your avatar isn’t necessarily your own. Hell, until recently mine was that of the character Will McAvoy from the much maligned The Newsroom. We scanned the pub, hot from the baking summer heat and spotted a table of beer drinkers eyeing us suspiciously.

What followed was a riotous night of beers and chat which sadly has yet to be repeated properly. We missed each other in Copenhagen but caught up, albeit briefly, last October in Common in Manchester following Josh and Per’s whistle stop visit for IndyMan. Our plans to bring them to Newcastle have yet to be firmed up but I will endeavour to make 2015 the year.

I recently received a message from Josh asking if we’d like a bottle or two of his latest homebrew. His website mad skills are self-evident, but Josh can add ‘Homebrewing Hero’ to his impressive list of craft beer Cub Scout badges.

Josh picked up a win at London and South East Homebrew Competition earlier in 2014 and his prize was to re-brew his beer on a bigger scale at Bermondsey’s Anspach & Hobday Brewery on their 100 litre pilot kit. A second iteration of the award winner, the superbly named Sasquatch, was one of the beers that made the postal journey north, along with a bottle of IPA.

I was amazed at the aroma peeling from the Hop Haze; a luscious, heady citrus fragrance rang out. Josh tells me it was hopped with Falconer’s Flight, a touch of Mosaic and pink grapefruit zest added in the secondary fermentation.  I’ve gone through a fair whack of beer over the years and if I was served this in a bar I wouldn’t be disappointed. If I’d brewed it myself, I would be over the fucking moon.

Sasquatch was a more multi-layered beast; a black IPA with the addition of a Yirgacheffe cold brew. Now Josh knows his coffee, in fact he included a tasty bag of Monmouth beans in with the beers, a Cup of Excellence winner to boot.

The beer offered subtle roasted flavours, complemented by the floral and tropical fruit notes of the Mosaic hops. The addition of Yirgacheffe brought the beer to life, adding an additional fruity twist. I really liked it.

Sadly the Imperial Stout didn’t survive the trip; broken in transit according to the note Parcelforce included in the box. Judging by the two cracking brews I got to sample, I reckon they nicked it.

Thanks again to Josh for the parcel of plenty his sent on, I look forward to hopefully guiding Josh and Per drunkenly around Newcastle in the not too distant future. Oh, and if they’ll have me, I’ll write another piece for their site. The last time I did was ages ago.

Manchester

Saturday 11 October 2014.

Midnight.

I’m drinking a round of black sambucas, the heady aniseed liqueur coating my teeth and jack-hammering whatever remains of my palate into submission. The Tour De Mancunia reaches its logical, tiny-plastic-glass conclusion. Very drunk. Drinking sambuca.

But wait. Let’s rewind a little. 

I went to IndyMan and needless to say it was great. This is my review of it…

However, IndyMan was just the warm-up for the real reason we were in Manchester. We were here for a decathlon of drinking, hosted by Andy and Nick from Hop On The Bike; two of the loveliest people you’ll ever meet. Ever.

I stumbled onto their website quite by accident when a friend of mine won a pack of their badges in a Twitter competition. Their subtle logo caught my eye and their engaging brewery-by-bike escapades unsurprisingly piqued my interest. Easily one of the best beer blogs out there.

In August, Andy and Nick announced they were heading north to visit a number of local breweries, and at that time I was working at Anarchy Brew Co. Wait a minute, they could visit me! And visit they did. Here’s a particularly hirsute version of me answering their articulate questions with my own quintessential bullshittery.

They also visited Cullercoats, Tyne Bank, Almasty and Out There on their two-wheels-good, four-wheels-bad weekend up in God’s country. Interviews all done, we met up for a night on the tiles taking in the Bacchus, Dat Bar… hang on, Andy can write that one up. Back to Manchester.

So a return leg was organised and IndyMan offered up the perfect opportunity. Now, I reckon I’m pretty good at showcasing the best bars Newcastle has to offer. I’ve spent a worrying amount of time in them after all. But no matter good a host I thought I was, I wasn’t expecting a pre-fight total knock out. A few days before we left for Manchester this arrived through my door.

That’s a right - a programme. A fully designed, printed, folded and stapled itinerary for what was now dubbed the Tour De Mancunia. The night even had a hashtag. Shit. Just. Got Real. 

Now, on the Saturday morning after the IndyMan before I wasn’t feeling overly clever. Not well at all. Just look at the state of me as I waited for my breakfast. That is not a well man right there.

Thankfully Andy suggested we hit up Gorilla, a NY-styled café bar which offered up all manner of tasty brunch delights just a few minutes’ stroll from our hotel. As Emma and I powered through the biggest breakfast we’d had in quite some time I wondered if I was ready for the day ahead.

I have previous history when it comes to potentially ruining big planned days. I’ve a tendency to absolutely annihilate myself the night before. I did it in Copenhagen pretty spectacularly last year ahead of our CBC session and I did it even more so the day before I moved into my house a few years back. Let’s just say, ten pints of Old Rosie and a toilet that isn’t yet plumbed in leads to some shameful activities. Shameful.

Anyway, I had failed yet again in my attempt to keep my powder dry. And tweets from Andy saying he felt right as nine pence post-IndyMan weren’t helping either. Come on Mitchell, get a hold of yourself.

 The starter pistol was to be fired at 2pm at The King’s Arms, just a short walk to Salford. Cautiously we made our way there, a bottle of water only just keeping the beer rats at bay. Turning the corner to the King’s we were greeted by  Andy, Nick and their mate Terry, all stood outside telling us the pub was closed as a music video was being filmed. An omen maybe? However, no sooner had the words come out of Andy’s mouth the doors reopened to the public and we all piled in.

The Tour De Mancunia had officially begun…

I’m very good at not updating this website. I could easily turn pro. Ironically, I’ve never been busier; starting a new job, prepping another Beer and Bites event at The Baltic and prepping another year long writing project.

However, I’m still writing the occasional piece for the Journal and a couple of weeks ago I wrote about one, if not the, most innovative breweries working today; Northern Alchemy. 

Brewing on a 100 litre kit housed in shipping container, these guys might just be my favourite brewery in the UK at the moment. Their drive and tenacity is inspiring, their 18 hour brew days are staggering and their beer is incredible. 

Of course, this scan is garbage so here’s the text:

The Cumberland Arms is a great traditional pub in the heart of the Ouseburn Valley. From its lofty perch it’s been witness to many changes. The fall of heavy industry led to Ralph Eskine’s Byker Wall in the ‘60s and most recently, the Ouseburn’s bohemian rebirth as Newcastle’s artisanal Ground Zero. The Cumberland itself has remained largely unchanged though, with its eclectic mix of customers, from folk musicians and Northumbrian rapper dancers.  

However, this quaint and canny boozer has recently been at the forefront of the revitalisation of the UK brewing industry. The Cumby’s legendary beer festivals provide the area with a microcosm of Britain’s beery best, with the taps regularly turned over to the likes of Kernel, Siren and Redchurch. And now they’re home to the UK’s latest, and arguably smallest, brewery to burst onto the scene; Northern Alchemy.

The craft of Alchemy is an influential tradition whose early practitioners’ claimed to possess profound powers. From turning base metals into gold or silver, to an elixir of life conferring youth and immortality, early alchemists helped develop theories and basic laboratory techniques that are still recognisable today. It’s fitting then that Northern Alchemy’s home - a 30-foot customised shipping container - has been dubbed “The Lab”. 

Northern Alchemists and brothers-in-law Andy Aitchison and Carl Kennedy have sited their beery lab to the rear of the Cumberland Arms, where they’ve recently set about creating flavour-led, keg-dispensed beer. The Cumberland is a family business for Andy and Carl and it was a heady evening in their beer garden where inspiration for a brewery first struck several years ago. 

Andy is no stranger to the beer world, having got his start at Blaydon’s Hadrian Border before moving to Morpeth’s Anarchy Brew Co as head brewer. Northern Alchemy, however, was always his goal; his own brewery where he could shape his beer the way a sculptor would mould clay or metal. 

All of their beers are entirely natural, unfined and unfiltered. While their chosen kegged dispense method means the beer arrives to the bar the way the brewers’ intended. Unlike most other breweries they provide no tasting notes with their beer. Instead they provide “making” notes, explaining the raw ingredients that go into each beer, which enables the punter to make up their own mind about what they can taste.

In an increasingly crowded craft beer marketplace, bars are overflowing with super-hopped, high-strength IPAs ready to eviscerate tastebuds with bold bitterness. But Carl and Andy are creating beers quite unlike anything that the other forty-odd north east breweries are producing. Their small size provides amazingly agility  and in their first ten weeks they’ve released a list of beers that is both mind boggling and mouth watering. 

So far Andy and Carl have rustled up a Lime & White Pepper Saison, a Mango, Lime & Cracked Black Pepper Oatmeal Pale, a Coffee & Orange Oatmeal Pale, a Lemon & Vanilla Oatmeal Stout, a Gooseberry & Ginger Wit, a Lapsang Souchong Black IPA and a Raspberry & Mint Dark Saison. Thirsty yet?

They’re as passionate about documenting the brewing as they are about the process itself and their Instagram feed is alive with photographs of brew days and of local allotments where a great deal of their ingredients are sourced. 

The recent opening of Bierrex by Newcastle’s Gusto group gave Northern Alchemy an opportunity to produce a twist on a popular pub mainstay, the humble pilsner. Working with Bierrex staff, they created a sumptuous 60-minute continuously-hopped version, with small hop additions added every minute of the brewing process. This labour-intensive method added a subtle fruit nuance to a classic style, crafting a beer that would appeal to both new punters and beer geeks alike. 

And the Cumberland Arms couldn’t be more supportive, providing a brewery tap with a permanent Northern Alchemy line. It’s also unlikely that you’ll be able to get your hands on fresher beer anywhere in the country. Their record for finished-beer-to-bar is under ten minutes. That’s going to take some beating. 

With their beers being whisked off to Edinburgh, Manchester and beyond, I wonder how long before their hand is forced into expansion. For now though, I’ll revel in the fact that the north east is not just home to another exciting brewery, but one that’s as individual as Northern Alchemy. Be sure to seek out their beers now before the rest of the UK catches on. I’ll give that until the end of the year. 

I’ve followed them for years, waiting for them rightly take their place in the line-up of top north east breweries.  Check out this article I wrote two and half year ago.

With today being Halloween, I urge you to get to The Cumberland Arms in Newcastle to check out their incredible American Spiced Pumpkin beer brewed with north east home brew legend Dave Witters. The beer will be on from five pm complete with ghost story readings and pumpkin carving. I mean c'mon, how awesome is that?!

A fortnight or so ago I visited the superb Hawkshead Summer Beer Festival. I wrote about for the north east newspaper The Journal. 

Here’s what I wrote if you’re reading this on a mobile, which in all fairness, you probably are.

Staveley in the beautiful Lake District, might not seem an obvious hot spot for beer. However twice a year this somewhat sleepy town is transformed for the event of the summer: the Hawkshead Brewery Beer Festival. 

I’ve been a huge fan of this Lakeland brewery ever since sampling their incredible NZPA a few years ago. This knockout 6% pale ale, full of Kiwi hops (hence the NZ in the name) was brim full of peaches, pineapple and citrus, and although scarcely seen in the north-east, it served as a waypoint on my boozy map of must-visit breweries.

Hawkshead Brewery started life in a 17th century barn at Colthouse, on the fringe of Hawkshead village. Founded by Alex Brodie in July 2002, the first four Hawkshead beers, Bitter, Red, Lakeland Gold and Brodie’s Prime, were developed on a secondhand seven-barrel brew plant which came from the Border Brewery in Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Just four years later they’d outgrown the site and moved to a purpose-built plant a few miles away in Staveley near Lake Windermere. In 2010 Alex further expanded to increase capacity, as well as developing the Beer Hall; a hugely impressive glass brewhouse and restaurant, which also features a walkway giving visitors an aerial view of the brewing process.

For the summer festival this fantastic brewery gets even better; additional bars are erected, a stage is built for local musicians and a huge barbecue, bulging with burgers and sausages, is fired up. Their setup acts like the Pied Pinter of Staveley, with hundreds of people drawn in from surrounding towns and villages to sample Hawkshead and friends’ beers.

The three bars were full-to-bursting, with some truly remarkable beers from the the likes of Alchemy, Tickety-Brew, Tiny Rebel, First Chop, Wild Beer Co and Magic Rock. The latter even sent along their mobile bar to serve up beers such as the hop-soaked 6.5% marvel Villanious and their crowd-pleasing Tour De France special Magic Spanner. 

To top off the day I was lucky enough to catch up with Mike Murphy of Norwegian brewery Lervig. Philadelphia-born Mike told me how he’d worked his way around a number of world-renowned Italian and Danish breweries before his move to Norway to head up Lervig, an enormous independent brewery based in Stavanger. Mike was here to brew a collaborative beer with Hawkshead; a thunderous 7% IPA packed to the gills with tropical fruit-flavoured mosaic hops, juniper berries and hemp seeds. The brewhouse smelled amazing, as Mike watched over the brewing process. Definitely one to watch out for.

The beer of the festival, however, came from the hosts and proved to be a nod to the first Hawkshead beer I ever sampled. Iti (Maori for little) was a junior version of their wonderful NZPA, and despite weighing in at just 3.5%, this tiny powerhouse still packed a massive fruity punch and was quite the match for its bigger cousin. The halves quickly became full pints as we whiled away the evening talking beer and listening to music, all in the warm evening’s sun. Staveley, we’ll see you next year.

A few weeks back I spent a weekend in Amsterdam taking in the the remarkable BrettFest. It was a sour beer powered jaunt spent in fantastic company; @minkewales, @toonbeerchris, @cidertart_g, @Jonsynthpop, @bierebelle and @PopesYard I’m look at you.

Instead of writing it up for the blog, I wrote a piece for my local newspaper The Journal instead. Looka…

This is what I wrote, if the text isn’t clear above. 

“Eat, eat!”, exclaimed the fish man, pushing another plate of pickled fish in front of me.

Seemingly pork scratchings aren’t the bar snack of choice in Amsterdam. Instead it’s all about the soused herring; a portion of preserved fish with a side order of chopped onion and gherkins. However, it’s safe to say that the herring’s palate-puckering sourness played second fiddle to the beer in my hand.

The hilariously-named Salty Dick from Amsterdam’s Oedipus Brewery was a delicious sour wheat beer, brewed with salt, lime and grapefruit peel. And this was one of the more sedate beers on offer at the unique Brett Will Eat festival; a weekend-long celebration of sour and vintage beer styles in the Dutch capital. Perhaps I ought to explain…

Sour beers are possibly not the go-to drink of the masses, but there’s a lot of science going on in the glass that give these lip-puckering brews their character. Brettanomyces, or Brett, is a type of wild yeast occasionally used in brewing and not always on purpose. This cheeky yeast is often found in unlined wooden fermenting barrels and some strains of Brett can slowly eat the sugars in the wood that other organisms can’t process. In short, Brett will eat everything, given half the chance, hence the name of the festival.

You’ve had the science lesson, now time for some history. In the 18th and 19th centuries English porter was the most typical beer of choice. To keep up with demand the breweries of the day built enormous unlined wooden vats for storing and aging their beers.

Beers would age for up to a year and those kept in these wooden vessels began to take on a somewhat of sour note, which became so desirable that a sour porter could be worth up to three times as much as the fresh equivalent.

Brett would’ve played a major role in the souring process and some breweries have continued this historic practice. Brett-infused beers take on a funky farmyard-like aroma and flavour and in Belgium, traditional farmhouse beers and lambics such as Cantillon depend heavily on Brett for their unique character. In recent years many forward-thinking breweries have added this pongy yeast to their beers to completely change their flavours.

Brett Will Eat was held over four sites in Amsterdam; the Beer Temple, De Prael, t’Arendsnest and In De Wildeman - the undisputed four best bars in town. And the drinks on offer did not disappoint.

Beers made from a blend of seven different vintages lined up next to those aged for a year or more in bourbon or Bordeaux barrels and all had been given a sublime sour twist thanks to this hard-working yeast strain.

Many breweries looked to the past for the festival. Dutch brewery Oersop resurrected a 170-year-old recipe for a London imperial brown stout, adding a sour flair of course, while Oedipus turned their skills to recreating a practically extinct German beer style called Kotbusser from 1850.

A particular highlight came from closer to home; Watford to be precise. Brett Will Eat marked Pope’s Yard first foray beyond Greater London to serve up an 11% porter, brim full of English hops and plenty of Brett. The beer was sour, savoury and smokey, which on paper sounds like a triple threat of awful, but instead proved to be a tasty trio. As complex as any red wine and brewed with real passion. Wonderful stuff.

With the incredible array of microbreweries springing up in the UK I have my fingers firmly crossed that such an innovative festival will eventually happen on local turf. Until then there’s never been a better time to get your ferry or flight tickets booked to Amsterdam for the last week of June 2015, when Brett Will Eat rolls back into town.

Sour beer has never tasted so sweet. Hope to see you there. 

Hello, I’m Andrew. I used to write on this site. But recently I’ve been busy. Very busy. A few weeks ago I started working at a brewery, so I’ve cunningly transitioned from writing about beer to getting paid to market it. I never imagined that, four years ago that when I started this blog, I’d end up working in the industry. It’s pretty cool.

Outside of working hours I’m managing to cram in some additional work. And yes, that’s beer-related too.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to team up with the wonderful and multi-award winning  Feathers Inn for the inaugural Adventures In Ale. It was an incredibly well-received night, where we showcased some of the best British beers, alongside six mouth-watering courses.

On 8th July we’re back with the Tour de Food and Drink to celebrate, you guessed it, the Tour de France. Hot on the heels of the Grand Depart, Rhian and I will be guiding people through eight stages of food and beer. We’ll be drawing inspiration from regions of France, Belgium, Corsica and the UK and raising several glasses to the oldest of the Grand Tours.

I’m super excited to be talking beers and bikes. And bugger me, Rhian’s menu is amazing. Check it out.

Stage One - Black Sheep Le Tour Velo 4.2% - Roast Dexter beef, Yorkshire pudding, fresh horseradish and watercress

Stage Two - Camden Town Hells Lager Helles 4.6% - Anguilles au vert – freshwater eel, braised in white wine with herbs and shallots.

Stage Three - Pietra Amber Ale 6% - Pate de Merle - Corsican blackbird pate made with woodpigeon

Stage Four -St. Sylvestre 3 Monts 8.5% - Waterloozi – Flemish style freshwater fish soup

Stage Five - Brasserie des Sources Bellerose 6.5% – Moules frites - crispy fried mussels and straw potatoes and curried mayo

Stage Six - Dupont Saison Dupont Amber Saison 6.5% - Pot au feu- Chicken, beef and salted pork casserole with Jersey royals, baby carrots and turnips and Dijon mustard

Stage Seven - Duchesse de Bourgogne Dark Flemish Red Sour Ale 6.2% - Gigot D’angeau au flageolet- Leg of Hebridean lamb, flageolet beans, herb sauce

Stage Eight- Orval Trappist beer 6.2% - Coq a la biere- spring chicken braised in beer with glazed onions, button mushrooms and bacon

I’m starving just writing about it. If you’re in the North East, get booked up. Beers, bikes and belta food. What’s not to love?  You can book your places by calling  01661843607. You know it makes sense.

[An edited version of this appeared in The Journal newspaper a few days ago but sadly didn’t include the wonderful photos taken by my good friend PJ. So I thought I’d remedy that here.]

The UK has seen an explosion of innovative breweries opening their doors over the last five years. I’ve followed this fantastic journey for equally as long on my blog and there’s never been a better time to start sampling the amazing range on offer. And one person who’s just as keen to champion the versatility of beer is Rhian Cradock, chef and owner of the multi award-winning Feathers Inn in Hedley on the Hill.

We joined forces this week to front the first in a series of food and beer nights called Adventures in Ale, where we showcased some of the best beers Britain currently has to offer.

It was incredibly difficult to arrive at a list of just six beers that best typified the 1200 or so breweries we currently have in this country. From fruit-infused farmhouse ales and lip-puckering West Coast IPAs, to decadent barley wines, our aim was to demonstrate there’s a lot more to beer than bitters and nut brown ales.

I guided diners through the selection of breweries and beer styles on offer at the event, as Rhian served up six delicious courses, each created to pair perfectly with their beery accompaniments.  

Rhian said ahead of the event: “This is a wonderful opportunity to be part of something exciting and new. The international growth in microbreweries has seen the creation of something incredibly interesting.

“Pairing the beers to flavours in food has been a really fun challenge. As you can see from the menu I want to ensure the food is every bit as much of an experience as the beer.”

And he wasn’t wrong. It’s safe to say the menu delivered on all fronts.

North Yorkshire’s Ilkley Brewery opened proceedings with their Rhubarb Saison. The earthy spices and fresh vanilla in this traditional Belgian ale were a fine match for Rhian’s salt and vinegar North Sea herring, pickled rhubarb and pink fir heritage potato salad.

The Wild Beer Company of Somerset wowed the packed dining room with their delicious Ninkasi. This champagne-like beer offered up copious amounts of New Zealand hops, Somerset apple juice and wild yeast. Its zestiness perfectly complimented the steamed West Coast razor clams, wild fennel and three corned leek.

Up next was London’s Kernel Brewery, who puckered palates with an unapologetically hop-charged IPA. Ripe mango and grapefruit flavours cut through the decadent butter-poached English asparagus, which was crowned with a rich Wylam duck egg and garden sorrel.

The north east was represented by the mighty Sublime Chaos from Morpeth’s Anarchy Brew Co. Their viscous Breakfast Stout worked beautifully alongside melt-in-the-mouth braised ox cheek, wild garlic and barley pilaf and malted onions.

Thornbridge Brewery’s award-winning Wild Raven Black IPA, with its juicy citrus flavours provided perfect balance to the luxurious Middle White pig’s blood and bitter chocolate dessert. The ingredients might have raised an eyebrow or two on paper but it proved to be an absolute knockout.

The night rounded off with Cumbria’s Hardknott Brewery and their sumptuous barley wine Granite. The beer’s rich molasses and juniper flavours were a fine bedfellow for the sharp five-year old Doddington’s cheese, air-dried Hedley roe deer and homemade quince jelly. I was both stuffed and just a little squiffy.

We’re currently putting the finishing touches on our next event. On the 8 July we’ll be guiding guests through a whirlwind food and beer outing around the sites of this year’s Tour de France. Find out more by calling The Feathers Inn on 01661 843607.

Beer blogging has very much been on the back burner of late, despite the impressive range of beer coming into and out of the north east recently. The list of eclectic bars where you can drink it is growing by the week too. But sitting down and hammering out a post or two has been the furthest thing from my mind.

I’ve been far more occupied with getting other people’s laughing gear around these great beers. Beer blogging often feels like an echo chamber and, as fun as it is to preach to the converted, I think I’ve found my calling in trying to baptize newbies into the great church of beer.

In February I held court over my first Beers and Bites event at the Baltic Art Gallery on the banks of the Tyne. Over two hours I took one hundred people on a whistle-stop tour of brewing history in the north east and treated them to six of the best local beers, each paired with a tasty bite-sized dish.

Incredibly Beers and Bites turned out to be the fastest selling ticketed event in the Baltic’s twelve-year history. It also opened guests’ eyes to some of the fantastic local beers available. Speaking to a self-confessed “Foster’s man” from Jarrow, he admitted that Allendale’s Sauvin Saison was quite simply the best beer he’d ever had.

Many other attendees told me that they had no idea of the range of strengths and styles of beers being brewed right on their doorstep. Regardless of my former prolific blogging output, I’ve realised that physically getting people together to share and explore beer is the way forward. In short, I was hungry for more.

I’m fortunate to count owners of the nationally-lauded Feathers Inn, Rhian and Helen Cradock, as friends. Over the past seven years Rhian and Helen have picked up every culinary award going for their incredible and sustainably-sourced menus.

The Feathers is featured in the Times Top 20 Gastro Pubs; they’ve received gold in the North East Tourism Awards; came runner up in the Observer Food Monthly Best Sunday Lunch 2012 category; scooped Great British Pub of the Year 2011, as well as receiving countless others accolades. It’s safe to say the Feathers is a culinary gem in the north of England.

Rhian and I go way back, since infant school to be precise. I’ve long wanted to work with him on an event and bugger me, we’ve only gone and pencilled in a whole series of nights to make up for lost time. Let me introduce you to Adventures in Ale…

These bi-monthly events will offer up tasty evenings of discovery, showcasing the pioneers of brewing. Guests will be able to sample some of the most interesting beers available, matched with tempting canapés and an exquisite dinner.

The first event, British Beers, takes place on Tuesday 13 May at 7.30pm and I’m pleased to say it’s already sold out.

It’s been difficult to whittle down the incredible range of British beers to just a handful. However I believe we have hand-picked six different breweries whose beers highlight the amazing range of styles and flavours around. I’ll be talking to diners about each of the breweries and the styles of beers on show, while Rhian will be on hand to explain the finer points of food and beer pairing.

I genuinely can’t wait. The menu looks absolutely fantastic and I’m starving just writing about it. Here’s what the lucky thirty ticket holders will be treated to next Tuesday:

Ilkley Rhubarb Saison - Served with salt and vinegar North Sea herring, pickled Yorkshire rhubarb, pink fir heritage potato salad, sweet mustard dressing

Kernel Citra - Served with butter-poached English asparagus, Wylam duck egg and garden sorrel

Thornbridge Wild Raven - Served with Middle White pig’s blood, bitter chocolate mousse and almond biscotti

Anarchy Sublime Chaos - Served with 24-hour braised ox cheek, wild garlic and barley pilaf, and malted onions, served with a Sublime Chaos jelly

Wild Beer Co Ninkasi 9% - Served with steamed West Coast razor clams with, wild fennel, three-corned leek and meadowsweet

Hardknott Granite 2013 - Served with 5-year-old Doddington’s cheese, air-dried Hedley roe deer, crisp rye bread, homemade quince cheese

It’s going to be a fantastic night and a real honour to be working with Rhian and his team.

I’ve also helped The Feathers pick some fantastic beers for their forthcoming American BBQ over the next Bank Holiday weekend. There can’t be many pubs with such beautiful country vistas as the Feathers who are serving up Founder’s All Day IPA and Anchor Breckle’s Brown, alongside a smorgasbord of pulled pork, burgers and smoked meats.

Our Adventures in Ale series will be back on 8 July with our Tour De Food & Beer event taking in the beers and cuisines of  this year’s Tour De France. Pack your Musette bags now – I’ll get details of times and prices up on that Twitter soon.

It’s almost a year to the day since I was holed up Copenhagen’s Jernbane Cafe, rounding off a heroic day on the beer. Me and Emma spent several hours there with a lovely Danish couple, chatting in broken English and hand gestures. Needless to say their English became way better than ours as the beers continued to flow. They, however, didn’t have to get up early doors the next day to go to the all-you-can-drink Copenhagen Beer Celebration. Smooth move Mitchell. My three days in Copenhagen easily account for some of my most fearless drinking.

My time in Denmark was met with a pang of guilt though, as it meant I couldn’t attend the Gateshead Beer Festival. Now before you start banging on about your barrel-aged this and your super-hyper-mega collaboration that, it’s not unreasonable for me to hold Gateshead and CBC in the same regard. GBF is undeniably the best boozy event in the north east. Fact.

It’s truly a festival born out of a genuine passion for great local music and tasty beer. This isn’t a CAMRA do, so there’s no daft competition to see which local brewery can make the blandest beer known to man, and thank the lord, no silly hat day.

GBF is held every May at Low Fell Rugby Club. It’s put together by club members who, like all good rugby club members should, enjoy a pint or ten. The site is in a leafy residential part of town and it’s full of punters who perhaps wouldn’t normally come to such a festival. It’s always a real pleasure to see the uninitiated taking their first steps into the wonderful world of beer and GBF encapsulates everything that a good beer festival should be all about.

Head of beer selection Jon Aslet dropped me a line earlier in the year to ask if I’d like to lend a hand in choosing a few drops for their list and their programme. Naturally I jumped at the chance, especially when I heard they were setting up a keg bar. This year Gateshead will have an amazing line up of forty kegged beers from the likes of Magic Rock, Siren and Buxton, along with the biggest and best local beauties from outfits including Anarchy and Allendale.

Oh and let’s not forget the 140 or so cask beers and 40 ciders and perries too. And a shit-hot line up of bands providing the weekend’s entertainment. Friday night will be kicked off by Northern Funk supremos Smoove and Turrell, fresh off the back of their latest tour. It’s quite the line up, and seeing a local festival embrace both cask and keg makes it even better.

I popped in to see how preparation was going. Handpulls are in place, beer is racked, kegs at the standby and the marquee and stage all in place. However, it’s rained its arse off today and it’s looking pretty muddy. So if you’re coming along I’d recommend footwear you don’t mind writing off.

I’ll be there on Saturday, attempting to consume my own bodyweight in booze. If you’re in the north east do your damnedest to get along  Full details can be found on the GBF website. And although my tweets this weekend won’t have the hashtag #CBC they will proudly display #GBF.

My office overlooks Hadrian Yard, a grim recycling plant, situated on a particularly un-picturesque stretch of the River Tyne. The drab grey building has a permanent mumble of seagulls hovering of the corrugated roof, desperate to get to the stinky spoils inside. It’s disheartening to say the least. Staring out of the smog-covered river often gets me thinking of warming climes like the South of France or sunny Spain.

Only this week Pete Brown wrote about his recent visit and the burgeoning beer scene in Barcelona. It’s been well over a year since I last spent a long weekend there with friends drinking our way through this wonderful city.

Two other pals are Barcelona-bound soon, armed with my top tips on where to seek out the best Spanish cerveza. Simon and Dawn from Anarchy Brew Co. are pitching up in the Catalonian capital as part of the third annual Barcelona Beer Festival.

The festival is housed Barcelona’s Maritime Museum, located on the city’s seafront at the foot of Montjuïc Mountain. The perfect setting for a beer induced sea leg-esque stagger I think you’ll all agree.

Their visit marks the first time Barca-based boys and girls will be able to get their hands on Anarchy’s beers. They’ll also get to sup a few pints with Simon and Dawn who are kicking off the festival’s three days of Meet the Brewer events. The duo will certainly be in esteemed company, with the likes of De Molen, Emelisse, Alvinne Picobrouwerij and BrewFist also taking to the stage.

The festival comes at a busy time for Anarchy who, after just two years in the business, have started a series of European exports. Anarchy’s range of big tasting beers have set them apart from many other local breweries. You only have to look at their recent gold for Sublime Chaos Breakfast Stout at the SIBA awards, or sample their bonkers 100 Minute IPA Warhead, to understand why.

For those lucky enough to be attending the festival make sure you wrap your taste buds around Anarchy’s CitraStar, Urban Assault, Smoke Bomb and Knuckle Dragger. The full beer list is ridiculous, with ales available from the four corners of the world.

Anarchy have already got irons in the fire with other international exporters and will be showcasing their beers at several festivals around Europe. I, however, will for now have to settle for my dreary river view. I think an early finish and trip to the pub is in order.