Brewday at Crown Brewery, Sheffield

A quick blog to say how much I enjoyed Tuesdays brewday with Stuart from the Crown Brewery. If you're not aware, the Crown brewery is situated underneath the Hillsborough Hotel on Langsett Road in Sheffield, its a 4 barrel capacity set up and Stuart Ross is the one man dynamo that keeps the brewery ticking. Nothing amazingly out of the ordinary there you might think but Stu continually and consistently knocks out beer that is far from ordinary.

Unlike many breweries who excel at one particular style, (ie pale and hoppy) Stu makes a broad range of regular and one off brews which always seem very well crafted, flavourful and true to style.

Pale Ale, Blonde Ale, Mild, Stout, Porter, Damson Porter, Wheat Beer, Wheat Stout, IPA's, and Smoked Rauchbier are all beers he's produced which have been well received in the past couple of years. Obviously many breweries turn their hands to different beer styles regularly with varying results but Stu seems to nail the styles he attempts first time more often than not which has to be down to more than luck.

More recently he brewed a massive 11.5% DIPA collaboration beer with Stefano Cossi from Thornbridge, which saw them both putting in a 17 hour stint in the Crown brewery to get the beer brewed (this beer will hopefully be available to buy on myBrewerytap later in the year).

It was really interesting to watch Stu brewing through the course of the day, he's very comfortable at work in the brewery, knows what works and what doesn't, never rushing or flapping. I guess to a large degree this efficiency and control is because he's very accustomed to his breweries processes and nuances and understands them inside out. He's an experienced brewer having previously worked for two other award winning local breweries Kelham Island and Acorn, but experience aside he's clearly a natural brewer if such a thing exists.

Seeing different brewers at work is great from my perspective (with an eye on a possible future in brewing myself) and its really valuable for me to get different viewpoints and advice on all aspects of the process. Its interesting that what works for some brewers doesn't work for another.

Stu has been very supportive of myBrewerytap, we set up the business with breweries like Crown in mind, I'm particularly happy that he's pleased with the service our site offers the brewery and we've been really happy to help give his great beers the wider audience they deserve.

You can find Crowns beers on the bar at The Hillsborough Hotel, Sheffield every day of the week and as Crowns reputation grows, at more pubs and beer festivals up and down the country.

Crowns bottled beers are available direct from the brewery via myBrewerytap here.
Follow the Crown Brewery's blog here

Down south for MooR beer

I set off Friday morning for a couple of business meetings down south with the expectation of meeting new business contacts, and the hope of making new friends and the promise of good beer and good company.

After a 3 hour drive I picked up Ed at Bristol Parkway and we headed (after a productive meeting in the welsh borders) south to meet Justin Hawke from Moor beer company. I'd met Justin at the SIBA conference and we'd got on well, a passionate brewer he has a unique view point on the British real ale scene having brewed both in his native US and in the UK. I'd agreed in Stratford that we would come down and see his brewery and taste his beer at the 'source'.

We picked Justin up from his home in the beautiful Somerset countryside and our first stop was a tour of the Moor brewery; a converted milking parlour with a 10 barrel capacity. Justin is a really interesting brewer, his beers have one foot in the US beer scene in terms of their style but he's also firmly entrenched in the UK real ale scene. He's a great believer in traditional beer conditioning but despite winning multiple CAMRA awards doesn't have the same hang ups about methods of beer dispense that CAMRA members usually have.

We left the brewery and after loading the car with Kegs and picking up Justins wife Maryann we headed to the first pub of the night The Devonshire Arms at Long Sutton. First beer of the day was Moor's "Northern Star" a malty beer featuring the new "Citra" hop in large quantity. For anyone who knows Moors beer I'd say this was most similar to their "Revival" but with a maltier body. We also got chance to taste Moors Somerland Gold on draught, that is to say on Keg straight to a bar font. The beer tasted fantastic, perhaps a touch cold but with a great C02 'prickle' and as full of flavour as the cask or bottle versions. Justin had wanted us to taste his beer served this way, and it served as an affirmation to me that, flavour as far as good beer is concerned is not limited by the method of dispense.

We then headed to the awesome Queens Arms at Corton Denham. The Queens Arms is a beautiful pub set in the rolling Dorset countryside and has everything you could want in a rural pub, great beer , great food and great rooms (so i'm told). The pub is all stripped floors and roaring fires but its all done in an unpretentious way and not at all the stuffy "gastro" atmosphere that often attaches itself to pubs like this.

We were fortunate enough to have turned up at the Queens Arms during "Moor Beer Month" and so got stuck straight into "Queens Revival" a dry hopped version of Moors already awesome "Revival". This was amazing beer, pungent aroma hops followed up with smooth malty body and dry citrus finish, a great session beer.

We eventually moved to the dining room for food and enjoyed great steaks and amazing seafood dishes to accompany the great beers we were drinking. Pudding meant a fantastic spread of French Savoie cheese and the main event beer wise; a special dry hopped version of Moors famous JJJ IPA. This is normally a massively hoppy, sweet and piney double IPA in the US style that weighs in at a heafty 9.5%. This version of JJJ had also been 'dry hopped' with fresh Citra hops added to the cask. This gave the beer a massively pungent aroma quality which was fantastic. The beer still maintained its bold sweetness and hoppy bitterness but gained another dimension of pungent piney citrusey hops that dominated aroma and first taste completely.

From this point on the evening got a bit hazy. More JJJ was purchased conversation flowed and time got away from us. We ended up saying our goodbyes swapping a few bottles and vowing to return some time soon. I'd urge anyone who ventures down this way to have a look in to this beautiful pub.

Mark Dredge wrote an excellent blog on the Queens Arms recently here. The pubs website is here.

Spring Update

A quick blog just to update people on happenings at mBt. We've had a really busy start to the year, the 52 week beer club is getting new members daily and we're shipping mixed cases as fast as we can pack them. The last two quarters of the 52wbc have needed re-orders from breweries due to us underestimating demand.

We're continuing to sign up great breweries; amongst others we're now listing beers from Acorn, Crown, Fyne Ales, Williams Bros and Thornbridge who all make award winning, brilliant beer and are really great additions to the site. We've got more great breweries committed to coming on the site and we're approaching new breweries all the time so make sure you're following my Twitter feed or our Facebook page to get the latest news.

The last month has also seen us help Thornbridge launch their hotly anticipated new bottle conditioned beers St Petersburg and Halcyon 09 both incredible beers causing quite a stir in beery circles and which have been blogged and tweeted about plenty. The Halcyon 09 in particular is selling fast and is a limited edition so if you want some you need to be fairly quick.

The new bottle conditioned Jaipur should also be ready to ship shortly, meaning people will be able to get even closer to the intended draught flavour of Thornbridges iconic beer.

In recent weeks we've added beers from two of my favourite breweries, the first is Mallinsons a local brewery who have a dedicated following in the area for their light, hoppy flavourful beers. They're a relatively new outfit and a great advert for the new wave of brewing in the UK. Their beers always sell out first at the local festivals in West Yorkshire and are always worth trying.
We are listing 3 of their regulars beers as well as their Grand Canyon pale/summer ale.

The other brewery we're now listing is just about my all time favourite UK brewery, Marble. I met Dominic one of the brewers recently and was really pleased and flattered to find out he knew about myBrewerytap and was keen to get their beers on the site. Marble are a fantastic brewery who originate out of the Marble Arch pub in Manchester, they brew a delicious range of beers covering a mix of styles and abv's. They're a dedicated bunch and have a real commitment to quality and flavour and their beers are never dull or run of the mill. They're also very good at understated but classic branding and packaging.

The Marble Arch pub itself is a quirky grade 2 listed building complete with sloping floors and vaulted ceilings, the food there is also brilliant. If you ever get chance to visit you really should, Its one of the only "real ale" pubs I visit regularly which my wife is also more than happy to visit, which is praise indeed.

On the "brewing project", I'm hoping to expand my knowledge with some more hands on brewing experience soon and we (me and a couple of friends) are still discussing and planning the best way to go about getting into brewing ourselves. We've lots to discuss!

You can buy Thornbridges beers here , Mallinsons here and Marbles Beers here.