Piccolo Black, is a collaboration between local Barista, Piccolo Coffee and Tyne Bank Brewery.  It is a black pale ale brewed with Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee which when drank iced produces lime and vanilla flavours. The hops, US Magum, Cascade and Galaxy complement the coffee along with the malt blend to give a hoppy ale with deep flavours, it weighs in at 5.1% and if It’s half as good as the other beers I’ve had from Tyne Bank or the coffee from Piccolo it will be great!!

You can find out more on the Tyne Bank Website, Piccolo Coffee Website or follow Tyne Bank, Piccolo and The Free Trade Inn on Twitter.

What is your brewery capacity?
10Bbl

What is different about your brewery?

• The plant consists of:
• Mash/lauter tun
• HLT
• Kettle/whirlpool
• Heat exchanger
• Wort aerator
• Mash hydrator
• Control panel
• Various pumps, platforms and pipework
• 4 x 10bbl Fermentation vessels
• 4 x 10bbl Conditioning tanks
• Glycol tank
• Chiller unit
• Bamford mill

We chose a mash lauter tun as it gives us alround flexibility with regards to process control and use of adjuncts. It’s more efficient than a traditional British set up. We chose sealed cyclindroconical fermentation vessels rather than traditional open vessels as it is more hygienic, allows faster fermentation, and easy of yeast harvesting.

How long have you been brewing for?
Rhys has been interested in Brewing as long as he can remember. Rhys graduated with Honors from Heriot Watt Universities Brewing and Distilling course. After completing a internship at St Austell, Rhys joined the brewing team at Sharps Brewery in Rock.

What beers do you brew regularly?

• Harbour IPA
• Harbour Amber Ale
• Harbour Light Ale
• Harbour Lager

What special/seasonal beers do you brew?
We haven’t brewed any as yet but we have started to put together our first two. Nagasake – a chilli beer made with Naga chilli and Sake yeast.

Double IPA – this will be our first Keg product.

Where do you think the future of brewing lies?
Craft beer is definately where it’s at for us. I think the market is moving that way too. People want beer that tastes great, and something you can’t buy in the supermarket.

Do you bottle/keg/cask your beer?
At the moment we only have cask products avaliable. But from the 1st March we will have bottles avaliable and intend to Keg some of our specials.

What is you proudest moment in brewing?
Opening our brewery.

Do you have any brewing regrets?
Opening our brewery!

What is your brewing ambition?
Rhys -To brew great beer.

Eddie – We are a product-focused business and for us it’s not all about profit, we have set out to make great beers that people enjoy drinking

What was last beer you drank?
Other than our own:

Rhys – Mountain Goat High Tail Ale (Aus)
Eddie – Mikeller Double Shit Coffee Stout (Den)

What is your favourite hop and why?
Eddie – Simcoe; it’s a new hop for me and I’m blown away by incredible fruitness

Rhys – Nelson Sauvin; Distinctive grassy herbal aroma, just awesome!

What is your favourite beer/food combo?

Rhys – Sierra Nevada Double IPA with Naga Duck from our local curry house.

Eddie – Weihenstephan Vitus with Pan fried Scallops

Do you have a Brewing hero/inspiration?
Eddie- Mikeller just a true craft brewer producing amazing beers

Rhys – Stuart Howe (Sharp’s), he’s a really a nice guy who produces great beers.

If you could brew one collaboration beer with someone who would it be with and what would it be?

Kernel – a dark fruit beer.

Which beer do you wish you had brewed?
Carlsberg, just think how rich we would be!

How do you spend your time when you aren’t brewing?
Both: Surfing – Living by the beach it’s just what you have to do.

If you could have one superhero superpower what would it be?
Rhys – To talk to yeast to find out what goes on in their little world.

Eddie – To fly, Cornish roads are S**t.

Do you have a website/twitter/blog?

www.harbourbrewing.com
twitter @harbourbrewing

Based on the beautiful island of Orkney they are also known as the Swannay Brewery and not to be confused with the Orkney Brewery who also make some great beers.

Highland’s beers range from the 3.6% ABV Orkney Best to the 9% ABV Old Norway and Orkney Porter. My favourites in the range are definitely Orkney Blast, their 6% spicy, hoppy world class pale ale and their Old Norway Barley wine which I last drank at 11:30 in the Bacchus at Newcastle Twissup.

While they have won plenty of awards  I still don’t think they get as many plaudits as they should be for all their hard work and delicious beers, I really do adore their range of beers, the labels are great too, most of them have a story behind the name and graphics which adds a little bit of extra character and personality to every bottle.

Distribution of the beers is improving with bottles and casks finding their way throughout the UK,  the bottles are becoming more readily available in beer shops and online, you can find a list of some stockists here.  They truly are worth tracking down, they’ve all got their own individual characteristics and are all really well made.

If you want to know more you can read Rob’s Meet the Brewer here,  read my thoughts on some of their beers here, visit their website here, follow Lew on twitter here or here.

Known for producing a solid range of tasty cask and bottled beer they decided to brew a beer they’d not tried before…an Imperial Russian Stout, weighing in at 8.5% ABV,  what’s more they then sent the beer on a little adventure across both the North Sea and the Baltic Sea from London to St Petersburg on a 60ft Clipper (you can read more about the journey here).

As soon as I heard what they were doing I had to try it, luckily for me, on a trip to York I spotted the really funky, label standing out on the shelf behind the bar and bought a bottle to bring home.

It didn’t stay in the beer cupboard long before I succumbed to the urge to open it, It poured thick and viscous, almost treacle like, it was a really dark brown with a hint of ruby red when held up to the light, the head was thick and bubbly, a lot lighter than I expected when I saw the colour of the beer.

On the nose there was plenty of coffee, a little bit of liquorice and some dried fruit, there’s also a little bit of alcohol poking through.

In the mouth it was medium bodied, maybe not as full as I’ve come to expect from an Imperial stout, the coffee and liquorice came through as did a little bit of pepper and spice, there was also that unmistakable Black Sheep character, you know the one that some breweries have where if someone put a pint in front of you and said where does that come from, you can tell immediately.

On the whole I really enjoyed the Russian Imperial Stout, it’s like their Ruddy Ram porter (or wooly jumper as it was known when we went to the tasting night) but with the volume turned up a notch or two.

Fore more info on Black Sheep Russian Imperial Stout check outtheir website, it was limited edition but a few places still have it in stock so if you see it it’s worth a try….I wish I’d bought another bottle to keep for a bit to see how it changes, plus the label is really cool and it looks great on my empties shelf.

Where did your brewery name come from?
Mordue Brewery came from an old brewery which brewed in Wallsend, closed in 1879 and funnily enough the last 4 digits of our telephone No

What is your brewery capacity?
140bbl/week

What is different about your brewery?
One of the old timers of the local scene we are modern and open minded yet with traditional foundations. Our beers are robust, flavourful and have depth of character.

Mordue Brewery

How long have you been brewing for?
Matt-16 years
Rob-3 years

How did you get into brewing?
Matt- Home brewing then found out we lived in the old Mordue Brewery and then as they say that was that

Rob-Through home brewing. A home brew kit for my birthday started things off. After this I steadily worked my way up from extract brewing to full mash. My interest combined with a past degree in Biochemistry eventually earned me a place at Heriot Watt University studying Brewing and Distilling. After that it was just a case of getting a job in the industry, and Daleside Brewery, Harrogate were the first to accept me.

What special/seasonal beers do you brew?

Loads see our web site www.morduebrewery.com

Where do you think the future of brewing lies?
Matt- One word Quality. People will always pay for quality even now during one of the biggest recessions in history we are increasing sales and that has to do with the quality of our products (Special thanks to Rob on that front!)

Rob-No one can really tell but at the moment it seems like inventive beers and novel products are the way forward.

Do you bottle/keg/cask your beer?
Yes Workie/Radgie/IPA in Bottles and have tried IPA in Keg which went very well and lots of cask

What is you proudest moment in brewing?
Matt- Champion Beer of Britain Award 1997… God I’m old!!

Rob-There are plenty. Inventing new beers, winning awards or just hearing people have enjoyed something we’ve brewed, they are all proud moments.

Do you have any brewing regrets?
Matt- Not appreciating CBOB award as much as I should when I was younger.

Rob-Plenty of mistakes, but no regrets.

What is your brewing ambition?
Matt- At the moment I am really enjoying working and developing things with Rob. Honestly he has to be the best brewer I have worked with and I have worked with and trained many over the years… again I’m getting old!

Rob-To keep learning and to be the best I can be. Awards are great

What was last beer you drank?
Matt- Our Northumbrian Blonde at Lady Grey Newcastle

Rob-Mordue IPA

Mordue IPA

What is your favourite hop and why?
Matt- Riwaka at the moment as it was pretty nuts in our RED RYE RIWAKA lovely Thai spice and lime

Rob-I have a few. Centennial, Progress, Northern Brewer and Motueka

What is your favourite beer/food combo?
Matt- a bit biased but Workie Ticket braised beef in a good stew or pie makes the best gravy. Northern boy’s love gravy… coming from the man from the West Midlands

Rob-Barley wine with Stilton is hard to beat. But then again for something more everyday almost any American Pale or amber ale with pizza is another no brainer.

Do you have a Brewing hero/inspiration?
Matt- Tod Mott who is at Portsmouth Brewery New Hampshire, previously at Smuttynose and Back Bay in the States must be one of the best and nicest guys I’ve met and had the privilege to brew with. His “Kate the Great Russian Imperial Stout” 12% was No1 beer in the USA and No2 in the World according to Beer Advocate, but hey what do those Alstrom Brothers know about beer!

Rob-The guys at Stone brewery brew great beers and have the brewing celebrity image. But on a different level my real inspiration at has always been from the discipline and integrity persevered by Craig Witty of Daleside Brewery, Harrogate.

If you could brew one collaboration beer with someone who would it be with and what would it be?
Teo Musso from Baladin. Im sure some kind of Belgian yeast influenced high gravity take on Geordie Pride would be in order.

Which beer do you wish you had brewed?
Matt-Augustiner Dunkel or Oktoberfestbier… go to Munich and have angels dance on your tongue.

Rob-Fullers Chiswick, total classic.

How do you spend your time when you aren’t brewing?
Matt- I have 3 kids… I rest my case your honour

Rob-Blogging about beer and product quality control is always important, even if it’s not your own product. Other than that I like to follow international cricket

If you could have one superhero superpower what would it be?
Matt- Invisibility… surely that’s the best power by a mile!

Rob-To control the temperature of fluids with the power of my mind. Imagine the energy savings in brewing. I could also do cool stuff with the weather, or altering the serving temperature of my pint.

Do you have a website/twitter/blog?

www.morduebrewery.com and twitter @MORDUEBREWERY

www.robsbeerquest.blogspot.com

Pandazilla

Anything else you want to tell us?

Panda Frog!!

Next year there will be 4 brews from the twisted genius that is Rob Millichamp and a small amount of rationality from Matt Fawson

Panda Frog is Rob’s Home brew kit which we have in the past done trial brew’s on and then commercially brewed (Red Rye Riwaka is one) and we want to show that the now considered old dog that is Mordue can still have a few trick’s up it’s sleeve! It gives us and particularly Rob a chance to show off his very talented brewing skills

Pandazilla 7% Cascadian Dark Ale had a little trial at the Twissup last Month and the comments were very positive, even though the beer was a little rough around the edges it certainly delivered on taste and had the Mordue depth of flavour people expect.
Other beers are The Hoptrix, provisionally a new world Belgium blonde ale around 6%, Black (H)opps a new world black lager around 5.5% and Panda Claws an insane festive beer abv unknown!

If that does not wet your appetite I don’t know what will…Oh we might try a Radgie Reserve which will be brewed with Merlot wort and blackberries and raspberries again abv unknown.

www.morduebrewery.com

The Brew Company started brewing in 2007 after Pete left Cadbury’s and have since gone from strength to strength,  Pete’s not affraid to try new things and knows how to get the most out of a huge array of hops and malt, he brews everything from pale hoppy session beers to dark rich stouts and has recently brewed one called Silly Billy Chilli which sounds fantastic.

Pete manning the pumps

The last few seasonal and celebration ales I’ve had from Pete have been fantastic especially the celebration hoppy one (which the name of escapes me) that was on in the White Swan in Stokesley a few months back.

You can always find his beers in the Harlequin and in plenty of pubs in and around Sheffield as well as further a field, they are more than worth tracking down and trying.

I know Pete and Liz work really hard so probably won’t see this but I hope they have a great Christmas and the brewery and pub continue to grow in 2012 and beyond.

Vist their website here, read his meet the brewer here  or follow Pete on twitter here or watch his videos on you tube

What is your brewery capacity?
We have a nano-brewery at ½ a barrel with bigger ambitions to scale up to something a little larger in the not too distant future.

What is different about your brewery?
We like to play about with ideas and experiment with old dusty relics of recipes we find and see how they turn out. We keep our own bees and use their honey in our spiced honey beer (despite my being allergic to their stings!!).

Mark hard at work

How long have you been brewing for?
We launched our brewery in Sptember of 2011

How did you get into brewing?
Quite by accident, I have always been interested in good food and drink, brewing came about after we played around with an old family ginger beer recipe that used toast and other odd things and it led to more experiments and to where we now find ourselves. Though it was spurred on by a radio interview we heard whilst sat in traffic on our way home from holiday.

What beers do you brew regularly?
We’ve been really happy with our ‘Big Red’, it’s a really easy going ruby red beer with a strong malt character with a subtle undertone of autumn berries and a little bit of an apple finish. It is always the first to go on farmers markets and has proven really popular with our customers. Our other beer include ‘Halcyon Daze’, ‘ Wind Jammer’ and ‘Rope Walk’.

What special/seasonal beers do you brew?
My brother is currently working in Antarctica in support of expeditions and I’m looking at making a beer for his return in Spring called ‘Penguin Parade’ with a good fistful of Glacier hops.

Where do you think the future of brewing lies?
I am really encouraged to see more and more people trying real ale for the first time and i’m pleased to see more younger people spurning churned out lager in favour of a good real ale. I really think brewing is taking off massively and it is great to see that a real choice and variety is now available.

Do you bottle/keg/cask your beer?
Bottle conditioned and cask.

What is you proudest moment in brewing?
As we are only small and only recently started we have yet to really punch out, however we did produce a souvenir ale for Pocktoberfest and we were really happy to see it sail out at this music and beer festival.

Do you have any brewing regrets?
Only that we didn’t start earlier.

What is your brewing ambition?
To see our beer in some far flung flung corner of the country and see it being enjoyed.

What was last beer you drank?
It was a pint of another local breweries beer called ‘Bad Kitty’.

What is your favourite hop and why?
We’re very lucky in that where we live there is a great deal of countryside on our doorstep and we enjoy foraging and following the seaonal treats. I have found some wild growing hops, although I have yet to brew with them I have eaten the hop shoots in spring and they’re just like a really delicate asparagus. The aroma is something to behold and I can’t wait for next year to catch the cones before they turn.

What is your favourite beer/food combo? Steak and Ale Pie, no question.

Do you have a Brewing hero/inspiration?
Anyone who has started from scratch and has produced some really exceptional brews.

If you could brew one collaboration beer with someone who would it be with and what would it be?
I’d love to work with someone like Ray Mears and tinker about with making a beer with some odd wild ingredients that only someone like Ray Mears would know about. As i’ve said, I love foraging!

Which beer do you wish you had brewed?
‘Bad Kitty!!’ bloody good beer.

How do you spend your time when you aren’t brewing?
Bee keeping, flyfishing and trying to get outdoors.

If you could have one superhero superpower what would it be?
Invisibility, i’d love to hear what people say about my beer behind closed doors.

Do you have a website/twitter/blog?

www.bigriverbrewery.co.uk

Anything else you want to tell us?

Follow us on facebook.

The Brewhouse

What is your brewery capacity?
8BBL

What is different about your brewery?
We’ve developed a theme for our beers that is resonating with a portion of the beer drinking market. Furthermore with the recipes of our core range we’re aiming to be a little different from much of what is out there. That’s all you can hope to do in a competitive market — you can’t be all things to all people and you have to seek to stand out in some way whether it’s through branding/theme and/or beer styles/recipes.

Within our core range we’ve fused beer styles and created beers that are a clash of styles. There seemed little point to us in trying to clone other well-established beers — after all, those beers are great, so why try and make our own version of them?

How long have you been brewing for?
Just over a year.  Initially cuckoo brewing then from our permanent home near Castleford, West Yorkshire since July-11.

How did you get into brewing?
Andrew: I had been brewing at home for 20+ years and full-mash home-brewing for 5-6 years.  I went on the BrewLab course in Sunderland in 2007 and bided my time waiting for the moment/opportunity/inspiration to hit me, which it did in the summer of 2010.

Mark: A deep appreciation of the end-product!

What beers do you brew regularly?

We have a core range comprising the following:

Clash London Porter 4.5% – a traditional dark porter with a complex malt profile and finished with US hops — a ‘clash’ of styles

Pumpclips

Devolution Amber 4.5% – a classic US-style Amber with generous late hops

Kraftwerk Braun 4.5% – another clash of styles this time a hybrid of an English bitter and a German brown ale — essentially an English malt backbone finished with noble German hops

Beat Red 4.5% — the latest addition to our core range – a red ale with a big floral/citrus hop finish

Severin Dark 3.3% – an Autumn/Winter dark session beer brewed with 5 coloured malts and finished with berry-fruit hops (available Autumn/Winter only)

Ravenscroft Pale 3.3% – a Spring/Summer pale session beer with a fruity hop finish (available Spring/Summer only)

What special/seasonal beers do you brew?
Every month we brew a special under the banner of our Rewind 33 series. This commemorates a classic album or single release from 33 years ago.  Next year we celebrate the fantastic year for music that was 1979 — we’ve already lined up the brew schedule and are very excited about what’s in store!

Additionally, we have some exciting plans for 2012 that should see us brewing some other, occasional beers of interesting styles and perhaps different strengths.

Where do you think the future of brewing lies?
Markets are always cyclical. Big brewers become bigger and ultimately alienate their customers which allows smaller producers to enter the market and appeal to drinkers in their own way. If the pub co’s can be broken up and the distortions removed from the market (e.g. Relative price of beer in pub vs supermarket) then there will be even more opportunities for smaller brewers to supply their local pubs.

Micro-brewers will become more engaged with keg as it opens up new market opportunities, particularly in venues that perhaps do not have the skill, or throughput to handle cask beer. This will not be to the detriment of cask as we don’t see micros substituting keg for cask, rather they will add it to their portfolio.

New hops will continue to come onto the market making for greater variety in beer tastes and aromas. It’s this surge in strongly flavoured and scented hops that we believe has turned beer into a topic of conversation. It’s now possible to discuss beer in the way that wine is talked about. Beer has become cool and dare one say it, sophisticated.

There are many opportunities for innovative brewers to capture the hearts, minds and palates of drinkers.

Do you bottle/keg/cask your beer?
Not yet but watch this space. We have a few products in mind for bottling and are actively considering kegging at some point in the future.

What is you proudest moment in brewing?

Very simply we have a feeling of pride every time a customer re-orders one of our core beers.

Do you have any brewing regrets?
Regrets are wasted energy. It might have been beneficial to have had the wherewithal to have started about 3-4 years ago, as the micro-brewery market is considerably more crowded now than it was in 2007, but we both feel that had we begun a few years ago we wouldn’t have had the theme or the development plans we now have in place.

On the bar.

What is your brewing ambition?
Do we want to develop the products and the brand to a point where we could sell it for multi-millions like a certain Cornish brewer? Maybe! But really it’s about growth, innovation and continuous improvement. We strive to provide drinkers with a pleasurable product and, from our side, have a bit of fun with the music angle along the way.

What was last beer you drank?
Andrew: Marble ‘Chocolate Marble’

Mark: Thornbridge Jaipur – a fine beer

What is your favourite hop and why?
We both love Summit which is a high alpha US hop. We used it as a single hop in our Kick Inside special and it’s part of the recipe in Beat Red.

What is your favourite beer/food combo?

Andrew: a Bavarian dunkles and some kind of pork-based product!

Mark: I don’t have a particular favourite – though a chef of our acquaintance plans to marinade a steak with Propaganda, our 7.8% Imperial Stout – I’ll definitely have some of that!

Do you have a Brewing hero/inspiration?
We were inspired by the combination of great beer and strong branding of breweries such as Dark Star, Thornbridge, Marble, Summer Wine and more recently Magic Rock.

Equally, we appreciate the skill and effort applied by some of the smaller, less well known brewers we meet. All heroes in their own right.

If you could brew one collaboration beer with someone who would it be with
and what would it be?
We’re actually planning a couple of exciting collaborations next year with  great brewers so keep your eyes on our social media channels for more information.

Which beer do you wish you had brewed?
Andrew: Acorn Gorlovka

Mark: Gorlovka is a good answer, splendid beer. But I’d love to have brewed My Antonia, a collaboration between Dogfish Head and Birra del Borgo, that was a memorable beer.

How do you spend your time when you aren’t brewing?
Andrew: Listening to music and going to gigs. Occasional walks/hikes.

Mark: Summer, playing cricket. Winter, watching Channel 4 racing. All year round – “researching” other beers.

If you could have one superhero superpower what would it be?
Andrew: Absolutely no idea!

Mark: Warnie’s flipper would come in handy, as would the ability to dig out a mash tun with a flick of a finger.

Do you have a website/twitter/blog?

Twitter: @RevolutionsBrew

Facebook: www.facebook.com/revolutionsbrewing

Blog: http://revolutionsbrewing.blogspot.com

Web: www.revolutionsbrewing.co.uk

Anything else you want to tell us?

LOVE MUSIC:LOVE BEER!

What is your brewery capacity?
We have a 15 barrel plant.

enjoying a pint

What is different about your brewery?
I want to make beers that are really accessible. It is annoying when you have no idea what a beer is like from its pump clip, so ours show the colour of the beer and the numbers show how the beers fit into the style range; no farm animals please. Oh, and great beer.

How long have you been brewing for?
I have been brewing ‘big’ for two years, but I’ve been full mash mini brewing at home since I was a nipper.

How did you get into brewing?
I have loved beer and learning about beer all my grown up life. Making my own recipes has been great fun and seemed a logical step.

What beers do you brew regularly?
The current regular brews are: XT-TWO (pale and continental), XT-FOUR (amber and addictive) and XT-EIGHT (dark and multifarious)

What special/seasonal beers do you brew?
I am currently working on a special collaboration brew with some other local brewers. It’s great getting together and sharing ideas with like minded beery folks.

Where do you think the future of brewing lies?
Don’t know, but I enjoy looking.

Bottling at Lovibonds

Do you bottle/keg/cask your beer?
We currently cask the beers, but we will be bottling and kegging the beers in the future.

What is you proudest moment in brewing?
When the first beer from the new brewery, XT-FOUR, turned out beautifully.

Do you have any brewing regrets?
I lived in the USA for a number of years and I wish I had got involved with some of the micro-breweries while I was over there.

What is your brewing ambition?
To brew something that really gets beer noticed in the foodie press and proves how beer is more versatile and interesting than wine.

What was last beer you drank?
XT-FOUR – obvious answer, but true.

What is your favourite hop and why?
The next new one I find… although I do like Cascade, bit over used maybe but lovely lemony citrus aroma.

What is your favourite beer/food combo?
Steak pie, chips and gravy with a porter, in a Yorkshire pub with an open fire

Do you have a Brewing hero/inspiration?
Anyone doing something different and imaginative

If you could brew one collaboration beer with someone who would it be with and what would it be?
Sam Calagione and maybe brew something with plums and dates?

XT Brewhouse

Which beer do you wish you had brewed?
Arrogant Bastard

How do you spend your time when you aren’t brewing?
Sorry, don’t understand the question.

If you could have one superhero superpower what would it be?
Super Zymurgist powers – ability to understand and control those pesky little fellows.

Do you have a website/twitter/blog?
Yep, try www.xtbrewing.com and @xtbrew

Anything else you want to tell us?

Please push the pubs and restaurants to wake up and look at all of us innovative little micro-brewers so we can show what good beer really is.

Hawkshead Brewery

Having never visited the beer hall I wasn’t sure what to expect, I’ve drank loads of Hawkshead beers over the years and I’m a big fan of them, especially Windemere Pale and Hawkshead Red, so as you can Imagine I was like a kid at Christmas when we pulled up in the car park.

The beer hall is in a slightly strange place, being on an industrial estate about 15 minutes from Ambleside, but it’s surrounded by cool shops and businesses like Pogu and the Artisan Bakery but from the outside it certainly looks the part with it’s big glass front giving you a glimpse of the 2 huge tanks full of beer.

Inside the bar is decorated with lots of wood, it’s light and airy and there’s a great atmosphere. The bar it’s self has plenty of hand pulls, a couple of keg lines and a great selection of wine and whisky.

There’s plenty of seating at the bar and around the room, there’s even a dart board in the corner but I couldn’t help but be drawn to the huge window of bottled beers, It contained some pretty awesome brews from the likes of Kernel, Mallinsons, Cantillion etc, which added a nice twist and would make for a great session,  but with the quality and range of the Hawkshead beers I’ll be honest I’d find it hard to pull my self off away from the local brews.

Delicious Scotch egg and amazing picalli

On top of the huge array of drinks there was a great range of food on offer, mostly written on a big board behind the bar so they can cross stuff out when they haven’t got any left, everything that went past us as we wandered around looked delicious and smelt even better, we couldn’t resist I just had to try the Brodies Scotch Egg and Chips and Emily went for the beer battered Fish Goujons and Chips.

The portion sizes were just righ as was the price, everything was spot on and full of flavour, I teamed mine up with the outstanding NZ Pale Ale and Em tried the kegged Lakeland Lager…which she is now hooked on.

Time soon flew and we had to head off home, unfortunately they’d ran out of mini casks of Windemere Pale so I coudln’t take one with me but I did get a a cask of NZ Pale which is even better!

Big thanks to Matt for the guided tour (well worth a go if you visit the beer hall)  and hospitality, very jealous of the view from the office balcony.

Check out the Hawkshead website here and keep an eye out for the next beer festival, it sounds like it will be one not to miss.