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.

It’s a reason and an excuse to open those bottles you’ve been saving. Beers which you really want to drink but also really want to hold onto until a special occasion. The thing is, not all beer gets better if you leave it and the worst beer-thing ever is opening that bottle which you thought would be incredible only to realise that it’s now dead. Don’t let that happen. Don’t save it for that unknown special occasion, make this that special occasion.

Do it alone, do it with friends, do it in the pub, whatever, just open that bottle (beer, wine, whisky, hot sauce, it doesn’t matter what!) you’ve been saving and enjoy it and share it with others online.

Let’s hijack the weekend of 24-26 February. A three-day excuse to drink the best stuff you’ve got. Go on, just Open It!

What’s more if you are in Leeds then check out Rick’s GastroTurf Blog as it looks like there is going to be a fantastic Live Openit event including a beer and food matching and a visit to a couple of great bars.

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

As you will see the design of the site has changed quite a bit today and it will continue to change over the next few days until I’ve got all of the images back in where they should be, tweaked the layout and ironed out the bugs and glitches.  Hopefully it won’t take too long but in the meantime please do tell me what you think and if you spot anything that’s not quite right.

Other than the design there’s going to be a few new pages, the first of which is the breweries and pubs listing, which means you can access all the posts relating to a particular brewery or pub nice and easily.

There’s also a nice new mobile version so you can choose between a resized version of the site or the old mobile version (without images etc) by scrolling to the bottom of the site then turning mobile theme on or off.

Once I’ve sorted the various bits and bobs there’s lots of new posts waiting in the wings, there’s more brewers to meet, more twissups to plan and more beers to drink and review so watch this space.

I was going to copy and paste the results from both into here but you really should go check out their blog’s if you haven’t already.

Once again a big thanks to everyone that took part and to Robbie for doing the logo, hope you had fun doing it and shal we say the same time next year?

On the blog front, watch this space for some new posts and a new website soon, it’s nearly there just needs  a few tweaks!!

All the best for 2012!!

1. Best UK Draught (Cask or Keg) Beer Hawkshead NZ Pale Ale – Truly delicious and stupidly drinkable. Second place goes to Summer Wine Nettle and Ginger Saison and Third goes to Hill Island ThaIPA.
2. Best UK Bottled or Canned Beer Roosters Babyfaced Assasin, The bottle is one of the sexiest out there, it was amazing fresh and even the OOD bottle that the Fozzards (or was it me?) carted round Newcastle at Twissup was just as tasty. Closely followed by Magic Rock Human Cannonball, Summer Wine Baristam Sharp’s amazing Honey IPA and Buxton Axe Edge.
3. Best Overseas Draught Beer De Molen Hot and Spicy at GBBF, The best chilli beer I’ve ever had, closely followed by the raft of sour beers and Kriek I supped at GBBF
4. Best Overseas Bottled or Canned Beer Hornbeer Black Magic Woman, followed by Orval and then Cantillon St Lamvinus
5. Best Overall Beer Orval, Fresh or aged it simply is one of the best beers going, one I’ve never got sick of drinking.
6. 

   Pandazilla and Darkhorse

   Best Pumpclip or Label Pandazilla spotted at the Free Trade Inn at Twissup Newcastle.

7. Best UK Brewery This is a really tough one there are some great breweries out there at the moment but it’s between Summer Wine, Kernel, Durham, Adnams and Hawkshead.
8. Best Overseas Brewery De molen, I’ve enjoyed virtually everything I’ve drank from the little windmill.
9. Pub/Bar of the Year A Tie between The Free Trade Inn and Bacchus, I could happily spend all day in either one closely followed by Hawkshead Beer Hall
10. Beer Festival of the Year I’ve only been to one proper one this year and that was GBBF
11. Supermarket of the Year Booths – even though I don’t have one locally, every time I visit one I always end up buying loads  of beer.
12. Independent Retailer of the Year Beer Ritz, Lots has changed at Beer Ritz in 2010 but the customer service and range of beers are great, both online and in store.
13. Online Retailer of the Year Beermerchants – Great range of beers from all around the world, usually the first to get stuff in.
14. Best Beer Book or Magazine Tough one, but my favourite book of the year did feature beer (only briefly) it’s called the Hills are stuffed with Swedish girls, buy it read it and laugh out loud.
15. Best Beer Blog or Website Reluctant Scooper, never fails to make me laugh.
16. Best Beer Twitterer Simonhjohnson, by a country mile.
17. Best Online Brewery presence Breweries are starting to realise its more important to be seen online, so my pints go to Adnams, Summer Wine, Hardknott, Buxton and Magic Rock
18. Food and Beer Pairing of the Year Hardknott Vitesse Noir and Chocolate Tart at the Cumbrian Beer Appreciation Do
19. In 2012 I’d Most Like To.. Got to Nottingham Beer festival, build more brewery websites and not get too drunk at my wedding
20. Cider of the Year Gwynt y Ddraig Black Dragon whether it’s £2 a pint in Wetherspoons or £2 a half in Chester Brewery Tap I really do love this cider.

Tuesday 27th – Friday 30th December

Bar open 11am till midnight each day.

The following ales will be served at The Cooks 4th Winter Warmers Fest.

• Okells, Red 4.7%
• Slaters, Blitzen 4.0%
• Idle, Santa 4.2%
• Copper Dragon, Christmas Classic 4.2%
• Redscar, Scrooge 4.0%
• North Yorkshire, Jingle Bx@!cks 4.4%
• North Yorkshire, Christmas Herbert 4.4%
• Brampton, Winter Bock 6.0%
• Roosters, Advent 4.3%
• Lymestone, Cold 4.7%
• Greene King, Rocking Rudolph 4.2%
• Wells & Young, Winter Warmer 5.0%
• Wychwood, Bar Humbug 4.3%
• Wychwood, Hobgoblin Ho Ho Ho 4.5%
• Grays, Stocking Filler.

Captain Cook Inn

There will also be a selection of ciders and the following pork pies to accompany the wonderful ales on offer.

• Pork, Turkey and Stuffing.
• Pork, Turkey and Cranberry.
• Pork & Stilton.
• Traditional Pork.
• Pork & Plum.
• Pork & Walnut.
• Pork, Chicken & Port.
• Pork & Curry.
• Pork & Mustard.
• Pork & Apricot.
• Pork, Apple & Cinnamon.
• Pork, Chilli & Ginger.
• Pork & Cider.
• Ploughmans.
• Pork & Black Pudding.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all at The Cook