Beer Compurgation

This is Day Two of a two day experience in Leeds from May, that has taken a while to write about.  I was determined to finish it one day after several setbacks and distractions.  Day one is written about here. I woke from my slumber with clothes strung about the room and uneaten discarded takeaway scattered at different points on the duvet. Day one in Leeds had been a great time but the dehydration of screaming along to Mobb-phonics and going through the emotions of gun holding had left me feeling tender. Day two in Leeds was supposed to be spent sobering up and meeting somebody for non-alcohol based frivolity, whilst preparing for a stag do the following day. However, when the plans to meet up with somebody fell through, I had potentially a whole extra day of Leeds fun to go at. My first thoughts were of breakfast and after a quick Twitter enquiry I was overwhelmingly pointed in the direction of Northern Monk Refectory for early morning food, which suited me after m...

  Guilty as charged. Despite my love of the city when I visit, I've spent much of the past 12 months, like many others, becoming a little tired of a London-centric blogosphere and beer scene. From beer reviews, certain television tastings only featuring London brews to articles such as Shortlist's Pints and Pistachios 2015 that suggests that SEVEN of the TEN best new beer and food bars opened in the UK this year were from London, the focus on our biggest city has become increasingly exhausting to the rest of us.  Yet maybe it's just true that seven out of ten of the best new beer and food bars did come from London. So on a recent weekend trip I wanted to see for myself what the city has to offer now by experiencing over two days as much of the beer scene as I could squeeze in.  I was due to head to London the weekend before last for the tail end of London Beer City week and the London Craft Beer Festival. As it was, as much as a weekend of craft wan...

Drinking good beer means to support the industry and every aspect of it. Continuous measures and limitations have seriously affected our pubs, especially over the last decade. The famous public houses of British society have gone through a de-normalisation phase fuelled by those in power. Anything that is enjoyable, anything that is deemed unhealthy, is being ousted.  Whether it is the health and safety laws, increasing taxes on beer or the attempted destruction of the tobacco industry, it can no longer be argued that a proportion of the nation's population aren't a bunch of gratuitious, self-righteous killjoys whose aim and pleasure whilst they exist on this world is to control people's levels of fun and happiness. They will call it looking after the nation's health but all it is doing is limiting the people's levels of indulgences. So if a smoking ban inside pubs eight years ago wasn't enough, yesterday the proposed  banning of smoking in outdoor beer ...

Occassionally discussions and conversations come up at such an opportune time you'd swear you prompted them. I’m interrupting working on other posts (sorry Si) to comment on a discussion yesterday (this was written two days ago) that appeared on Twitter when TicketyBrew asked a perfectly innocent question that many breweries have at least considered: To give a little bit of background into my intrigue in this tweet TicketyBrew was opened in 2013 in my old home town of Stalybridge by husband and wife team Duncan and Keri. Not only were they local, they happened to be setting up in an old rail arch my old company once occupied. They are also minutes away from that pesky Stalybridge Buffet Bar I talk about (and visit) too much. Growth was fairly rapid with their beer even sold rather unusually in the Manchester Harvey Nichols well under a year of opening. They soon became nationwide, even on cask where I spotted them in Edinburgh last June. Their unusual styl...

Rememeber that  Natwest advert  (if you don't then that's the link) that recalls how your local bank has now turned into a trendy wine bar. Feel free to make a new advert where your local bank, fishmongers, newsagents, PUB is now a "trendy craft beer bar" and we are in modern city centres. Don't forget the overpriced pulled pork and burgers that, if we're honest, aren't actually as good as a McDonald's Big Tasty. This has developed into an accidental but interesting series on experiences away from the city centre modern scene and with time spent in traditional local pubs. First I spoke about the keg appeal outside of the city centre before speaking about a reunion with my uncle and our different ideals .  At least one of those posts talked about the experiences that the "kid" beer reviewers, who only discovered beer's existence two years ago, just don't seem to get. They are the sort that might think good beer is everywher...

What are you doing this weekend?  You possibly have possibility plans. You've possibly discussed the possibility of making possibility plans. You've possibly discussed the possibility of possibly going through with the possible plans, possibly. But have you possibly considered taking in a small beer festival, possibly?  For this weekend sees Stalybridge Buffet Bar (nah, I've definitely never talked about it) hold it's first beer festival. Sure, it's only a small venture with sixteen cask beers, a couple of keg and a variety of bottles, but what were you doing this weekend?  The theme is 1940's and the festival pays a little nod to the U.S. with it's beer selection, whether that be the names, the brewing location or just the choice of hops themselves.  There are obviously a couple of other non-themed treats up the sleeve, including a rather good Manchester based Espresso Stout, but I don't want to give too much away. There will a...

“It’s so loud inside my head, with words that I should have said. As I drown in my regrets, I can’t take back the words I never said” Lupe Fiasco, Words I Never Said I’m ready to talk. It’s been over a year since I opened up on this blog with a post about my long term suffering with depression and anxiety that I’d only just started to acknowledge, face and treat. I needed a release; a way of letting everybody know who I was and what was happening. I felt hiding it was making it harder. Talking about it undoubtedly helped for a period. The response from friends and loved ones was incredible and there was comfort there, but they couldn’t cure me of what I was struggling with. I'm still not sure whether it's the right time to be 100% honest about some of the major triggers of my problems. There were certain people and events that certainly made things much harder for me in the past 24 months. But they were just additions to underlying problems that have existed for y...