B R E W D O G

Reminiscent of the type of industrial themed sandwich shop found in downtown Prague or New York’s Soho, but with added chutzpah and a munificence for self-promotion, Brewdog Nottingham is a play centre for beer enthusiasts and anyone wanting something a little less serious from their atypical late night bar.

Like a sixth-form common room with a twist of intoxication and a desire to scare even the hardiest of wallets (the Japanese beer does not come cheap!) the formiddable brick building – once a factory but now housing flats and a restaurant as well as the bar – has been given an extra lease of life with BrewDog’s assertive style.

Wood and metal cover the industrially scarred walls which fleetingly appear in the entrance as a brutalist reminder of the history of this space. Unfussy wooden tables and benches circuit the room, gunmetal casks (branding BrewDog of course) are foot stools.

Borrowing from a hybrid of Ikea/Habitat urban chic and a dash of the school gymnasium (no really, try the recycled seat covers) this is a bar with equal amounts of character and faux-sawdust pretension.

Not that anyone meeting here gives two hoots about that because it’s a more than suitable environment for drinking beer and breaking bread. The high ceilings are filled with debate, discussion and de-briefing from the working week, perhaps even a frantic Friday night out, all sat sipping Punk IPAs and picking at mixed olives.

BrewDog Blitz 2.8%

BrewDog Nottingham

No CAMRAs allowed

The beer menu

Brash as the BrewDog brand can be, Saturday afternoon in BrewDog Nottingham is relaxed. There’s cheekiness rather than petulance in their chalkboard real ale bashing (we sit beneath notices that read “Open mic night”…”don’t be shy”… “no CAMRAs”).

And of the beer? Well it’s uncompromising. Hops dominate, BrewDog and their favourite breweries steal the show and if you want to dive into the bottled beer fridge and share a meat platter, expect little change from an Adam Smith.

The acid test, would I go back? I guess the post-brand experience must have done the trick… despite the stupid Robin Hood PR stunt.

Brewdog have been denied a license for a bar in Leeds. I’d ask the decision makers to step through the threshold of this revitalised building and take a read of BrewDog’s mischievous marketing collateral. What troublesome nightspots decorate their walls with annotated mash and serve beers in schooners, one third measures and nips? What irresponsible licensees charge £10 for a bottle of American IPA and provide details on the best bar snack to experience it with?

You can play Scrabble there for Cambrinus sake!

Bar information:
Venue: BrewDog Nottingham
Town/city: Hockley, Nottingham

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I also opted for a “Woahhh!” like sound when I sniffed this BrewDog/Mikkeller collaboration from 2009. Wow.

“It doesn’t taste like beer” Sarah adds when she takes a tentative taste. Nope, indeed it doesn’t. Devine Rebel is all toffee and brandy with the volume turned up to Maxwell advert levels. “It’s more like that horrible Metaxa stuff!” Sarah declares. Yep, it kinda is, and that’s fitting as we are harnessing it’s opulent bouquet in a voluptuous brandy snifter.

The aroma – all syrupy, brown sugar coated alcohol –  snakes out of the glass, and the taste similarly slides down the throat, reiterating the dominance of ethanol and reinforcing it’s similarities with a spirit rather than a beer. Only it’s texture, slimy as opposed to the silky smoothness of expensive wines or whiskies, makes you realise this is something else altogether.

As if Devine Rebel 2009 wasn’t enough of a kick in the head – at 12% alcohol dominates the sensory glands – there’s a 2010 version to kick us whilst we’re down.

It’s a rock ‘n’ roll rebellion we’re told, although aged in wooden whisky casks and toasted on French oak chips, Mikkeller/BrewDog Devine Rebel 2010 has a little more of the mature Mick Jagger to it than the legs akimbo Rolling Stones of the late 60s and early 70s…

The younger versions additional wood conditioning is noticeable, not that it imparts a sense of age or oak, but enhances the medicinal content, consolidating the sterile single malt taste and adding a point of reference to what is a multifarious beer. It pours a deep orange-red-brown hazy syrup of beer, lined with wispy foam, that leaves a string of fire in your throat. You feel like you’ve just gone 88 mph and dunked your head in a flux capacitator. Luckily you don’t end up in 1955, but you’re head might just drop off your neck if you knock this back too quickly.

Whether you fancy sampling the 2009 version or the 2010 gyle (or both!), sip, savour and enjoy the complex flavours: it’s an alcoholic desert, a pungent nightcap: brandy, whisky, cigars made of peat, a lick of chocolate, a dash of balsamic vinegar; a heavy brown tonic to knock you into the twilights hours and possibly lose you a few hours of your life.

Mikkeller/BrewDog Devine Rebel 2010

"25% malt beverage aged in Speyside whisky casks"

Devine Rebel: a rock n roll collaboration

Beer information:
Beer: Devine Rebel
Brewery: Mikkeller / BrewDog
Style: Barley wine
ABV: 12.5%
Country: Scotland (and Denmark)

Beer information:
Beer: Devine Rebel 2010
Brewery: Mikkeller / BrewDog
Style: Barley wine
ABV: 13.8%
Country: Scotland (and Denmark)

Devine Rebel is a collaborative beer brewed by the enigmatic Mikel from Mikkeller, a brewery of no fixed abode. Putting him up for a few nights the Devine Rebel beers were created a BrewDog’s brewery facilities in Fraserburgh. Both the 2009 and 2010 versions are singled hopped malt beverages in the barley wine style (Nelson Sauvin being the hops of choice) and fermentation was aided by champagne yeast. Both were partially aged in whisky casks. So by all accounts they are not your average beers!

I’d love to carry on the heaven/hell theme that led to the colour of the label, but 5 am Saint is neither angel nor devil. In fact it took me a while to think of it as anything special at all. Of course, it is fundamentally better than picking up a tin of Grolsch from the supermarket…

Some beers simply burst out of the bottle. Some need coaxing and barely deserve the glass.

5am Saint is the former, brimming with energy and instant flavour, as our most BrewDog bottles (but not casks!). Fresh fruit smash your nose via some rock n’ roll hops, smacking you tastebuds into submission. The fruits are floral and fruity; the bitterness is sharp, cutting through the modest malt. Nectarines, roses and summer fruit sorbet turn my nose inside out. This is pleasant in the best possible sense of the word.

This is the 5th or 6th botle of 5am Saint I’ve tried, and it’s by far ‘the best’, full of vigour and flavour. If you try hard enough there’s essences of citrus and herbs (go on, try hard, let your imagination go wild!)

Enthusiasm aside, 5 am Saint still isn’t a beer I’d buy all the time. It took a few bottles and the perfect temperature to achieve the smorgasbord of flavour we knew it was hiding, and even then whilst it’s interesting it’s not satisfying or balanced in the way my favourite beers are.

5am’s perfect place is along side the barbecue beers reserved for chilling low and coolling down on when Britain managed to snatch a day or two of really hot sunshine each year. The colour of the label is probably apt as it’s the perfect partner for the day when you worship the little white ball in the sky, only to return to work on Monday with bright red marks around the fringes of your clothing and a hangover because you stayed up until summer sunrise.

Brewdog 5am Saint

Beer information:
Beer: 5am Saint
Brewery: BrewDog
Style: Amber Ale
ABV: 5%
Country: Scotland

Hop Rocker.

So why is it almost entirely made of the sweat of digestive biscuits? This beer personifies Hobnobs on holiday without a care in the world, sucking lemons and painting the town red with the blood of hops. Think Holsten Pills brewed by McVities with all the ingredients on steroids. Nothing prepared me for the sweet and fruity injection or the flurry of malt near the end, malted barley rushing with blazing blues and twos to counter the whopping astringency that punches you in the face when you take a sip.

Funny how Hop Rocker slipped off the radar, because this beer is BrewDog through and through.

BrewDog Hop Rocker lager

Beer information:
Beer: Hop Rocker
Brewery: BrewDog
Style: Lager
ABV: 5.5%
Country: Scotland

Well one Oxfordshire brewer has taken on the challenge to create the world’s bitterest beer, and his strategy: yeah you guessed it, he’s thrown a silly amount of hops into his brew.

Pitstop Brewery are hoping to hit the Guinness Book of World Records with their bitter bitter

Pete Fowler of the Pitstop Brewery near Wantage rose to the occasion after a friend reckoned he couldn’t match the bitterness of US craft beers, and in Mr Fowler’s words ‘that was like red rag to a bull’. The beer (or barley wine) has over £100s worth of hops plus additional hop additives for one 9 barrel keg of the beer compared to a usual £5 worth.

Bearing in mind the brewer himself hasn’t tried it yet and is expecting it to be in the region of 500 IBUs* (a theoretical number which scares the pants of my tastebuds) it raises interesting questions on innovation (or should I say ‘innovation’).

Is this an ‘extreme beer’? Or is it simply a boisterous take on the traditional British bitter, tongue in cheek and one finger up to the extremists? Or just a bit of fun?!

Let’s compare to Tactical Nuclear Penguin which seems to have been a success so far for BrewDog. They’ve brewed it to push boundaries and simply because they can, which the beer loving world are mostly praising. Is it drinkable? It’s an acquired taste I reckon, it’s as smooth and drinkable as an Imperial Stout aged for a few years and I admire BrewDog for making it and laying the gaunlet down for brewers to push the boat out further.

So should we take Mr Fowler’s brew in the same light, or not take it too seriously and be guilty of pandering to BrewDog because they are glamourous and modern?

The deciding factor will be if throwing a load of hops into an English bitter makes a good beer? I wouldn’t sit down on an evening with Tactical Nuclear Penguin, but I enjoyed the experience. I guess the only way I’ll know with this one is to give it a go and taste it when the beer goes on sale at the Royal Oak in Wantage (from late January).

If I still lived in Oxfordshire I’d be making a short hop down past Oxford one evening, but unfortunately I can’t justify the trip from West Yorkshire, so I’ll have to rely on someone else’s tasting notes.

I’ll leave you with Garrett Olivers’s words, which seem kinda relevant:

“The hoppiest beer? It’s a fairly idiotic pursuit, like a chef saying, ‘This is the saltiest dish.’ Anyone can toss hops in a pot, but can you make it beautiful?”

If Pitstop Brewery get the record the real test will be if the beer actually tastes any good, but you have to admire the balls of a small brewery to give it a go. As a bit of fun, it’s got them a nice news story, as a serious pursuit, the proof will be in the pudding.

Brewdog Tactical Nuclear Penguin - the world's strongest beer

BrewDog Tactical Nuclear Penguin Tasting at North Bar, Leeds

One of the best things I’ve found about living in Leeds, or a larger city for that matter, is the variety of events that take place that you don’t always find in less adventurous urban areas (maybe I was just brought up in a particularly boring town?!).

Zak with the Penguin

In the three years I’ve made Yorkshire’s modern capital my home, I’ve enjoyed Leeds International Film Festival, the West Indian Carnival, the Christkindelmarkt, a couple of League One Play Off Semi Finals and (less fortunately) a huge Robbie Williams concert at Roundhay Park (don’t ask) and countless other dates in the diary that are a feature of dwelling in a cosmopolitan city.

As well as these large scale events it’s actually the smaller opportunities that appeal to me most: being able to see Almodovar films in the ancent Hyde Park Picture house, attending a Flying Dog beer and food evening and the chance to see actual rock stars whilst playing 5-a-side (if you classify relatively obscure post-rock bands as rock stars!).

So when Zak Avery asked me if I’d like to take part in a live video tasting of the newly released and lavishly expensive Tactical Nuclear Penguin by BrewDog, the strongest beer in the world, not only did I jump at the chance but I carved another notch on my list of reasons to live in Leeds…

Luckily the selected date, Friday just gone, was a quiet day in the office (not entirely down to the fact the night before was our Christmas party) and I managed to grab an afternoon off. I covertly snuck off to North Bar, less than 12 hours after I’d left there and met up with Matt and Rob from Hopzine.

Moments later Zak trooped through the door with a crate of small glasses on his shoulder, a very unimposing dark 330ml bottle peaking over the sparkling glassware. Tactical Nuclear Penguin had arrived in the building.

And so the tasting began…

Cath from North Bar went first, describing Tactical Nuclear Penguin as ‘a peaty, smoky whiskey’ and starting the spirit/beer debate with a nod to the stronger stuff.

Matt tries to conjure the words to describe the complexity of Tactical Nuclear Penguin

I went next and managed to lose most of my vocabulary. I was looking for words like wood, smoke and chocolate but that came out as ‘barbecue’. It was difficult to put into words a beer as complex as Tactical Nuclear Penguin after one sip and even more so as the whole time I was trying to talk it’s burning a fast track path down my oesophagus!

Matt and Rob from Hopzine followed, Matt being more impressed than he expected and Rob picking up on some stewed fruits and similarities with BrewDog’s other aged stouts. Matt, like me, somewhat sat on the fence on the spirit debate, but Rob decidedly swayed towards beer.

Paul Marshall (a singer who holds the special title of being one of only about 3 musicians that both my girlfriend Sarah and I can enjoy together) popped in on his lunch which was naturally mostly liquid, picking up on whiskey and peat also, and was followed by Matt from North Bar and Andreas from Vertical Drinks who both came up with words we’d not been able to find – ‘beer liquor’ and ‘soy sauce’. All agreed it was a beer but had the character of a spirit – a hybrid of the two perhaps.

Paul Marshall aka Lone Wolf takes a good sniff of BrewDog's Tactical Nuclear Penguin

If you read Zak’s notes on his blog you will have already read the best single description of BrewDog’s Tactical Nuclear Penguin though, from one of Zak’s regular customers, Michael C. I wish I’d been there to hear it, but not as much as Zak wishes his video camera was rolling as Michael uttered the worlds best beer-review-tweet that never happened: “It tastes like someone has taken all the liquorice in the world and left it at the bottom of a coal mine for a thousand years“.

The day I write something that good I’ll have nailed this beer blogging malarkey!

Thanks to Zak and North Bar for hosting the tasting session. The tasting continued well into the afternoon with a host of Belgian ales, American IPAs, stouts and cherry lambics arriving at the table (Sarah who joined us later in the day was particularly impressed with the Casteel Rouge, a new favourite perhaps?)

Also check out Zak’s video blog for his words on Tactical Nuclear Penguin but also lots of other cracking beers (the Raging bitch video is a particular favourite).

The actual competition finished quite a while ago, and it’s probably a good idea to round up what happened.

Barnstorming beer from Bath Ales

In 2008, Sainsbury’s first launched their beer competition. Breweries provided the supermarket giant with their finest new ales, a selection of which would make it through to the final, where the beers would find themselves in stock and on sale in stores nationwide.

The top selling beers would win a nice big order from the Sainsbury’s to be stocked on a permanent basis, a veritable cash cow and holy grail for many brewers.

The first year saw Bath Ales Barnstormer and Doctor Okells IPA (both very good!) take the title.

This year Scottish brewers dominated the challenge, with no less than 7 of the 15 finalists in stores across the country coming from the industrious BrewDog and their contemporaries the brothers William.

Finalists in the 2009 Sainsbury's Beer Competition

But neither of them could take the title, despite BrewDog’s efforts to push sales by offering a case of beer to everyone who filled their trolleys with Dogma, Chaos Theory and Hardcore IPA (yes, I fell for it in order to get free beer).

The actual winners were the fantastic Bath Ales team with Golden Hare and the North Yorkshire brewery Hambleton’s for their Taylor’s Tipple.

But after all this tasting and comparing do I agree with the cold, hard sales stats?

The answer is no. It was quite tough to whittle the last few down to three, I really enjoyed trying all of them, particularly Bays Breaker, Yellow Hammer and the Williams IPA. The Hambleton ale was nice but didn’t bowl me over and Dogma is a beer of two personalities (or I’m a drinker of multiple personalities and moods?!). Wolf Brewery had two good entries but I couldn’t call either favourites.

Bath Ales' Golden Hare

So, my top three (in my humble opinion) that I’d buy again and again would be (drum roll please!!):

3. Bath Ales Golden Hare - A celebration of floral amber notes and light, zesty character. An immediate winner.

2. Chaos Theory - BrewDog’s predictably random IPA is a self-contained galaxy of flavour and tropical aroma. Utterly wonderful.

1. Williams Brothers Birds & Bees – many thought this was a bit of a surprise entry in the Independent’s Top 50 bottled beers, but this beer is a hidden gem for me. Crisp, floral and sooooo refreshing to drink, I’d buy this on every supermarket trip. Of course I’m dazzled by the wonderful label too, but it is a design fitting of the beer in both quality and essence.

Birds & Bees & Beer: this is a playful ale with citrus and honey flavours

Complexity in the universe is often based on simple, fundamental rules. We don’t know all of the rules but we understand some of them; however despite this, life is still, at our level, an unpredictable and seemingly random existence.

Deep Simplicity by John (and Mary) Gribbin is one of the best science books and makes my head hurt as much as a few bottles of BrewDog's Chaos Theory does

Chaos theory helps us get our heads around this (and then in the next breath turns our perceptions of ‘thought on its head). It also suggests that systems such as our universe are completely deterministic…in theory. But unfortunately we have to pinpoint the exact starting conditions of the system, which is a little more than tricky when every single tiny particle in our universe system was compacted into an unimaginably small space, a little over 13,700,000,000 years ago (plus or minus about 14 million years!).

This chaotic nature has parallels with the brewing process, where we calculate the mix of initial ingredients, follow strict processes and end up with tasty beer at the end. But we can’t always predict the exact end result and consistency and quality in a brew can be more difficult than just throwing the ingredients together and sticking the heat on.

As you might have guessed there’s a parallel between all this and BrewDog’s last beer in our Sainsbury’s beer competition series. Chaos Theory is an ode to chaos theory (although at 7.1% it doesn’t really help me get my head around the physics much!).

I might as well start by just saying I think this beer is absolutely fantabulastic. It might not hold the secrets to the universe but it tries damn hard to rock your taste buds and blow your mind

Chaos Theory - from simple ingredients a complex beer doth emerge

BrewDog Chaos Theory is a ‘predictably random IPA’, a paradox fitting for the label of this beer. It certainly isn’t a predictable India Pale Ale though..

Aromas of tropical fruit and at first, a very malty taste remind me of Trashy Blonde, BrewDog’s- but this has an added depth that requires a little patience.

It shares the exotic fruitiness of Trashy Blonde, but Chaos Theory differs in its colour – it burns brightly through the glass, shining deep orangey, dark amber, bronzey copper golden light particles simultaneously.

The aroma oozes out of the glass at a rate of knots. It smells natural despite the burst of mangoes, grapefruits and oranges and hits you nose hard. I can’t describe how nice the aroma is, every breath is rich and satisfying.

The taste rolls between biscuity malt, orange zest caramel smoothness and a luscious hop bitterness that doesn’t overpower the mingling tropical notes that ebb and flow.

It’s fitting that this called Chaos Theory because it’s a bundle of apparent randomness, brewed from a recipe of simple ingredients.

Am I getting carried away?

Chaos Theory was originally a prototype, winning the vote to enter permanent production

The first time I drank this I wrote some notes, but I never published them. The review said: “Chaos Theory isn’t disappointing, it’s fantastic, but it leaves me wanting just a tiny bit more.” After countless more bottles, and trying the couple of other BrewDog ‘IPAs’, I think I am going to get carried away and retract that statement.

I find myself craving Chaos Theory when I try other BrewDogs. It’s not fair to make this beer sound like a compromise, but it is the perfect middle ground between Trashy Blonde and Hardcore IPA.

Another great number from BrewDog, quite possible one of their best.

I should point out that BrewDog sent me some Chaos Theory a while back, but only after I’d bought a whole trolley full (and I’ve bought a good few from our local beer emporium since). In case you think that’s payment for a good review, it’s not – I love this beer.

Some days just seem to have everything. Big stories, ferocious debate and your own personal news. Such as yesterday…

In the news, BrewDog pulled another stunt, this one making me laugh out loud and actually consider parting with some of my hard earned cash.

Tactical Nuclear Penguin takes beer naming conventions to a new level and pushes the boundaries of beer production. Whether or not it’s any good I might never know (I’m hoping the other Real Ale Reviews lads will chip in for a bottle as I don’t think I can justify getting one just for myself). But thanks to James and Martin for dressing up in silly costumes and brightening up the beer world for a morning.

Smoking ban - what is the real effect on pubs? Photo by wsogmm

And to the ferocious debate: Is smoking cool? Smoking may look cool when Paul Newman is hustling and Jean-Paul Belmondo is ambling through Parisian streets but it ain’t always cool when you’re trying to eat your tea or sip a pint (or stand at the bus stop on a windy day folks!). There’s a serious health side to still as well as questions of economy and heritage: will the smoking ban contribute to killing traditional pubs off once and for all?

Who knows, I can understand both sides of the argument – I smoked for a 3 or 4 years from the age of 17, giving up when I went to uni (yes, I know it’s weird that way round) – and I can’t stand the smell now. And I much prefer my clothes not reeking of stale smoke the morning after a night out. But I don’t hate smokers or smoking, I respect people’s choice to do it, and I appreciate smokers who are considerate of non-smokers (just like I appreciate drinkers who don’t smash my wing mirrors off and people who are generally nice). I sure hope that the country is a bit healthier because of the ban – but how can we ensure that it doesn’t impact negatively on our pub culture and people’s personal freedoms?

It’s a debate I almost don’t want to get too involved in as I don’t have the solution, and judging from other posts I’m not sure a unilateral agreement is on the cards! So moving swiftly on…

And then in personal news, we had some unexpected success last night, as Real Ale Reviews were awarded not one, but two commendations in the inaugural Golden Twit awards organised by The Drum magazine…

Recognition for beer tweeps at the Golden Twits

We submitted a few words describing our twitter account and a team of judges reviewed what we do, and to our delight decided that we deserved a little recognition for our work on twitter writing about beer and providing information about the beer industry to the world wide web. Thanks to everyone who voted for us in the public vote and to the judges for liking what we do!

Sean from Adnams was down at the event (we here he got on stage at one point?!) and Adnams scooped a commendation, whilst our friends at Warwickshire brewery Purity were also nominated, which is pretty good beer tweep representation (even if we do say so ourselves!)

Because I was contemplating some fantastic beers that I’d been waiting to open for some time. These were beers I’d heard about, read about and almost dreamed about opening.

Paradox Isle of Arran pours very, very dark

A few other beer bloggers wearily heading back from beer festivals and Scoop singing the praises of BrewDog’s RipTide I headed for the beer cupboard but all I really wanted were my staple favourites to drink, beers I can always fall back on as discussed in my post on emergency beers – a Goose Island Honkers, a Brooklyn Lager and a Peroni Gran Reserva were exactly what I needed. But with encouragement from other beer tweeps and Reluctant I crumbled!

But I’d let the beer cupboard become infested with only ‘special beers’, those beers that you save because they deserve a special occasion, perhaps a little concentration and a clear head.

I shouldn’t complain, and to be honest a little more Twitter encouragement soon led to me biting the bullet and starting off with a bang, a Rip Tide versus Paradox Isle of Arran double review.

Rip Tide - a perfect distraction from X Factor

With mussels pasta in white wine sauce in my plate, and a night with Sarah watching X Factor on the telly, I cracked open the stouts and got stuck in. What did I think? You’ll have to wait for the review post I’m afraid, but in a nutshell Paradox Isle Of Arran is dark and it smells of alcohol. Funnily enough Sarah quite liked her first taste of the whiskey-aged number  saying it tasted better than it smelt!

Rip Tide was slightly more ruby (but still dark!) and intense, with subtle complexities that I explored over the course of the best part of an hour.

Suffice to say the side by side BrewDog pairing soon got me in the mood for beer, and I hit the cupboard again, sticking a Little Creatures Pale Ale in the fridge and mulled over where to go next.

Bashah was lighter than the stouts but still dark and strong

I opted, completed unplanned, for the Bashah challenge. I actually wanted something paler but with the alternatives being Tokyo, Great Divide Titan Stout or a Rudolph Christmas Ale, and having enjoyed Stone’s Self Righteous ale a few days previous, I dived straight in.

Bashah is the result of a collaboration between two breweries who could quite easily be twinned, Stone from the US and brewDog from Scotland.  It’s a Belgian style double IPA of some type, coming in a little lighter than the stout but still pretty dark, tasting like barbecued hops (well what I imagine hops might taste like bbq’d!)

You’ve guessed it, it’l get its own post, but it was good. I reckon the Stone influence makes this beer work, the balance echoes Self Righteous. It’s dark but hoppy and that’s a style I could get used to.

The first drop of Atlantic IPA

Inspired by my efforts so far I again returned to the beer cupboard, and impressed with the quality of the BrewDog efforts so far (which pleased me after the recent stunts and publicity) I decided to go all out and gently picked up my coveted Atlantic IPA. Again, there’ll be a full post for this beer, a bottle I’ve been avoiding for some months. Boy it was interesting though!

And so Saturday evening was drawing in, Saturday night TV was winding up, my netbook battery was dying and my head was a little heavier than when I tucked into my dinner. But I managed a Little Creatures nightcap (a superb beer with lots of lemon meringue ‘x factor’) as Sarah had intentions of catching up on series 2 of Gavin & Stacey and I reluctantly accepted my fate hoping the beer would get me through (it did and the beer had softened me enough to enjoy the show; at least more than I expected!)

So my impromptu artisan beer tasting was a success, and drank over the course of about 7 hours I woke up fresh as the Yorkshire air the next morning  fighting fit. I might not have made the best notes (or taken the best pictures) of my special beers, but that will only benefit a certain beer emporium in Leeds when I go back to replace them all as soon as my pay cheque hits my wallet this week!

My special beers the morning after