I take a break from blogging as I don't have time to juggle my job as a dad, my job as a husband, and my job as someone who only wants to fill the bellies of the good people of Leeds and beyond with great fresh tasting beer.
Fresh tasting is the key here as I had the great privilege of supping a bottle of Magic Rock UnHuman Cannonball, billed as a Triple India Pale Ale packed full of juicy hops and by no means to be aged drink fresh and enjoy. Now the question is did I enjoy it why hell yes I did even though it took a bit of an Unhuman affect on my head the next morning as it paired well with my Madame Rose 2010.
This is the perfect example of fresh versus aged and both worked very well although extremely different. Now I don't bother with tasting notes or any of that hogwash because its going to be the same as everyone else for the most part. Big Juicy American hop bite think grapefruit, lychee and pineapple followed by a slight sweetness think mangoes dipped in sugar in a good way not a sickly sweet way. Now the other a Flanders Brown big on sourness for the fact that they aged it for a long while while throwing some Brett at it and aging it in French Cab Sav oak barrels and letting wild cherries ferment which makes this a complex beast of greatness. It was a perfect beer to follow the big bitterness of Unhuman a huge sour start hits you in the face like a Tyson punch but subsides as a your tongue get twisted into submission and then there it is a the finish a fruity blend of sour perfection.
We followed it with a few other beers but as they are a common as pig shit on a farm so I wont bore you with the details.
As most of you have heard my relationship with Friends of Ham has ended and we have both moved on them without me and me to a newish bar on the outskirts of the famous Roundhay Park. Stew and Oyster Oakwood have welcomed me with open arms and I intend to attempt to fill the necks of the people of Oakwood with what I would call some of the best beer in the world BRITISH BEER with some of my homegrown favourites in the states. We will concentrate on beers mostly from Gods' Country for own cask arrangement and with 2 rotating guest kegs we will have our fill of British, American, Norwegian, New Zealand, and Australian beer for months to come. We will also be doing events as I want the locals to embrace us as for lack of a better term their local. I do hope some of you will make the trek to come see me as you visit the park and such but enough self promoting on to big and better things.
I don't know if all of you have heard but my buddy Leigh Linley has written a book with his home county in mind and focused on some of the best breweries the country has to offer. This book was covered in secrecy for a good long while but now its out and I think you owe it to yourself to go out and buy a copy as you will be helping out a good friend and learning a little something about some of the better breweries in the country. The official Launch is being held at The York Tap on May 30th as he has brewed a beer with Ilkley knowing Leigh it will be an easy drinking summer beer with some sort of twist. I have some how got a hold of a keg for Stew and Oyster and we will hopefully being doing an event as well so keep your peepers peeled on twitter. (You know he comes from Oakwood)
Well in closing the beer world lost one helluva a guy last week in the form of Simon Johnson and the beer world held a tribute in his honour on Saturday by tweeting pictures of themselves or a glass of Orval and followed by the hashtag RIPSCOOP. As I only had brief conversations with him on Twitter with both of us threatening to come invade each others towns to have a good ole fashioned piss up, but even though our tweets were brief I could tell he was one decent human being and everything that is right or needs to be right with our beery community so to you sir:
