So Sunday started with a bang with it being the day we celebrated the one year mark of the birth of my daughter and her christening. We had loads of people show up and I cant really afford to supply everyone with craft beer so I bought one of the only over produced lager I could stomach and that was 1664 while a certain beer blogger brought some San Miguel. This was a day I wasn't looking to be a beery snob I was just there to enjoy family and friends and to celebrate the day my life changed for the better.
That was until Mr Dean showed up with a plastic bag full of Beer Ritz gold. I didn't want to steal any of his beer but there was a simple but yet fantastic looking box in there so I got curious and pulled it out. It was a nice black box with three different breweries on it and a bunch of not so positive reviews, the bottle in question was Black Tokyo Horizon by the lovely guys from Brewdog, Mikkeller, and Nøgne Ø.
Now I like most of you reading this was going to somehow someway get my hands on this beer just to give it a go and see what these 3 brewhouses could do with a little collaboration. The reviews as I said above have not been great but I personally and the 3 guys sharing the bottle seemed to agree it could be due to the fact that 4 of us shared the bottle and only had about 2 and a half mouthfuls a piece but I personally enjoyed it. Black Tokyo Horizon seemed to be just Tokyo on steroids and I personally love Tokyo I haven't had the pleasure of trying the other 2 brews that inspired this one but the couple of mouthfuls I had I really enjoyed, it made me think of food like a good steak marinated over night and grilled to a perfect medium rare with a baked potato and a bottle of Punk. After all that goodness was done and with the party drawing to a close everyone was gone and we cleaned up. Thank you to Dean from Foleys and Leigh from
LeighGoodStuff for coming and celebrating that perfect rainy English day with us.
Off we went back home and off to the local shop to pick up some more beer which was a challenge, what could I possibly pick up from the local shop that would show my Dad what England had to offer so I picked up some classics. We picked up some Theakstons Old Peculiar, Triple XB Batemans, some Abbot Ale and 3 or 4 bottles of Guinness but not the black oil as you would think I could find in the local shop but some Foreign Extra Guinness and at a bargain as well £1.55. Sadly after we got back to the house after an exciting day we all crashed after our first Guinness and saved the rest for some other day.
Monday morning came and what else are you going to do on your holiday but open a beer at 11:40 in the morning. My dad enjoyed his Abbot Ale while I took it slow and had a bottle of Darkstar Expresso and we sat in the back garden enjoying the sunshine and planned our day. We knew we had to get some meat from my wife's requested BBQ on Tuesday so we made the plans to bring the family into the market and we to Mr Meats and picked up 3 racks of ribs and a Boston Butt which is the front shoulder if the pig. Picked all that up for a reasonable 40 pounds and went for a lunch at nando's and we all made fun of the beer selection and went home.
Monday evening was another kettle of fish indeed while we started with a couple of pints of Ridgeside Pale at The Hop where I saw a strange thing an extra cold cask of Yorkshire Blonde more on that another time and a couple of pints of Black Sheep Riggwelter at a unnamed bar because my experience there was awful. A short walk later we went to a pub Ive heard of but never been to hidden under the high rises just passed the dark arches The Grove Inn. We sat in one of the back rooms and enjoyed a couple of pints of Kirkstall's Black Band Porter talked some trash about American Football and my father and I both agreed we very much enjoyed this pub and the feel of it.
Off to The Adelphi after that to end our night where again we enjoyed some fine beers and some not so fine ales. Two pints of Brooklyn Lager that were indeed quite tasty but didn't sit right for whatever reason but hell they had a beer garden of sorts and we were allowed to smoke cigars and talk a little more trash about anything and everything in particular. We ended the night with a couple of pints of Leeds Best and some unnamed Lager that wont be sad in this blog post. So that's Sunday and Monday Tuesday didn't hold to much because of the massive hangover but Wednesday was another story and will be told on another day. Here is a hint for whats coming...................
The evening started tame enough with a couple pints of Magic Rock's High Wire which hell was a fantastic start to the evening. I have always liked this beer ever since it graced the taps at Foleys I think I tried this brew before any of the others and it is by far my favourite Magic Rock Brew. Then the fun started we noticed the board I decided it was time to loosen up and try something a bit out of my comfort zone we tried a third of Thornbridge's Dry Hopped Barley Wine 9.4% which was in one word fantastic. Now I'm not normally into my Barley Wine's mostly because it has the word wine in it but damn if this beer didn't change the mind of this stubborn beer drinker. It had a silky smooth flavour that lasted just enough time to tempt you to drink faster and so I did and picked another brew from the endless list at The Grove. So scanning the board again we decided on another third because I just didn't want to get that drunk knowing that the parents were wanting to have a couple more beers when we got back to Leeds. As we were sipping on 
a Gadds/ Revelation Cat Back to Basic Pacific Double IPA 9.0% ( man that was a mindful to try to remember.) I know this was a good brew but sadly I cant really comment on it because I just don't remember the flavours but it was h
oppy and it was tasty so if you see it DRINK IT. As we were drinking that beer a couple of bottles were being passed around the table which included Fathomless an oyster stout made with actual oysters from Red Willow Brewery now even Toby the mind behind the brew said it was just freshly bottled but in my honest opinion it was dark sweet and a damn fine stout and I for one am counting the days till it hits the pumps at the regular haunts in Leeds. Next was yet again another third but this time of a brewery I have never ever heard of Temptest Brewing Co with their Brave New World IPA 7.0% which was again another hoptastic beer that made me wish I had more time and more money to drink a couple of halves of this beauty. I must say thanks to Brian for persuading me to give this brew a go because if it wasn't for that I wouldn't have even given this beer a second look. So after we polished these down my dad wanted to try a Pilsner so given the company we were in I suggested an Avery/Brown/Dredge from Brewdog and well like most of us he enjoyed the hell out of it and asked that I send him some in the beer trade we will be doing in the coming weeks. So from my Dad Mr. Avery you guys did a hell of a job on the beer and it tasted great (his words not mine.) We also bought a big bottle of Stone Imperial Russian Stout and shared it out with the people that were left. So we savoured our moment in the grove shook the hands of everyone that left and a special thank you to Toby for leaving my dad and mom a bottle of Fathomless to bring home and show people in South Carolina that craft beer is alive and well in England and its not all stupid pump clips with silly names. To finish out our night at the grove we shared a half of Beer Here Dark Hops 8.5% which was kind of like a Black IPA but it most regards it wasn't. 
While on the train back to Leeds we talked about Tetley's Brewery with Dean and trashed the fact that its closed down to possibly make way for an art exhibit I mean its cool if you like that kind of thing but its been such a staple in our fair town it would just be a shame to use the building as anything else but to brew beer. Off we went to Mr Foleys for our second trip to the goodness that is this bar to sample so more Red Willow Brews this time it was Smokeless which I think is one of the better porters on the scene at the moment it just goes down so smooth and is another beer that makes me think of food. A good chili with this a half of this poured in and the other half for personal consumption it would make the chili a bit smokey but I think it would complement the spiciness of my chili just perfectly. To end the evening we decided on three different beers and a couple of measures of whisky. The beers in question were Brewdog's Hardcore IPA 9.2%, Odell Brewery St Lupulin 6.5%, and a bottle of Red Willow Ageless 7.2% The whisky we all enjoyed was an Auchentoschan 3 Wood which smokey fruit flavour went down a treat as we retreated to the taxi waiting outside and went home. All in all the night was a great success and I'm already looking forward to trying to put another night together very very soon.
