#OPENit........

                                                                       






Now this isn't going to be a traditional blog post there will be no pictures, the pictures of that night only deserve to stay in my drunken stupor of good food and even better beer, but what i will share with you are my thoughts and hope that my words will bring you on the journey that the group of us went through for #openit. When the idea was thrown out on twitter by @rickfurzer about getting together with a group of beer like minded people over some food I was all over it almost confirming my spot automatically. Over the next few week I probably confirmed then rejected then wavered and finally pretty much got told I was going by the man in question so needless to say my journey to the dinner was filled with smooth patches and many bumps along the way. I even had to go see the fine people at the grove to hopefully find some treasures lurking deep in their vast cellar so I could at least so my face to the dinner with some dignity. Finally I was able to locate a couple of bottles of beer that I hoped wouldn't get sneered at and laughed at by the group of vast geeky type people that I was wanted to make a good first impression on so that I could be invited to yet another function. The menu went like this:

1. Potted duck, toasted rye bread, rhubarb and vanilla compote
2. Smoked haddock fritter, tarragon mayonnaise, watercress
3. Crispy pork belly, black pudding, celeriac and mustard salad
4. Chargrilled skirt steak, celeriac puree, shallot and red wine butter, crispy mushroom
5. Chargrilled bananas in rum with toasted marshmallows and white chocolate ice cream
6. Cheese board: Smoked Ribblesdale (goat), Old Yorke (ewe), Wold Blimey (blue), Coverdale (hard), Inglewhite, Blackstick Blue, Stinking Bishop (washed rind)

All washed down with some fantastic stonking like beers first course we had Lambics to match the savoriness of the duck, beers included were a couple of Goose Island and and Upright Brewery beer that I had never heard of brought by Zak Avery.
Second course we popped the corks and tops of a couple of real good saisons that complemented the fritter almost perfectly. Saison and fish go very well together that a friend of mine just proved in his blog @leighgoodstuff with the Summer Wine Lime and Coriander Saison.
Third was a succulent pork course that was paired with  some massive tasting beers that didn't drown the flavour of the pork a big bottle brought by @misterfrosty a Mikkeller Stella 1 stole the show and did not disappoint.
Fourth course was a perfectly cooked piece of skirt steak which seems to be becoming a very popular cut of meat over here which is fantastic because the amount of flavour you can suck up with this cut of meat is surprisingly fantastic, so up came the big bad ass barley wines.
The dessert course was by far the one that surprised me the most because of the beer that was provided, now I have never had the privilege of sampling the Bourbon County Vanilla (shame I know) is was immense dark and absolutely wonderful couldn't have asked for a better beer to go with a recipe my wife makes quite often.
Finally came the cheese boards I am in the minority in the cheese category because and I agree it goes well with beer I just don't like that many cheeses I think I need to open my pallet to different types so I'm not closing the door on the idea of beer and cheese I just don't have the experience to put my words to paper. The highlight of the cheese boards for me were not one but two beers the first being a Firestone Walker 14th anny and the unreleased Kopi Kat brewed by the guys at Summer Wine Brewery, Rick himself and the man with the tache @Danielvane which is going to be released in 2 versions one coming soon and another being launch down south sometime soonish.

The craziness continued with a small walk down to Mr. Foleys and the beer there just got stupid but once again I'm sorry but I'm keeping most of these to myself unless you were following my tweets the night of then you already know but the star of the show was a beer brewed 83 years ago which wasn't great but wasn't bad it was still drinkable and no one got sick.

A big thank you goes to Create restaurant that helped put the menu together and the chef was on top of his game the entire night not one complaint was made when the food got put in front of us.
The guest list included
Rick Furzer- @rickfurzer
Paul Tuffnell- @tuff86
Zak Avery- @zakavery
Dean Pugh- @deanfromfoleys
Mark Fletcher- @fletchthemonkey
Andy Parker- @tabamatu
Jane- @i96jms
Gavin Frost- @misterfrosty
Daniel- @Danielvane
Andy- @SWBAndy
Ben Hodgkinson- @cptcheerful

other joined us at Mr Foleys with their own range of beers Rob @BGRTRob from Hopzine, the man behind the cloth @Ghostdrinker, @tunks86, and the one and only @juffage.


Thanks for making it a very enjoyable time and I hope to do it with all of you again. Until next time guys hope its sooner rather than later.

Yet another trip to the ye ole Grove Pub in Huddersfield.

I fought with feelings last Saturday about going to hang out with David, Gary, and Ben also known as @boodrums. I tried to get everyone that wasn't on the #twissup journey to come and join in the fun but sadly everyone was either there or had plans doing something else. So I took the painful journey on the train to get what I consider one of the best pubs Ive ever been too. Walked through the crazy lonely tunnel and finally saw my destination and walked through the doors to my first half to which I sat and drank with the gentleman that I was with. Fullers Vintage Ale 2010 which goes down a fantastic treat and makes me wish I knew what the other Vintage Ales taste like but hell Ive only been in England for 18 months so I can look forward to the future.

Next up a beer which I had no idea existed till a couple of weeks ago the Porterhouse Plain Porter which took home best stout in the world even though its a porter colour me confused but I went with it and damn it man if I didn't enjoy it even shared a bit around the table which was faithfully named Beer Tapas by the guys so hell I went with it. After I polished off the end of the bottle I reached for the dreaded bottle list and talked the table into going halves on a couple of bottles. First up was the mighty Brooklyn Brewery Sorachi Ace which is a brilliant Saison that for some reason I thought was a totally different style of beer the first time I had it. We sat we drank and we enjoyed then back to the list we went and we found Nogne O Tiger Tripel shared that and did the exact same thing we shared we enjoyed and started to think it was time to catch our train back to Leeds.

Other beers shared and enjoyed that evening were:
Kernel India Pale Ale Centennial
Rogue Mocha Porter
Schneider Weisse Tap 5
you can read more on what they drank on David's Blog but this is where my night started and almost ended in a horrible accident that almost saw the four of us catching a damned bus back to Leeds. Thanks to my lovely wife she saw through our drunken haze and directed us to Platform 8 and then called me a dumbass and said she was going to bed cant say that I argue the fact that what I was seeing and what was happening were 2 totally different things.

As we were waiting for the bus/train we popped into The KingsHead and saw a beer that I didn't think I would be seeing there a Magic Rock Brewery CuriousNZ which in my opinion was a fantastic easy drinking ale that rivals the original but I would have to do a side by side taste test just to confirm what I was thinking that night. We shared the Tap 5 on the way back to Leeds and then parted ways with Dave and Ben while they enjoyed some much needed food Gary and I decided it would be a fantastic idea to go grab yet another beer at North Bar. As soon as I walked through the door I was greeted by Big Jim with a tiny friend called Little Jim so under his supervision I enjoyed Little Jim a very nice collaboration brew between Matt and Mark at North Bar and the guys at Marble Brewing in Manchester. This was the end of my evening I went home and cleaned some bottles did some dishes ate some food and finally laid my head on my pillow and promptly took my ass to bed.

Hope you enjoyed the journey go take one yourself and remember to invite me.

 

A very interesting beery week with my parents Part GROVE INN

So Wednesday was the second most anticipated day of the trip and it started out with a bang. We started it off with a lovely walk into town to meet my fantastic wife only to catch the bus to Roundhay Park and eat at the Roundhay Fox. The beer selection there isn't that great but we decided on a pint of Leeds Pale it wasn't great but it wasn't bad either after having some horrible beers on Monday night I will take a safe bet with something that I know. After hanging out in Tropical World and getting to the house we picked up our bus passes and off to the train station we went for my very first trip to The Grove Inn in Huddersfield. Joined by a plethora of beer writers and beer geeks alike which included Rob from Hopzine, Leigh from The Good Stuff, Zak from Are You Tasting The Pith, Dean from @mrfoleys, Toby from Red Willow Brewery and everyone's favourite brew bitch Brian from the Grove. We were missing a few but I'm planning another go in November so get ready guys that missed out.


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 hoppy 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.