UK beer in the new era

I've been picking up some of Wild Beer Co's smaller batch stuff like you mention lately for keeping a while. I've always liked what I've had from the more wild/barrel aged etc 'special' side of their production, but not sure I've ever bothered with the core range.

I missed the crowdfunding fiasco though, what was the story there?

Back in the day Millionaire certainly, and to a lesser extent Bibble and Ninkasi, were probably as important as Jaipur in setting the benchmark for what the big names in the burgeoning craft beer market were capable of.

They were absolutely whoring themselves around to the macros at the beginning of 2017 saying they'd sell up if the price was right and could they please build a new brewery and taproom. When they didn't get any takers they crowdfunded over £1M to pay for it instead. Current status of the new brewery 4 years down the line is "still looking at potential sites".

These days I just drink <6% NEIPAs and sours that taste of dessert (sorry Tracer!)

If it has the letters IPA in it I'm avoiding unless there's literally nothing else. Gotta have hard rules

Anyway, currently in Bethnal Green dicing various taprooms. Boxcar isn't really calling out. Will keep browsing the map

Five Points it is. Feels like a decent call

Five points pale is a high point of the genre imo

Had a really good Best Bitter and an excellent Mild from Boxcar in the past so maybe that's where their strength lies.

https://i.ibb.co/qFn5DSF/IMG-20210627-183354.jpg

This is the one. Awesome

Isn't Mother Kelly's in Bethnal Green? That's a brilliant taproom.

I almost entirely drink IPAs these days, along with the odd blonde or pale or sour. Keeping in mind that I'd happily die before ever again drinking e.g. London Pride, Theakstons, Deuchars, Doom Bar, what are some more interesting British non IPAs that I should look out for? Non small batch preferred so I have a chance of finding it.

Attic Brew's Fig. 2 sour a genuinely complex and worthy addition to the UK hoppy sours canon

Kernel's raspberry sour once again a murderous beast, kiu

louis is the tombot of beers

is he a sour fascist too lol

two tribes have a completely acceptable range of non-hop-monster beers including a very pleasant lager and they are all available at my corner shop, the proprietors of which have decided their muslim scruples will allow them to sell alcohol after all. finally this house is starting to feel worth it. who needs crossrail.

Hey look, a different beer thread! I'm going to be in Leeds for a week at the end of the month, and my sister offered to pick up some beer for me, but I have no idea what to tell her to buy! There are more than a few pubs nearby, and some of them do carry-out, and some of them have cask ales, and some of them have good selections of craft and Belgian and etc., but it's all pretty foreign to me. Any suggestion for a good go-to to have around the house? Northern Monk x? North Brewing Co. y? I'm (way too) used to hoppy high ABV IPAs, too.

Northern Monk and North Co are both great. My two favourite northern English breweries at the moment are Vocation and Turning Point. From elsewhere, Tiny Rebel, Deya and LHG (Left Handed Giant) are both very good: we've currently got Tiny Rebel's Lush (cask) and Deya's Steady Rolling Man (keg) on tap at the pub where I work, and the latter is so popular that we've stopped swapping it out for other keg beers. (NB I work at the best pub I've ever visited in over 40 years of going to pubs, 30 minutes north of Leeds. We have six cask pumps and eight keg pumps, immaculately well kept and all sourced from independents, plus a good selection of cans in the fridge. Come and visit!)

Was in York and Newcastle a couple of weeks ago but the best UK beers I had were probably by Edinburgh's Vault City, who know their way around a fruited sour in a way that most UK breweries simply don't (i.e. full, rich flavours rather than gimmicky buzz)

Next time I'm up north I'll have to pay Knaresborough a visit...

Elusive and Burnt Mill kings of WCIPA at the moment. Verdant and Deya for NEIPA, also Black Iris are great.

Some decent core beer from North and Northern Monk but better in the specials ranges so harder to predict what you'd see. For my money Sonoma by Track is better than e.g. Sputnik/Transmission or Faith from those two.

Full Circle are my quiet tip for the best North East brewer but unsure how far out of area you can get their stuff.

Brew York have some good beers in them but are easily distracted.

SMOD might be the best in Yorks (ok S Yorks) but Neepsend and Abbeydale both worthwhile.

Torrside are banging but might be too far away.

Oh yeah I definitely had some good stuff from Verdant in the (iirc) porter/brown ale dept

Tiny Rebel got "me too'd" a few years ago and IMO their beer went right downhill afterwards. Too many gimmicks and adjuncts and not enough solid beers - I still maintain a test 1% beer I had in their Cardiff bar was the best thing they've ever made.

Actually Wylam are worth a shout although they got "me too'd" as well but seem to be riding it out.

Josh, if the pubs are on untappd then I can look at the check-ins and make recommendations.

Awesome, thanks already to everyone! I'm going to get googling. FWIW, the closest walking distance neighborhoods are ... Headingly and Meanwood? Next closest (but too far to walk, I think) are Chapel Allerton and City Centre.

I've no taste for modern beer these days but I did enjoy an hour or two in the Terminus Taproom and Bottleshop in Meanwood the other week.

We've got Verdant's Headband on tap at the moment, and their I Played Trumpet On That Tune in the fridge.

Left Handed Giant's King Of The Woodland, a 12.5% Imperial Stout, is exceptionally fantastic, and very popular while we had it on tap; given its strength, we mostly sold it in thirds and halves.

Headband is always great but I think Roy, I Want A Hilux is the best Verdant around at the moment. Haven't had the latest rebrew of fruit Car Side Exhibition but that's always a banger.

Actually, based on release dates Putty should be almost drinkable at the moment. And Allen, come to think of it.

King of the Woodland is brilliant, yes.

Josh I'm trying to parse your sitch. You're going to be in Leeds. And your sister is picking up beer for you? Does she live there?

Yes yes and yes.

This is what we’ve got on tap tonight.

Cask:
Vocation Heart & Soul Session IPA 4.4
Black Sheep Best Bitter 3.8
Turning Point Night Lapse Coffee Porter 4.8
Tiny Rebel Lush Session IPA 4.0
Roosters Buckeye Pale Session 3.5
Roosters Yankee Pale Ale 4.3

Keg:
Schneider Weisse 5.4
North Co Atlantis Pale Ale 4.1
Berliner Pilsner 5.0
Schöfferhofer Grapefruit Hefeweizen 2.5
Hogans Medium Dry Cider 4.5
Deya Steady Rolling Man 5.2
Verdant Headband Pale Ale 5.5
Deya Better Daze IPA 6.5

What are you having?

the coffee porter

See, that's a great question, because my instinct would be to gravitate toward the styles of beers that the US does really well: Pale Ale, IPA, etc. But the more interesting thing for me to get would probably be the bitter, or a cask ale (is that the same as a real ale?). Or based on your recco, the Steady Rolling Man. I'm sure the porter is great, but for some reason when I'm out I never order dark beers.

mmm cask porter sounds yummay

Yes in the UK cask ale is pretty much real ale (or "beer") (honestly) (as opposed to lager). In a pub the ale barrels are kept unrefrigerated in the basement, and the beer is pulled up to the taps by essentially a huge siphon. It can go bad in a few days, like milk.

For some reason it's blowing my mind that your sister lives in Leeds JiC! I don't know why, and I don't know why I didn't know that before.

Deya is a great brewery.

Magic Rock is in Huddersfield, which is a like a 20 minute drive away from Leeds i think.

Oh and Cloudwater in Manchester is ridiculously good if you like pale ales.

Yeah, she's a professor at University of Leeds! Been there for ... 15 years? I lose track.

Magic Rock and Cloudwater both victims in the UK craft beer wokeism wars (not fond of the term but hey it's the world we live in) - the former over their investment by Lion which sees people just shout GENOCIDE JUICE whenever they get mentioned, the latter over alleged racism towards Stacey at Rock Leopard and also from connections with serial pariah James Watt (BD made Cloudwater's supermarket line).

Anyway from Mike's list Schöfferhofer is amazing and I always have half a dozen in the beer fridge. Also that Berliner is very solid.

I'm not personally a fan of Black Sheep (well not Riggwelter, but then I'm not a fan of the beer that begat it either), but a nice cask pint is always a pleasure. The deya/verdant lineup is great.

Yeah, the one beer on our pumps that I would never, ever drink is Black Sheep. Then again, it's the only cask ale that my partner Kevin ever drinks. Just not my thing at all, but then he doesn't care much for the hoppy stuff. It's the only cask ale that we never swap out, and it has a lot of fans.

The cask pump on the far left - currently Vocation Heart & Soul - is reserved for gluten-free. Oddly, it's often my favourite pump.

I'm a massive fan of Cloudwater (I've even got the t-shirts and branded socks to prove it) - absolutely love their beers, both the plethora of TIPAs, DIPAs, IPAs, Pales & other cans and their fancier Barrel Project stuff. I hadn't heard of issues with Rock Leapard, what's the story there aldo?

Ah aldo I never knew any of that :(

Rock Leopard, I mean.

My main beef to date with Cloudwater is how unbelievably expensive it is

I was just about to post exactly this

I’m assured the prices do accurately reflect the production costs of all their wacky adjuncts but idk man

I buy directly from them and pricing seems fair for what you're getting. There are certainly cheaper breweries, but I don't think it's a huge price difference and CW quality is top notch. £8 for one of their TIPAs is money very well spent for me. Are they expensive from other retailers?

Their Pales are £4-5, IPAs £5, DIPAs £6, TIPAs around £8 and Imperial Stouts £8-9. Barrel Aged stuff is £17-18 for 750ml. That's about par for the course, no? Very similar pricing structure at say Overtone, Neon Raptor, Verdant, Pollys etc etc etc.

Howling Hops has very comparable pale ales (imo) for much less money. I’ve stanned for them before here I think and they are local to me so I may be biased but they’ll do a mixed 12-pack for just north of £40.

Their 9.5ABV stout is £6.50.

I'm a self-confessed massive Cloudwater fan, so apologies if I'm too defensive, I am genuinely interested. Just don't want to have to get my "I <3 CW" tattoo removed. Other breweries are available...