The Hop Knocker, Durham.

Durham is generally considered to be a splendid place and one of the more sophisticated areas of the North East. It has a Cathedral a castle, the scenic riverside and some good pubs. 

I also happens to be near where my other half the lovely Susan has recently moved to. So to help keep me occupied for a Saturday afternoon I was gifted a visit to Durhams first independent specialist beer shop and micro pub; The Hop Knocker.

A little outside of the city centre The Hop Knocker is indeed a haven for beer fans. Inside one is greeted with a range of keg fonts accompanied by one hand pulled ale. A diverse range of cans and bottles in the fridges are available to take home and there is also a range of specialist beer glassware.   

On the inside The Hop Knocker experience has many qualities I like. It's quiet, intimate, friendly and focused on a diverse range of quality beers. So while the lovely Susan took her daughter to get her nails done next door I decided to sample some of the beers on offer.  

The beer fridge

Toxcitracy 4.4% from Nottingham based Black Iris brewery is a very soft rounded modern pale ale. As many Citra hopped beers come mango and citrus notes are at the fore. Bitterness is minimal but it's not cloudy. I also got to try El Topo 7.2% from Wylam Brewery. A Mexican oatmeal stout brewed with smoked chipotle chillies, raw cocoa, cinnamon and lime zest. It's certainly worth a try, full of spice and boozy top notes. Caramelised cherry, fruitcake. Cinnamon and oily pistachio. As with many speciality beers it's a bit of a mind bender yet at the same time I would say it's good enough to seek out again if given the chance. 

Glassware.

After leaving with a modest selection of beers it was time to say goodbye to The Hop Knocker and Durham. A splendid way to spend a Saturday afternoon indeed, with thanks going to the lovely Susan for treating me out.  

Sud's With Buds 2025

 

Earlier this month was the third ever annual Suds with Buds at Rooster's Brewery. As mentioned previously, Suds with Buds essentially involves the conversion of the entire brewery, taproom and beer garden into a giant festival of beer, live music and street food.

This year, in the honourable role of wrist band applicator, I got to bear witness  to over 700 beer fans filling the premises. These including many familiar faces from beer fans, workmates and other brewing industry folk.  

The weather stayed decent enough despite the odd shower and the street food was on splendid form featuring various options from Greek and Jamaican cuisine to fully roasted chickens.   

Eventually, after the public had departed the event came the long anticipated finale; The free bar for staff afterwards. Which is also a great time for having a bit of a social with the other breweries. 

Thankfully, despite a great number of taps running dry throughout the day a pretty diverse array of beers were still available. Firstly up, the excellent (but apparently limited edition) cask offering of Fell Brewery Meadowsweet Farmhouse Pale 4.2%. Funky and floral with crisp, light drinkability and boozy vanilla pear and apricot. Next along the line was Tinderbox West Coast IPA 6.3% with lots of dank pithy citrus and a big weighty mouthfeel. Heavy going cask ale that made me think it would be better on keg.

Moving on to Round Corner Zorro 4.4%, a Mexican style lager that's super light, zesty and dry with a kick of lime in the finish. Abbeydale Coconut Macaroon Stout 5.4%was a keg offering that manages to excellently balance the elements of rich and toasty with clean drinkable refined flavours. Coconut, liquorice and macaroon throughout. I only just discovered Abbeydale beers properly this year. Not just great beers but their team are good to chat along with. Another great keg offering was Lost and Grounded Cruise Wear NZ Pale 4.2% with beautifully balanced refreshing gooseberry, citrus and sherbert.    

Moving on to the heavy hitters Yeasty Boys Wylam collab WxY6 Southern Hemisphere IPA 7% was a very cloudy, heavy bodied IPA loaded with bold, sweet NZ hop flavours. Perhaps a bit too cloudy for my liking but Utopian Brewing Regenerator Doppelbock 7.5% was another class offering. Pouring deep russet in the glass, bready caramelised malt and boozy plumb and prune notes dominate. Quite refined for a Doppelbock.  

Without the stamina to continue this brought a close to Suds with Buds 2025 for me. In summery, not just a class showcase of beer for all but a great day out with plenty to keep everyone entertained.   

Over one year gone.

It has gone incredibly fast, but this spring marked the one year anniversary of moving to the Hornbeam park site. Since it's inception the Rooster's takeover has been nothing short of a roller coaster of change. From what began as two breweries trying to operate under the same roof using the same kit eventually merged into two brands, one brewery. 

Monkey Wrench lauter tun wort re-circulation. 

 You see at Rooster's there's been a party going down, a party hosted by growth, conquest and expansion. From the constant stream of new beers (and the revival of old ones) to new vessels, new staff, and new branding. The Rooster's-Daleside empire has been on the rampage. 

Hazy Faced Assassin expands the 'Assassin' range further in may 2025.

To say things have been busy is a bit of an understatement. Spring in particular was extremely busy, but then again spring is the busiest time of year in brewing. Something that is often overlooked is just how busy spring can be. The combination of bank holidays, outside events, beer festivals and national orders mixed with a bit of sun can make for a very chaotic time of year.

Whole hops being loaded into the hop back.

 That aside life in the modern independent brewing scene is a very different world to the one of traditional cask ale brewing I entered into straight out of university all those years ago. Over the last year I have learned a lot more about packaging beer in house post filtration. Different approaches to hopping schedules and how process control is managed on larger scale brewing operations. I also now know what a collaborative brew actually involves plus the different variations of it dependant on how much each participating party can be arsed.

The Great Exhibition of Prize Ales, Kirkstall Brewery.

Being closer to the independent brewing community as a whole has been another part of the parcel of moving to Rooster's. Collab's, festivals and visitors in general. I have met more people, and got more insights from across the brewing industry than ever before. It's kind of like when your in with the cool kids at school. Everyone want's to hang with the cool kids. Whereas on the old site we were more akin to the fat kid with glasses on. He's in the chess club, wears two stripe gear and has a Thomas the Tank Engine lunch box (even after everyone else has moved on to Power Rangers or Ninja Turtles). You know the type. 

Batavia (aka Operation Black Phoenix Thunder) showcased alongside Roosters Yorkshires Best 3.8%. Wild Wild Life 2025 and London Thunder at The Great Exhibition of Prize Ales, Kirkstall Brewery.

But the thing I have loved most about moving to Rooster's is being part a fully functioning team of passionate, committed professionals. This is a very different status quo to the 'being the team' or getting by with what resources are available scenarios of the past. Where finding the level of process control and work-life balance you wanted was rarely achievable. Putting that old world in the past has been a very positive step.  

  

Operation Black Phoenix Thunder

Although originally intended as a beer name, Operation Black Phoenix Thunder could be more widely referred to as a collaborative project; to put forth a one off exclusive brew of imperial/export porter or stout specifically for The Great Exhibition of Prize ales at Kirkstall Brewery. The single cask in existence is to be sent alongside other regular and seasonal beers for the festival on may the 2nd. 

But sadly, despite the original beer name for our imperial Porter gaining some popularity, a rethink from more authoritative figures resulted in the more sensible (but in my opinion not as good) name; Batavia to be chosen.

A collaborative brew between myself and Rooster's own master of the stock, brother priest of the yeast Jamie; Operation Black Phoenix Thunder required the use of the 100 litre trial kit for a project that was both fun and challenging in equal measure.

 

Recirculating wort in the mash tun prior to runoff.

Brewing on a very small scale, from my experience has always been way more fickle compared to brewing on a full scale commercial brew kit. So Operation Black Phoenix Thunder from the start was more about getting the basics right. 

Wort runoff from mash tun to kettle. 

After I designed and assembled the grist for the export Porter Jamie's skills and experience on the small brew kit ensured the brew day went fluently. Jamie has used the trial kit many times and frequently brews on the Roosters 10 barrel kit, showcasing his impressive ability to get inside and clean out the smaller sized vessels despite being the fattest member of the production team.  

Whole leaf WGV hops enter the boil.

After various back and fourth estimations on what the extract efficiency might be, and whether or not extended boil times or sugars would be needed; the wort produced on the day fermented out very nicely to a whopping 7.8% abv. 

Transferring to cask.

The resultant Porter was very smooth, chocolatey and impressively refined for it's big abv, with plenty of weight of body behind it (much like Jamie). I will be looking forward to hopefully trying this one at the Heritage beer festival this weekend.   

Back up north for the 47th Newcastle Beer Festival.

Newcastle beer festival is an event on the calendar that is rarely missed. Back in my younger years it was the first beer festival I ever went to and I distinctly remember being near the front of the que to get in on day one. These days I'm just grateful to make it and get the glass. 

For me Newcastle beer festival is still one of best beer festivals around. The banter is always class, it has the usual live music and small array of quirky stalls selling other stuff and then their's the nostalgia factor of seeing all the old brewers like Allendale, Cullercoats and Northern Alchemy that I got to know from way back when. More importantly they do a pretty good job at picking a diverse line up of beers and this years 47th Newcastle beer festival was no different.

 With a hit list too big to cover in the one day. This years starting point would be none other than this years Battle of the beers (Best Bitter category) winner; Hadrian and Border Things Can Only Get Bitter ESB at 4.5% which had a very pleasant balance of floral hops and caramelised malt with nuances of forest fruit. 

As opposed to having one overall winner (like in the competitions earlier days) battle of the beers is now awarded over two categories/beer styles by two different brewers. This was a rule brought in to hinder the probability of a single brewery winning overall champion year on year and making the outcome too predictable (smiling right now). 

 The other category (Chocolate ale) was won by Thirsty Moose Cocoa Swirl 4.2% which was worth a try but wasn't really my kind of thing. Then again I have rarely been a fan of the chocolate stout/porter formula.  

The rest of the day went splendidly, featuring an impressive array of beers including Durham Brewery 13 Heavens 4.3% which was very light and clean with fruity tropical notes to the fore. The Glasgow based Simple Things Peated Brown ale (5.5%) was big and smooth with lots of peaty, toffee, fruity wholesomeness and Allendale's new collaboration IPA with US based Suncreek; Sun Squishy IPA 6% was very grapefruit forward and uncompromising. 

The Newcastle university student ran Stu Brew have been know for some pretty adventurous beers over the years. Panic Masters, a 4.5% pale/speciality ale fermented with Kveik yeast and dry hopped with Ahtanum and Loral hops was certainly worth a try. It has an interesting profile of sweet fruity-floral then dry sherbert going on and to me it would probably be better on keg. In a similar fashion Northern Alchemy Nothing to be feared 4.3% Nettle tea ale was another peculiar number. The words; botanical, sweet, vegital and musty come to mind, very alternative but certainly pleasant. 

 

One of my favourite beers of the festival was Vaux Charles Street Brown 4.6%. A characterful US hop driven American Brown ale. Lot's of hop pine, caramel malts and a dry roasted malt finish. This was a class beer but the beer of festival for me was from the upstairs keg bar; Otherworld Rosy at 7%, A multi-faceted barrel aged fruited sour beer. Think the lightness of fresh cherryade meeting serious deep bourbon like oaky notes. Drinkability meets depth and class.

It was good that the majority of beers were still available despite it being day three. But sadly this year no Daleside or Rooster's beers were on offer. None the less that pretty much sums up the highlight of this years Newcastle beer fest. Although I didn't manage to catch up with as many old faces as I would have liked, or got to try all the beers on the most wanted list, it was a class day overall.