Finally

After ringing up the various Wetherspoons pubs of Newcastle, re-ringing them up and trailing round them all on a Saturday night we finally found some Mordue Red Rye Riwaka on cask. The honour goes to the Job Bulman of Gosforth after a tip off from the boss man Gary Fawson. Mind going straight from work I got a few odd looks walking in to the pub half wet covered in malt dust and yeast stains but it had to be done if I was to get it before the festival ended.
It seems as though the approach of rotating all the listed beers randomly has been taken instead of the traditional 'put everything on at once' approach. This is probably more practical for the pubs involved but not ideal for your average beer geek excited about trying certain beers. But during my time hunting the elusive Riwaka some interesting beers were found. For a start Bell's Kalamazoon Black Silk was pretty unique, like a cross between a dark mild, an Oatmeal stout and a chocolate milkshake. Moorhouse's Pendle Porter showed the weird effect of using Green Bullet hops in porter and St Peter's Golden ale was straight forward and delicious.

As for the Red Rye Riwaka I found the thai spice, leafy hops and red fruit notes a little more dominant and the body a little less smooth than the sample I had tried previously from the Free Trade Inn, Newcastle (a non wetherspoons pub that took on one of the left over Riwaka casks). Overall I was quite pleased. Sadly I didn't get to try many more and soon enough it will be time to say goodbye to Red Rye Riwaka and hello to the few more projects at Mordue I have up my sleeve. But I won't mention that just yet.