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That's right, more SIBA awards. This time for Mordue IPA taking bronze in category and Panda Frog Pandazilla taking silver. For this I am immensely proud. And it was good going for those folks at Cullercoats Brewery with a silver from Jack the Devil. With all due respect, their brewing style is their own and together we did the region proud.

Shamone!

Panda Frog round three; Black (H)-Ops

Behold the dark side of the frog, bringer of chaos and destruction

It's easy to get carried away with these themed brews. You wake up in the morning and loading up the toaster is like slotting in a 7.62mm bullet belt to a GPMG. Starting up the car is like firing up the rotors to your Apache attack helicopter, ready to cain your enemy's ass with hellfire missiles and 20mm cannon fire.

Anyway. The third installment of the Panda Frog series, Black (H)-Ops is a 4.9% (almost) black lager brewed with German and New Zealand hops. The brew day was an exciting experience, a new yeast strain and exotic hop varieties never used before at the brewery. Overall I'm fond of the hop forward forest fruit nuanced brew and can't wait to get it in key keg. Only a select few have tried it to date so any feedback is appreciated. Check it out soon.

Lubelski

Busy times at Mordue Brewery recently, busy times indeed.

Some will remember last years Red Rye Riwaka. Well this year were on the Polish hops, or should we say mostly Polish hops. Lubelski (4.5%) is a blonde ale brewed with a frenzy of Euro hops and early tasting are pleasantly fruity. The hop variety Lubelski itself is a peculiar Polish version of Saaz with a touch of Bobek like sweetness, a pleasent noble hop. So look out for this one at your local Wetherspoons this october.

Old Dairy Brewery Fresh Hop

Lovely place is Kent, don't really see enough of it.

The county hosts a scenic landscape of hop fields, oast houses, southerner folk, gardens and stuff like that. It's also the brewing place of my former Heriot Watt homie Edd Wray, who for this particular brew drove his bald ass down to the local hop farm and back on the brew day to collect the hops for this brew. I myself have never brewed a fresh hop beer but have tried a few from the US. So on receiving this 4% bottle conditioned offering I decided to go straight for the opener with no waiting to let it settle.

The aroma wasn't quite what I expected, kind of grassy wet earth with subtle sweet stone fruit, not like sticking your head into a fresh bag of fuggles. Some nice flavours here though, lots of leafy grassy hops seem to dominate over a slightly sweet malt centre of subtle summer fruits before it kicks into the familiar raspy peppery, leafy bitter prickle of English hops. The fresh hop presence makes itself known with a damp and plush sort of feel.

Overall an interesting drinking experience, a straight forward session bitter played in a different key. To hunt this one down you'll need to head over to the Kent Green Hop Beer Fortnight in Canterbury which takes place from 28th September till October 12th.

Alnwick Beer Festival 2012

It's that time of year again. The Alnwick Beer Festival has always been a highlight of the year for me. Every year The Alnwick Round Table make it slightly different and last year's Scottish beer theme was changed to a new brewery theme, celebrating the large range of new existing (and one non-existing) breweries springing up and around the region. Sadly this meant they would be cutting back on the old timers. No Durham beers this year, no Big Lamp and no Mordue. Those who remember last year's festival may recall Mordue Northumbrian Blonde selling out first, which lefrt me a little confused as to why it wasn't chosen this year.

But none the less a good set of beers was put forward, with the likes of Anarchy, Tyne Bank, Cullercoats and Coquetdale out in force. It was time to hunt out some new beers but for me Cullercoats' Jack the Devil is a beer that needs a second try to fully appreciate. Dark, lots of tart berry fruit with a kind of rugged traditional feel about it. Tyne Bank's Southern Star was juicy, with an aromatic New Zealand hop influence and Black Moss by High House Farm was pleasantly chocolatey and malt forward. There were plenty of old reliables to complement the new beers. Wylam Bitter, Jarrow Bitter, Auld Hemp and Allendale Wolf are all good to fall back on but for hop head beer geek types Wylam's vibrant single hopped Chinook was the most assertively hop forward beer in the building.

Baby Susie, first beer festival at 4 weeks old

Anarchy brewing Blonde Star was the first beer to sell out mid afternoon Saturday, and through it all the Alnwick Food Festival was up and running outside featuring bottled beers brought to you by Allendale Brewery and 3 Wise Monkeys. Like last year there were plenty of cheeses, pies, cup cakes, sauces and plenty of other local produce available plus an awesome range of teas available from festival newcomers Bari Tea. There was even some bread made with Mordue Geordie Pride (finding out that sold out quick was a kind of consolation prize) from Dough Works.

One of my favourite stalls, Allendale brewery brought a range of bottled beers

So all in all similar to most years the whole beer fest/food fest thing was about good beer, good company, familiar faces and the odd pie or two. A good show all round.