Emily

The 80-litre trial brew plant is a relatively new addition to the Daleside kit, invented by former brewer Matt Bloomer. Although quite basic it's still more impressive and easier to use than my former 20-litre home brew kit.

This time round I would be brewing an experimental brew that might make the upscale or might be just for the hell of it. It will be featured at Harrogate Beer Festival 2020 March 6th - 7th.

Emily is a dry-hopped apricot Saison at 5.5% brewed with Galaxy and Cascade hops and an apricot puree. The abv would have been a bit lower if it weren't for underestimation of the aggressive nature of saison yeasts.

Late hops going in 

The fermentation temperature on this was let go a little as with many traditional Belgian ales though didn't go past 26 °C.

The name Emily bears no specific reference to anything although I did know someone called Emily at Uni and she was from Yorkshire but the name was more to do with it being one my favourite girls names.

On tasting Emily is dry and boozy with up front tropical banana and fleshy apricot going on. There's some spicy phenolics and hot alcohols underpinning it that the fruit partly masks but I'm hoping they age out. Overall I was quite pleased with Emily, she had some rough edges but I do look forward to trying her from the cask at Harrogate Beer festival.

On the Dray

Scenic views en route to Danby

In recent times due to the absence of certain staff it has fallen upon me to play the honorable roll of dray man. This has involved ventures out to far away lands such as Cramlington, Sunderland, Hartlepool, Darlington, Richmond, Boroughbridge, Whixley, Knaresborough and even the Toon.

In the drop zone

With it being about eight years since I was let loose in a van it was good to re-visit the basics. So after the sat nav's landed you within a 50 yard radius of the pub its time to exit the vehicle to find the actual pub then work out where to actually put the beer. Planning a dray run seems easy, until you factor in certain venues opening/closing at certain times. Then rush hour traffic and the van's weight limits.

Saying goodbye: the cellar is the beers' final destination

The dray man can be the eyes and ears of the brewery concerning direct customer relations. You also get to develop skills at manoeuvreing casks around tight cellars whilst routing out empties. I've often thought the roll would be great portrayed in a video game in the style of Grand Theft Auto (North Yorkshire). Virtual Dray Man 3: 'Drop Zone 2020' would feature variable Dray men first character options (as well as unlockable bonus dray men past and present). It would cover various theatres of distribution including South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Tyneside, Darlington, Ripon and many more where you can gain points for collecting empties and not getting caught in the bus lane. The idea might need more work before before going to major game producers.

Key Lime Wheat

Key Lime Wheat is key lime pie influenced wheat beer featuring lime zest, oats and lactose. The first Daleside new release of 2020 it's a soft, sessionable, American style wheat with citric notes at 3.8%.

Lime zest 

As it happens Key Lime Wheat started its life in the 80 litre trial kit as I has never brewed one before. The inspiration came from desserts. Key Lime Pie is one of the greatest desserts on Earth alongside Sticky Toffee Pudding, Banoffee Pie, Baklava and obviously the cheese board.

Hops going in. Took some concentration to get this pic holding the phone in the other hand.

An entertaining brew day. Some judgement was required in the upscaling of ingredients. Often it's found X grams of ingredient Y for a 20 to 80 litre trial brew, when it's then multiplied up by so many thousand litres (for the commercial kit) gives an over the top number. Nonetheless I'm pleased with this one. Having ventured into brewing territory I don't usually enter I found this to have a better drinkability than I originally thought for a speciality beer.

Yorkshire Christmas

Morocco Ale is a beautiful way to sink into Christmas eve. Like liquid ginger cake in a glass it is a 5.5%, rich russet amber and arguably one of the most festive beers in the world, that isn't a seasonally released beer. Aside from timeless classics, Christmas eve in this household is traditionally the night for cheese. This year it would be mostly Yorkshire cheeses and the headline beer for the cheeseboard job was Sam Smith's Yorkshire Stingo. A big boozy 8% heavy weight with lots of dried fruit and subtle oak, it did a fair job as an all round cheese board complement.

 A bigger highlight was the pairing of Daleside Blonde with traditional Wensleydale. Floral citrus top notes and subtle carbonation lift into it beautifully whilst the smooth malt backbone finds an intricate union with Wensleydale's mild creaminess. By far the best beer match for Wensleydale I have ever come across in its cask-conditioned form. Another local offering, Harrogate Blue, is a bold creamy rich blue cheese and a great pairing for Daleside Monkey Wrench with its big boozy caramel malts that just wrap around it. Doesn't that sound beautiful? Actually I'll answer that question, it would be very beautiful.

That aside Christmas day as usual was wrapping paper carnage everywhere. Again this year we had some good presents. Susie got her keyboard and Harvey got his Bat-bot and Black Panther costume. Thus meaning he now has virtually every super hero costume in the book. Except maybe Ant Man, Burnt Face Man and Ben Stokes. I got a gun that fires bottle caps.

Durham Etienne Brut IPA is a great pre-Christmas dinner appetiser. It's dry and quaffable for its 6% abv and all peaches and pears. A really lovely beer with some Belgian influence though not as aggressively hoppy as some takes on the style. Admittedly I did vow to drink Santa's Progress with Christmas dinner this year but went with Daleside Greengrass Old Rogue Ale instead. In my recollection of beer blogging, the subject of pairing beer with Christmas dinner has never really been pinned down. It's not worth overthinking.

Black Panther, in pajamas

Overall our first Christmas in Harrogate went rather well. Unlike the old days when Christmas was more an extended celebration of Belgian strong ales served in elaborate glassware followed by passing out in front of Wallace and Gromit. This year was a great family experience, which also featured beer.

Santa's Progress

Alas the winter season is upon us once again. Here at Daleside we've been brewing our long-running Christmas seasonal Santa's Progress in significant volumes for departure across the nation. Like the name suggests Santa's Progress is brewed with Progress hops-  an English variety that come across like a fuggles but with more roundness. It's a rich, golden, 4.2% ale featuring herbal blackcurrant over fruity malt. It's an old school Christmas seasonal demonstrating beauty in simplicity so to speak, and is a joy to brew.

Multiple stainless steel bundles of joy departing for the customer

I have reviewed and discussed Christmas beers multiple times before on Rob's Beer Quest. There doesn't seem to be any rules on what counts as a Christmas beer. Santa's Progress was the first I had the privilege of brewing at a commercial level. At 4.2% it was quite different from the 7-8% Belgian style spiced seasonals I used to brew on the old home brew kit.

Progress hops

I always found Daleside brewery has a different ambiance in the winter. For a start its a trifle bit cold. But our friends the yeast still ferment away lovingly nurtured by added heating. Then on the upside the cooling works that tad bit quicker.

The yeast head blossoms like a beautiful flower at day one in the fermenter. 

But overall there's been a lot to think about this Christmas. Our January seasonal Key-lime Wheat has been brewed on the trial kit and made a pre-debut at the Disappearing Chin in Harrogate. It's also the time to get out and party hard (or just go out drinking). Then there's all the present to sort then wrap. With the bairns getting older the expectations are higher. They know Santa pays up so the pressure is on... On Santa that is. I'm sure it'll be a blast. But to revive tradition this year I will be hoping to get hold of a mini-cask of sort of the old Santa's Progress to pound pints throughout Christmas day festivities.