Credit for the old timer

It's come as a bit of a surprise to us Mordue folk. Our Workie Ticket seems to be getting attention around the blogging world recently, notably here, here and here. Not surprising for a former GBBF winner but surprising for a beer that's unapologetically old school and dare I say it... brown.

For me Workie Ticket has always been one of those classic beers of the region with an almost iconic status. To many it conjures up images of an industry-laden Tyneside with hordes of flat cap workers 'gannin doon the boozer'. To me the entire Workie Ticket experience, brewing and drinking, brings visions of a much younger Fawson brother slaving over a home brew kit, excitement for the new brewing venture, 1997, champion beer of Britain and traditional wood furnished country pubs serving steak and ale pie. Till now I have yet to find a beer that matches steak and ale pie better.

Bready biscuity sweet malt, almond, chocolate, underpinning late hops and that extra bit of depth. Yeah, thats Workie.

Behold; the next Panda Frog project

What is The Hoptrix? The answer is out there, and it's looking for you, and it will find you if you want it to.

That's right, following the eventual bottling of Pandazilla we finally got round to brewing the next beer of the elusive Panda Frog series. The Hoptrix is a 5.3% new-world Belgian ale that veers somewhere between Belgian blonde, Belgian pale ale and American pale ale territories (that's more or less how it's currently developing). But unfortunately, no one can be told what the Hoptrix is. You have to find it for yourself. 

We will be launching The Hoptrix in approximately two weeks (date not yet set) and if you miss that the bottled version will soon follow. Keep your eye out for this one.

Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the hoptrix...

Graham W Robertson (twitter)

Brooklyn Local 2 with Linquine Carbonara

Brooklyn Brewery is an outfit that's strengthened its presence in the UK in recent times. For me Brooklyn Lager was one of the first beers from the American craft beer scene I came across. Following this Brooklyn Brown Ale and East India Pale Ale became two beers I could never turn down. Bold but smooth is the house style from a brewmaster trained by a Yorkshire man who happens to be the brother of my former mentor at Daleside brewery. So yes myself and Garret Oliver have something in common, and his book 'The Brewmaster's Table' became a benchmark for beer and food literature that many a beer expert has turned to for inspiration.

Local 2 is a Belgian strong ale featuring raw wildflower honey. It's not quite bold or smooth but intriguing nonetheless. The deep russet, amber brew definitely smells distinctly Belgian, dominated by dark candy sugar and spice. It opens with sweet honey, chocolate and elderflower on the palate with a touch of almond-like fruit. The finish then turns racy, drying and full of prickly carbonation. Definitely well attenuated and very Belgian strong ale-esque.

Putting this beer with a dish such as Linquine Carbonara was not my own idea, but straight from the website. It sure is delicious and the pairing is mostly about the almost champagne-like carbonation of the beer lifting the creaminess of the sauce whilst the chocolate notes from the dark grain pick up on the pancetta. It was a good match up, even if not the best Garret Oliver inspired food-beer pairing it would be interesting to see how this dish works with something like a Weizen. Whether it works or not, the experience of good beer with good food is rarely unpleasant.

28 today

That's right I am now officially in my late twenties. But it ain't so bad, after all 28 is the same age as Ryu was from the classic video game Super Street Fighter 2. Not that I now have the ability to shoot fireballs from the palms of my hands. But I thought it would be good to do something for my birthday and since I rarely get round to going out in Newcastle, and it has many good pubs, I thought that the night on the Toon was the way to go.

To start things off we ended up in the much tweeted about Brew Dog Newcastle. As my first time in a Brew Dog bar I found it to be more or less what I expected. Bright edgy fonts everywhere, uber trendy and not a single bar staff member looking over 16. If you're a Brew Dog fan you will love this place and I don't think I've ever seen a specialist beer bar try so hard with image. Besides this Stone Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale proved to be an interesting twist on the original and Brew Dog Centennial Columbus IPA and Nogne Citra were both sound new world IPAs but for me seemed a bit overly chilled from the keg dispense.

Moving on it was time to hit the Broad Chare for burgers with some delicious Wylam Writer's Block which has enough attributes of an American pale ale to pull off that classic Pale ale/IPA-burger no brainer pairing. After this there was various options as the Toon is littered with great pubs, but with a heavily pregnant wife as our driver it was time to cut to the chase.

The Free Trade Inn is a classic geordie pub that I barely see enough of. It hosts a great range of beers and advocates new beer released around the region and further afield. So being in with what's current a Brew Star Anarchy was in order, along side a Mordue IPA for quality control purposes.

But after a not so long night it was time to head home. After all I am getting on being 28 and all. But the party wasn't completely over as birthday celebrations officially ended today (on my official birthday) with a beer dinner made by the wife.

To start things off smoked salmon, tomato, mozzarella and basil salad served with The Kernel India Pale Ale Stella. A beer chosen almost randomly that stangely seemed to work with the dish. The beer was mainly chosen because I have never tried any IPAs from The Kernel and because I'm unfamiliar with the hop variety Stella. It's a big naturally conditioned beer packed full of big resiny hops backed up by burly malt. The Stella hop seems moderately interesting, a tad like galaxy, a tad like centennial, a tad like various others but with a slight earthy, robust almost peppery character. A great beer.

Stepping down a notch with the hops it was time for some Mordue Nothumbrian Blonde (straight from the conditioning tank at work) served with a chicken stew derived from the cookbook Appetite for Ale by Fiona Beckett. Sierra Nevada Chicken was basically adapted to being Northumbrian Blonde chicken. Great stuff and very filling. But that just about sums up my twenty eighth birthday experience, my last birthday not being a dad.



At last... The bottling.

One of the problems with bottle conditioning your own beers on site is time. You need to find the time, space and manpower to get through it. It's been a long time coming but this week the folks of Mordue Brewery have finally managed to get our limited edition Panda Frog Pandazilla beer bottled.

So after labelling up all three hundred plus bottles (like I say, limited edition) all there is left to do is hope my carefully calculated additions of priming sugar and yeast provide the bottled beer with just the right amount of condition. We did have the idea of encasing the bottles in dead rodents carcasses and selling them for £300 each but no, it has to have the classic Pandazilla label at the fore.

Of course, now Pandazilla is in bottled form it is free to be unleashed upon the world (or as far and wide as 300 bottles can go) and some select bloggers will receive some (the chosen ones). Additionally a few chosen pubs will also be harbouring the beast, not in bottled but key-kegged form. It will be interesting to see how it varies from the cask version. So there you have it, Pandazilla back for round 2 the sequel, you could call it 'Pandazilla 2, return of the black stuff'.