And we're back

As many may have noticed, I've been on a bit of a blogging break. Lets just say I've been a bit distracted. Mainly by work and secondly by the bairn. Work can sure get busy especially with people far and wide after our beer. It's also easy to see why the bairn can be distracting. Despite the requirement for constant care and attention baby Susie seems to be winning a lot of attention and smiling at just about anything these day. She certainly gave the staff at Anarchy brewing in Morpeth plenty of smiles the other week. Easily pleased you could say. Person appears in vision; baby smiles. Show her a toy; baby smiles. Dog comes over; baby smiles. Play her some AC/DC; baby smiles. Wheel pram past row of degraded decapitated skulls impaled upon Zulu spears; baby smiles...

You get the picture.

Anyway, this year we have some very cool brewing projects ahead at Mordue brewery along side plenty of kegging and bottling. I can safely say that a few years back I would never have imagined spear heading such an adventurous brewing year as a head brewer. The Panda Frog is to continue for its second year and various new beers are in the making. But we shall have more on that later. Spring (as well as Mordue Spring Tyne) is on the way which means it's not long until the awesome Newcastle beer festival and any traces of random treacherous weather cease to be (hopefully).

Rye IPA

Yep, a new year and a new beer release at Mordue brewery. This February sees the release of our new 6% hop fest Rye IPA in both cask keg and bottled form. Brewing something new has always been a privilege at Mordue brewery, especially when it's a 6% 76IBU monster pale ale loaded with rye, summit and apollo hops. Early tastings have been promising. Bold juicy malt, pithy tangerine and a tangy bitterness all play a sort of half tribute to the regular SIBA-award-winning Mordue IPA with peppery rye spice cutting in up front. Look out for this one in cask form early February.  

In tribute to Cookie, the hat was worn to help re-enforce the product's status as 'craft'.

Mordue the movie

Mordue the movie is a bit of an elaborate fantasy I've had for a while. Obviously it wouldn't be some kind of brewing documentary but more of a Hollywood blockbuster with an all-star cast. Ice Cube and Chris Tucker would play boss men Gary and Matt Fawson while Chris Rock would play myself. Plenty of quirky extras would be involved, like Snoop Doggy Dog playing Mick from the Free Trade Inn (bit of a height difference there) and the Wookies from Star Wars would act as the North East CAMRA branch. Obviously the title wouldn't be just 'Mordue the movie' but more something like 'Mordue; homie brew gadgies in da hood, brewing it for da toon yaw' or something like that.

Anyway, sadly I can't imagine the Hollywood blockbuster ever being produced but this video, shot the other month by a cool bloke called Oliver Fowler is the next best thing.

The 12th Beer of Christmas

Castle Brewery Samiclaus 2010

Well, Christmas is almost officially over.

Call this a repeat entry. Some may remember Samiclaus from 2010's twelve beers of Christmas.
What I forgot to mention back then is that I put one bottle aside for ageing. It's one mighty rich 14% Doppelbock from Austria. Honey sweet candy, almond and prunes combined with a big warming brandy like hit of alcohol. It's almost reminicent of sherry, but the most interesting bit is the noticeable darkening in colour compared to the non-aged version.

New year post. A happy new year from Rob's Beer Quest.

Well, it's been a big year. But 2012 is finally over.


For me the obvious highlight was becoming a dad for sure, yet plenty of other stuff happened. For a start we got IPA in keg, which was cool. Then the whole Panda Frog project kicked off (also very cool). Later there was a beer battle. We didn't win (but with regard to all those who put out formidable entries, arguably no one won) but for the record look out for Killswitch 51 next year. Then we were nominated for GBBF, again no trophies there but hey at least we were nominated.

Closer to home Alnwick had a food festival, it was good. Alnwick had a beer festival, it was better. Then we can't forget that new pub that opened. I met various brewers and tried some great beers. On a whole I'd say the entire North East brewing scene produced a good number of diverse and interesting beers.

This year I also realised the difference between a bar that serves a good range of bottled and kegged beer and a great pub with great beer. Not that I have anything against Brew Dog bars but for me real pubs just offer much more. Some random sporting events were on the TV that had no relevance to beer. Then straight out of the blue came the SIBA awards.

But hey it isn't all about winning, I myself tried to define craft beer and like many others failed miserably. That was before a great blogging legend from the past rose like a pheonix from the flames to use his great knowledge and wisdom to finally put the issue to rest with one of the greatest blog posts of all history. But hey I can't compete with that.


But for me, besides all the ups and downs, trials and trivulations this year was mainly about three things. In order of occurance these were;

Panda Frog rises

The bairn

Panda Frog award

And that about wraps it up.


Happy new year everyone.