Yorkshire life

I must get this clear. I live in England now, a civilized part of Northern England. No longer am I part of the people's republic of Geordieland, home of Gazza, the Toon, Fog on the Tyne, Jimmy Nail and the Blaydon Races (which they don't sing in school assembly here). The transition wasn't too difficult as I part did it once before back in the 2008-10 era during my first time working at Daleside. Now it's a more permanent fixture we can explore the area.

Knaresborough. Like Alnwick but with a big viaduct and more John Smith.

Moving away from Northumberland and its castles, countryside, market towns, pubs and pleasantry we have moved to the middle of Yorkshire with its castles, countryside, market towns, pubs and pleasantry. But the vibe is different. Everyone is a bit more soft natured. I have fond memories of my last time living in Harrogate. Working at the Leyburn show with Yorkshire folk. Brewing with the Yorkshire folk. Hanging with Yorkshire folk at meet the brewer events. Going to the pub with Yorkshire folk. Everything about Yorkshire is awesome... If you exclude Savile, Sutcliffe and maybe the Kaiser Chiefs then this is almost true.

Reduced Wensleydale, exemplifying the wife's adoption to Yorkshire ways during shopping 

The accent is one of the finest in the world and Yorkshire has given great things to the world like Saxon, Bo Selecta, Wensleydale cheese, Def Leppard, Sean Bean and Yorkshire puddings.

The bairns famous already from Bilton Gala

View from Ripley Castle

Yorkshire hosts a huge range of breweries from Magic Rock and Roosters to Theakstons, Ilkley, Saltaire, Northern Monk, Kirkstall, Black Sheep, Brew York and obviously Daleside and the list goes on. The water is soft and lovely to brew with. It has low sulfates and low residual alkalinity. The Yorkshire beer scene is arguably one of the finest in the country.

You can't get much more Yorkshire than this

The people of Yorkshire have the closest heritage nationwide to the Scandinavian/ Danish invaders of old. This probably means Vikings.  They are often fiercely proud of the region and love saving money.

When I was growing up I was surrounded by Geordieland, everything about it was just the norm. So in turn it made everything about all the other cultures of the world more interesting.

More Yorkshire stuff from around the house.

I went to Lancaster University and was surrounded by a full spectrum. There was the Lancastrians, Brummies, Cockneys, non geordies from the North East (Durham people), Yorkshire folk, the Irish, Scousers and the Mancunians. At Heriot Watt Uni I met loads of international students, Indians, Canadians, French, Pakistani, Japanese and others. Yet I always went home to Geordieland.

Without doubt Yorkshire is a fine destination. The problem now is, for the first time in my life, I miss the Toon and Northumberland. For me it's sort of strange because I've never experienced that before. When it was the status quo it was never an issue, the Angel of the North, The Tyne bridge or seeing old mates from Northumberland. They never used to be lost treasures. So in regards to many of the great iconic figures who have shaped my life and perception of the North East I sincerely dedicate this clip.

The return of Rob's beer quest

Cheers!

I'm back. It's certainly been a long time. I would like to call this return to blogging, but more so a new chapter of the quest as opposed to a continuation of where I left off. Some may already know about the series of events which unfolded between my last blog post and now. I wasn't there at the end. During these events the very driving force behind Rob's Beer Quest was temporarily compromised. 

A series of job interviews took place, some far afield some not. From the varied interested parties I chose my new path, new purpose. I chose my side and took off my Panda Frog t-shirt. Replacing it with what I sometimes refer to as my England top, for the greater purpose it represents.

The house was sold. We said goodbye to our old friends from school, work and Northumberland. We departed Alnwick, we left the republic of Geordie land. I became reinstated outside the matrix, reborn like Gandalf the White. Or Gandalf the red and blue in this case.

Reborn in Yorkshire.

Looks familiar 

So after all that I began my new job, in my old/new workplace as the head brewer of Daleside Brewery. Back where I was born and made as a brewer. Back where it began in the land of bed races, coffee shops, innumerable takeaways, really nice buses and Yorkshire folk.

Yorkshire beer

Harrogate and Daleside have both changed in the 8 years I have been away. It's kind of like a box set where you miss series two and three and you've skipped to series four trying to piece together everything that happened. Most of what I knew from the old world of 2009/10 era is much the same but aged. Harrogate is still a very pleasant civilized place to visit with community spirit. New bars have sprung up. Harrogate Brewing Company and Cold Bath are both new to the brewing scene whereas Roosters are still a big local player regarding trade dominance.

New beers will be brewed

The Daleside brewkit is lovely to work with. More like a Honda Jazz than an old Mustang. Armed with the very finest of '90s technology the stage is set for me to set forth again into the world of brewing and new beer development. More importantly I would be continuing the legacy as the third head brewer of the Daleside saga taking over from the respected Craig Witty. With many years in the game Craig has trained many, including myself. As the now second brewer Craig has long been the face of Daleside at outside events, winning awards and he's even pictured on the back of a local bus. A long time back Craig was a butcher and football referee, but that was before the war.

Daleside's second brewer Craig at the  Daleside, Roosters, Cold Bath, Harrogate Brewing company collab brew. 

So far this year there's been plenty of action at Daleside. From outside events to shipping beer to Australia. And with the wife recently getting a job the situation is looking more settled. The coming year is set to be interesting as there's already lots on the agenda and lots to learn aside from new beer development. So lots to blog about.

What is your favourite beer?

As a beer enthusiast I have been asked the question many times. What is my favourite beer? I always gauge that the person asking me the question think that I rate beer on a fixed set of parameters. This would be true if it was a different question like what are your favourite brand of crisps? The obvious answer is Kettle chips. The same with Sainsbury’s own tomato ketchup, in my opinion the best one going. Leeks are the best vegetable, but asparagus and mushrooms are close contenders. Samsung do better phones than Apple, Branston make better baked beans than Heinz but Shortbread are the finest form of biscuits without question.

Then again with beer a similar deduction process to select one all superior brew isn’t possible. It maybe could be if I only ever drank a narrow range of beers like say cask blonde ales or mega brand lagers but no. By this point in Rob’s Beer Quest I have turned more to rating a beer experience as a moment or experience as much as it is a beer.

Take for example the first time I tried Rochefort 10. For Rochefort 10 to be my favourite beer I have to compare it to other inspirational moments like discovering Pliny the Elder. But Rochefort and Pliny can’t really be compared. That’s like steak vs pizza, both are very different. What I also notice about these occasional perfect beer moments is that they are rarely the same second time round. Sometimes the beer has changed or you are just in a different moment but other times a beer can be better on second tasting. But inevitably the answer to the question ends with a no, there is no favourite beer or greatest beer in the world. Often I may attempt to brew the greatest beer in the world at work but I know it won’t be, it would just be a tribute. Like the greatest song in the world, a matter of opinion.

The Snow Interval

As many of you are probably aware, it’s been snowing a lot lately. With Northumberland being one of the worse hit areas this means no work for me. Lots of work for the journalist other half and lots of time with the children. With it being March now it’s like spring is having some problems loading.

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My final journey back from work on Tuesday afternoon seemed to follow a clear gradient from the moderately snowy Wallsend to the grim, dark, desolate isolation of Siberian themed Alnwick. Our friends the yeast don’t like it too cold I explained to the bairns, it slows them down. Luckily the blokes at work have been re-heating those fermenters. But no work means no free beer, and supplies are getting short on that front.

I bring you the co-ops finest. McEwan’s Champion is another one of those supermarket strong beers that no one noticed it was 7.3% before pricing it. It’s decent stuff, all fruit cake and burnt caramel. After this I got to the end of the Flavourly box.

Beatnikz Republic Beach Bumpstead is a US, NZ and Australian hopped pale ale that's tastes of pure nectar from the gods compared to some heavily filtered/pasteurised supermarket equivalents. Tropical zesty but clean. According to the can meant to be drank in the sun or reminiscing about drinking in the sun. Sadly will have to settle for the latter.

The show goes on 2018

Alas it is 2018. 2017 is over, Last year was a mainly neutral sort of year that went very fast. There was operation Serpent Shadow  (winning Newcastle beer festival Battle of the beers again) and some nice holidays.

The main agenda at Mordue Brewery this year is Beeronomy, the ultimate Mordue and Panda Frog beer and food experience. But plenty of other stuff is on the horizon, not to mention getting a new canning line. The coming spring obviously means SIBA events and all their grandeur. Then there’s Newcastle beer festival and Battle Of The Beers 7. Obviously if I were (although statistically unlikely) to win this year it would make Mordue the only brewery to ever achieve a three year hat-trick of wins at the event. Not just a chance of winning, a chance of immortality. But who knows, I’m just a man and his will to survive.

Finally Killswitch 51 is back from a long break of missing 2017,  and a new Panda Frog E=PF2 (or squared) an Ekuanot - El Dorado hopped wheat beer is on the way. The new ‘Mash Sessions’ set of seasonals will bring back past Battle of The Beers winners Code Red 40 and 5PA along with some new beers. In all possibility 2018 could be a bumpy ride.

New pump 

Hopefully I can maintain enough effort to keep blogging. These days life isn’t as compatible with beer blogging as it was back in the day. Then again the beer blogging scene isn’t what it was either. Back then you weren’t just a beer blogger, you were part of the REVOLUTION! And every delve into the blogging world was like going to the theatre. Where Beer vs Wine and beer duty were considered serious debates that could easily escalate into a punch up. New beer or beer an food pairing discoveries were embraced with awe like newly discovered species of butterfly. So many diverse views and characters but at the end of the day everyone just wanted to enjoy good/preferred beer in good company... That and all fall on Alistair Darling and give him a good drubbing, like a proper good drubbing.

So I’m obviously hoping for some kind of beer and cheese like event some point this year (already in the pre planning stage). Going to France again to get more way underpriced Rochefort 8 and brewing a sour beer. An interesting sort of line up.