BackInMacc visit to RedWillow Brewery

No beer tour worth its salt doesn’t involve a brewery tour and as one of driving forces behind the event, Toby and Caroline agreed to host us again for a repeat of what was an excellent few hours last year.

None of the amazing pulled pork this time though I’m afraid, far too much to do in the brewery at the moment to allow time for a few hours of gentle pork massage.. 😉

ba937758522e76d4353df95ecb07e606_400x400But fear not, your need to soak up the beverages with some scrumptious nosh will be sated in most excellent fashion. We (well they actually), are firing up the barby. On that fiery cremater of all fine meats will be burgers from none other than @frostybutcher, aka Lee Horsley Frost of W H Frost and Sons, Chorlton. To house these delicious hunks of meaty goodness, we also have brioche rolls from Macclesfield’s own wonderful bakers Flour Water Salt, good enough to eat on their own. All topped, provided Toby has time to deconstruct his carrot and cabbage, delicious home made slaw. Deee-lish!!

fws_logoTo wash this down, of course we need some fine and tasty beer, something interesting to intrigue those taste buds and bring out their delightfully flavoursome secrets. In a weird stroke of luck, we have just that..

79f86de366a048bdab23bd882975c5bcFor a special one-off, never to sampled again treat, we have Andy Parker’s “Elusive Brewing”, who bring us their “Aged Pomegranate Lambic”, not to be missed.

Also getting its first ever outing is RedWillow’s own, “Rioja Barrel Aged Rhubarb Sour”, which has been maturing nicely, making it really smooth and fruity.

Don’t worry, there will be something a little less challenging for non-sour lovers too, this is to be decided yet, so fret not, you are catered for.

Basic CMYKIf the rain keeps off, this looks to be another really good session, informal brewery tours will be available for those who want them but generally its more of a welcome, come in wander around and have a beer approach, which was great fun last year.

All we need now is you, so a reminder to please like the Facebook page and if possible show you are coming along. If not for Twitter users you can tweet myself @filrd, @redwillowmacc, @thetreacletap, @thewharfmacc, or @tobymckenzie, or why not all of us at once. If none of that is your thing, like the post or comment below. But most of all, please share with your friends and come along for the day, all are welcome to join, itinerary again below with a little slack for walking etc.

*Saturday 13th September 2014*

Treacle Tap – 11am- 12:45

RedWillow Brewery – 12:50-14:45

Wharf 15 -17:15

RedWillow Bar 17-30 – 20:00

20:01 Feel free to circulate and do it all again..

Cheers

Elusive Brewing Weird Bearded Beer Geekery (or) #Twissupdate 3

Catchy blog post title huh?

A while back I was given a beer, it was a home-brewed beer, a saison, which is a particular favourite beer style of mine, hence I was especially chuffed to learn that it had been brewed as a contribution to my now annual #SupSaison event. It was in a standard brown bottle, labelled with two strips of dymo-tape, one saying “@tabamatu” and the other “Nelson Saison’.

MeThis beer really blew me and everyone at my tasting session away, eventually even making it to my Golden Pints Awards too. I presented it blind so as not to influence my guests as to it’s origin and it was probably one of the most talked about beers of the night and among some really highly regarded saison standards too. Even more astonishingly this was Andy Parker’s (aka @tabamatu on twitter) only second attempt at whole grain brewing, A-MAZE-ING!

Then on 6th of May 2013 I saw this tweet which filled me with joy and excitement..

and a few days later..

elusiveTo explain, Elusive Brewing is the name of Andy’s new and or future dabble into commercial brewing, which was excitement level one.

Upping that to dancing around the room stage two, was the fact that Weird Beard Brewing are another of my favourite relatively new breweries.

Finally, tipping things over the scale to gibbering, leering beer buffoon (stage three to you), they were getting together to brew Nelson Saison commercially.. “EEEEK”!

I wasted no time in pleading the case, the fine detail, the entire plan explained..

Luckily for me (and you), I know Andy and Gregg pretty well and soon the direct messaging was frantically passing back and forth to agree that in principle we could make this happen, and on Saturday just gone, I met up with Gregg to “cough” discuss the finer detail of the plans over a few drinks, on how to get this wonderful collaboration to the twissup on Sat 29th of June 2013.

Just to add a little background to this, Gregg and Weird Beard co-owner Bryan, were home brewers themselves before they took the plunge into commercial brewing. During our weekends “chat”, Gregg explained that they wanted as part of their emerging success story, to give other home brewers they hold in high regard a chance to put their skills to work on proper kit, and with their help and guidance hopefully avoid the mistakes perhaps they themselves have made in the breweries seemingly meteoric rise from humble beginnings. Next up on the collab agenda is Dave Bishop of Northern Monk Brew Co, which I just know is going to be a belter too. (Both of these breweries in infancy are ones to watch for the future, trust me)

BKoVoWGCIAAEchz.jpg-largeIn terms of twissup location, the venue to try this beer has as yet not been decided as we are still trying to set up the full line up of beery delights for your drinking pleasure, but what I am really excited to be able to say is, thanks to the goodwill of the fantastic folks in the beer community, one of these will be heading its way north to Macclesfield very soon.

Incredibly this will be the third in a line up of new or pretty much as near as damn it exclusive brews to sample on the day which just blows me away, Nelson Saison being ready for release probably only two to three weeks before the event. Plus to top it all off both Gregg and Andy have agreed to attend on the day to answer any questions you may have, on which point I’ll give you some advice, catch them early on to be sure both haven’t been doing too much “quality control”…

Read Andy’s story on brewing it here.

Check out this review of the original brew from Rob at Hopzine here too

But most importantly, get the date in your diary, Saturday 29th of June 2013 for an 11am start. 

Please join the Macclesfield Twissup #isosceles Facebook page and sign up.