Isosceles – Macclesfield Twissup in pictures

Well there it was done, and at last a period of relaxation “sans stress” is on the cards.

As promised, no more writing as I can’t tell you how the event went, all I can say is that I, personally, had a brilliant day with some the best folk in the world.

Thanks again to everyone who made the effort to be there and share the fun, but most of all to my friends at The Treacle Tap and Great North Pie Co, The Macc and The Wharf, you guys rock!  I hope that at least some of you Twissupers will return to these cracking venues to drink great beer again.

Plus of course everyone at RedWillow, who I know worked like dogs to get the brewery in the condition it was for our enjoyment, you deserve every success that you are getting and more.

Oh and finally to the pig, for tasting sooooo good! 🙂

Breakfast pie at The Treacle Tap, another fine creation from The Great North Pie Co, make sure you check them out

Pre noon drinkies commence, plus pie guzzling

A thing of beauty

Gregg impersonating Tommy Cooper “muss-like-that’..

Sing it with me now!

Shapeless – Cask

or Shapeless Keg? You decide

The RedWillow chaps pulling their pork!

Do not, I repeat DO NOT, publish this photogr…..OOPS

Gregg, JC and Claudia, top folk

Ladies and Gentlemen, the amazing Mr Toby Mckenzie

Spot the Dave?

Weird Beard & Elusive Brewers Gregg Irwin and Andy Parker launch Nelson Saison

Officially (probably) the worlds youngest Twissuper

I really have no idea, Funky Chicken?

Marc, discretely rifles my beer stash…

Chris Stairmand pouring the delicious Isosceles IPA, no favouritism there of course 😉

Indiana Jones’s

Isosceles Launch at The Wharf, with Brian of Bitches Brewing and err me

Blood Orange Pale Ale and Breakfast Pie – #Twissupdate 2

Every boozy day out needs a good hearty breakfast and make no mistake, the Macclesfield Twissup will be VERY boozy.. So I had me an idea, (which happens from time to time) on how we could combine the two to make a most excellent start to the day.

Our first point of cal,l as you will see when I publish the map and timings, is going to be The Treacle Tap. If you have ever been there or to her sister bar The Young Pretender in Congleton you will already know about the range of award-winning pies both places serve and you will also know that they are incredibly good too.

Great North Pie Co 

I first met Neil Broomfield, the brilliance behind Great North Pie Co, at a beer and food matching event at the Young Pretender with the beers supplied by another Isosceles Twissup host Toby Mckenzie of Red Willow. He presented us with a steak pie made with Red Willow pale ale and I can easily say it was the best pie I’ve ever tasted.

Pic: http://www.wilmslow.co.uk – Lisa Reeves

Fast forward to my eureka moment…

Knowing that the Treacle Tap has a small kitchen and couldn’t really cook breakfast for the masses I thought “what about a breakfast pie?”. I ran the idea past Treacle Tap owners Bronwyn & Tim who quickly “warmed” to the idea (sorry) and spoke to Toby too, who in turn made the first contact with Neil, who after “filling” him in on the idea, like the man from Del Monte, he said yes..

The breakfast pie will feature among other things bacon and black pudding which makes it already a winner, plus two very interesting but very familiar, “mystery ingredients”… I know what they are and I’m bloody intrigued I can tell you, but I’ve tasted lots of Neil’s creations so I am confident it will be another delight for you guys to indulge in. Not forgetting the vegetarian folk out there, for them it will be a pie with a take on bubble & squeak.

I had another brain wave too… (Shocked? So was I)

It was at a recent meet the brewer event, funnily enough this time held at Treacle Tap, on this occasion it featured the beers and thoughts of Jay Krause of Quantum Brewery.

We had a brilliant night and Jay had brought a fantastic selection of beers, but being the awkward bar-steward that I am I didn’t want any of those, I wanted another “chefs special” especially with the breakfast pie idea in mind..

Cast your mind back nine months or so and those lucky of you to have been there, will remember a rather special beer festival, IndyManBeerCon. For that event Jay collaborated with North Tea Power to create a stunning pale ale made with blood orange tea.

It was a one off brew made especially for IndyMan, or was, as Jay has very kindly agreed to resurrect it and brew it for you lucky twissupers.

I’m rather hoping it will be a perfect pairing for the pie, but as I’ve not tasted it yet I can’t be sure. If nothing else you’ll get a nice “brew” for your breakfast.

So there’s your starting point, The Treacle Tap opening early for 11am, Saturday 29th June 2013.

See you there, cheers!

Live beer blogging, the aftermath..

As you may have read the other night, I tried my hand at live blogging at the recent Red Willow beer and food pairing event on Wednesday. In a word, CHALLENGING!

It was the first time I’d used WordPress for iPhone which didn’t help as I was trying to get to grips with that too, the trouble was I hadn’t a clue what was going to happen when I pressed this and that button, more a leap of faith and hoping for the best really.

The Great North Pie Co – http://greatnorthpie.co/

I was planning to edit it the following day but decided against it after a couple of lines, just adding the odd web link out of courtesy to the organising bar The Young Pretender and the various food purveyors (Pure Origin and The Great North Pie Co) who designed the menus and samples. I left it alone so that if you’d care to you can see it warts and all here, to try and get a feel of the sort of output you can expect to achieve (from me at least) using this method.

Having had a quick scan there are a few grammatical blunders, the odd repeated word in sentences and no doubt some spelling errors. Let me know what you think though if you will?

Looking back at the night there are a few obvious negatives. It’s quite difficult to write and review what you are writing off the cuff in the bustling atmosphere of a busy bar. There’s also the element of being alienated from what is going on, missing conversations and announcements as your nose is stuck into what your fingers are tap-tap tapping away at on-screen. Trying to keep up is tricky too at times as you smell, taste, listen and discuss and of course keeping updates live on Twitter is a slight problem.

Pure Origin Chocolate – http://www.pure-origin.co.uk/

On the plus side though you are there in the moment and writing as it happens, first off the mark at it were, should it be a popular event for bloggers etc.

There’s no need to take notes or worry about forgetting “what the hell did I mean by that” when you review them a few days later. Photographs are easy to edit and upload so it negates the need to upload to computers, edit, upload to the blog etc.

Finally though for me it was time that I felt was the biggest win. How often I’ve had a topic or been to an event then struggled for days to get it written and posted. So often if busy I’ve felt like I’d missed the boat and my efforts have been published long after several others have beaten me to it so to speak. With this method of blogging it was done and in future I hope will only need minor tweakages after the event.

A massive thanks to everyone who was involved in organising the event, the sponsors, suppliers and most of all the good folks I met and spent a fantastic evening with. Check out the links to the producers and definitely get along to the Young Pretender if ever you are in the Congleton area, great venue, friendly knowledgeable staff and a superb beer menu too.

Cheers, thanks for reading.