Category Archives: Beer

Retirement

For me, early retirement happened six and a bit years ago. It lasted just a few months.

Getting involved in a pub was an accident, one of those random things you do after a drink, in the heat of the moment, or in a moment of insanity.

But that pub led to a little cooperative opening a little bar in a sorely neglected part of Gateshead.

It’s hard work and my retirement went out the window (because, if you run a bar, you should be there – in my opinion, that is).

We’re a partnership. We agree mostly, but sometimes we don’t. And somehow it works.

It’s not the best paid job, sometimes it’s not paid at all. But we have a bar. In Gateshead. And it’s the best bar in Gateshead.

And the bestest ever moment, is sitting with a beer, waiting for the next bus after the bar’s closed for the day.

The bestest.

Krankenhaus

I’d never heard of Krankenhaus festival until someone told me about it a few months ago. It sounded good, so I bought tickets.

It’s very small, possibly the smallest festival I’ve been to. But it’s as cool as anything.

Dog friendly, gorgeous setting, good food and, unbelievably, great beer from Gan Yam. The music’s a bonus.

Technically, this is our third festival of the year; VW Festival was a couple of weeks ago.

That was a first too, followed by the last day of the beer festival at Twice Brewed. It’s a lovely place, but it was definitely the nicest beer festival I’ve been to.

I should probably say that the last couple of pictures were taken after closing time.

Elbow beer

Years and years ago, Robinsons brewed a beer that was badged for, and marketed by, Elbow. It was actually a decent pale ale, which I think was only available in bottles. Looking back now though, I’m not sure whether it was a bespoke brew or a white label beer. I still have a bottle.

I’ve learned a lot about beer in the last few years, although I’ve not managed to make time to brew my own. That’ll happen one day, maybe when I retire (again). However, I’ve had quite a bit of beer brewed for the bar, even been involved in a couple of brew days.

Last week, we had a brew day at Otherworld, in Dalkeith. It was a big batch of beer, way bigger than anything we’d done in the past. But this isn’t a beer for our bar; it’s a beer brewed for bars (and other businesses) in Gateshead. It’ll be coming soon.

We’ve told quite a few people about the beer, but have only hinted about it in the bar’s social media. There’ll be more soon, when we have a launch date. Meanwhile, the beer will be called Goat’s Head.

The beer wasn’t really beer when we left at the end of the day. It wasn’t alcoholic, it needed more hops and it was warm. All perfectly normal at that stage.

A few days earlier, we saw Elbow play at the Mouth of the Tyne festival.

Whisky

I’ve never liked whisky. More accurately, I’ve always hated the stuff. Mates have tried to educate/convert me for years, with no success.

A while back, someone told me to try it with a bit of water added. I didn’t see the point, since surely that would only make it a little less vile.

Somehow, we agreed to attend a whisky tasting night at the Green Dragon in Whitby. It was a tasting session with a difference, but the poisonous liquid was still to be involved.

I was dreading the evening (it happened last night), but am very fond of imperial stouts, which were to be paired with the whisky.

The stouts were great, beautiful even. The weakest was over 14% and they were all out of the ordinary. The whisky was made more bearable with the addition of water; one was even almost nice.

It was a brilliant night, though.

York

With a bunch of guys and the hound, I had a day in York yesterday.

There was beer and the dog seemed to have a good day.

We also got bumped into Gav from Lord’s Brewery and got to try their new imperial that we’d ordered for our place.

The Hold Steady

I’ve not had a lot of luck in catching the Hold Steady on tour. Mostly because they don’t often have dates beyond London.

I did once see them in Newcastle, at the Riverside, a few years ago; they were silly good. Last January, i had a ticket for a London gig, but there was a lot going on in the bar, so i ended up not going.

I actually made it yesterday, though. Sort of. I couldn’t stay over, since I needed to be home this morning for the dog. Train times didn’t work out (eight hours overnight), so that left the bus.

Unfortunately, with a late-ish start to the gig, I had to miss half of it. Next time, I’ll find someone to watch the hound.

Still, they were ridiculously good.

And, since we have a keg of their beer in the bar right now, I did squeeze in a visit to Hackney Church’s tap room. It’s well worth a visit.

Time off

It already feels like a long time ago, but we closed the bar for 10 days, so we could have a break and do some work in the bar.

Beginning in Peterborough, we visited familiar places.

A walk along the river was quickly abandoned due to an insane amount of flooding.

We did find a new (to us) micropub though.

After two nights in Peterborough, there was a day/night in York (which was also flooded).

Then, after a day at home, we were off to Edinburgh. We met up with a brewery rep for a couple of drinks; he introduced us to The Guildford Arms, a lovely old pub.

Another discovery was the Fierce bar, which had opened since our last time in Edinburgh. Fortunate, since we’re quite fond of their beer (we’ve had a few kegs in the bar). Weirdly, the bar person had been in our bar.

We spent the following day mostly in Leith.

It was good to fit in a couple of brewery taps, as well as some bars we’ve previously visited.

Of course, we took the customary picture of the cool T3 in Leith.