TheNoiseThatWeMade

Exposed Magazine new feature Beer Revere by me!

Thursday: New for 2012 and in conjunction with Jane Peyton from The School of Booze we have 4 beer tasting workshops throughout the day. The focus will be on LocAle and Brewster beer.  The new Project Venus brew from Waen brewery will be exclusively sampled in these sessions. There will be a limited number of places kept available on the day so arrive early if you’re interested and ask at the membership stall; priority will be reserved for new Camra members joining on the day.  Thursday’s headline act, The Trevor Burton Band , is fronted by a living legend from one of the formative bands of the 60s called The Move. Trevor’s contemporaries, friends and musical allegiances were Denny Laine of the Moody Blues and Steve Winwood. Not only that but pick up the Jimi Hendrix Experience LP ‘Axis: Bold as Love’ and you’ll find Trevor in the vocal credits. It’s a real honour to have him closing the first night of the beer festival and shows how much musical heritage Birmin...

At the end of October a swathe of people head, backs turned to the Bullring, towards Digbeth or Deritend, or the dirty end depending on your localisms. Whispers of eager sounding voices can be heard discussing imbibes of dark roasted malts and whether to go local brewery with Two Towers’ ‘Jewellery Porter’ or regional with Marble’s ‘Ginger Ale’ as the first drink of the day. With over 160 beers on offer to beer enthusiasts to sample over 3 days and worthy of note a good proportion are local beers; those within a 40 mile radius, it’s no wonder beer has replaced custard as Digbeth’s malty attraction. Over 4,000 people made this journey last year to Birmingham Beer festival and in the course Digbeth cemented its reputation as an epi-beer centre. In a city of such size you see the big beer boys all too often as the main drink offering but a collection of pubs are bucking the beer supermarkets in favour of an indie alternative and there are a number of Digbeth pubs championing thi...

The Independent Manchester Beer Convention   (IMBC) will happen for the first time at the beginning of October in celebration of beer, food, beery discussions and beery good times.  After the   Leeds International Beer festival   which happened a few weeks ago, this has much of the same essence (beer - kegged & cask) & a whole lot more in the form of practical demos & talks with head brewers. Interesting to see that both festivals are organised by completely different groups - but both have sprung up as a response to the demand from consumers & brewers to have a platform for quality beer (no matter what it's stored in).  A quick rundown of key pointers taken from their site includes these features over the 2 days: - Over 30 keg lines, hosted by the brewers themselves. - 30 cask lines curated by Port Street Beer House and others. - The Portable Street Beer House presenting craft beers from here there and everywhere. ...

It's been a few months now since I moved to Sheffield and I'm finally dedicating a post in sheer not worthiness to the beer scene in this South Yorkshire city. Now depending who I spoke to about the reasons for my move I'd got into the habit of repeating 2, firstly it has the highest ratio of trees to people of any city in Europe (I like my countryside OK!) and secondly it has over 10 micro breweries , in comparison to a city like Birmingham which had 3 on my last count (I like beer OK!). On one of my very first beery trips round town I visited the Rutland Arms & tasted Blue Bee's Nectar Pale Ale. I'd never heard or seen the brewery before & my curiosity got the hold of me after enjoying the hoppy pale ale. Blue Bee is a fairly recent addition (2010) to Sheffield's swelling micro brewing population and in a good way no doubt. Rich the head brewer (it's a one man band really at the moment, so he covers most jobs) had put his fair stint in at w...

Just wanted to give a shout to this event in the next couple of weeks; places still left to be had......looks really interesting & enjoyable.  Beer & cheese tasting plus a beer sommelier to take you on the journey, ace.  Date:    Friday, 14th September Time:    11.00 – 2.00, Venue:  The Camden Eye, 2 Kentish Town Road, London NW1 9NX http://www.thecamdeneye.co.uk/find-us.php Guest speakers:  Mahdis Neghabian,  named BII Licensee of the Year in May this year. Annabel Smith  to conduct the beer and cheese tasting. Annabel is national training manager with Cask Marque and recently became one of only two women Beer Sommeliers in the country, after passing a rigorous assessment from the Beer Academy . All this – for a modest  £20 entry fee,   including beer and cheese (and more food!), payable on the day.  Places are limited, so book yours now by email to ros@shielporter.com or call 07841 69...

Burton-upon-Trent is a beer town; you can walk along Worthington Way as you head towards the fermenting towers of many of the long standing breweries. However nestling in-between are a group of cider makers, some established, some new but all with one goal to make real cider. All the individuals share a passion for the apple with a home grown love that has continued and developed into an honest living. We all met up in the Coopers Tavern in Burton, Camra Regional West Midlands cider pub of the year (numerous times) and a haven for tubs of the good juice, amongst many a handpull and the Joules regular ales on offer. Wednesday night in the bar room of Coopers Tavern was turning out to be a lively night. Dickie Allen (pictured above 2 from right) ensured we had a good quantity of Scropton Cider to taste, alongside the wealth of cider and perry landlady Mary Bagley has on offer all year round. The idea of gathering Burton’s cider makers together was turning out to be a good one. Cid...

    800 real ales, ciders, perries & foreign beer all in one big room called Olympia, what a treat. It was Friday 10th August & it was my second trip to London in less than 2 weeks, this time for Camra's Great British Beer Festival 2012. For a city I'm always moaning about, I was beginning to eat my own words. GBBF had added a new feature to their website this year, offering members the ability to log in & view the beer/ciders on offer & create their own personal requests lists: https://gbbf.org.uk/beers/create-beer-list After previous visits to big beer festivals such as GBBF & the Winter Ales I've learned having at least a bit of an action plan helps, otherwise you can somehow fall into the 'safe' mode & end up drinking the same beer you drink down your local. Which is good beer, but after spending a train fair down to London or Manchester you want to leave with the...

Looks like  Hogan ’s have extended their product range with the introduction of a Bag-in-Box Cider.  3 varieties which sound very tempting on a hot summer's day -  Hazy Daisy, Picker’s Passion and Panking Pole. All cloudy, still, traditional ciders.  For more information about where you can enjoy Hogan’s award winning products have a ganders at the website  www.hoganscider.co.uk