Libations during Lockdown

Hellall,

          am not going to tell you about each one of the cans and bottles I have consumed whilst self isolating, as I am aware that I have already mentioned a few. I wanted instead to focus on the Fourth of July here in England, a date on which, for the most part, every public house in England which met the stringent arrangements and requirements set out poorly by the government, could once again open their doors. I would be interested to know how your own independent experiences were, dear readers - I heard a lot of talk of misbehaviour and trouble and other details of rambunctiousness in areas such as West Street in Sheffield, a place where one might go if desiring a mob rule, slavvering sump of stupidity, but also that behaviour across Sheffield had mostly been quite good. Here is what I encountered......

So whilst not celebrating independence day from 1776 in the US, I left the house about 14.15 and got straight on a bus to town. Having seen my friend JB starting his day at the Tap House on Alma Street, and realising it was near the two people whom I was meeting later, I went in there first of all. It appears that sending a text message to a new number is neither my quickest or most enjoyable practice, but once done, and inside, I viewed the cask from the past on the bar and decided to sit outside. After a small niggle with the cash machine requiring the whole card number of my non contactless card to pay, I started on a pint of Elland 1872 porter. It was perfectly served, and very tasty - and 6.5%. Nearly finished, I spotted Matty whom had spoken to Diane at the Fat Cat earlier, so I decided to nip in there next, not least because I have known her since 1994. The Tap House is an interesting venue - although they did serve a range of basic keg beers they did state that they were going to concentrate on cask. There was a choice of about five, and on this basis they were well kept. It will be interesting to see how this pans out.

I had to sign into a book to get in the Fat Cat - and saw a man I have known for years called Ian, as well as JB. I chose a hoppy pale from somewhere in London which has sadly escaped me, and went and sat at a table by myself in the beer garden. After a quick chat with Diane and a trip to the obviatorium I quickly left, meeting up with Vikkie and Matt outside and heading to a private do at Bar Stewards.....

 So far behaviours had been excellent and this proved to be a feature here, and of the rest of the night. People had reserved seating and were served until 19.00 on tables outside. I started on a can of the excellent Festoon NEIPA from the excellent St Mars of the Desert, featuring grapefruit zest and excellent hops. I then moved onto a marvelous can of Chione from Alpha Delta in faraway Newcastle. It was about 7% and described as a Kveik IPA. It was cloudy yellow and absolutely delicious. As well as finally getting to meet the excellent Robert J Ward, and of course of seeing many regulars and the wonderful Al and Charlie, the main highlight of the three hours was the excellent range of beers. Next up was a can of the excellent Northern Monk OFS004, a Kveik DDH DIPA - and this was amazing. After a can of Pressure Drop Tambourine Mountain sour however my memories became unclear.....I know I ended up with tea at Vikkie and Matt's and slept there.  It was then time to go out again......

Sunday I awoke with a sore neck - and a not that good head - and had a few cups of tea and an egg sandwich before we all headed out for a walk after midday to Gaard coffee hide. Due to their small size once ordered we had to sit outside, but the coffee I had - and the excellent sausage roll, were very enjoyable in the bright hot sunshine in their yard. I also saw and forgot the name of Matijas Kapstien, a name I still cannot properly spell. Finishing our treats we headed to the Gardeners Rest. Matty had been on IPAs the day before and wasn't feeling up to more beer but Vikkie joined me for a half and me a pint of 4.6% West Coast Pale ale. Sat in the beer garden having filled in a form with our details, there were a few others present, and after Vikkie had gone I got chatting to an older couple from Harthill along with a man from Hillsborough who may have been called John, and a youngster from Ull who may have been called Matty.....

Several pints of this and an Empire something beast 5% pale ale were had, along with pickled eggs from the past, before I attempted a frustrating and incredible long winded trip home on the Stagecoach 52 - a very unsatisfactory and expensive undertaking.

Finally, yesterday I traveled up to Crookes after meeting up with Mumraah, and had a couple of beers - the first was a pint of Deception from a reduced range at the otherwise ace Ball Inn, where I once again had to text my details, and the second was a half of a strong pale on keg from Shindigger in Manchester I think, at the never previously visited Early Bar at the top of School road.  It was a lovely place to pop in for a quick half and very friendly - given that they initially opened about two weeks before lockdown forced them to close, I would hope that their reopening creates a surge in much needed trade and profit.

Once in town by the altered 52 route I walked to the Crow Inn on Scotland Street and started on a pint of North Tunnels of La West Coast IPA and then a half of the excellent Verdant pulp DIPA on keg from a choice of 7 or 8 keg and three hand pulled. Alas I had to quickly run to the nearest cash machine to pay for both as their new, and soon to be replaced, card reader, would not accept non contactless payments - this, and the rip off no change on a Stenchcrotch earlier in the month makes me think I may need to ask for a contactless card.....

I met up with good mate Robert J Ward and he had amongst other things a half of the 11% barrel aged sour which was immense, whilst I opted for a half of saison at 5% or thereabouts. Chatting to Ian and vicky (not certain if this is her correct spelling, but to point out hat it was not Vikkie) I also managed to get a pint of Atom stout at a similar strength on cask. We then all left for the Kelham Island Tavern and the wonderful Ed was working and saw us out to covered seating in the garden. Am fairly certain I started on North and finished with two separate halves of the excellent Buxton at 6.8%.  A fabulous day of supping in all four venues.

Overall I have really enjoyed my experiences in the recently reopened pubs in fine sunny Sheffield.  There were a few loud people leaving the Kelham later but overall behaviour and keeping within the rules has been perfect throughout. Lets hope that this continues as more and more pubs manage to reopen their doors whilst the awful pandemic lingers on.

Your very good health

Cheers!

Wee Beefy    

Kveik

Hello again,

        I should firstly point out that I am not suggesting that I am obsessed with hops - I admit that I do really love the hoppier beers, but then who doesn't? Well, I admit that there are a large number of people who don't. but this isn't about them. This is about my original understanding of the product in the title, and what I have recently learnt....

Some time between November and March I started seeing beers listing Kveik as either an ingredient, a feature or in the beer's name. Either due to my eyesight, slight memory issues, or more unlikely, because on all such occasions I had too much to drink (and even if I had found out the facts I then forgot them) - but for any of the above, I "remembered" that Kveik was a hop.  And further lack of clarity allowed me to invent an idea that this was also a type of Eastern European beer style. Get that citric bite from Kveik - I would no doubt have mis-remembered....

Today I was flicking through Friendache and noticed a post by Polly's Brew Co. Regular readers may know that I have really become a fan of Polly's output (there is a link to the post on the same here ), and the last couple of messages from them suggested they were interested in making a deeply fruity and hoppy IPA or DIPA for our entertainment. So seeing this latest notification I was eager to read on.

Their latest information was about an IPA called The Daphne Touch. In their information they included the following in their list of ingredients - Citra, Simcoe, Mosaic and Azacca Hops, Kveik Scandanavian Super yeast, and lactose. They were particularly impressed with the performance of Kveik - which is a yeast, not a hop - since they described it as a brewers dream - "quick to ferment, active at practically any temperature, and oh so many incredible flavours". As well as being understandably impressed with this information (and the rest) I decided to hope I could get hold of some of that, and also to search for info online, where everything is true, lets not forget....

Kveik is in fact a Norwegian dialect word meaning yeast, mainly (but not exclusively I think) referring to a type of yeast that has been used for generations. A blog post by Blogger Lars Marius Garshol makes much of the fact that Kveik is a type, rather than a strain of yeast, and differs in a number of ways from other farmhouse yeast styles - there is a link to his blog post on the same here . The fact that it is described as a farmhouse yeast from Western Norway is interesting, because my knowledge of farmhouse yeast is very restricted - and I always and indeed only link it to Fantome in Belgium. Their sours are amazing., but I was after mad hoppiness.  The Polly's IPA filled me with the reassurance that in fact it was it's notoriety as a super yeast that would be of importance - and thereafter of delight - to drinkers of pungently spicy and bitter small brewery outputs, when Kveik was used. 

Regarding when I last tried it in a beer - things are a tad unclear. Its five weeks since I went to the pub last and admittedly I have had "one or two" further drinks in that time which may have erased some of my memories. Because even though I keep all of the print outs from Shakespeares which they do about their beer range, as well as having about four months worth of photos on my phone, many of boohars tasted,  I struggled to find any information about Kveik as a style, ingredient or name of anything I have tasted recently.  I did imagine that the ever informative Shakespeares webpage from my second home might help - they did, as it turns out they had a Three Hills Brewery Of Juice IPA or DIPA on - but I missed it, and alas I couldn't find any pictures of their beer board which might help prove my claim (I probably wasn't looking correctly) . It is at this point that I have to most humbly suggest some possible qualities to the Untapped app. That said, I have no plans to involve myself in he near future, am just thinking it may assist forget-me-lots like myself.......

So it's an admittedly low level finish to this post, because although I have approximately 2600 photos on my phone I am not confident of finding the three or four pictures I have taken that would possibly identify that I have had a Kveik beer at any stage in the past!

Meanwhile I would keep looking for beers online that may contain it and, most crucially in this case, I would see how easy it may be to get hold of cans from the fab folk at Polly's Brew Co. In hops we trust!

Your very best of health

Beefy