Weekender: Brewery to launch Northern Powerhouse beer series

Leeds-based brewery Northern Monk is launching a 2019 Northern Powerhouse beer series, a set of seven specially packaged beers  designed to showcase the North’s thriving craft beer scene.

It said the celebratory project was originally set up by Newcastle-based Wylam brewery in 2018 and sees independent craft breweries from across the North of England coming together to create a unique series of collaboration beers that exemplify the strength of the North’s brewing industry.

The first series of beers was brewed in 2018 by Wylam, to coincide with the launch of the Great Exhibition of the North.

The project was so successful that Wylam decided that it should be an annual event and given to a different brewery to host each year. At last year’s Indy Man Beer Con festival, Dave Stone, the Director of Wylam brewery, passed the Northern Powerhouse baton over to Russell Bisset, Founder of Northern Monk.

This year’s Northern Powerhouse series was brewed entirely at Northern Monk’s Leeds-based brewery and consists of seven limited-edition beers. Collaborating breweries are Wylam, Track, North Brew Co, Donzoko, Buxton, Cloudwater and By the River.

Each can features one-of-a-kind artwork designed specifically for the Northern Powerhouse. Northern Monk Patron, James Butler, a tattoo artist from Bradford, helped Northern Monk source six more of the North’s best tattooists to design a can label each, with Butler’s own art featuring on the Northern Monk x North Brew Co beer.

The full list of beers, breweries and artists is as follows:

Northern Powerhouse 001 // Northern Monk x Track // Small IPA // // 3.3% (art by Marko Prenger)

Northern Powerhouse 002 // Northern Monk x North Brewing Co // Triple Fruited Gose -White Guava, Prickly Pear, Raspberry // 4% (art by James Butler)

Northern Powerhouse 003 // Northern Monk x Donzoko // Bavarian Pilsner // 4.7% (art by Alex Badge)

Northern Powerhouse 004 // Northern Monk x Wylam // Tropical Sour IPA // 6% (art by Barney Rushworth)

Northern Powerhouse 005 // Northern Monk x Buxton // West Coast IPA // 7.4% (art by Lucy O’ Connell)

Northern Powerhouse 006 // Northern Monk x Cloudwater // DDH Double IPA // 8.2% (art by Kevin Keates)

Northern Powerhouse 007 // Northern Monk x By the River // Imperial Maple Brown Ale // 10% (art by Ruth Jamieson)

The beers will be launching exclusively at three venues on Friday 28 June. They will be Northern Monk’s own Leeds and Manchester-based Refectory taprooms, and By the River in Newcastle, a microbrewery and tap room owned by Wylam, which sits just underneath the Tyne Bridge. Representatives from each brewery will be present at the launch events.

The national launch will take place a day later on Saturday 29 June, with Northern Powerhouse tap takeovers taking place at all of the above collaborating brewery tap rooms, plus the following venues across the UK:

CASC (Aberdeen), Grunting Growler (Glasgow), Salt Horse (Edinburgh), House of Trembling Madness, Lendal (York), Dead Crafty Beer Co (Liverpool), Bar Stewards (Sheffield), Tilt (Birmingham), Junkyard (Nottingham), Mother Kelly’s – multiple sites (London), Small Bar (Bristol), Bison (Brighton), Vessel Beer Shop (Plymouth).

Founder of Northern Monk, Russell Bisset, said: “We’re honoured that Dave and the team at Wylam chose Northern Monk to be the home of the Northern Powerhouse this year, we’re proud to bring this iconic project to Leeds. Together with seven of the North’s finest breweries, we’ve created a collection of really varied, great-tasting beers. Community, collaboration and creation are at the core of our business, and the Northern Powerhouse sits in perfect alignment with these values. We’re looking forward to getting the beer into people’s hands.”