Beer on tap as Yorkshire breweries get in the festive spirit
THE beer storm sweeping the UK shows no sign of abating, and some of the best and most interesting brands are pouring out of Yorkshire.
Leeds staple brewery Northern Monk have launched a beer with Swedish progressive band Opeth dubbed XXV Anniversary Imperial Stout, it is a 9.2% one-off brew.
Only 1,700 bottles are being made of the stuff, and according to the brewery, it is a descendant of the strongest stout porter brewed in Britain in the 18th century, brewed with 10 different malts.
Northern Monk said the brew has notes of “rich chocolate, cinder toffee and coffee” – perfect for a festive tipple.
Russell Bisset, founder of Northern Monk Brew Co said: “We’re big metal fans at Northern Monk and Opeth is often the soundtrack to our brewing. When the opportunity to work with the band came up, we jumped at the chance
“We got together at the brewery tap room and tasted our range of beers with them and together came up with a couple of recipes.”
Opeth frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt added: “Even if we’re musicians firstly, we’re beer drinkers secondly. Kind of. Let me rephrase: We love beer. We love good beer. We’ve turned into culinary connoisseurs of late. Not too much snobbery however. We just love good food and drinks. So when we were approached by the fantastic Northern Monk brewery to do a Opeth signature beer we simply could not turn it down.
“Northern Monk are great: they even invited Fredrik and Axe down to the brewery for a walkthrough of their premises in Leeds. Needless to say, they got both of them drunk, but we also managed to get our own brand of signature beer down to a tee. And Axe and Fredrik know their beer, from years of over-indulging.
“All I know is that it’s a top quality beer and I will certainly enjoy having my own little stash in the cooler for Christmas. Cheers!”
Barnsley’s Acorn Brewery is toasting success as its festive 13th Noel beer is helping it sell more beer than ever to fans of the craft.
Sales were up by a quarter with Acorn’s cask ales travelling far and wide – it has taken orders for a record-breaking 35,000 bottles of beer.
Some of its festive favourites are doing the rounds, making cracking stocking-fillers for the beer lovers in your house over Christmas.
A pale ale called Cracker is a 4.1% and its darker, stronger partner the 13th Noel is made stronger by 0.1% every year, now standing at 6.0% – watch out for the eye-watering brand in years to come.
Dave said: “We describe our Noel as ‘Christmas pudding in a glass’ because it is rich and fruity and its devotees enjoy the strength going up by a tenth of a per cent each year.
“We’ll probably keep going until it reaches 7% in ten years, at which time my son Lewis will be 21 years old and I’ve promised him that he’ll brew the 23rd Noel.”
Matt Shaw, brewer at Acorn Brewery in Barnsley
Three of Acorn’s beers, Barnsley Bitter, Barnsley Gold and Yorkshire Pride, were recently introduced to the shelves of more than 60 Yorkshire Co-ops, and the brewery has sent around 10,000 pints to its Italian customers in the run up to Christmas.
