beer

The Drunken Duck Inn, near Ambleside, Cumbria

January 1, 2010

We thought we might be staying longer at The Drunken Duck, by default. The night had been cold, and the previous day’s showers had frozen over the lying snow. We checked out and set off down the country lane to the side of the Inn, the car wheels skidding on black ice. I was beginning [...]

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Jenning’s Snecklifter

December 17, 2009
Jenning's Snecklifter Lakeland beer

Another classic Lakeland beer, from the recently flood-hit and therefore underwater Jenning’s Brewery in Cockermouth, Cumbria, Sneck Lifter is a deep, dark and rich beer with a coffee flavour and a malty finish. It’s a warming winter beer, with a potent dark red colour. Jenning’s make much of the name.  A “sneck lifter” is a [...]

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The Old Tramshed, Saltaire

October 17, 2009
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We’d planned to eat at The Boathouse, a newly renovated pub/restaurant on the river at the bottom of Saltaire village.  It’s a slick and modern looking place which inexplicably stops serving food at 8pm despite having a large dining room, doesn’t run a reservations system and was packed by the time we arrived. It soon [...]

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Copper Dragon Brewery, Skipton

September 25, 2009
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The Copper Dragon Brewery resurrected the local brewing industry in Skipton in 2002, with the aim of re-establishing the long defunct Skipton Brewery. Their aim, after much research which basically indicated that the more artisan end of the beer market was being squeezed to near death by the big multinational breweries, was to brew traditional, [...]

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Leeds Brewery

July 22, 2009
Leeds Brewery

I realised the other day that I haven’t written anything at all about Leeds Brewery yet. The brewery has been in production since 2007, and it’s got a stable of good, solid modern beers, and a trio of staggeringly good pubs to sell it in. Leeds have three permanent beers, supplemented by a range of [...]

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Little Valley Brewery’s Hebden’s Wheat

June 23, 2009
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Hebden’s Wheat is a light and lively wheat beer from the Little Valley Brewery in Hebden Bridge. The beer is bottle conditioned, with a distinct lemon taste, tinged with coriander. It goes perfectly with a curry or other spicy food. Little Valley’s beers are organic, certified by the Soil Association and overseen by the brewery’s [...]

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Grozet – Scottish gooseberry beer

June 19, 2009
Grozet gooseberry beer

Grozet is a gooseberry flavoured beer from William Bros. Brewing Company, a Scottish brewer based in Alloa who specialise in the historic or slightly esoteric end of the market. William Bros. brew a range of unusual beers, Grozet being the prime example. It’s a heritage beer, based on a 16th century beer brewed at harvest [...]

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Doom Bar and Eden Pure Ale from Sharp’s Brewery, Cornwall

June 5, 2009
Thumbnail image for Doom Bar and Eden Pure Ale from Sharp’s Brewery, Cornwall

Year’s ago, in the seas around the Cornish town of Padstow, there lived a mermaid. As mermaids do, she fell in love with a local fisherman, and tried to lure him beneath the waves, into her realm. The fisherman, in terror, and fearing for his life, shot her to escape. In her dying moments, the [...]

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