What’s that coming over the hill, is it a Barrel Aged Rauchwine….?*

*not this time, sorry…

I (Jim) think very highly indeed of Torrside. I talk to drinkers and brewers from all over the country and they say the same thing, “Torrside? They’re really good…..”. I may LIKE these New Mills Mavericks a lot.

But I’m not a fanboy. I don’t do “Fanboy”. But I know some people that are. Over to James (aka @BeerFinderGen)…..

“Yes, Torrside have developed quite a reputation for their Monsters series. They’ve been busily brewing some wonderful, often smoked, strong beers across a range of styles (along with some epic bottle illustrations from @elliadesigns) since their inception, and it’s something which has rightly gained them a following. However, alongside their Monsters they also seem to have a knack of producing some of the best IPA’s made in the UK – proper West Coast style hoppy, malty, bitter IPA’s that have tended (stylistically) to fall by the wayside in recent times. I’m Spartacus, Sandinista, What Do I Get? and Raw Power have all been some of my favourite beers of the last few years so clearly it’s not a fluke.

So when I got wind of a brewday at Torrside for ISBF6, and the fact the beer would be an IPA, I wasn’t really going to say no, was I? So I didn’t, instead I said ‘yes’ in an excitedly high pitched voice and marked the calendar. Having been to a few brew days and taps at Torrside with @leggywolf we’ve developed a tradition – as I get on the train to New Mills later than he does, he waves a white hanky out of the train door at the platform so I know which carriage to get on. Unfortunately, being unforgivably hanky-less, Lee had to settle for waving a white Salt Brewing tote bag instead (he’s nothing if not a craft beer merch professional) but it did the job.

Arriving at New Mills Newtown station it was a 2 minute walk round to the brewery where we were greeted by the welcoming committee of Steven (@SaddestOfFields), two members of the brewery team in Chris and new arrival Mike, and Mr Manchester himself Jim (who incidentally spent most of the day hiding in the office avoiding any hard work - Cheeky little git! Ed….er…Jim).

As ever, it wouldn’t be a Torrside brewday without appropriate snackage so a table was soon filled with pork balls (and hummus obvs), pork pies, bacon quiche etc. – seemingly anything that had a bit of pig in it – to keep us sustained through the hard graft, and help soak up any booze we may or may not be having later in the day…

We swiftly got on with the mashing in with a majority pale malt, but with an intriguing additional combination of rye, pale chocolate, crystal and roasted barley going in. As you may have guessed from the malt bill we’re expecting a bit of colour in this beer. The brew day progressed pretty smoothly from here on in, with no Monster being parti-gyled it was all relatively straight forward.

Until we had to break the hops up. Having broken up hops a number of times we weren’t fully prepared for just how successfully a pack of Apollo hops had been condensed by presumably the world’s most powerful vacuum packer. If I’d thrown the block of hops in the air and shot it with an elephant gun I’m not sure even that would have dislodged more than a small amount of the little brown/green bastards.

(Hardest HE’s worked in MONTHS! Ed….)

However, perseverance (and repeatedly stabbing the obdurate git with a large screwdriver) eventually paid off and so the aroma hop additions could finally go in (some Willamette going in with the Apollo). The mashtun had been skilfully dug out by Steve while me, Lee and Mike hop wrestled, and so most of the activity was done for the day. A few bottles were shared, assorted pork products were demolished, and a little light cleaning was done. And that was that. All for the pleasure of being able the try the fruits of our labours at ISBF6 – and also so you can look forward to a red rye IPA (6.2%ish we think) from, in my view, one of the masters of the style.

Many thanks to the guys at Torrside for having us over – an enormous pleasure, and great company, as ever 😊

NB: it wouldn’t be a blog about a brew day in New Mills without some gratuitous shots of Kami and Toshi so....”

Despite the gratuitous insults - for which I WILL get my own back - big thank you to James for this write up and to Lee and Steve for coming along (and gratuitously bottle-sharing once I departed) and last - but certainly not least - to the guys from Torrside for putting up with such shenanigans, whilst making what is going to be one lovely beer.

And you will get it first where? I mean, if you have to ask…..

Back VERY soon - once some lazy chipolatas send me their write ups!

Be kind to one another.

Jim x