#ISBF8 #Brewday5 : North riding - the happy place
“I feel real joy, like a bashful boy who’s just won first prize.
I couldn’t hide, even if I tried. You can see it in my eyes.
I got my piece of the rock and I’m oh so satisfied. I’m in love...... “
“I’m So Happy” - Prince Philip Mitchell
Who wouldn’t love to go to work with such a vista outside your door? That’s Snainton, home of North Riding Brewery. And Stuart, Adrian and their small team get the joy of this view, every morning.
But, even before this, for a beer lover, the joy starts the evening before. In the place where the brewery first started. The North Riding Brewpub, just above Scarborough North Bay.
This pub is one of my happy places. Myself & The Boss were invited by Stuart & Karen to come for New Year’s Eve in 2017, immensely flattered, we travelled over “The Hill”. That night was the first night that I felt anything close to joy in nearly 15 months. It was a life changing evening. Something that I’ve never forgotten. Nor has The Boss.
My spirits have been at a low ebb for a few months. This brewday arrived at the perfect time.
As well as helping us through to the light from the darkness, both Stuart & Karen have been huge supporters of this event from the start. With the original brewery, in East Ayton, featuring in some of earliest ISBF Collab brewdays. I’m a fanboy. As far as I’m concerned, NRB are THE cask specialists, brewing simply exceptional beer, whether pale or dark.
Along with Andy Parker (Elusive) & Sean Ayling (Tom’s Tap), Stuart Neilson brews simply stunningly good WC Pales & IPAs (Something that may* feature on the Saturday Lunch Session - *”WILL - Ed…….” - For those with Saturday Lunch tickets, keep your eyes peeled…..)
Music references may feature…….Stu loves a tune.
An additional joy with this beer was brewing it with some more stars of the Yorkshire beer firmament, Malcolm “4 x Winner” Bastow (Five Towns) & Brian Dickson (Northern Monk)
Obligatory Pout Shot - It’s the law!
Given that Stu brews - IMHO - some of the finest WC Pales & IPAs in the UK, we were heading East, to go West Coast. Paradoxical, maybe. But it will be one tasty paradox!
Lots of pale malt. Lots of amazingly aromatic Nelson Sauvin hops. opening that hop pack and breaking up the leaf is one of life’s sensory joys. And this brewday was all about the joy.
That’s the plan for the day. Set. (Item 5 being a bone of contention - to put it mildly!)
With 300kg of malt, this was not a full batch brew. The aim being for a beer coming in at stronger than the norm for North Riding. An IPA with a bit of “heft”. And punchy, with those fabulous Nelson Sauvin hops. This is going to be fun!
Yorkshire’s Finest mashing in. With help from The Fake Tyke……
With the mash in done and the malt giving up its delicious sugars, I had the “onerous” task of breaking up the pack of Nelson leaf hops. A sticky, sensory delight. There’s nothing quite like slicing open a bag of hops, breaking some up and inhaling deeply. Oh my! Nelson is such a beautiful fruity beast, the hops could be smelt yards away.
Remember that list? With the malt doing its thing, it was time for the legendary Glaves’ breakfast butties. Legendary to those of us who have brewed at NRB. They are simply magnificent. Social media had a brief Glaves moment too. The Bacon, Egg & Sausage butty was a BEAST. But I was up to the task. Just.
With a bittering addition of German Magnum hops earlier - and the boil coming to an end - the dog needed to see the rabbit (the Nelson needed adding to do their tasty aromatic thing). Another “onerous” task. But - selfless to the core - I stepped up. Literally….
The fruity smells from those hops lit up the brewery! Well, they would, wouldn’t they?
Next up was the digging out of the mash. My favourite job. No, REALLY! With my glamourous assistant, Brian, that task was completed in no time at all and Stu was swiftly into cleaning mode.
Back to that list….. I was honoured to join an exclsive club of collaborators on the brewery wall…..
Myself, Malcolm & Brian are bottom right….
Technobase has a lot to answer for!
That list. Points 1, 2 & 4 were ticked off (the pie - Delicious Steak in my case - was saved for later as we were still full of butty!). 5? That kicked in - with a Technobase version of THAT SATANIC SONG - whilst I was clearing out the hops from the copper. Gits.
That said, it was almost acceptable, compared to the hideous original.
Believe me. Those rains aren’t blessed, despite everything Andy Parker says!
Malcolm did a sterling job finishing up removing the hops following my Af**ca Trauma
With transfer to the FV complete and the Novo Lager yeast pitched (cue “Yorkshire Warcry”), we - barring a little cleaning - were done.
One hell of a day. With friends.
So. What have we got. I’ll tell you…….
“Modern Love” - a Modern WC IPA. Likely to weigh in at a respectable 7% abv. Fruity. With a judicious bitterness - as all WC IPAs should have. Yum.
And where will you see this first in the Greater Manchester area? You guessed it!
Grab your tickets here. We’re going to have some beery fun!
Massive thanks to the lovely Karen & Stuart for looking after us. And having us over to their magnificent pub to stay the night. Special people.
Brian and Malcolm - an absolute blast. Always a pleasure. Thank you both hugely (Round 2 next week?)
Back soon - with brewdays coming up with 3 Northern Titans (Torrside, Neptune & Northern Monk) in the next few days!
Be kind to one another.
J x