North Beer Club #42 - April 2024

HELLO SPRING

The lighter nights are here, the sun is making an appearance and the first harvests of Rhubarb have hit the shelves; Spring is officially here and this month we’ve included for you a seasonal rebrew to celebrate!

The change of seasons isn’t all we’re toasting to though. We want to thank all of you that voted in the Untappd Community Awards. We took home two gold wins for our 2023 collaborations with Basqueland and Varvar, which were voted best Milkshake IPA and best Smoked Beer. Your re-views mean a lot to us and often influence our recipes to make sure we bring you the best beers, just like this month’s rebrew.

We have taken onboard your feedback from our Facebook poll and will be keeping Beer Club booklets digital going forward. We hope this won’t affect your Beer Club experience and will help us be a little kinder to the planet.

We’ve also been busy hosting our good friends from Verdant and Ziemia Obiecana, so keep an eye out for more details on that coming very soon!

We hope you enjoy this month’s line-up.

Love North X

AT A GLANCE

GOLD SUBSCRIPTION

SILVER SUBSCRIPTION

VERNAL EQUINOX

Style Wit beer

ABV 4.8%

Hops Loral

Canned 9 April 2024

Vernal Equinox celebrates the change of the seasons, welcoming in Spring. Inspired by traditional Belgian wit beers, poured for the first time in the UK at North Bar, and well-loved amongst the whole team.

The recipe uses a mix of rustic grains including unmalted and malted wheat, spelt and oats, resulting in a light, cloudy appearance with a smooth mouthfeel. Flavoured with traditional ingredients, including coriander and bitter orange peel, we’ve also added an unusual aromatic component, grains of paradise, which accentuates unique hints of ginger and a refreshing bitter earthiness. With classic herbaceous aromas, this sparkling sessionable wit beer is perfect to toast to the longer days.

VEGAN / CONTAINS BARLEY + WHEAT + OATS

VOLTA

Style Rhubarb and Blood Orange Sour

ABV 4.1%

Hops —

Canned 20 March 2024

We’re celebrating the Rhubarb Triangle once again in our seasonal brew, Volta! The original recipe was concocted in 2017, as we took our first steps into the world of sours. The main ingredient in Volta is the locally sourced fuchsia pink rhubarb from Rothwell, one corner of the nine-square-mile area that makes up the Rhubarb Triangle.

This 4.1% kettle sour is made with plenty of wheat, with the locally sourced fresh rhubarb and seasonal blood oranges added into the whirlpool, taking on all those delicious, vibrant flavours. Dry, tangy, zesty and super sessionable, this is a North staple to welcome in the change of the seasons.

VEGAN

TRANSMISSION

Style IPA

ABV 6.9%

Hops Citra + Mosaic + Chinook + Sultana

Canned 8 April 2024

A beer that needs no introduction, it’s Transmission, our beloved core range IPA! You know what they say about IPA? Freshest is bestest!

This Transmission is FRESH! Resinous pine, pithy pink grapefruit zest and fleshy ripe pineapple combines with a soft haze of juicy stone fruits and sweet mango. Transmission is an award winning IPA and our core range headliner. A beer we’re incredibly proud of and one that stands up against the best brewing has to offer!

OPEN SPACE

Style Gluten Free Pale Ale

ABV 4.5%

Hops Simcoe + Chinook

Canned 26 March 2024

Crispy, zesty, pithy, refreshingly bitter and massively lacking in the gluten department.

Open Space has all the flavour of a classic West Coast, packed into a lower ABV and is gluten free! A beautiful, golden biscuity base has a steady dry hop of Simcoe and Chinook boasts sticky grapefruit, lemon, floral bouquets and pine flavours with a thirst-quenching bitter finish.

VEGAN / CONTAINS BARLEY

DISTANT CALL

Style Hazy IPA

ABV 6.5%

Hops Azacca + Mosiac + Sabro

A soft and smooth New England IPA made with our house pale malt, rolled oats and chit malt to provide a gentle, soft and pillowy body. Azacca and Mosaic ooze with sweet sticky passion fruit, overripe mango and freshly squeezed orange juice and crushed pine needles with Sabro providing its unmistakable qualities of fresh lime zest, coconut and a touch of spice on the finish.

PIÑATA

Style Tropical Pale

ABV 4.5%

Hops Citra + Azzaca + Mosaic

Canned 26 March 2024

Crispy, zesty, pithy, refreshingly bitter and massively lacking in the gluten department. Open Space has all the flavour of a classic West Coast, packed into a lower ABV and is gluten free! A beautiful, golden biscuity base has a steady dry hop of Simcoe and Chinook boasts sticky grapefruit, lemon, floral bouquets and pine flavours with a thirst-quenching bitter finish.

VEGAN / CONTAINS BARLEY + OATS + WHEAT

AUTOMATIC

Style California Pale

ABV 4.5%

Hops Citra + Mosaic + Cascade + Chinook

Canned 29 March 2024

Automatic is a refreshing and sessionable balance of tropical fruit and crisp piney bitterness that’s perfect for every occassion. Citra, Mosaic, Cascade and Chinook hops sing with flavours of sweet pineapple, zesty grapefruit, overripe peach, finishing with a gentle piney bitterness that refreshes the palate and leaves you wanting more.

SEASONS REVERSE

Style Best Bitter

ABV 4.3%

Hops Bullion + East Kent Goldings + Cascade

Canned 28 March 2024

We first brewed this beer during lockdown for some simple reasons. We missed the pub. We missed pints. We missed pints of cask ale. Now pubs are back open crispy autumn nights are setting in, we rebrewed Season Reverse so that we could actually fill up some firkins and get it pumped through a hand pull in a pub. Sparkler on of course.

Chevallier, Crystal, Munich, Amber Malt and Torrefied Wheat provide a fine crunchy biscuit and sweet marmalade base with a clear and rich amber hue. A blend of whole leaf Bullion, East Kent Goldings and UK Cascade allow for a strong bitter line to run through the whole drink and throw bouquets of earthy blackberry, honey and gentle floral pine aroma.

VEGAN

/ CONTAINS BARLEY + OATS

EXPLORING THE RHUBARB TRIANGLE

As spring paints the Yorkshire countryside with its vibrant hues, we’re drawn to the Rhubarb Triangle, nestled on the outskirts of Leeds, just a few miles from the brewery. This triangular region—encompassing Wakefield, Morley, and Rothwell—is well known for its luscious rhubarb harvests, naturally attracting chefs, bakers and brewers from across the country to pick its fuchsia pink produce.

Since 2017 when we first brewed Volta, we’ve been visiting E. Oldroyd & Sons in Rothwell who have been harvesting rhubarb for five generations, producing around 1,000 tons of rhubarb every year which is grown and picked by candlelight between January and March.

The farm first became a tourist attraction in 1997, opening to tourists who wanted to learn about the incredible history and health benefits associated with the plant, and see it being harvested in the dark by candlelight. Not only have they been named a ‘Rick Stein Food Hero Producer’ but many celebrity chefs have made visits due to the resurgence in popularity of this traditional crop.

The culinary possibilities with rhubarb are endless, reflecting the creativity and ingenuity of Yorkshire's food and drink scene. Volta was created as a homage to the rich agricultural heritage and the unique microclimate of the rhubarb triangle that makes Yorkshire so special and that we are so proud of.

Who knew that the festival season would start so early for us here at North? March is the new May, as we visited our international friends, pouring in Helsinki and Zürich and kicking off the beer festival season for 2024!

Craft Beer Helsinki has taken place at Wanha Satama, on the docks of the city centre, since 2016. We were honoured to be one of the only UK breweries pouring, discovering the amazing selection of beers from Finland and throughout Europe.

We loved getting the chance to discover new breweries and can highly recommend checking out Fiskarsin Panimo, a mixed fermentation brewery that utilises the spent grapes from their neighbours, Noita Winery. Whilst Mallassepät showcased a plethora of styles, from decadent stouts to hop forward IPA’s. Although, we need to mention the Liquorice, Tonka Bean and Raspberry sour that, as bizarre as this combination sounds, truly worked for one delicious beer!

ZURICH

HELSINKI

We then flew out to Switzerland the following weekend, stopping in for a quick collab at Docteur Gab’s in Savigny before joining the 10th anniversary of Zürich Beer Festival.

Having our collaboration with Hoppy People pouring as the official festival beer was amazing, with so many customers wanting to learn more about our beers and see what else North had to offer.

The Orange of Pink was a crowd favourite but those who possessed the “beer geek” ticket couldn’t get enough of our Muscat IPA with Noita Winery.

Attending these festivals not only allows us to showcase North in other countries but also enables us to get a better understanding of the wider world of craft beer – what’s popular in the UK may not be so in Finland. We learn from these trips, taking tips and feedback from our overseas brewery friends and customers.

But what a way to kick off the festival season for 2024! We’ve got a jam-packed calendar of events to come – keep up to date with everything happening at North and afar via our Events page:

info.northbrewing.com/events