North Beer Club #28 - February 2023

NORTH BEER CLUB

HELLO!

That was a long month wasn’t it? It’s over now though and we can get cracking with the rest of the year.

DRY JANUARY IS OVER! Many congrats to those of you who abstained throughout the month. You’ve technically got extra beers for this month right?

The line up in this month’s box paints a testament to the diversity of North’s fabric. We’ve got a collaboration with one of the oldest breweries in the UK, together making a traditional Golden Ale. Then we’ve got a collaboration with Docks Beers, in terms of scale of production they’re dwarfed in

comparison to JW Lees. With this collab, we’ve taken the traditional European Table Beer and applied a new technique of hopping. We’ve got a collab with Italian brewery, Brewfist, making a traditional Extra Special Bitter. Then we’ve got some fresh, hoppy, New England hazies.

New, old, big, small, traditional, modern. One thing is for sure, we’re not prejudiced when it comes to beer styles and who we brew with. The only thing that matters is the beer is good, and the people we work with are good too.

Cheers!

FROM LEEDS TO MANCHESTER

2023 is in full swing and we have landed in Manchester!

Manchester has been on our wish list for a long long time since opening North Bar back in 1997. Now, 25 years later, we’ve finally done it and we’re absolutely buzzing! Fun fact, John and Christian travelled to Manchester in 1997 to look at some sites and decided there were too many bars and settled for Leeds instead. Imagine what life would have been like if North did start in Manchester?...

North Taproom: Circle Square is located just off Oxford Road. Pouring the freshest from ourselves and our friends, wine and cocktails, plus, of course, serving the fluffiest most delicious food from Little Bao Boy. We’re absolutely chuffed to bits with how the bar has come out. It’s lively, welcoming and cosy!

A lot of hard work from a lot of brilliant people has gone into making our second taproom outside of Leeds happen and we

cannot thank them enough!

We’ve got some great people in our team who really got our taprooms off the ground. Our very own (Magic) Matt has been project managing the building of North Taproom: Circle Square alongside North Taproom: Snow Hill. He’s done an incredible job making sure everything has been done on time, looks fantastic and functions properly!

Fiona, our Retail and Operations Director has been tireless in getting so many important things in place ready for us opening including the wonderful teams who are going to be serving you up your

beers and bao!

And finally North Taproom: Circle Square’s General Manager, Sam. He’s been over in Birmingham getting the team and taproom in place and off the ground, now he’s doing the same in Manchester!

All legends and heroes!

North Taproom Circle Square is open:

Mon - Thurs: 11:00 - 23:30

Fri - Sat: 11:00 - 00:30

Sun: 11:00 - 22:00

REMEMBER! You can use your digital online North Beer Club Membership Card and get discount off your drinks!

IN THIS MONTH’S BOXES

GOLD SUBSCRIPTION

+ JW LEES VINTAGE BARLEY WINE AND HALF PINT GLASS!

SILVER SUBSCRIPTION

NORTH x DOCKS BEERS

Style Table Beer

ABV 2.7%

Hops Idaho7 + Hallertau Blanc + Huell Melon

Made trialling a new way of adding hops called ‘dip hopping.’ Part way through the boil we moved a portion of the wort straight to the fermenter where Idaho 7 hops were waiting. This allowed time for the hot wort to saturate the Idaho 7 hop pellets and have them release an abundance of their juicy, fresh, pithy zest and sweet tinned peach flavour.

The rest of the brew went ahead as usual, our house ale yeast further softens the body and brings subtle fruit esters. Whilst further a dose of Hallertau Blanc and Huell Melon hops bring light balmy lemon and fresh cut grass aromas and smooth floral honey flavour. All of this comes with a quenching and refreshing prickly bitterness, emphasised with a light sparkling carbonation.

VEGAN / CONTAINS BARLEY + OATS

NORTH x BREWFIST

Style Extra Special Bitter

ABV 5.6%

Hops Challenger + Bramling Cross + Ernest

A beer that doesn’t exactly what it says on the tin, everything you know and love about a bitter, but more! We worked with Italian craft beer royalty Brewfist on combining both our Best Bitter recipes. We put to use a plethora of speciality and heritage malts to create a rich, smooth and vibrant base and hopped in the whirlpool with whole leaf Challenger, Bramling Cross and Ernest. The result is a beer that is full of floral honey aroma, citrusy pangs and soft plum notes, countered with caramel sweetness, crumbly biscuit base, a touch of roast and a firm quenching bitterness.

VEGAN / CONTAINS BARLEY + WHEAT

PRE-RELEASE!

NORTH x JW LEES

Style Golden Ale

ABV 5.0%

Hops Challenger + Citra

This is a pretty big deal for us, working with Manchester’s J.W Lees who were founded all the way back in 1828. Known for their impeccable real ales, we’ve worked together to create a fresh and breezy Golden Ale, taking inspiration from Hopback Brewerie’s ‘Summer Lightning’. A base of Maris Otter malt with a touch of Crystal malt for seasoning combined with a healthy dose of UK Challenger from small batch Kentish hop growers, Hukins Hops and a touch of Citra swirl together to bring a full bodied harmony of bright springy flavours.

VEGAN / CONTAINS BARLEY

INTO THE MERZBAU

Style IPA

ABV 7.0%

Hops Talus + Cryo Talus

Step into a warped dimension of senses. Like Kurt Schwitters’s installation, this beer offers new perspective to IPA flavour. With thanks to Yakima Chief Hops, we present to you ‘Into The Merzbau’. A single hop IPA showcasing a new hop strain developed by The Hop Breeding Company located on Yakima Chief Ranches.

HBC 692 (also known as Talus) is a daughter of the Sabro strain and offers dissident dimensions of flavour. Foam sweets, orange, vanilla, grapefruit and coconut cream harmonise on an indulgently smooth oat rich body to create a new interpretation of the IPA that we promise is far from the typical ‘stone fruit/tropical’ profiles.

VEGAN / CONTAINS BARLEY + OATS

EARTHLY DELIGHTS

Style Pale Ale

ABV 4.8%

Hops Idaho 7 t90 + Eldorado t90 + Talus t90

Earthly Delights is pretty much a love song to three of our favourite hops. We want you to be able to enjoy them in abundance, so here’s a nice sessionable Pale Ale to lean into and enjoy. Starting with a simple malt base with added oats and wheat for texture, we’ve laid on a blanket of Idaho 7, El Dorado and a touch of Talus for a choir of zippy clementine, pithy zest, fleshy pear, crunchy pineapple and freckles of lime zest and coconut shavings.

VEGAN / CONTAINS BARLEY + WHEAT + OATS

SONGBIRD

Style IPA

ABV 6.0%

Hops Citra + Mosaic

A smooth and hazy IPA brewed with Citra + Mosaic hops bringing together ripe flavours of freshly squeezed orange juice, tropical stone fruit, soft and sweet blueberry and fresh cut pineapple.

VEGAN / CONTAINS BARLEY + WHEAT

PIÑ ATA

Style Tropical Pale

ABV 4.5%

Hops Citra + Azzaca + Mosaic

Welcome to the most sessionable summer beach party you’ve ever come across. If you’re familiar with Piñata, welcome back to the party!

4.5%, juicy and hoppy, Piñata has got it all! It’s had a few recipe changes over the years but now we’ve got it right where we want it. Unfortunately for us, it’s actually a very complicated process to make Piñata. We fill two separate tanks with the same base beer, one gets a steady dry hop of Citra, Azacca and Mosaic, the other gets pumped full of Kesar Mango and Guava pureé. Once each beer is nice and mixed, we chill the tanks down to settle out any solids, then blend the two beers into one big tank to make the supremely juicy party you’re about to experience. Tasty right? All that trouble is totally worth it in the end.

VEGAN / CONTAINS BARLEY + WHEAT + OATS

BONUS BOTTLE! J.W. LEES HARVEST ALE

Style Barley Wine

ABV 11.5%

Hops

JW Lees’ limited edition vintage barley wine is made but once a year. It’s brewed with the first hops to be harvested, and then they add the very finest British malt. Each vintage brings different flavours, which then evolve as they age, so it’s no wonder it’s gained a cult following among ale enthusiasts! This fully fermented strong ale is a celebration of the brewers’ art. Made by traditional methods with the first cropped hops of the year and the finest malted barley it is stored to give great keeping qualities ensuring that it will improve with time.

Each batch is unique, but expect fruit and molasses on the nose, with a rich body full of toffee, dried fruit and sherry notes.

VEGAN / CONTAINS BARLEY

Strata + Galaxy + Azacca Spectrum

BEER CLUB EVENT!

ANNUAL GENERAL PARTY

FRI 24 FEB / 7PM SPRINGWELL

Less then a month now ‘til our first North Beer Club Annual General Party… and this isn’t an evening you want to miss!

We’ll talk all things North with John, Christian, Seb, Alex and Sam, from beers and bars to upcoming Beer Club events (including the chance to get yourself on a North label… more will be explained!)

It’s not just about the talks though, there will also be tank tastings, giveaways and, of course, free pours of our small batch Toasted Pecan Stout until the keg runs dry!

As always, bring however many mates you would like with you!

Get your free tickets here:

SMALL BATCH BREW DAY

Big thanks to the gang who came down to Springwell to help brew the first North x North Beer Club Small Batch beer with our Head Brewer, Seb.

Special shout out to Silver member Stefan for his suggestion for a Toasted Pecan Stout. We can’t wait to try it and hope we can do it justice!

The finished beer will be pouring for free all evening at our Annual General Party at the end of Feb… come down and drink it with us!

MEMBERS’ AREA

DIGITAL MEMBERSHIP CARD

In the North Beer Club Members area, you can now access your digital membership card. This will be renewed each month for you to get (wait for it…) 10% off ALL purchases across ALL North venues!

FREE BEER!

Sometimes beers reach their expiry date before we’ve sold all the cases. These beers have been kept refrigerated since packaging so are still tasting great, but we won’t continue to sell them if they’re not at their absolute freshest.

These cases will be added to the Members Dashboard for you to add to your order for free.

At the moment, you can grab a 6 pack of the Hard Seltzer and a can of the Left Handed Giant Hazy Pale on us!

FOLLOW OUR INSTAGRAM FOR ALL THINGS BEER CLUB!

Get the low down on what’s in the tanks, who we’re collaborating with, special beer club projects and exclusive events!

SPOTLIGHT JW LEES

J W Lees have been pre-eminent pioneers of impeccably made traditional real ale in the UK for nearly two centuries! Formed in 1828, the Manchester brewery is still family owned and operated six generations later, with 170 pubs and hotels in the North West.

Whilst Lees is best known for traditional, sessionable styles perfect for caskconditioning, such as their beautifully balanced Mild and Bitter, one of their most respected and sought after beers is their annual Harvest Ale barley wine that’s brewed in Autumn ready for a Christmas release. The beer has gained a cult following in the USA, and has become the epitome of the British approach to the style.

Although utilising exactly the same recipe and ingredients, each year’s release brings its own distinct qualities which then develop further when left to rest. According to master brewer Tom Evans, the beer displays the benefits of aging best after about a decade, and so we have chosen to feature the 2014 vintage in this month’s gold box. A complex harmony of caramel, sherry and dried fruit with a dry, nutty bitterness and rounded sweetness, this beer will taste great now or will be fine to be left to sleep until a special occasion.

www.jwlees.co.uk

IN THE TANKS

NORTH x LEFT HANDED GIANT

FIELD RECORDINGS GREEN