North Beer Club #31 - May 2023

Welcome to this month’s beer club boxes. It’s been a busy month at Springwell prepping for our festival, Springwell Sessions and brewing some delicious new beers!

We’ve teamed up with Pastore for a long overdue return collaboration. They’ve built an incredible reputation for their sour beers and we can’t wait for you to try our fruited sour brewed with peach, blueberry, raspberry and ginger.

Continuum sees us return to our love of West Coast style American Pale Ales, and Waking the Artist sees us collaborate with Leeds 2023 on their year of culture - read on for more information on this exciting project.

This month also sees the return of Stillwater UK to the beer club boxes. We’re incredibly proud of our ongoing partnership with Stillwater, brewing beers using their yeast, recipes and techniques allowing them to supply beer to Europe without expensive (and unsustainable) air freighting.

Thanks for all the support this month. Enjoy the beers!

Love North

IN THIS MONTH’S BOXES

GOLD SUBSCRIPTION

SILVER SUBSCRIPTION

STILLWATER NEW GOLD

Style Dry Hopped Sour Ale

ABV 5.5%

Hops Citra + Galaxy + Hallertau

Lush and hoppy modern approach to the classic blonde ale. Heavily hopped with Citra, Galaxy and Hallertau Mittelfrüh. Fermented with farmhouse ale yeast.

VEGAN / CONTAINS BARLEY + WHEAT + OATS

NEW SENSATION

Style Kveik IPA

ABV 6.9%

Hops Citra + Motueka + Nelson Sauvin + Hallertau Blanc

International Pale Ale is our take on the ever popular IPA style that expands the concept to implore technique and ingredients from around the world. A lush blend of English malts and flaked grains are heavily hopped with varietals from the US (Citra), NZ (Nelson & Moteuka) & DE (Hallertau Blanc) all forged together by Norwegian farmhouse yeast.

VEGAN / CONTAINS BARLEY + WHEAT + OATS

STILLWATER SESH

Style Dry Hopped Session Ale

ABV 3.8%

Hops Citra + East Kent Golding

A crisp dry-hopped session ale comprised of pilsner malt, flaked oats & rice - pulled together by our signature American farmhouse yeast and abundantly hopped with a blend of Citra and East Kent Goldings providing notes of bright tropical fruits with floral earthy undertones.

VEGAN / CONTAINS BARLEY + OATS

NORTH x LEEDS 2023 WAKING THE ARTIST

Style Pale Ale

ABV 4.2%

Hops Citra + El Dorado + Centennial

Leeds 2023 is a year long arts festival, celebrating the creative culture of Leeds. The festival kicked off with a launch event at Headingley Stadium. The people of Leeds were invited to submit their own works to be displayed and celebrated at the event. This was ‘The Awakening’.

At the start of April the first exhibition was held at the Merrion Centre, where people’s artworks were transformed into an immersive show on the 11th floor of the Merrion Centre. Children’s drawings were scaled up, photographs transformed into life size, interactive sculptures, video works and paintings were all exhibited amongst the backdrop of the Leeds skyline.

Leeds 2023 celebrates not just the artists of Leeds, but musicians, performers, poets and the rich, diverse cultural fabric of our incredible city. This is about Leeds, all of us and all that we do!

The beer is an easy drinking and accessible pale ale featuring guest artwork from Leeds based artist and illustrator Claudia Bowler (@gink.ink) and, like Square Ball and St.Georges Crypt SIPA, this beer celebrates the good of our city and celebrates North’s connection and commitment to its city.

Waking the Artist is a highly drinkable pale ale, smooth, refreshing and bursting with fruity flavour! Citra, El Dorado and Centennial hops combine to bring flavours

of mango, candied orange and pink grapefruit. A tropical burst that is as vibrant and energetic as the place we call home.

This is Leeds, this is The Waking Artist, this is our year!

VEGAN / CONTAINS BARLEY + WHEAT

TFG 25

Style Triple Fruited Gose + White Guava + PInk Guava + Mango

ABV 4.5%

Hops —

Making a fresh return to Gold boxes this week is our White Guava + Pink Guava + Mango TFG that first made it’s appearance in 2019, then was voted by you to return at the start of this year!

You all obviously made a sterling choice, as the beer received a Gold Award from SIBA, The Society of Independent Brewers which we are absolutely ecstatic about! The TFG placed top of the pack not only in the ‘Sour and Wild’ category, but then going on to win Gold in the ‘National Keg’ Category! Buzzing!

So that means Triple Fruited Gose : White Guava + Pink Guava + Mango is the best beer to have on keg in the country right? We’ll take that! A massive shout out to our brew team for all their care, skill and attention when producing our beers.

This is a true testament to their craft. Also, a massive shout to YOU, the ones who voted for this beer to return!

In a very rare occurrence, we’ve actually brewed even more of it this month (technically a re-re-brew!) as we’re dead excited to announce that this beer has won a national listing in all Dishooms around the country!

The rich, generously spiced Bombay cuisine is the perfect fit for the sweet, zingy guava and salinity of this extra special TFG. A plethora of sherbety tart of sweet sappy tropical flavour and aroma. A true delight!

CONTAINS BARLEY + OATS + LACTOSE

NORTH x PASTORE

Style Fruited Sour + Peach + Blueberry + Raspberry + Ginger

ABV 6.0%

Hops —

Pastore have long been on our list of breweries we want to collaborate with. Based in Cambridge, they have a passion and skill for creating super fresh fruited sours and barrel aged and blended wild ales.

In this beer, we’ve turned up the ABV up to 6% , used a huge dose of oats and wheat and a touch of milk sugar for a fuller body and to bring out all of those sweet juicy fruity flavours! We love how sour Pastore’s beers are so we dropped the pH real low. Raspberry and blueberry kick it all off with their vibrant colour and juicy delicious tart zaps, whilst peach brings its aromatic and sweet rounded notes. A sprinkle of gingery spice kicks out huge aroma and caramelised flavour bringing a crumbly cheesecake vibe on the finish.

CONTAINS BARLEY + WHEAT + LACTOSE

INVISIBLE CITIES

Style Hazy IPA

ABV 6.7%

Hops Talus + Citra + Mosaic

Made using a fine crush of extra pale malt and oats, it’s soft, smooth and loaded with Talus, Citra and Mosaic hops. It’s a bounty of coconut cream, lime, succulent pineapple and juicy orange that swirl into a laid back delight of tropical punch.

VEGAN / CONTAINS BARLEY + OATS

FULL CIRCLE FUTURE SKIES

Style Citrus IPA

ABV 6.0%

Hops Cryo POP + Citra + El Dorado

Our third collaboration with Newcastle’s Full Circle Brewing Co brings us to making an IPA perfect for sipping in the sunshine! An extra fine and fluffy base made up of pale malt, oats and chit malt sets the tone for laid back easy drinking!

One of our favourite hop combos, Citra and El Dorado, creates a bright squash of sweet fleshy pear, orange and peach with Yakima Cheif’s CRYO POP™ blend bringing a succulent tropical fruit salad medley. The chorus of fruits doesn’t stop there. We finished the beer by circulating it through lemon zest to draw out bright, balmy and tart flavours and aromatics. The result is an undoubtable, proper sunshine refresher!

VEGAN / CONTAINS BARLEY + OATS

CONTINUUM

Style American Pale Ale

ABV 5.5%

Hops Centennial + Cascade

An old school classic American Pale ale with a modern twist! Malt and Crystal Malt make a crisp and crunchy full bodied base with a deep amber hue. We’ve made used fresh CRYO Cascade hops at various stages throughout the boil and added generous quantities of the freshest whole leaf Cascade in the whirlpool and dry hop.

The result is a clean, complex and fragrant bouquet of floral aroma and subtle spice with zippy zesty and juicy pink grapefruit and orange with a lingering bitter finish!

VEGAN / CONTAINS BARLEY

A transatlantic partnership between Washington-based Stillwater and North.

We’re excited to bring you this year’s batches of Stillwater beers brewed here at Springwell. North and Stillwater go way way back. It essentially all began at North Bar. They were always one of those American Breweries we were so excited to showcase. Trying ‘Extra Dry’ their sake style saison for the first time was a true experience. North Bar was one of the first bars to premier Stillwater’s collaboration with Action Bronson ‘Action 7000’, a sour ale dry hopped and fruited with muscat grapes.

As part of North’s USA beer festival in 2018, we poured Stillwater’s Take Out series. A series of beers inspired by your favourite take out dishes. General Gose : Sour amber wheat ale brewed with orange peel powder, thai chilli powder, sea salt and MSG seasoning. Kung Pao Imperial Stout with peanut, chilli, Sichuan peppercorns and ginger. Duck Sauce DIPA with apricot, plum, pineapple, ginger and candy syrup. This is where we first met Brian Strumke, brewer and founder of Stillwater, and where our friendship

began. These are all true testaments to Brian’s creativity and attention to detail when it comes to ingredients and recipe.

Stillwater was started by Brian Strumke*, DJ, traveller, brewer. Have you ever heard the term Gipsy brewer? Brian was one of the first. Rather than taking on the challenge of building and running his own brewery, Brian reached out to breweries he loved and trusted and began making his beers there. Stillwater has always been a reflection of Brian’s journey through this world. The places he’s visited. The culture he’s consumed and experienced. The friends he’s made along the way – musicians, visual artists, vintners, chefs, hop growers, fellow brewers. It’s a dialogue with the things that excite and challenge him.

Now after many years, Brian [and Stillwater] have finally put down roots. Two homes in fact. Last year production of Stillwater beers began in Seattle, making a home with Talking Cedar Brewery and Distillery and here in Leeds. Brian began looking at ways to best get fresh Stillwater beers to a European audience without

extortionate and unsustainable shipping from their new production facility in Washington, with the unavoidably negative impacts on quality and flavour of the beer that this would entail. Always one to transcend normal geographical boundaries and restrictions, Stillwater began to look for a UK brewery partner to entrust with their recipes and, more importantly, their house yeast. After we worked together on making a delicious Kveik IPA** made with El Dorado + Sabro hops which then went on to become ‘Green Curve’, Brian decided that the obvious choice was North Brewing Co.

We have been incredibly fortunate for Brian to entrust us with his house yeast, shipping 4,500 miles across the Atlantic ocean to our brewery here in Leeds. A blend of farmhouse yeasts that create a unique ‘signature’ on Stillwater beers. There’s a rustic style to Stillwater beers, the mix of cultures in the Stillwater yeast can be traced back to be hundreds of years old and provide a delicate complexity of floral and lightly spicy flavour profile on a dry, sometimes tart and crisp body.

The three beers included in your box are an expression of what stillwater is all about. We’ve loved making these beers, we’re really proud of how they’ve come out, they’ve got the all clear from Brian and we hope you enjoy them too.

IN THE TANKS