I'm not going to pretend that this post will be any good, but it might have some interesting news.I'm posting at an unusually late hour because I've just got in from a night out with the Dandy BrewPunks of Fraserburgh. It's been a lot of fun, and has encompassed a whole range of beers - Fernandes Barge [Something] - very tasty low abv blonde ale, and then things heated up. A bottle of BrewDog Avery Brown Dredge - very tasty, just what it should be. Flying Dog Wild Dog - complex and drinkable. Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron - complex, but foghorn-like. Great Divide Double IPA - a little tired, although tasty. Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA - again, tired but tasty.
But the main purpose of their visit was to look at some locations for the next BrewDog bar. It seems that Leeds is next on their radar, with some very targetted visits from James and Martin, along with bar manager Bruce from BrewDog Aberdeen.
Nothing is signed, the shop window is still strictly for browsing, but it seems likely that BrewDog will open a bar in Leeds at some point this year.
Raise your hand if you think that's good news.
*raises hand*
.
Nice one! I saw a cracking place in Whitby that would make a great bar especially with the no of tourists the place gets!
ReplyDeleteOf course; BD would provide a 'destination' bar and a rival to a very niche Market in the bottled/keg bar part of the Market. Tasty beers, too!
ReplyDeleteGood news for you Leeds guys. :)
ReplyDeleteLondon next please!
BeerBirraBier.
BEST. NEWS. EVER.
ReplyDeleteI've been hearing rumblings about this for a couple of weeks. I think its great news and I agree with Leigh that a little friendly competition for the current specialist beer bars will be very healthy.
ReplyDeleteLeeds' beer scene has been steadily growing recently, North Bar have always been the innovators and originators but Mr Foley's have upped their game significantly too. And with other beer bars in the rumour-mill Leeds could develop a really fantastic circuit of craft beer.
I've always been impressed with how well priced BrewDog's bars tend to be. This new addition can only be good for us West Yorkshire based beer fans.
Oh and don't forget The Sparrow opening in Bradford on the 20th May!
Any news on locations? Holbeck Urban Village or Granary Wharf (under one of those lovely big railway arches like The Hop) would be great!*
ReplyDelete*and near where I live coincidentally....
*raises both hands*
ReplyDeleteI can imagine that Stoke On Trent is probably around choice number 57 on the "where are we going to put a BrewDog bar next list",
ReplyDeletelooks like I'll have to move...
Good news for you lucky folk further North at least
This is very exciting indeed, but presuming it follows the same model as Aberdeen, I think it will be interesting to see how Yorkshire drinkers respond to a craft beer bar without the option of cask ale (which is also correspondingly cheaper - this is Yorkshire after all).
ReplyDeleteAll the bars that I can think of in the same general category (North, Mr Foley's, The Grove Hudds) all seem to rely on a base of craft cask at a cheaper price for a good amount of their custom.
Nick
BrewDog's city centre bars excite me for the pure fact they will absorb not only beer geeks, bloggers & alike but more importantly the wider audience (which is huge, especially in a professionals city like Leeds) & draw them into the delights of great beer, this can only be good for all of us!
ReplyDeleteDefine "tired", please.
ReplyDelete---DeGarre
Nick, i thought that too. It will be very strange that they don't serve any cask at all, maybe they will serve cask? That'd be good, I love tashy blonde on cask. I said cask a lot there.
ReplyDeletecask
*squeals like a little girl*
ReplyDelete*raises hand*
That is awesome news! I hope they do serve their cask ales. 5am from cask is out of this world! I'm currently tried to recreate something similar at home with my AG brewing set up! Cracking beer
ReplyDeleteWhy not! Although a bit of cask would be nice, it is Yorkshire after all!
ReplyDeleteNick - that's an interesting take on it. At Beer-Ritz, I've always made clear that although we specialise in premium bottled beer (for want of a better phrase), we wouldn't be where we are today without selling Jacobs Creek, Stella and Marlboro Lights. Does that make us sell-outs? Maybe, but to do what we do, where we do it, we've had to service a few different markets. I do know that a lot of specialist beer bars in Leeds do indeed rely on cask beer, but equally, the market is changing rapidly, and interest in good beer generally is going through the roof.
ReplyDeleteDeGarre - I guess I mean showing its age, and lacking the zingy jazz-hands hop character that it started with. I think it's fairly widely acknowledged that hop character degrades quickly in beer, and these beers, while still tasty, weren't quite as zingy as they once were
ReplyDeleteMan, I was drunk when I wrote that post originally. I can't believe it isn't littered with thick-thumbed spelling mistakes and unwinding temporal clauses.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it time someone opened a specialist beer bar in Liverpool? The city centre has a vibrant pub scene and any number of excellent, busy real ale pubs. Scousers are an inquisitive lot, open to new ideas. Ship & Mitre has lots of German & Belgian beers but it's not quite the Euston Tap.
ReplyDeleteDon't ever hope for cask. They just won't do it. Trashy Blonde is hardy ever on in the Aberdeen bar, because they think it is better on cask. Had loads of Southern Tier, Stone, Mikkeller, Left Hand, Flying Dog, Lost Abbey/Portbrewing on in keg in the last few months. Loads of other pubs doing cask. Brewdog don't need it with a line up like that.
ReplyDeleteFrom a cask perspective I'm more inclined they have guest handpumps, only because it gets pubs and breweries sharing beer and helps with finding new beers.
ReplyDeleteIan - That's interesting: I've found Trashy to be better on cask too.
ReplyDeleteZak, Mark - I suppose by restricting it to keg you limit guest draft beers to those breweries who keg, which is still quite limited in the UK. I guess an effect of BrewDog's policy is to provide a spur for newer breweries to provide a keg offering as well as cask.
Nick
Heh. Zingy!
ReplyDelete