January New Brews

We’ve had a quiet month this month, which started off with a bout of cold. Alex lost his sense of smell and taste (we think he had COVID), which isn’t ideal for trying new beers. But once he’d recovered, we made up for it with some lovely selections from Kirkstall, Northern Monk, and Hogs Back. We haven’t been out and about much, but we did make it to North Bar and Brewery Tap for our monthly dose of cask.

Sign up, grab a new brew, then log in for a friendly chat.

You'll be asked to introduce yourself, tell us a bit about your business, and let us know what you’re drinking. Once everyone has done this, we’ll just chat about whatever comes up.

There are no sales pitches or presentations. It’s just a group of business owners having a beer together.

I’ll also be hosting another in-person event in March, and I’ll be sharing the details as soon as the date and location are confirmed.

The Brewery Tap is located right near Leeds train station, making it ideal for a quick pint before catching your train (or on arrival into Leeds). But it’s not just great for pre- or post-travel pit-stops.

We popped in one evening this month for their Tuesday buy-one burger, get-one-for-£1 deal (they also run a burger and a pint for £13 deal from 12pm-5pm Sunday until Tuesday).

As it was a cold, rainy January evening, we sat downstairs in one of the booths, but there is also plenty of seating upstairs, which leads through to a small outdoor terrace (great for people watching in the summer).

Most importantly, they always have a good selection of beers, including several on cask, so it’s always worth a visit.

Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ve been drinking in January.

This selection started strong with Northern Rising (a collab with Timothy Taylor’s). We have tried it before on cask, but enjoyed it even more this time.

The banana pancake stout tasted like banana pancakes - quite sweet, but ok. We’ve had a version of Festive Star before, and this one was as good, but the Festive Star Gift Wrapped divided opinion. Alex liked it (said it was like liquid mince pies). I didn’t love it (probably because I don’t like mince pies).

The final beer - Envy - was a Matcha Imperial Stout, and I really wasn’t keen on it at all. It had a green tinge, left your tongue green, and the matcha flavours really came through. If you like matcha, you might like it, but it wasn’t for me. Alex thought it was ok.

Another of our new brew selections was this assortment of traditional ales from Kirkstall Brewery. The 4.5% Nectar Honey Ale had floral notes, while the Rifleman’s Pale Ale had more marmalade-like flavours. The Best Yorkshire Bitter was exactly as you’d expect a traditional British bitter to be, and the Jumbo IPA (a collab with Anspach & Hobday) had lots of sweet malty flavours. A good selection and I’d happily drink any of them again.

We’ve never tried any Hogs Back beers before, but were given these as a gift. We love that they grow their own hops and feed the spent grain to the animals on their farm. All four beers were very good, and you can read more about all of them here.

As well as our new brew selections, we’ve had some lovely beers at home this month, including…

We’ve had a pretty quiet month, so we haven’t been out and about as much as usual, but we did manage to get our dose of cask with these two new brews:

We’re off up to Scotland for a long weekend mid-Feb, so we’ll be looking out for some new brews on our travels. In the meantime, we’ll be trying to decide which of these tasty-sounding stouts we like best.

I’m always open to recommendations, so do let me know good beers you’ve been drinking recently, and I hope to see you at my next new brew event in a few days.

Cheers!

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