A couple of saturday’s ago my self and @davelozman hopped on the train to Newcastle, to grab some lunch then hit a few pubs, well that was the plan anyway.
We livened up the train journey by sharing a bottle of Raison d etre from Dog fish head and then a bottle of chaos theory from Brewdog. Before we knew it the train was pulling into Newcastle station and to our joy the sun was shining…there’s nothing better than a pub crawl around a vibrant city when the sun is shining.
Another cracker from Yorkshire Dales Brew Company
It was just before lunch so we thought we would chance our luck and see if the excellent Bacchus was open for a pre lunch beer, It was a difficult choice as there was a great selection of beers on offer. I opted for the Yorkshire Dales Bacchus Citra Zing, the perfect starter beer, low ABV, nice bitter zing and plenty of citrus.
This disappeared in no time and was followed by the always delicious Highland brewing Scapa Special which was in great condition and full of flavour as is always is, somewhere during the two beers ToonBeerChris and dad2dam2dum2mum arrived and we got chatting. This distracted us from food (at least that’s my story and I am sticking to it.
We decided on a 3rd and final beer, mine being Yakima Red from Meantime which was brewed with 5 different hops from the Yakima Valley, it was nicely balanced, I couldn’t pick out the different hops but I did get some nectarine, a little bit of grass and some herbal notes from it. Pretty delicious.
Next up was the characterful Newcastle Arms mainly so we could try Something Blue from Durham on Cask. it was a little bit early for a 10% beer but what the heck! I was really surprised at how drinkable it was for 10%, My notes said earthy, malty and delicious, I think by this point I had decided to stop taking notes and just drink. Although I do have a bottle of this that I’m keeping til Christmas.
Awesome pub, stunning view
It didn’t take me long to clock the fridge full of interesting Belgian’s and Lambics so i got a couple to share between us. One was Urthel Saisonniere and the other was one called Taras Boulba they were both nice enough but nothing outstanding and struggled to live up to the Something Blue.
Once we’d finished those and feeling a bit lazy, we jumped on the bus to the Free Trade Inn, a fantastic pub with an even better view. They had a fantastic range of cask ales on, I think I got through most if not all of them, the two stand out beers were Mordue IPA and the Summer Wine Rouge hop. If they’d only had these two on I would have happily sat and supped both all day.
We were soon joined by Dave, Ann and Sooty from Hardknott who were on a delivery mission, It was great to catch up with them as I’d not seen them for a while. Shortly after that CiderTart_G and CiderTart_L joined us, for a few ciders. It was nice to finally meet them too.
The rest of the afternoon just seemed to fly by and is all one big blur, the next thing I know we’ve missed two trains and find our selves grabbing a burger from Burger King which nearly lead to us missing a third.
As one final hurrah we supped a bottle of the uber hoppy Mikkeller 10 on the train, again no notes for this one I just enjoyed the beer while watching the world go by through the train window.
I had a fantastic day and if anyone isn’t sure about drinking in Newcastle then It is definitely worth the trip, there’s a huge range of pubs and bars and hundreds of different beers to choose from, theres usually a great list on http://phil1044.wordpress.com/
Taras Boulba not as nice as Something Blue! I shared the bottle of Something Blue that Dave gave me two days ago and I thought it was good but probably a keeper. I’d say at least a year. Taras Boulba is seriously one of my favourite Belgians though. I thought it would have been your thing
I’m glad you enjoyed your tour of the toon Andy, you’re going to have to do it again soon so I can meet you, I am a regular visitor to the Free Trade Inn and Mick Potts works very hard to keep good standards, as does Neil Amos of the Newcastle Arms, sadly I’ve not been in the Bacchus for awhile, hope to meet up soon. Regards Rod Martin (@rod_nufc)
You should insert your Dogfish head notes!
Sounds like one hell of a day! although I’m not too surprised the Urthel and the Boulba being very light Belgians didn’t taste of much after the Something Blue!! (did you have a pint??)
Michael – i liked Teras Boulba but it just didnt blow me away – might have been a little bit cold or it may just have been hard for it to stand up to something blue’s big hitting booze and malt.
Rod – i will be back up very soon, will keep you updated.
Sam – thanks, for some reason i published one of the wrong versions, fixed now.
Ghostie – only had a half of something blue – it was waaaaaaaay to early for a pint.
Pleased you made it up to try my house YDBC beer, first brew of new Summer one will be getting dropped and day now! Sure I would have served you that day as remember the local lads in early with you, I’ll have to look out better for you next time! Cheers,