Back to the farm...new tipples from Keelham Farm Shop

We have had a few expensive weekends in our house recently, built up of visits from friends and family members...with a significant amount of Prosecco consumed. This weekend we decided that we needed to have a quiet one. As a sneaky treat for the quiet weekend we decided that we were going to have steak night, so where else to visit but our favourite farm shop....Keelham.

My last post about Keelham will let you know all about this place, so I shall not repeat myself.

As we pulled into the carpark we saw a big sign stating that the Keelham Beer Festival was on...gutted as I was the designated driver for the day.
Unlike a typical beer festival the Keelham Beer Festival was business as usual for the shop, just with an added extra. At the end of most of the aisles were tables where local breweries (all stocked in the beer section) could showcase their brews and hand out shot sized samples. Apar


t from my recent discovery of Beer52 (and love of American IPA's) I generally tend to stick to local breweries. This made me feel less bad about not being able to sample everything.
Visiting breweries included Saltaire & Ilkley which are both on my doorstep...if you ever see their beer stocked in your local shop, or on offer in the pub then please try them, you will not be disappointed.  http://saltairebrewery.co.uk/saltaire/  http://www.ilkleybrewery.co.uk

The reason why I am writing this blog is because (if you read my last Keelham blog you will know) that this is the only farm shop I know that have their own beer. Whenever we visit I always pick up a bottle of Tipsy Pig. This time was different !
The shop were running a competition to find the next 'own brand' beer. With the name already chosen (Squiffy Sheep) all they needed was a decision on the brew. The choices were Fruity & Spicy Bitter, Chestnut Bitter and Golden Bitter all brewed for the shop by the Dark Horse Brewery based in North Yorkshire.
After picking up a couple of bottles I have to say that the Golden Bitter was by far the favourite, it was a little stronger than the Tipsy Pig and had a dark bronze look to it. It was not the most extreme in flavour, but was really fitting as a typical Yorkshire session ale. I may be biased to this as it reminded me of my beloved Black Sheep Ale.

If you get the chance to pop in, have a try and let them know your favourite...you never know it may just become available on your every visit!

As we walked out of the shop, beer, steak & cheese in hand we noticed one more stand by the door. How did we not know that Keelham now had their own cider!
I had to turn around and pick up a bottle for Liz.
At 6% this cider was very crisp and refreshing. It had a lot more taste than your typical branded ciders, but not as much as the high strength ciders that are found at festivals. This was a winner for Liz as she only likes fizzy cider. We would choose this over a Strongbow or Thatchers Gold...however Liz is still pushed more towards the fruity ciders of Rekorderlig.

Has anyone found any other local places like Keelham that do their own beer?

-Sam

Leeds Beer Festival 2015

Who doesn't love a good beer festival?
For the last 6 months I have been counting down to visiting the Leeds Beer Festival. My history with beer festivals have been very steroetypical. In the village where I grew up they have a beer festival every year in the village hall, where about 20 different beers and ciders are on offer (with a burger or cheese board for lunch) to the villagers. On average you see a couple of hundred people there maximum...which is the first difference with Leeds.

On arrival at the Leeds Town Hall the first thing that surprised me was the scale of the event. The queue ran down the street, and the front of the town hall was full of food kiosks. As we had been organised we already had tickets and skipped the queue. It didn't take long for us to bump into our friends who we had planned the day with...they were by the prosecco stand...that is the girls covered!


By the time we arrived Scott had already spent a good hour sampling the beer on offer, this was a good thing for me as due to the scale of the event he could be my guide to what is where.
The main room in the town hall was huge, hundreds of beer lovers were gathered in the centre surrounded by beer pumps...what do I try first?


We made the decision to head into the American room where I began the day with a half of 'Firestone Walker'...unfortunately I was disappointed as this tasted more of a lager than what I expected...however it was still up there with the top tasting lagers that I have had.


Following our American visit we made a quick stop at the Prosecco bar for Liz & Fay then headed downstairs to Europe. All the corridors and cellar rooms were filled with more beer pumps, I could not believe how vast it was. In Europe Scott and I sampled 2 or three different beers (swapping glasses on one as Scott could not stand the flowery Hoegaarden inspired german beer that we had). The highlight in this section of the festival was the Peter Pale Mary 4.6% Ale from Copenhagen, this was very flowery and very hoppy, the flavours were very intense and fruity....yum.


I just want to take a break from talking about beer to mention......the food!!! Naturally we had built up quite a hunger following a couple of hours of 'sampling' beer so we headed outside for some BBQ treats. The selection was almost as extensive as the beer selection, you had everything from fish & chips to BBQ!
I decided to go for the hotdog (as I always tend to go towards burger's) which was covered in onions and mustard. Liz & Scott went for the burgers (topped with pulled pork), and Fay kept it simple with a portion of chips....ready to get back into the beer hall.



Outside we decided to have a quick half from the Beavertown Brewery, Scott went for an IPA and I tried the stout. The Stout was very nice, full of coffee & chocolate flavours...maybe not the best for the weather, but I could not not try a stout.


Finally, in the beer hall we tried a really sour, fruity beer from the London Brewing Co (where we picked up our now famous badges). This beer was, as I said, very sour, I can not really compare it to anything else I have had in the past...but wow what a flavour.


So thats it, one fantastic afternoon at the Leeds Beer Festival. We will definitely be back next year.

-Sam

Btw the day did not end there, but ended in a very messy cocktail session across Leeds City Centre...but that is a story for a different day...see below of pics of the best !