It's that time of year again, the festive season is upon us. For many of us that means catching up with family and friends who we have not seen in a while, more often than not with some form of tipple in hand.For anyone who has read my previous blogs, or even followed me on twitter will notice that one of our current favourite places to drink is Friends Of Ham in Leeds City Centre. On Saturday night we had arranged for a family get together in Ilkley, where Friends Of Ham have recently opened up their second bar/charcuterie.
The Ilkley bar is instantly recognisable for those who have sampled Leeds. As you enter there is a rustic looking bar full of various beers that you hardly ever see anywhere else. To your right is the 'shop' side of the bar, where you can purchase your beer, cheese or meat to go! In the back and downstairs are rooms where you can sit and eat, however I can not say much about the rest of the place as immediately became settled on the large table by the bar. Now it is a small bar, so our family basically took up the whole place!
The main difference between Leeds & Ilkley is that the Ilkley bar is a little bit more 'polished', where the Leeds one seems very mix and match, Ilkley is smart whilst still keeping the rustic theme...I'm not sure which I prefer, but the Ilkley bar is clearly aimed at the local crowd, who may not necessarily drink in the Leeds bar.
Before I get to the beer I want to mention two great aspects of this bar. First of all the food, midway through the evening olives, bread, a cheese board and a charcuterie board appeared infront of us, at this stage in the night I was distracted by my beer so can not tell you the names of the cheeses, but lets just say there was enough for the 9 of us, with something for everyone...yum !
Secondly, after leaving the bar we all agreed that the staff were brilliant, they were engaging with us as a group...helped pick out which beers to sample, and generally made it feel like we had been going there for years!
So we now get to the beer! Following our trip to Bruges we have really acquired a taste for strong Belgian beer...so Friends of Ham is the right place for that. Liz, Julie and Becky were straight on with the Delirium...swapping between the sweet fruity 'Red' to the festive caramely 'Noel'. At £4.25 and £5.25 for half a pint it is not a cheap bar, but it really is not somewhere you go to get drunk. The Delirium Red was 8% and the Noel 10%, so you don't really mind paying the extra.
As you know, I will drink anything! However at this time of year I really enjoy stout & porter...and there is only really one person that I know who shares my beer taste properly, that person being the father in law. We started on a pint of spiced coffee porter each before we noticed that a couple of members of our party had a tasting platter infront of them...I was given an approving nod and knew what we would be drinking. Over the course of the night we had two boards, but we liked our selection so much we pretty much had the same board twice...which was made up of all the Christmas beer on offer. Our platter consisted of: Anchor Christmas, Highwire, Mary Christmas, Old Faithful, Black Chocolate Stout and Delirium Noel. For £10 for a platter, you can not go wrong!!
Out of all the beer on offer, the Delirium Noel tasted the most festive of them all, but the winner of the night had to be from Brooklyn Brewery. If you asked my what my favourite lager was, I would say Brooklyn. I have had their Pale Ale before but never before this evening had I tried their Black Chocolate Stout (10%). This Imperial Stout was quite sweet compared to the first beer of the night, with an intense chocolaty flavour, I also tasted hints of liquorice in it. This has topped my all-time favourite chocolate stouts...sorry to Saltaire and York breweries !
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