What Next?

If you haven't seen enough NEW yet, then how about Red Willow from Macclesfield and Dancing Duck from Derbyshire in the next month?

That do you?

The Brewers.

It really is all about the beer.

Since December when I last posted, a few things have changed on the supply side of Liberty as well.

First, who has gone?

Well, Brewdog never really arrived, as it became clear that their ethos was very different to ours. And Plain Ales decided that someone else would do a better job of taking their beer into London, so we wish them both all the best in the future, but don't call us......

The unpleasant bit out of the way, who has arrived?

Well, we now have not one but two great English Craft Lager makers with Calvors joining us earlier in the year. Thier Dark Lager is really very good, and as with Cotswold they do it properly, with the beer 'lagering' in the tank for at least six weeks to give it the proper depth of flavour. It's completely different to most people's understanding of what 'lager' is if you've only ever drank bland Corporate fizziness.

Following hard on their heels, a Foursome of West Country brewers. Firstly we finally convinced Justin that we'd take good enough care of his casks and got the fabulous Moor Beer on board, if you haven't tried their unique take on beer, from unfined golden beers to big hefty dark and fruity 'Old Freddy Walker' than you really should. Somerland Gold in the Keg is probably going to be the taste of my Summer now I've found a pub nearby that sells it, and then there is Arbor Ales from Bristol. Arbor have a really strong range of cask conditioned beers that are a little bit from the left field, but truely excellent to drink. Their single hop monster 'Yamkima Valley' weighs in at a respectable(!) 7.5% ABV and saved my life the other evening when I wondered exactly why it is that I put myself through our weekly 'routine'. It reminds me EXACTLY why I love this job. It's mustard.

The other two, Cornish pairing Tintagel and Harbour, well, Tintagel enticed me with two really great beers at 'The Front Bar' in Falmouth, 'Harbour Special' and 'Cornwalls Pride' convinced me enough that they where worth the long drive to Cornwall, and over at Harbour they have another graduate of the Herriott Watt school of mad brewers working on a fantastic new brewery plant, so I very much look forward to their first selection of brews when they arrive this very week. If the pre-production test brews I was treated to at the brewery where anything to go by, they should be a bit special.

And so to the Welshers. Step up messers Tiny Rebel of Newport. what can I say? Any brewery that hands me a single hop Nelson Sauvin beer as good as 'Full Nelson' is straight on the list, and for youngsters they are deffinitely doing it right. This week sees another new beer out their box of tricks, 'Cutch' which has, in the Sesame Street tradition, many hops all starting with the letter 'C'. Thats Citra, Chinook, Cascade, Columbus.......

Still not done.

Ilkley came to us with an offer of their new MJ keg range, featuring the blinding Summit IPA and equally God like Fortis stout, but we quickly twisted their arm into letting us have their casks down here as well. They danced onto the stage with two collaborations, with Pete Brown and Mellisa Cole, they then topped that by drafting in HRH Princess Anne to brew a Jubilee Beer. Now, that's skills.

Last but by no means least, Grain from Norfolk have been working with us for a while, and enjoyed their second strong rotation last week with a chance to grab hold of their 316 Extra Pale with the new stainless pump clip. These beers are awesomely good anyway, but when you have this on the pump, well you are a Don. I'm hoping that we can soon get Grain available every week for you lovely people.

It was here, and now it's gone....

We did a clever.

Well, Rob at Rebel Brewing Co in Cornwall did most of the clever bit, brewing us a little diamond of a beer after we had a conversation about colaboration beers and Belgian beer in general.

Here's what 'Podge' from Chelmsford CAMRA and 'Podge's Belgian Beer Tours' Fame had to say about it (and this fella knows a thing or two about Belgian beers....)

"Very good label design.

Drunk at room temperature with full sediment.

Certainly a darkish beer with interesting aromas including some bubblegum, phenol alcohols and a touch of acetone and light pear dropy notes which lessen quickly. It is billed as 4.9abv but seems to have more taste/body than that The label says a wheat beer but it does not show these origins and wheat is not to the fore. Not over spiced, easy drinking and has lots of gobackability, ie you could drink more than 1 and therefore could be commercially successful.

"Dark spiced belgian style wheat beer" WTFIT I'd like to say true to the style but as there is no such thing this beer is not following a style..

Pretty good beer though."

We got six casks and a few cases of bottles from Rob in early May, and the casks sold the same day, which was pleasing. If you speak nicely to Steve you might be able to get some bottles, but to be honest he's guarding them pretty jealously and hasn't actually admitted to most customers that we have them.....

Some time later that same blog.........

Somethings gonna change.......

Well Ladies and Gentlemen, it's been some time.

Last time I blogged on here, it was back before Christmas, and things where going along swimmingly.

Since then, well, it's been absolutely manic here at Liberty Towers. we've been joined by a load of new pubs, a selection of fine breweries, we fell in with a big name, and fell out again just as quickly. We have been rattling along at such a rate that it's become a weekly fight against exhaustion, vehicle gross permitted weights and common sense just to get the beers out there to all our lovely customers, but we are loving every minute of it.

As you will see elsewhere, the website has changed a bit over the last couple of days, and it'll evolve a little more over the next couple until we get it somewhere nearer to what we actually want. It was good when we started, but we've rolled with the punches and swung for the gaps so often now that the copy actually bore very little similarity to what it is we actually do now, and it was all a bit formal and stilted, so we changed it.

There are a load of other things happening as well....

We are talking to some people about giving up a few more hard earned Pound notes to finance the first major expansion of Liberty Beer since we started, it'll enable us to do more beer for more people more often, but it does mean that in the next few months it might not always be Steve or I that you see for your weekly deliveries if you have managed somehow to get used to us. It'll also mean the end of the nasty and slightly comical hire vans, to be replaced with something far more in keeping with our 'brand' (ooooh get me!)

We will be announcing the grand opening of our new chilled distribution hub in down town Essex in the next few weeks, which will make our lives a great deal easier, and also a deal with Bath Ales down here in Bristol is on the cards that will see Liberty providing porterage for their beers in London quite apart from our own continuing expansion.

And we are heading rapidly toward our Birthday, and we have something special under our hats for that as well, I won't go too much on it at the moment, but it'll be quite different to any beer festival that I've ever been to, and we will be showcasing our entire range for customers, suppliers and consumers for 3 full days toward the end of the year with masses of entertainment, food and good stuff for you to enjoy. Stay in touch to see what we are up to a bit later in the year.