North & Garrett Oliver to Launch The Oxford Companion to Beer at The Cross Keys in Leeds!

*PRESS RELEASE*

For Immediate Release 24.10.11

North Bar are delighted to announce that they will be welcoming the legendary Brew master of Brooklyn Brewery and beer and food writer Mr Garrett Oliver for the UK launch of the most important beer book since Michael Jackson’s Beer Companion – The Oxford Companion to Beer. Garrett will be hosting a beer lunch at The Cross Keys on Water Lane on the 10^th of November at 12pm.

Brooklyn Brewery is widely regarded as the most consistently brilliant US brewery and it is rare that such a prestigious celebrity in the world of brewing visits Northern England. Alongside the book launch the new kitchen team at The Cross Keys will present a 6 course meal to which Garrett has matched some of his fantastic beers, many of which have not previously been seen in the UK. North Bar manager Matt Gorecki said “We’re literally over the moon to welcome Garrett to The Cross Keys, he’s an inspirational figure in the world of brewing and beer literature. This really is a huge coup for us and likely to be one of the highlights of a year of successful beer events”.

Tickets for the event are strictly limited and demand is expected to be high so customers are urged to get in touch with North Bar as quickly as possible to not be disappointed. They are priced at £20.

North Bar Ltd operates North Bar in Leeds city centre and The Cross Keys in Holbeck, Further North in Chapel Allerton and Alfred in Meanwood.

For further information and other press enquiries please contact Matt Gorecki at North on 0113 2424540 or email info@northbar.com.

For more information on the Oxford Companion to Beer, Brooklyn Brewery and Garrett Oliver please follow the links below:

OUP • Brooklyn Brewery • Village Voice • Food & Wine Blog

125 years of Erdinger – The Anti Royal Wedding

Royal what? Wedding? Really? Well there’s no better time to celebrate our future constitutional monarch’s German heritage and upcoming marriage by drinking loads of German beer!!

More importantly it’s Erdinger’s 125^th birthday this year and as part of our celebrations we’ll be drinking loads and loads of Dunkel, Pikantus and Urweisse and and having a big old German Erdinger party!!

We've got silly hats, balloons and all sorts of regalia and flags, so roll on up and avoid the royalist hysteria!

Nb. We will not be televising the royal wedding or indeed any other such event... ever! We might not even buy the papers for a couple of days and we may just pretend it's not even happening...

Whoop! See you on the 29^th of April!

Brewdog AveryBrownDredge Launch - Thursday 31st March

This Thursday sees another very special event here at North – the launch party for Brewdog AveryBrownDredge. A rock and roll collaboration beer par excellance. An imperious pilsner no less! We’ll be pouring from 6pm and Leeds’ very own beer superstar Zak Avery will be in attendance to conduct proceedings!

Here’s what Zak wrote about brewing with the boys in Frazerburgh…

"When BrewDog's James Watt asked me, Pete Brown and Mark Dredge if we'd be interested in hosting a beer dinner at Musa in Aberdeen, and then brewing a beer the next day, the answer was an easy yes. Of course, the bigger discussion was: who gets their name first on the label.

“BrewDog Avery Brown Dredge is an homage to the beers and brewing traditions that have rocked our world. Classic traditional Saaz hops married to continual hopping. The old and new brought together to try and make a statement about where beer has come from, and where it should be heading. A beer born of blood, sweat and tears. Well, that was the idea. In the end, we were so partied-out from the beer dinner the night before that no amount of lifting malt and digging out mash tuns could shift the sense that we'd had a chance for greatness, but blown it by overindulging.

“But wait, what beer from yonder fridge breaks? It is the Hotpoint, and Avery Brown Dredge is the sun. The sample I have in front of me is a pre-release taster, before the dry-hopping was carried out. It's a big, malty beast of a beer, initially bready, but with a familiar slightly antiseptic snap of Saaz hops. In the mouth, the hops kick hard against the pale malt sweetness. Dry-hopping will up the aroma. What have we created? It is only a matter of time before hopfen-helles-bock becomes a globally adopted and celebrated beer style.

Kill your heroes. Make your own idols. Whatever. Just drink our beer.”

It's North!

It's been a hell of a year... Festivals aplenty and over 600 different beers this year! We'll be publishing some charts pretty soon of the stuff that really stood out, but for now welcome to the North Bar blog!!

Matt & Kath xx