Beers

Our beer range is, quite simply, fantastic. It is second to none in the area, with over 300 bottled beers, including over 160 from the UK alone. We have won National Independent Beer Retailer of the Year twice! That's best beer shop in the country folks, so we're worth making a detour for! It's all on the awards bit of the website - have a butcher's by clicking here...

We have loads of bottled beer from the local area, many of which are bottle conditioned, plus a wide range of international offerings, unavailable in the supermarkets. If you're a hop-head, then check out our range of American craft beers - if it's O'Dells, Sierra Nevada or Stone Brewery you're after - we are the shop for you!

We have the approval of many CAMRA members, and feature in their Good Bottled Beer Guide. We are also registered by Inside Beer in the Great Beer Retailers section of their website (www.insidebeer.com)

Have a browse around our list, and if you can’t find what you want, please let us know as our ever-helpful staff may be able to source it for you. We don't have a shopping cart yet, but you can order via email or the phone, with a £10 delivery charge covering up to 30kg worth of beer, or if you live in the local area, we will deliver a case of 12 bottles or more free of charge.

Here's the latest news - May/June 2013

It's all Tickety Brew!
Fresh on the shelves it's newbie Tickety Brew based in Manchester and owned by ex Londoners Duncan and Keri. Kicking off with a Dubbel and a Pale Ale (Duncan's favourite styles), the packaging is fantastic and the beer is just as good!

Big Hand Brewery - Atrementus!
The inscrutably named Stout is a lovely beer and well worth seeking out. The new microbrewery is owned by engineer turned brewer Dave Shaw. This is his only bottling at the moment but keep an eye out for his beers in discerning pubs in the area...

Watermill Inn - Fab pub, fab brewery!
Every so often we treat ourselves to a trip to the Lakes, and The Watermill Inn is always an absolute must! The pub is gorgeous, dogs all over the place, food's great - what's not to like? We've brought back a small selection which we hope you'll enjoy.... Collie Wobbles, Isle of Dogs, Wruff Night - can anyone spot a theme here....?

Hawkshead Brewery
...And while we were in the Lakes, we popped into Hawkshead and grabbed these little beauties. Brodie's Prime is Steve's particular favourite, but feel free to also try Lakeland Gold and NZPA!

XT Brewery - eXTremely good beer!
Hailing from Buckinghamshire and setting up only in 2011, we're lucky to have these boys on the shelf - they are in great demand!

Simple clear labelling with styles being numbered 1-9 according to how light or dark they are, these bottles are very user friendly! Choose from 3,4 or 6 with a bonus beer called 'Roast Cacao', a food friendly collaboration beer with famous tv chef and chocolatier Will Torrent.

Hook Norton is back in the House!!
After too long an absence, we now have Hook Norton back on the shelves in their smart new livery. It's like they've never been gone!!

Choose from Old Hooky, Hooky Gold, Hooky Bitter and Double Stout - an agony of choice!!

Earlier Posts

4Ts are in the House!
A brand new brewery for us - 4T's are based in Warrington and have been brewing since 2010. A jolly nice bunch they are too and rather good beer - we have a nice range so why not give them a go - you've got 4 days holiday coming up after all...

Welcome Cheshire Brewhouse!
Thanks to Shane at the Brewhouse we now have some lovely stocks of Galaxy Blues for you to enjoy. He has tweeted that supplies his end are all gone so grab em while you can!!

A Yorkshire Invasion!
Thanks to Steve, we have another fantastic haul of beers from Ilkley and Saltaire breweries. Some old faves and some exciting new offerings - please put your hands together and rub vigorously in anticipation of sampling the following:

Saltaire:
Saltaire Blonde 4%
Stateside IPA 6%
Kala Black IPA 6.2%
Raspberry Blonde 4%

Ilkley:
Ilkley Best 4%
Ilkley Gold 3.9%
Ilkley Pale 4.2%
Mary Jane IPA 6%
Siberia Saison 5.9%

And from the USA.... Anderson Valley IPA
A great new addition to our US range, and definitely one for the hop heads..!

Goose Island Pepe Nero
A delicious Belgian Style beer from those lovely folk in Chicago. Very slick black labels and an even slicker beer inside. Mmmmm...

Northern Brewery Arrives in Chester!
Northern Brewery, based at Blakemere Craft Centre, is now on our shelves, ready for you all to snaffle. Choose from a lovely selection, including Chilli Chocolate Stout for the hard core!

Moorhouse Returns
After a bit of an absence, Moorhouse Brewery returns to the shop, where particular favourite Pendle Witches Brew is already flying off the shelves (pardon the pun...). Feel free also to try Blonds Witch, Black Cat and Pride of Pendle...

By 'eck! Ilkley Brewery teams up with Melissa Cole!
Yorkshire Brewery Ilkley has made a collaboration brew called Siberia with beer blogger Melissa Cole - and it's a Rhubarb Saison no less. Limited stocks so if you want to talk knowledgeably about it...you'd best get a wriggle on!

Kingsley Cricket Club Annual Beer Festival was awesome!!

Friday September 21st - Saturday September 22nd

Held at the club's ground, The Croft, in Kingsley, the annual beer festival was a fantastic showcase of 30 beers and ciders, all on hand pull with individual chiller spikes. This is the only beer festival where you get pub quality beer! Not only that, for the non-beer drinkers, the wine was supplied by our good selves, so obviously it was superb quality...

With the backdrop of beautiful Cheshire countryside, there was foot-tapping live music courtesy of 'Dazed and Confused' and on the barbeque, only the best meat from the local butcher. And for the very few brave souls who dared take the 'Man v Food' hot chicken wing challenge, it was a very warm night indeed!

There were takeaway beer cartons for those who were taking advantage of the free overnight camping at the ground, and to kill a few hours on Saturday morning, Delamere Forest and the start of the Sandstone trail was well worth making a trip to, to walk off any residual hangover!

Plans are already underway for next year's beer festival, so if you'd like to be kept up to date, follow us on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/KCCBeerFestival or on Twitter: @kccbeerfest. See you next year!!

Fordham & Old Dominion Brewery

Fresh from across the pond, these new US beers are proving very popular already - why not treat yourself? Choose from Fordham's Copperhead, Helles Lager, Tavern Ale and Wisteria Wheat, and from Old Dominion's Hop Mountain, Oak Barrel Stout or Beach House Pilsner. Oh the agony of choice!!

Flying Dog - Woof!!

Extreme craft brewers Flying Dog have landed once again in our fridge with two new offerings:

Wildeman IPA 7.5%
Brewed for Bierproeflokaal In de Wildeman’s 25th Anniversary. This brand new brew is an unfiltered American IPA hopped with Citra and fermented with Saison yeast.

Raging Bitch Belgian style IPA 8.3%
“Two inflammatory words…one wild drink. Nectar imprisoned in a bottle. Let it out. It is cruel to keep a wild animal locked up. Uncap it. Release it…stand back! Wallow in its golden glow in a glass beneath a white foaming head. Remember, enjoying a RAGING BITCH, unleashed, untamed, unbridled – and in heat – is pure GONZO!! It has taken 20 years to get from there to here. Enjoy!” – Ralph Steadman
(Yes, well, as the man said, it's rather a good beer - enjoy!!

De Struise - One of Belgium's Finest!
Belgian Beers have found a spiritual home in our beer corner, and these little beauties have been taken to our hearts already!

Catso - 5%
Cartoon Series N° 2. Belgian Blond Ale 5% fermented with French Saison Yeast. Plus, who can resist a picture of an enormous stripy cat on the label?!

Svea IPA - 7%
This is their commercial description: Dear mother of Sverige,
We send you our approach for the Svea IPA. As your growing thirst is leaning towards more bitter levels, we have carefully selected a set of noble hops, for you to enjoy on every suitable occasion.
From Struise with hops
I

Quantum Brewery is in the House!
If you haven't tried these fantastic beers yet, get over here and grab some!! Each and every one is lovely and the range will suit every taste - yum!

The Full Monty!
Brand new to the shelves is this selection from Monty's Brewery in Powys, South Wales. A very nice selection of good, solid session bitters which will perk up any evening. Class, great value and great quality.

Stringers Beer - new in!

Our latest guest ale comes from the lovely town of Ulverston in Cumbria - Stringer's Brewery.Choose from their Dry Stout (4.5%), IPA (5.5%), XB Best Bitter (4.2), Furness Abbey, a Belgian-style strong ale (7%), and Delta, a 6.5% Pale Ale.Limited stocks!

Hardknott has left the building!

The lovely folk at Hardknott have finally made another delivery to us after a really long wait!! Makes the beer taste all the sweeter though as we enjoy regular faves such as Queboid and Infrared, plus new arrival Colonial Mayhem! Grab 'em now while they're still on the shelves!

Magic Rocks!!

OMG - we've only gone and got Magic Rock in! Happily ensconsed on the shelves are Rapture - a red ale, and Magic 8 Ball - a black IPA (yes, very 'in' at the moment). More offerings on the way as soon as they've been bottled!

Moor Beer Please!

After a very successful run last year, we can proudly show off our latest delivery from Moor Brewery. The larger than life 660ml bottles look fantastic in their brightly coloured finery. Yet another one for the collector: Northern Star (golden ale), Revival (hoppy bitter), Merlin's Magic (classic best bitter), Amoor (previously known as Peat Porter), Illusion (Black IPA), and the ever-popular Somerland Gold (umm, Golden ale).

Nogne-Mania!!
Fresh from Norway we have some pretty special stuff from a near-legendary brewery. Founded in 2002 the name Nogne O comes from old Danish and means 'Naked Isle'. It's a phrase oft used by Ibsen to describe any barren or stark scenery (apparently). Well, that's your something new learned for today, so why not have a crack at one of these as a reward?

Nogne O Saison 6.5%
Belgian farmhouse-style beer. Refreshing and made for hot summer days(?), full of hops and floral notes.
Nogne O Porter 7%
A dark ale, obviously,and dark malts give flavours of coffee and dried fruit. Try with chocolate, cheese or red meats.
Nogne O Imperial Brown Ale 7.5%
Steve's personal favourite, giving it an impressive rating of 'in a fantastic class of its own.' Loads of big flavours of chocolate and caramel, raisins, baking bread and nuts. Phew!!
Nogne O Imperial Stout 9%
This is the big boy of the pack, a 9% dark rich ale packed with sweetness and roasted malt bitterness. Apparently goes with vanilla ice cream or dark chocolate!

Brewdog - Limited Edition Stock!

Black Tokyo Horizon 330ml (17.2%) £16.75
A bit of a hybrid beer this one - a collaboration between 3 breweries and their best, biggest imperial stout recipes -Mikkeller's 'Black', Nogne's 'Dark Horizon' and Brewdog's Tokyo. The result is a big chocolatey stout with malty flavours and coffee and molasses on the side. Will get better and better with age.

Three Floyds Bitch Please! 330ml (12%) £7.25
Another collaboration with the Brewdog boys and the chaps at Indiana based US brewery 3Floyds. It's a mixed up barley wine, brewed with peated malt from Islay, single hops and, believe it or not, with shortbread, toffee and candy floss added to the kettle. The whole lot is then aged in a Jura whisky barrel for 8 months. Needless to say, the flavours of medicinal peat and caramel lead the way. Enj

Coronado Brewing Company, California

What a gorgeous array of beers to warm the cockles of any US ex-pat. Fresh from the town of Coronado (just downtown from San Diego, I believe), these beers are truly individual and delicious.

Choose from:

Orange Avenue Wit 5.2% (the brewery address is Orange Ave), & as the name suggests, has bags of orange!
Mermaid's Red Ale (5.7%) medium to full bodied beer. Caramel and chocolate malts with plenty of hops.
Idiot IPA (8.5%) All natural IPA brewed with over 3 lbs of hope per barrel. "Watch out", they say, "this unfiltered 'San Diego IPA' has been known to reduce even the most intelligent to a blithering idiot."

The Mighty Arrogant Stone has Landed!!

It's been a long time coming, but if you've never been insulted by a bottle of beer, here's your chance.

I'm afraid though, in all likelihood, you're not worthy. However, if you fancy your chances, we have fresh stocks of Stone Brewing Company from across the pond in that strange State of California. Be warned, modesty is not their strong suit...

They don't care if you don't like it, and frankly it's not expensive - you're too cheap...

Choose from Ruination IPA, Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale, Arrogant Bastard, (also in oaked form), Stone IPA or Stone Pale. The phrase 'kid in an S&M sweetshop' comes to mind...

The Bruery from Orange County, Cal-if-or-ny-yay!

Check out these beasts. In all their 750ml glory, we have these pretty damn hard to come by brews.

Choose from:

Mischief - a belgian style Golden Ale, dry-hopped to add that extra oomph and complexity, and at a bit of a naughty 8.5%. Ooh, cheeky!

Saison Rue, a Belgian farmhouse style ale with, I believe, a Champagne style feel in the mouth.

Finally we have their Spring offering - Saison de Lentes - a light blonde, hoppy beer with a wild yeast character. Although still a farmhouse, it's lighter than the Saison Rue and lower in alcohol. Perfect for summer sipping!