Sierra Nevada - Meet The Brewer
Jul. 11th, 2017 07:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lupestripeOne of the positives and negatives about Leeds is that it's such a huge beer city. The positives should be obvious - I am a huge fan of craft beer and sampling a range of different flavours - but of course this isn't particularly good on the waistline. By some miracle, I didn't put any weight on during my trip to the United States - and indeed have lost about 1kg since then - but my social life is really getting in the way of my weightloss goals and finding the balance is tricky.
Over the weekend I was alerted to a Meet The Brewer night at the Adelphi on Facebook. It seemed interesting as the brewer in question was Steve Grossman of the Sierra Nevada Brewery, a place we had visited in Chico, California, just six weeks ago. He had brought some rare beers over to sample - with their core range only really being available in the UK - and he gave a talk about each one, along with details about the history of the brewery that he founded. It was one of the first craft beer breweries in the world, having started in 1980, so it was truly fascinating to hear him speak about the early days. He also talked a lot about environmental sustainability, which is something we got to see ourselves when we did our brewery tour. The beers we sampled we had had before, again in the US, but with four halves and a burger thrown in for £15, it was exceptionally good value. We had arrived a little late due to Wolfie's bus breaking down - 6:15pm for a 6pm start - but fortunately we didn't miss anything and I even got to ask a few questions along the way. Unfortunately I didn't get chance to speak to him one-on-one about our trip to his brewery as he was somewhat jetlagged and headed off before I got chance, but it certainly was a fascinating encounter.
In the end, we ended up drinking another 3/4 of a pint as there were a few leftovers, while we got chatting to some of the staff who work in the Adelphi. I had always thought of it as more of a real ale pub, but they have definitely moved into craft, as this was part of a six-week long festival. There must have been about forty people at the event including some local Leeds brewers such as the guys behind the Leeds Brewery. Apparently, it was a Leeds brewer who had convinced Steve to export to Britain - their first foreign venture - 13 years ago, so it was amazing to think that our city was the first outside of the United States to get such a famous staple of the craft beer scene. Moving back to the Adelphi, it is certainly more airy and brighter than it had been before, with the top floor now having been converted to a kitchen where they do a range of food. My beefburger and fries was very good and Wolfie enjoyed his chicken katsu burger, with the both of us having calmed down after the rush to get to the gig in time (I was livid with how late Wolfie was as I had custody of his ticket and couldn't go in without him).
I had wanted to show him Howl but we had quite enough to drink in the Adelphi, although we did drop by BrewDog as we had quite a wait for our bus. Here Wolfie tried an IPA I had had the previous week at the quiz and I went for LIVE East Coast Crush, which was tasty. Wolfie was forcing me to have another third, which was frustrating, but it didn't really spill over into an argument. When we got back, we shared some crisps before Wolfie went to bed, with me staying up for another two hours to sober up. We had got back at 10:15pm and I went to bed about 12:45am but even then I was still a little drunk, and we had only had three pints of relatively low strength beer. Even this morning I didn't wake up great, suggesting that my ability to recover has been somewhat curtailed by my advancing years. Still, it was a good evening and a rare break from our rule of not going out on weeknights if we can help it, but we still really need to focus on the weightloss going forward.
Over the weekend I was alerted to a Meet The Brewer night at the Adelphi on Facebook. It seemed interesting as the brewer in question was Steve Grossman of the Sierra Nevada Brewery, a place we had visited in Chico, California, just six weeks ago. He had brought some rare beers over to sample - with their core range only really being available in the UK - and he gave a talk about each one, along with details about the history of the brewery that he founded. It was one of the first craft beer breweries in the world, having started in 1980, so it was truly fascinating to hear him speak about the early days. He also talked a lot about environmental sustainability, which is something we got to see ourselves when we did our brewery tour. The beers we sampled we had had before, again in the US, but with four halves and a burger thrown in for £15, it was exceptionally good value. We had arrived a little late due to Wolfie's bus breaking down - 6:15pm for a 6pm start - but fortunately we didn't miss anything and I even got to ask a few questions along the way. Unfortunately I didn't get chance to speak to him one-on-one about our trip to his brewery as he was somewhat jetlagged and headed off before I got chance, but it certainly was a fascinating encounter.
In the end, we ended up drinking another 3/4 of a pint as there were a few leftovers, while we got chatting to some of the staff who work in the Adelphi. I had always thought of it as more of a real ale pub, but they have definitely moved into craft, as this was part of a six-week long festival. There must have been about forty people at the event including some local Leeds brewers such as the guys behind the Leeds Brewery. Apparently, it was a Leeds brewer who had convinced Steve to export to Britain - their first foreign venture - 13 years ago, so it was amazing to think that our city was the first outside of the United States to get such a famous staple of the craft beer scene. Moving back to the Adelphi, it is certainly more airy and brighter than it had been before, with the top floor now having been converted to a kitchen where they do a range of food. My beefburger and fries was very good and Wolfie enjoyed his chicken katsu burger, with the both of us having calmed down after the rush to get to the gig in time (I was livid with how late Wolfie was as I had custody of his ticket and couldn't go in without him).
I had wanted to show him Howl but we had quite enough to drink in the Adelphi, although we did drop by BrewDog as we had quite a wait for our bus. Here Wolfie tried an IPA I had had the previous week at the quiz and I went for LIVE East Coast Crush, which was tasty. Wolfie was forcing me to have another third, which was frustrating, but it didn't really spill over into an argument. When we got back, we shared some crisps before Wolfie went to bed, with me staying up for another two hours to sober up. We had got back at 10:15pm and I went to bed about 12:45am but even then I was still a little drunk, and we had only had three pints of relatively low strength beer. Even this morning I didn't wake up great, suggesting that my ability to recover has been somewhat curtailed by my advancing years. Still, it was a good evening and a rare break from our rule of not going out on weeknights if we can help it, but we still really need to focus on the weightloss going forward.
