We've had a very pleasing uptake on the movement since it's launch a couple of weeks ago and are going to continue things in the same vein.  Chatter about beers we're enjoying alongside an amusing playlist put together by the Committee and by some friends from breweries.

This time, we're luck enough to have some choices from the gang at Black Lodge Brewery and from Technical Brewer, Jack Walker over at Love Lane Brewery.  We're expecting some eclectic stuff once again for this session!

Please tweet us @livbeerco and use the hashtag #livebeerpub in every tweet involved in the proceedings and we'll be sure to chat with you.

Here's the playlist link, ready for you (available just before 7pm on Saturday 4th April):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDuzro5jBcI&list=PLBvXyqmy0uv1LOYQYcAEbe-bE4Rxw3EIz]

For those who've not participated before.... here's a brief explanation of what to do to get involved:

Have yourself a Twitter account ideally, sign in, make sure you’re following our account and look out for tweets using the hashtag ‘#livebeerpub’.  We’ll be around to have a chat about all things beery or otherwise, plenty of the LBC Committee will be around hopefully to have a chat.  We can provide information on what you can do to provide support to Merseyside (or other) breweries and pubs during this difficult time.  Get hold of some lovely beers (especially any from our Merseyside brewers!) from a local bottle shop, via delivery from a pub or brewery or take advantage of growler/package fills as appropriate. 

For nationwide, the teamwork from Art By Volume and #CraftBeerHour has given us these resources: List [https://www.craftbeerhour.com/where-to-buy-beer-remotely] and a handy UK Map [http://abvstudio.co.uk/beer-map].
 
Grab your beer, take a photo of it, talk about it and interact with like minded people in lieu of bumping into them in our pubs, bottle shops and brewery taps.  We will be kicking things off at 7pm if people want to join us (until 11pm or so).

If you're looking for some local beers with immediacy, then luckily, both Black Lodge and Love Lane are in stock and delivering at the moment...

Order online:

https://www.blacklodgebrewing.co.uk/  for Black Lodge (deliveries)
and
https://www.lovelanebrewing.com/ for Love Lane (deliveries or click and collect)

See you again on Saturday at 7pm!!

The LBC Committee. x

As with last week (see the blog below for full details), we'll aim for a 7pm start and run through until around 11pm, though some of us on the Committee were starting to flag a little around 10.30pm, we're okay to hold the bar open a bit longer - since you're such lovely people.

There is/will be another playlist/livebeer jukebox to accompany things which will work best for the flow if you start this at 7pm sharp (it'll be ready around 6.45pm) and everyone in the livebeerpub will be experiencing things simultaneously. The last playlist is still active if you want to check that out on our YouTube link.  This time we also have some contributions to the playlist from Chapter Brewing and from Glen Affric Brewery in the midst of some Committee contributions.  They should hopefully be on hand to get involved should you have any questions for them!

Playlist here:
[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBvXyqmy0uv1IN3VfdljiJ80ZWa_DG2u9]

We're also looking at some other ideas to brighten the evening up and make it more interactive.  We will update things right here on this blog article as progress is made, so stay tuned to our channels for updates.

As ever, please tweet us @livbeerco and use the hashtag #livebeerpub in every tweet involved in the proceedings and we'll be sure to chat with you.

See you Saturday (28th March) at 7pm with your beers, or whatever else brings you some joy!

Stay safe and see you soon! x

We’re looking to host a little online get together via our Twitter account [https://twitter.com/livbeerco] this Saturday, 21st March 2020.  We’re certainly not the first to propose this kind of thing (and sorry if we're treading on any toes), but thought it might be a good point to improve people’s morale in the absence of being able to interact in person – one of the things that makes the beer thing so much fun and frankly a crucial element, is the social side of things.
 
So, what do you need to do?
 
Have yourself a Twitter account ideally, sign in, make sure you’re following our account and look out for tweets using the hashtag ‘#livebeerpub’.  We’ll be around to have a chat about all things beery or otherwise, plenty of the LBC Committee will be around hopefully to have a chat.  We can provide information on what you can do to provide support to Merseyside (or other) breweries and pubs during this difficult time.  Get hold of some lovely beers (especially any from our Merseyside brewers!) from a local bottle shop, via delivery from a pub or brewery or take advantage of growler/package fills as appropriate. 
A list of places and their contingency plans for delivery/fills is shown here on our pages: [http://www.liverpoolbeercollective.com/current-brewery-and-independent-offers.html]
For nationwide, the teamwork from Art By Volume and #CraftBeerHour has given us these resources: List [https://www.craftbeerhour.com/where-to-buy-beer-remotely] and a handy UK Map [http://abvstudio.co.uk/beer-map].
 
Grab your beer, take a photo of it, talk about it and interact with like minded people in lieu of bumping into them in our pubs, bottle shops and brewery taps.  We will be kicking things off at 7pm if people want to join us (until 10-11pm or so).
 
There’s no restrictions on where you’re based, what brewery’s beer you’re on, style or anything… just turn up and say hi!
 
Pretty simple really.
 
Another little facet we’re putting on is our ‘pub jukebox’ on a Youtube playlist.  If you start this at 7pm, we’ll all be synchronised and you can listen in on the choices of the LBC Committee for this round – if things continue as they are, we may look at inviting song suggestions to create new playlists for everyone to listen to whilst they sink a beer or two and chat to us and each other.  You can even express some concern at the (no doubt) dubious musical choices from our Committee if this floats your boat!  ​We hope you enjoy our choices!  Please do shout up if there are any issues with access – we are making it publicly available via our Youtube account in advance of 7pm.

Here’s the link for this [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBvXyqmy0uv2gey5-C5XpVFQ-PRtH46sV]. 
 
Sound good? 
 
See you at 7pm on Saturday in the Pub then!

It's really easy to enter this competition and to potentially win yourself a pack of various lovely beers.  How do you go about entering?  Read on...

​Firstly, please note that this is a TWITTER only competition, so you need a Twitter account to enter.  Secondly, we will only take one entry per person, so make sure you pick your best attempt!

1. Take a picture of a locally brewed (Merseyside based or LBC member brewery) beer in a lovely setting, or a picture of you enjoying said beer.  You can also take a picture of a beer in any Merseyside pub or bar, just say in your message what beer you're enjoying and where you are enjoying it.  Drop this picture and info into a tweet.

2. Include the hashtag #LIVEBEER in your tweet and be sure to tag in the Liverpool Beer Collective Twitter account (@livbeerco)​ and at least 3 friends.  Send your tweet.

3. That's it!

Cheeses often provide the perfect foil for the flavoursome and diverse styles that are brewed across the lowland country; some fatty, rich and creamy, whilst others are high on funk, some carry a woodier mushroom type taste and others can be driven by acidic, tart flavours.

Carbonation is a key element in Belgian beer; a stark contrast to British cask which itself holds a much lower carbonation and really is designed to tick other boxes for the drinker.  This carbonation provides a fresh acidity, good for cleansing the palate and for bringing out or complimenting the flavours in the food the beer is paired with.
 
On this occasion, two of the Ladies that Beer, Julie O’Grady and Fiona Hood were presenting a crowd, gathered at the Head of Steam in Liverpool, pairings to showcase the versatility of Belgian styles.  As a frequent visitor to Belgium, Fiona brought a lot of knowledge on each of the carefully selected beers whilst Julie selected some cheeses to match from local favourites, the Liverpool Cheese Company.  The breadth of the beers selected took in sour Gueze, fresh and lively saison, heady and malty Tripel and an aceticly sharp Flanders Red ale, as detailed below:
 
Pairing one – Brasserie de la Senne - Taras Boulba / Gorwydd Caerphilly
 
Pairing two – Oud Beersel - Oud Gueze / Vacherin Mont Dor
 
Pairing three – Saison Du Pont / Monte Enebro
 
Pairing four – Westmalle Tripel / Comte St Antoine
 
Pairing five – Rochefort 10 / Munster
 
Pairing six – Duchesse Du Bourgogne / Forme D’Ambert

Cask Ale Week is and has been organised by Cask Marque for well over a decade, with the intention of improving awareness and celebrating one of Britain's most famous beverages, which is often misunderstood, but frequently celebrated when brewed and conditioned correctly.

Here on Merseyside, we have a wide selection of pubs and bars that are now keeping excellently conditioned cask beer as it should be, served with care and full of flavour.

On 20th and 21st September, at the start of Cask Ale Week, Liverpool will experience the Modern Cask Festival, to be held at Gibberish Brewpub in the Baltic Triangle.  The mini-festival will see a mix of styles from breweries across not just Liverpool, but the rest of the UK.

More information through here: 
https://moderncask.com/2019/09/05/modern-cask-fest-start-the-conversation/
Tickets:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/modern-cask-fest-liverpool-tickets-66750782387

The official Cask Ale Week website (link below) has a list of events that are happening across the UK, although there may be some which are missed off or not added just yet, so it may be worth keeping an eye on it!  More locally, below is a list of some of the the excellent places in Liverpool and across the city region that stock a brilliant pint of cask ale, be it best bitter, pale, IPA or a rich deep dark stout.

Find out more about Cask Ale Week here.

Pubs serving great cask ale across Cask Ale Week and all year round:

The Ale House, Prescot Road, Old Swan
The Bard, High Street, Prescot 
Beer EnGin, Greenes Road, Whiston
Beer Station, Victoria Road, Freshfield
The Belverdere Arms, Sugnall Street, Liverpool
The Bow-legged Beagle, Victoria Road, New Brighton
The Bridewell, Campbell Square, Liverpool
Cask, Queen's Drive, Stoneycroft
The Cornerpost, Bridge Road, Crosby
The Cricketers, Peter Street, St Helens
Dr Duncan's, Liverpool
The Fly in the Loaf, Hardman Street, Liverpool
The Freshfield Hotel, Massam's Lane, Freshfield
The Grapes, Roscoe Street, Liverpool
The Grasshopper, Sandon Road, Hillside, Southport
The Handyman, Smithdown Road, Wavertree
The Head of Steam, Hanover Street, Liverpool
The Lady of Mann, Dale Street, Liverpool
The Lion Tavern, Moorfields, Liverpool
Love Lane Brewery, Bridgewater Street, Liverpool
Maghull Cask, Liverpool Road South, Maghull
The Pen Factory, Hope Street, Liverpool
Pi, Rose Lane, Mossley Hill
The Pilgrim, Pilgrim Street, Liverpool
The Roscoe Head, Roscoe Street, Liverpool
Sanctuary, Lime Street, Liverpool
The Ship and Mitre, Dale Street, Liverpool
Tap and Bottles, Cambridge Walks, Southport
Thomas Rigby's, Dale Street, Liverpool
Three Piggies, Allerton Road, Allerton
Trap and Hatch, South Road, Waterloo
The Turk's Head, Morley Street, St Helen's
The West Kirby Tap, Grange Road, West Kirby

The grain was loaded into the mash tun when the hot liquor had reached the correct strike temperature and as the grain in the tun steeped, our next job was to weigh out the = bittering and whirlpool hops for our beer.
After a generous round of sparging to ensure that we had obtained the residual fermentable sugars from the grain, the sugary wort was transferred across to the kettle to boil and sterilise, but also to receive bittering hop additions from what we had weighed out.
​
The next step was to dig out the mash tun, again! By this point we were all getting quite a bit of déjà vu from moving spent grain out of a tun and into empty sacks?!  Though good fun was had by all with the porridgey spent grain; it is an honest and cathartic pleasure at times.

This took us up to lunchtime, and for this Runaway’s head honcho, Mark Welsby, took us on a little adventure into the city centre to visit beer festival favourites, Holy Crab in their current home at the Arndale Market.  Put simply, their food is to die for!  For any food enthusiast (that isn’t averse to seafood of course) Holy Crab are a must visit if you’re ever out and about in Manchester!  Top tip - keep an eye out for their in-house mayonnaise, which is funnily enough, made using Runaway Brewery beer!

After stopping for coffee at Red Berry Club around the corner, we were fashionably late for the morning brew.  We met with Sean, the head brewer at Black Lodge and made our way around the back entrance where an open barrel fire was already roaring, ready to cleanse some barrels the rustic way.  Although Black Lodge have expanded into their new space, we were working from the some of the old kit, which although not as shiny as the new equipment, are a token reminder of their smaller beginnings but no less effective.

After heaving the bags of grain and malts in, we got stuck in with the mash tun.  Both Angela & Natalie had turns mashing in as this was a hefty amount of oats, making the mash begin to turn quickly into the consistency of a thick and almost cemented porridge – this made for very tough work.  As Sean was feeling experimental, we added a thick layer of flaked oats to the top, to release more sugar, body and oaty-flavour into the brew.

, CaliThe reason for that activity is simple: Box Social make a boat-load of really excellent beers. We tried pretty much everything they had, in all honesty (pun intended): Try Honesty a West Coast pale was first, Cry Agony – a smooth peanut bourbon milkshake pale, and Die Tragedy – a berry and marshmallow sour (tip of the cap to Lally @ Mad Hatter on that one) swiftly followed. Incredibly generously, they have donated a range of four-packs for inclusion in our charity raffle – be sure to pick up tickets before the draw at the end of Beer Week.
 
There wasn’t a great deal of time for standing around and drinking, however. All hands to the pump as the pressures of transferring beer, weighing cans, and monitoring the underback: We did our best to muck in where we could to help out with the regular brewery business. It was a real eye-opener for the pressures that microbrewers are under to produce and package beer consistently: Ross, Steve, Calum and co were incredibly calm under what was a highly pressured day. Definitely earned a beer themselves at the end of it – as did we, and we partook back at their City Centre tap, alongside some of the other crafty sights Newcastle had to offer.