#Tryanuary Round up

January 2018 was a really busy month for us here at the Liverpool Beer Collective!

Promoting a month's worth of events is no mean feat, let alone actually organising some.  We did sadly lose out on a couple due to unforeseen circumstances with a couple of venues, but fear not, we will look at hosting some more events later on in the year to give you all another bite of the beery cherry.

Those that did take place were great with good attendance across the board given the tribulations faced by many in what is usually a pretty dour month, socially speaking.  We'll run through some of the best of the action below and hopefully it will whet your appetites for another bout of #Tryanuary next year and some of our stuff going on later this year, if you really can't wait.

First we have to say thanks, firstly to the likes of the Ladies that Beer and The ElectroKemist who gave up time to organise events, but also especially to many of the region's brewers and bars who all entered into the spirit of #Tryanuary and made all of the events possible by providing their beers and venues.  Finally a thanks to all the people who took tickets, sent messages of support and attended many of the events - you're the reason we do all this!!

LADIES THAT BEER AND THE CLOVE HITCH - evening of Local Beers and Nibbles

The Ladies that Beer hosted an event in the middle of January with the backing of The Clove Hitch and loads of local breweries.  For a very reasonable sum, event goers were given 8 different beers to try and some excellent cheese and meat boards.  Angela Mulligan from the Ladies that Beer introduced the different beers to all who attended the event and there were even some interlopers in the form of Reading's Wild Weather Ales crew!  With a tap takeover on down in the 23 Club simultaneous to the event, they decided it would be rude not to join in.

Special thanks go to the crew of The Clove Hitch and to Black Lodge for thinking on their feet following a hiccup with the proceedings.  A brilliant evening all around; stay tuned to the Ladies that Beer's social media channels for updates on more of their events for the forthcoming year!

GLEN AFFRIC TAPROOM vs. LBC - Party & Beer Launch

​Console games, board games, Taproom brews and a beer pong event (a departure from the usual rules - with a beer as a prize rather than anyone being forced to drink floor contaminated beer) were the order of the day for this event.

The beer that the Liverpool Beer Collective and Glen Affric Brewery made in collaboration was a dessert stout/porter, taken and moulded from the minds of the Collective and from Glen Affric Craig's little note book and then the latter doused it with no small amount of skill to produce 'I can't believe it's NOTella'.

Contrary to some of the frankly daft suggestions that jars of well known hazelnut and chocolate spread were dumped in the brew (along with suggestions of dumping in industrial quantities of hazelnut butter), a carefully considered approach was made in the brew process to make sure the body a smooth, the flavours were blended to contrast and compliment well.  

​In the end, some trust in fate was needed too.  Thankfully the brew turned out rather well!  It is possible that given the reception, Glen Affric Brewing might produce another batch of this collab brew again in the near future.  We hope so anyway! 

​MAD HATTER VS. WILD WEATHER ALES @ CRAFT Taproom

CRAFT Taproom hosted a rather cordial and occasionally raucous night where the Mad Hatter and Wild Weather teams went head to head on the taps of Smithdown Road's premier dive bar.

All attendees at the Tap Takeover were not only treated to an array of Mad Hatter and Wild Weather beers, they were treated to the collaboration beer, Tornado Top Hat - a banana split hefeweizen brew and also to all the members of Wild Weather performing solo sets in a variety of styles, showing just how diverse their talents are.

We do have video evidence of some of the action - if you're nice and ask us... we may deem to share the Wild Weather Boys' talents!

JD with his accordion, Iain and Mike with their distinct guitar styles.  I don't think many of us will forget the unique rendition Iain gave us of Gangsta's Paradise , especially for its delivery any time in the near future!

Hopefully Wild Weather will be back again soon in Liverpool.

(Photos for this section were kindly provided by Angus Morrison, from Mad Hatter Brewing)

​#BATTLEOFTHEBREWERIES - hosted by The ElectroKemist @ Craft Minded

No doubt, The ElectroKemist will draw up a full run down of the event once he's recovered from this event!  Four Bottle Shops from across Merseyside took part in a battle of beers, selecting three different beers from their stock - A sour ale, an IPA and a stout or porter.  Event goers got to try twelve different beers and Craft Minded laid on loads of nibbles to keep people going.

The event was met with pretty much unanimous positivity from the participants; Craft Minded, Cat Hop, 23 Club and The Handyman, and from the attendees.  There were some very interesting results thrown up by the event and the more experienced beer afficianados in the crowd seemed to be surprised by their own palates once the answers to the blind tasting were revealed!

Here's a quick summary of the results:

Winners of the Beers:  Andrew James, Adam Mannell and Rob Shaw.

Congratulations guys!

Winner of the Sour Category:  Joint first place between Cat Hop & Handyman.
Winner of the IPA Category: Cat Hop
Winner of the Porter/Stout Category: The 23 Club  
Overall winner:  Craft Minded.

Well done and thanks to all involved for a cracking event!

​ROYAL RUMBLE AND TAP TAKEOVER - Glen Affric vs. Top Rope @ CRAFT Taproom

The second event at CRAFT Taproom for local breweries battling for supremacy took place at the end of the #Tryanuary month and was a prelude to the WWE Royal Rumble event later that evening for all enthusiasts.

The Taps at CRAFT were taken over in a split between the two breweries, with thetally kept all night on the beers supped by event goers.  Judging by the message and Boomerangs on social media, the strap was taken home by Neil from Top Rope Brewing!

CRAFT Taproom are looking to host another one of these events on the 3rd February, stay tuned to their social media channels to get more information.

The beers on offer in CRAFT Taproom were split between those from Top Rope, which included Line In The Sand, Ryecentennial (American Brown Ale), Four Horsemen (Mixed Berry Chocolate Stout),  Cold Stone Cream Austin (Ice Cream Pale) and those from Glen Affric, including their core range of Payload Pale, Commander IPA, Loch N Load and Highland Suntan.

Congratulations to Top Rope for taking the gong and to both breweries for entertaining the masses in the run up to the 30-man battle royale!

So there you have it... not only the events above happened throughout the month, but we had the likes of Red Star Brewery hosting a brewery tour, Higson's new H1780 Tap and Still taking part by offering a 20% discount on all their draft brews, The Head of Steam taking part with a local brewery bottle shop event in the middle of the month and following this with a brilliant Scottish Breweries Tap Takeover week, featuring the likes of 6DN, the awesome guys from Fierce Brewing, Stewart Brewing, Tempest Brewing and more.

All in all, the month went by rather quickly, full of fun, characters, great beer and hopefully you got to experience some of the fun rather than become a hermit following the festive period!