ASK me for a Norway link with the Printworks and I would have said The Norwegian Parrot, but it was at one of the entertainment complex’s unsung drinking holes that I could have got a little Norse for wear the other day.
The bitter, usually just in bottled-conditioned form, is specially in cask for the festival, and was a spellbinding balanced drop with a gorgeous aroma of Goldings hops.
Wetherspoons are in the middle of their Beer Festival, which they dub The World’s Biggest. It runs until Sunday, April 1. Or until the guests ales run out, I’m not sure which. Since each Wetherspoons outlet gets at least one barrel each of the 50-beer roster, that’s a lot of supping.
At Lloyd’s in The Printworks I road-tested where they were up to. My yearning for the exotic delights of Smuttynose Murrkn Mild (New Hampshire) and Zululand Zulu Blonde (no Zulus were involved) wasn’t to be satisified. You may find them and the likes of Hidden Scullion’s Irish Ale and a host of our own home-bred ales in other Wetherspoons, though.
Still duty manager Kev Muldoon (Denton) was able to pull me a sample of Nøgne Ø Bitter from a 10-year-old craft brewery in Grmstad, Norway. The name means Naked island in Old Danish. The fanatical brewers apparently also make sake as well as a vast range of uncompromising beers.
The bitter, usually just in bottled-conditioned form, is specially in cask for the festival, and was a spellbinding balanced drop with a gorgeous aroma of Goldings hops. It’s an ideal session beer, which couldn’t be said for other stand-out beer we tasted straight from the barrel.
Try ordering another Vasileostrovsky Imperial Russian Stout after downing just one pint of St Petersburg’s finest at 6.5 per cent ABV. It was pungently dark and malty but finished with a surprising hoppy bitterness. Na Zdorov’ye!
As the man says.......
