In this hearty autumnal fireside drop of a brewsletter . . .

* Birkenhead Beer Fest - good beer, good music, good German sausage!
* More markets confirmed (Heswall & high Hope Street).
* Beer & Food - matches made in heaven.
* The return of the wild - our wild-hopped 'BeWilder' beer returns.
* Guest Brews from Northern Brewing.
* Fame at last - (local papers & radio getting BeWildered).
* Ho ho ho - order your mini-casks for Chrimbo!
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All The Fun Of The Fest - Birkenhead CAMRA Beer Festival.

After working most of the open shifts at the fest, I was a litte 'cream-crackered' - some might argue that it's not really 'work' plus you get free beer! Anyway, I had a fun time - talking to people and serving them our beer (except when I was told not to, for stock reasons, so that visitors on each night could try as many of the beers as possible. It was frustrating to stand in front of a cask of my beer & not be allowed to serve it, but I do understand).

Hello to any beer fans who signed up for the Brewsletter after trying the beer at the fest. We are very happy that our wild-hopped 'BeWilder' in cask form was voted 2nd favourite beer of the fest (1st prize went to our new friendly rival, Brimstage Brewery, Thornton Hough).

As a beer-lover myself, the range & quality of beers on was very good this year - and nice to see a load of local brews in tip-top condition too. The atmosphere was in our opinion also greatly improved this year by the less full-on volume & the style of music - real ale & real acoustic music is the way to go! Congratulations to Wirral CAMRA for an excellent fest.
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Racing To New Markets.

Hope Street, Liverpool (just past the Philharmonic Hall) -
3rd Sundays of the month, from Sun 19th November.

Newhall Garden Centre, Chester High Road (A540), Heswall, Wirral -
1st weekend of the month (Saturday & Sunday), from 2nd & 3rd December.

Firstly, apologies to any of you who turned up hoping to visit October's Hope Street Farmers' Market. As you may now know, the market was cancelled, due to various reasons, depending on who you speak to!

The traders were only informed that the market was cancelled on the Friday before the Sunday market. After the tremendous boost of the first market (it was combined with the fantastic Hope Street Festival in September) it was a real shame to be let down & for us to have to let our customers down.

There was a fantastic range of traders at the Sepember market, and (unforeseen circumstances aside!) we will be back there this month, Sunday 19th November, & every 3rd Sunday of the month.

We are also starting to attend one weekend a month at the farmers' market at Newhall Garden Centre, Heswall. The market currently runs every Saturday & Sunday, we think from 9am - 4pm. Initially we will attend this small market, just on the first weekend of the month (Saturday & Sunday).

This is a new and small market, with a few stalls selling most of the sorts of produce that one would look for - meat, jams & preserves, fruit & veg, deli-type foods, fresh ready meals, local craft soaps, etc. The market is organised by the garden centre itself, which also has activities for children such as a 'fun house' & 'the potting shed' where budding artists can paint their personal touches onto pottery items. For a map follow this link

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Heavenly Matches - Beer & Food.

Following on from Benjamin Franklin's assertion that "Beer is the proof that God loves us and cares for us", we're happy to pass on some heavenly pairings of beer and seasonal foods.

Autumn lamb, with its richer flavour works very well with a rounded, fruity ale like our Red Admiral. While the richness of the beer matches well with that of the lamb, the spice of the crystal rye & bitterness of the Brewers Gold hops contrasts well with the lambs' sweetness.

Get fantastic lamb from either of the beardy butchers - Patrick, from Bryn Cocyn Organic, available at Wirral Farmers' Market (New Ferry) see bryncocynorganic.co.uk or Brian & Ffion from
their Anglesey farm, trading as 'Beef & Lamb Direct' via many local markets.

For the veggie-lovers amongst you, roasted autumnal veg with their lovely caramelised flavours will also be perfectly matched by Red Admiral's own fruit & caramel flavours.

Our 'Sunlight' beer is a perfect match for lighter dishes such as Chinese and Thai food and even makes a more flavourful change to the normal dull lager with a decent curry. Alternatively try it with lighter British staples, such as succulent roast chicken (especially from Willacy's of Cheshire, available from New Ferry farmers' market)

For more beer & food matchings & beer *in* food recipes, see a new book (with the imaginative title of "The Beer & Food Cook Book"!) by chef, writer, broadcaster, etc, Richard Fox.

See his website www.foxfoodandbeer.co.uk
or follow this link to amazon.co.uk's page for his book

I've not yet got round to picking up a copy yet, but if I don't get it soon, it'll be on my Christmas list. As soon as I get a copy I will try a couple of the recipes out & let you know how they go. If any of you get there first, let me know what you think.
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The Return of the 'BeWilder' Beast.
Some of you may remember the brief appearance of our 'BeWilder' beer earlier in the year. It was brewed with wild-grown Wirral hops that we had dried & kept in the freezer since we picked them in autumn 2005.

This autumn we did a few recce trips out to the secret location to check on the wild hops' progress (you can torture us by forcing us to drink nasty tasting macro-brewed lager, but we still won't reveal where the wild-hops grow!). Anyway, after a couple of trips when the hops were looking nice, but still not yet ripe & fruity, we finally picked less than half a kilo of decent wild hops (as well as a few nettle stings, thorn scratches, etc, we thankfully also picked some sloes, blackberries & weird semi-wild pears!).

This season, rather than drying the hops, we decided to use them in their 'fresh' form & simply added a handful to a few casks of our regular 'Sunlight' brew. The resulting beer is interesting stuff - more bitter than Sunlight, but herbal flavours (mint?)also come through from the wilderness. See what you think at the next few markets (until the hops runs out) - free tastings available as always.

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Welcome Guests - News of the brews from our chums at Northern Brewing, Cheshire.

We will soon bid a fond farewell Northern's wheat brew - OneDerFul Wheat, and we will also have a brief hiccup in supplies of their 'meal in a glass' TwoTone Chocolate Stout (more soon though).

In their place we will soon have some supplies of their yummy US-hopped brew, 'Dancer' (4.2% abv). US hops are not exactly shy in coming forward (some might say like the US people?) typically they have strong grapefruit & peach flavours, even tasting of pine-needles!

Northern's brewer, Mike Hill manages to rein in the exuberance of these fruity beauties by balancing them with some hop bitterness and a backbone of good old British pale ale malted barley (from one of the UK's last remaining traditional floor-maltings - www.warminster-malt.co.uk ).

Even though Dancer is broadly similar to our own 'Sunlight', it's interesting to try the 2 side by side - Sunlight's 'East Kent Goldings' hops have a subtle marmalde-like orange flavour, rather than the more full-on grapefruit & peach flavours from the US 'Cascade' hops used in 'Dancer'. See what your tastebuds think & tell me if my descriptions are more fruity than the beers!
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Betwixt & BeWilder in the News & Airwaves

After a nice write-up about our wild-hopped 'BeWilder' in the Wirral News this week, we were chuffed to be asked to appear on Norman Thomas's Radio Merseyside show. We're due to be on this Saturday morning, at about 7.40am. It's going to be a bit of a dash to get back in time for the inevitable early-doors crowds at New Ferry's Wirral Farmers' Market, but we should be OK.

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Only About 44 Beer Shopping Days Til Christmas!

Apologies if I invoke the 'Bah Humbug' in you by mentioning the dreaded C-word (Christmas, that is), but if you'd like to ensure a fresh tasty drop from your very own 9pint mini-cask, please make your order at one of our markets soon & arrange to collect it from a market in December. We also offer home delivery for orders of 10litres or more. See website for more details.
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As always - any comments, questions, tips, recipes, or anything else, do drop us a line - brewer@betwixtbeer.co.uk or tel. 07792967414.

Cheers,
Mike.

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