We’re not yet ready to pour you a drink and show you around our Bottleshop. In place of that we wanted to give you a little idea of what we have planned for our premises on 7 Market Street in Ulverston.
3 epiphanies led me to create Beerwolf, so here they are:
Number 1 – Thornbridge Jaipur IPA
Not all beer has to be super cold, fizzy and tasteless
Beer does not equal Carling or Fosters in the same way that wine does not equal Lambrini or Blue Nun. Yet until fairly recently I was happy supping fizzy nothingness without really thinking about it. Thornbridge Jaipur was the first drink that really got me questioning my choice of beer. Why would I pick up a Carling when there was the option to have this flavourful yet incredibly drinkable IPA instead? Why would I stick with the same beer every day when there is a world of options out there? This seems to me like opting to listen to Coldplay every single day of your life when you could be listening to Prince, The Rolling Stones, LCD Soundsystem, Jimi Hendrix, Kraftwerk……..
Number 2 – Stringers No.2 Stout
You can embrace the dark side
Just because you don’t like Guinness doesn’t mean that you should rule out all Stouts and Porters. Sat in the Prince of Wales’ beer garden in Foxfield I was convinced to try a pint of Stringers No.2 Stout, and have never looked back. This has opened a whole new world of beer to me which I would have missed out on, such as Alphabet Brewing Company’s Flat White and various versions of The Kernel’s Export India Porter.
Number 3 – Orval Trappist Ale
The old masters know what they are doing
It’s a really exciting time right now within the UK with so many fantastic microbreweries popping up across the country (as well as some of the regional brewers being forced to up their game a bit). But the brewers that have been doing this for centuries have learned a thing or two and still produce some of the best beers in the world. Belgian breweries are really the first ‘craft brewers’ using techniques such as wild fermentation to create delicious and sometimes downright funky ales. Orval is a personal favourite of mine (FYI, I believe the sweet spot for this beer is about 6 months after bottling) but Brasserie Dupont’s Saison Dupont and Westmalle Tripel are also good starting points for exploring Belgian beers.
We’re going through a golden age of beer across the UK with many local heroes such as Hawkshead, Stringers and Hard Knott, yet it isn’t always easy to get our hands on the best beer around. We want to bridge that gap offering the best beer that the UK, Europe and beyond has to offer. All in its freshest possible state. Hopefully our beer selection will allow you to have your own epiphanies and set off on your own beer adventure.
We searched for the right premises for some time and are delighted to have found a shop in the heart of our hometown of Ulverston. For the past few months we have been busy turning what was previously an estate agency into our snug little beer nirvana. We are converting the first floor into a tasting room which will seat around 40 people and downstairs is our Bottleshop and tap area where you will have over 200 beers to choose from, 8 of which will be on our taps and 2 will be served from cask. We will also be hosting a variety of beer events so please keep visiting our website or watching our social feeds to be kept up to date on what we have planned.
There’s still a few crossed Ts and dotted Is required but we will be able to start revealing the first beers that will be on our taps and in our fridges very shortly. We’re hoping to be open in October but building work does tend to throw up the odd surprise, rest assured we will be open as soon as we can.
So please come along and have a nosy through the window. If we’re around we are more than happy to stop and have a chat and explain what we are doing. I’m really thrilled to be launching Beerwolf and believe it will offer something exciting and different for everyone.
I’ll keep posting updates of our progress, and hopefully will have some photos to share in the near future. In the meantime if you have any questions, comments or beery requests please email, Facebook or tweet in my direction.
Cheers,
Alan