Tuesday 26 January 2010

@Sheffield, #twissup was awesome

Well that was fun. The pictures say it all (especially this one, although this is my favourite thanks to the hilarious caption). Take 30 people, a combination of bloggers, brewers and drinkers, mix them up inside three breweries and lots of pubs, soak in beer for up to 12 hours and it’s a good recipe for a cracking day.

Thornbridge and BrewDog lined the bar in the Sheffield Tap at midday (Black Dog is the best looking beer I’ve seen in ages); a pit stop in the Harlequin which broke up the long walk; a Kelham Island brewery tour where everyone was drinking Marble Brew No.14; to the current CAMRA Pub of the Year, the Kelham Island Tavern, for a Thornbridge Samhain; to the Sheffield Brewing Co, another tour, a couple of beers; to The Hillsborough Hotel, to a bar lined with Crown Brewery beers, a Marble, Thornbridge and a Pictish; the most to-the-point-brewery tour ever (that’s the mash tun, thanks); Ring of Fire 2009 being tapped; a tram and a bus to a sandwich eating competition and a pint of something from Abbeydale; back on the bus to the Devonshire Cat and a pub full of drunk people drinking Ruination and heading straight for just that; and onwards still, back to the Sheffield Tap, for more, and more; and then food, the missing ingredient of the night, some chicken things, chips and potatoes cooked in southern fried chicken batter; a taxi; a broken key; a shared bed; too-little sleep; the worst hangover ever experienced; a delicious breakfast that couldn’t be eaten as all focus was on controlling the body functions; and then to Leeds; a round of juice and tea in Wetherspoons; taxi to Avery at Beer Ritz; Rooster’s fantastic American IPA on cask got me back on track; a dizzying selection of bottles; bye to Zak, hi to North Bar, for cask, keg and bottles, for bread and fantastic cheese, for a Raging Bitch; then the best pint of Sam Smith’s OBB I’ve ever had; a quick Old Peculiar; another train; a couple of half pints in the Sheffield Tap; Burger King; a four hour train journey made into a five hour train journey by missing the connection by one minute; finally getting in and realising the text I sent to Lauren to tell her I’d be late didn’t actually send; unpack, sit down, pass out.

Damn it was a good time. I felt like hell all day yesterday but who cares, it was worth it. Sheffield is a seriously good place to drink seriously good beer (and if you go then stay at The Hillsborough Hotel, it’s a great place). Jaipur was my first and last of the weekend and just delicious; the Marble Brew No.14 was fantastic; Crown Pale Ale and Stannington Stout show how good a brewer Stu is and then his Ring of Fire blew me away with its green-chilli fruitiness (that was beer of the day); Ruination IPA was a glass of peaches and apricots that kicked my arse; bottles of Orval and geueze ended one day and left their wrath on the next.

A day spent drinking, talking about beer and enjoying it is always fun. Thank you to everyone who came, it was great to meet you or to see you again – I hope everyone had a brilliant day. Special thanks to Alex from All Beer for sorting us out a lot of extra treats and brewery tours and hurrying us along when we floundered. Now we just need to sort out the next one! So far we’ve had suggestions for Manchester (Tandleman, we’ll need a guide!), Oxford or Cambridge, Norwich, Derby, Newcastle (Jeff Pickthall offered to guide us around there), or even Belgium. Plus there’s GBBF, but that one’s a gimme. Where do you fancy going?!

Thanks to Matt for the photos. Check out the #twissup timeline too, it makes for fun and interesting reading! 

18 comments:

  1. nice one mate! im half way through writing my thoughts up.

    nice to see the beer i helped with got beer of the day...god only knows how it came out with green chilli flavour as they were proper ripe chilli's i put in

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  2. A fantastic summary of a fantastic day! It was one of the best days out I've had in a long, long time & it was so good to put a face and personality behind the buddy icons and twitter names.

    Crown Brewer Stu's beer was fantastic as well, I'm seriously impressed and want some of it in bottles now...

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  3. Woolpack Dave looks like a Luger man to me.

    Brilliant day, great people and wonderful beer. I don't think I've ever had so many great beers one after another like that.

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  4. An excellent (half) day :( not sure about the next place, I'm off to finish what I started in Sheffield :)

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  5. It was a brilliant day - looking forward to the next one. Maybe we could do it in Burton - I could happily arrange for us to see a Carling brew ;o)

    Something in the summer would be ace - build up some stamina ahead of the GBBF

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  6. Great post! Sounds amazing, I just wish I didn't have so much on at uni.

    If Norwich is a serious consideration for summer I'd jump at the position of 'guide' but either way, if another 'twissup' goes ahead I'm all for it.

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  7. Definitely worth doing something like this in Burton - especially after the museum repoens. Just never, ever do this in january again!

    Since getting to know Stu and Hillsbrough I look for excuses to go back up there. Really sorry this couldn't be one.

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  8. What Pete said but not for the same reasons - unless we ALL go to NWAF (and Manchester) of course.

    Count be in for the next one all being well.

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  9. Andy, the ring of fire was brilliant, I need some more!

    Baron, great to share a few beers with you and definitely get more of Stu's beer.

    Chris, the quality was incredibly high - rarely a bad beer between us all day long!

    mbt, get back up there soon!

    Kristy, Burton sounds good!

    Shaun, see you at the next one, wherever it is!

    Pete, shame you couldn't make it. Burton and the museum would make a good trip. I don't think we'll do a January one again, but I definitely think we can manage a few a year, so February, August (GBBF), October, perhaps.

    Tandleman, a big trip up to NWAF sounds good and like I said to Pete, I don't think we'll do January again as a few don't drink.

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  10. Looks like a corking time. The drunken tweets were entertaining too. Kristy's trip round a lout factory sounds a good idea.

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  11. That looks like it was a brilliant day :D

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  12. Come to Cambridge! Although I'm not sure it's really big enough, unless it was at the same time as the summer beer festival.

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  13. *very jealous* I'm trying to plan a trip over in April and I'll probably end up trying to replicate your steps (to within the nearest three pints).

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  14. fatboad - Whew. I thought you said Coatbridge for minute!

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  15. Coatbridge would be ideal for the new generation of Buckfast bloggers who know how to appreciate extreme drinks.

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  16. Can anyone come along to these outings?

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  17. Hey, what about combining one with the opening of the National Brewery Centre?

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