Manchester city centre is already blessed with a number of very fine pubs and alehouses: The Marble Arch, The Angel, Common, Bar Fringe, Knott Bar, The City Arms, The Crown and Kettle, The Bank, The Bull’s Head, and The Smithfield Hotel to name just the ones within walking distance of the tram that Jo and I drink in fairly regularly and I can remember off the top of my head.

Well, last Saturday Jo and I popped in for a couple of drinks at a newly opened establishment which I think already stands head-and-shoulders above the majority of the rest, and is surely set to be recognised as one of Manchester’s very finest: The Port Street Beer House. Here’s why:

First: the location. At the Piccadilly end of Manchester’s Northern Quarter, about 5 minutes walk from the tram stop in Piccadilly Gardens, it’s far enough off the beaten track to avoid attracting passing hoardes of alcopop-seeking teeny-boppers (is that the right technical term? I’m terribly out of touch these days). Perfect.

Next: the pub itself. From the highly polished wooden flooring (which is quite lovely) to the sophisticated decor, muted lighting, eclectic-yet-comfortable furnishings in the upstairs lounge and the light jazz playing softly in the background, it’s a very grown-up sort of space. Which is just the sort of space I like, seeing as I’m well over the hill and accelerating comfortably into middle-age. Again, perfect.

And finally, the beer selection. Oh, my word, the beer selection…

Five cask pumps, which on the night in question were offering beers (from left-to-right) by Dark Star, Acorn, BrewDog, Thornbridge and Prospect. Another ten or so keg taps; two more BrewDog, a couple of continental (Czech or German, I think) lagers, one American guest and some others I failed to make note of. And then a couple of six-foot fridges half full of bottled delights from the UK, Europe, the US and probably Asia and Australia as well, with another two pallet-loads en route, so I was told. To be fair I will say that some of the bottles in question sounded like they were a little bit on the pricey side. But then, quality costs, you tend to get what you pay for and we really are talking about the sort of beers that you definitely aren’t likely to see in many other places outside of their country of origin (again I forgot to note down specific examples, so I’ll make a quick list next time I’m in). Caveat emptor if you’re picking stuff from the fridges at random, is all I’m saying.

Anyhow, the first pint of the evening for me: Thornbridge Hark. A light, session strength golden ale, with bags of hoppy freshness up front and then a long, dry, biscuity finish. Very drinkable, quite moreish, easily the sort of ale you could stick with all night. Meanwhile, Jo tried a half of Dark Star M&M Special Porter. This 6.5% ABV, dark, rich porter was massively smoky and spicy (chorizo!) with sweeter liquorice to follow. Maybe a bit of a challenging flavour profile, but if smoked beers are to your taste then this one is definitely worth trying.

Next up, I chatted to one of the chaps behind the bar about just how bloody marvellous it was to see Brewdog Hardcore on draught and as a result ended up with a half from the keg. In bottles, this 9.2% ABV imperial IPA is pretty damn amazing. On draught it’s… just awesome. All the burnt-orange citrus flavour, dry hop bite and incredible tropical-fruit aroma of the regular version, but with a silkier, richer mouth-feel. Quite splendid. Jo meanwhile had gone for a freshly-tapped cask ale: Prospect one-twenty. At 4.0% ABV, this light malty ale with a dry, biscuity finish and a slight orange-citrus tang (think orange shortbread, but not at all sugary) was another excellent session choice. Jo said she could quite happily drink this all night and wouldn’t have complained if it was the only cask beer on.

At this point, I decided to step away from the monster IPA and renew my acquaintance with an old favourite: Acorn Gorlovka. This 6.0% ABV stout is smooth, dry and packed full of delicious flavour: high-cocoa milk chocolate (think Green & Blacks), with a lingering roast-malt finish and a faint coffee bitterness giving it a distinctly mocha profile overall. Very, very good indeed. And at this point in the proceedings, I brought Jo a half of Left Hand JuJu Ginger. Jo likes a good ginger beer, but this one turned out to be not quite gingery enough. It was cucumber-fresh and not too sugary (which is a good thing), with a tangy, lemony after-taste, but the ginger did’t linger (which is a bad thing…) and by the end of the half it was a case of lemon, lemon and more lemon. “Lukewarm lemon tea”, Jo concluded, and went back to the Prospect one-twenty for the rest of the evening.

I blame my early-doors dalliance with Hardcore for what happened next: a pint of smooth, hoppy, malty and delicious BrewDog Punk IPA – again, imagine the bottled version, but then add a good 50% to the quality of the mouth-feel. It was cask rather than keg and I have no idea whether it was old-recipe Punk or new-recipe Punk, but whatever the case, it was high-quality stuff and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Then I went for a pint of BrewDog Zeitgeist – their Czech-style black lager. 4.9% ABV, packed with burnt coffee flavours and possessed of an incredibly refreshing hoppy bite. Lovely stuff once more and I was very glad indeed that I’d been able to try three BrewDog favourites on draught, be they cask or keg, old recipe or new, they were all very, very good indeed. Then there was one more half of Gorlovka for the road and then Jo and I called it a night – a truly excellent night – and headed for the tram back home.

So, what do I think of Manchester’s newest specialist beer emporium? Frankly, I absolutely love the place. I’ll be closely following developments on the Port Street Beer House blog and keeping an eye out for new beers announced via their Twitter account. And whilst I’m sure Jo and I will still frequent our other favourite drinking places on a regular basis, if our visits don’t more usually turn into stops en-route to an end-of-the-evening session at the Port Street Beer House, I’ll be quite surprised.

Here we go with another round-up of beery blog posts and news items that have caught my eye in the last couple of weeks:

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We received an email late last night from James Watt, Head of Stuff up at BrewDog to tell us about their latest innovation: an online creative community for fans and friends of their Zeitgeist black lager.

Take it away, James:

“There is a very unusual hook behind the Zeitgeist website. The blog will not be updated by us, but by the customer! We want to give up ownership of the blog, website and brand to the people who drink the beer.

The idea is to create a whole alternative community online on the zeitgeist site. People can blog on www.zeitgeistbeer.com about anything: beer, art, film, culture. They can upload movies, pictures and say anything they want. The idea would be that the discussion has an alternative vibe which ties in with the non-conforming message of the beer. And all someone has to do to be able to blog is to buy some beer for our online shop.

This is a brand controlled by the people not people not a brand which controls them. It is not our blog. It is not zeitgeist’s blog – it is your blog!”

There are a few rules and regs: firstly, you have to register on the Zeitgeist website. Then, you have to buy some Zeitgeist black lager from the Zeitgeist shop. At that point, you’ll be given an activation code which will allow you to participate in the blog.

To help with that second step, James has very kindly sent through a discount code for a whopping 70% (yes, seventy percent!) off purchases of Zeitgeist made via the website. So instead of £6.50, a six-pack of this incredibly tasty black lager will set you back just £1.95 (plus p&p). And a 12-pack costs £3.60 instead of the usual £12. Bargain!

And that discount code is, appropriately enough: SHEEP

N.B. the code will only work on Zeitgeistbeer.com, not the main BrewDog.com site. And I’m not entirely sure how long that discount code will be active for, so you might want to get in there sharpish.

And then, of course, you can start adding content to the blog. James has assured me that whilst BrewDog are generally happy for all sorts of content to be posted – not necessarily stuff that’s Zeitgeist or BrewDog themed – he will reserve the power of executive veto (via the ‘delete’ button) for anything deemed too unsightly or unnecessarily crap. And he hopes that in time the most active members of the Zeitgeist community will be invited to become moderators and will help keep things lively and interesting. There could also be further discount codes issued to folks who post on a regular basis… so it might be worth making a few return visits.

So, to recap: head on over to www.zeitgeistbeer.com, buy the beer at 70% off and then add your creativity to the conversation.

Today marks the official launch of the latest addition to the BrewDog range: Zeitgeist. The beer is a 4.9% black lager in the classic Czech tradition and is packaged in bottles that are graced with some of the most sinister-looking sheep-human hybrids you’re ever likely to clap eyes on (although come to think of it, could a sheep-human hybrid ever be anything but sinister..?) courtesy of Scottish art student Heather Brennan.

Brewdog are marking the birth of the new beer with a launch event in London and a press release, issued yesterday, included a snippet from yours truly’s tasting notes, which was nice. Although even nicer was the case of Zeitgeist that the BrewDog crew sent along as a thank you. Cheers, BrewDog! I know what I’ll be drinking this coming Friday…

Speaking of which, it’ll be interesting to see if I can detect any marked differences between the prototype and the mass-produced version. Alas, I quaffed my two spare bottles of the proto a few weeks back as I wasn’t sure of the expiry date, so I’ll have to compare from memory.

Here’s the aforementioned press release, for those interested in more information, and you’ll be able to get more from www.zeitgeistbeer.com (once the finishing touches have been put to the site) and of course there’s the BrewDog blog to keep an eye on as well.

BLACK IS BETTER AND BLACK IS BACK! BrewDog, the globally successful edgy beer company have created the UK’s first mass-market black lager.

Zeitgeist brings to Britain a 4.9% ABV all-natural ingredients black lager that is set to tantalise those who sup its dark flavours, which include hints of chocolate and coffee.

It may seem an unusual colour for a lager, but according to BrewDog MD James Watt, it is the original colour of all lagers.

He said: “At BrewDog we’ve been looking to bring beers full of natural ingredients to the masses – and now we’re doing that with lager as lager used to be. We’re saying people have had enough of additive-fuelled bubbly nonsense.

“Zeitgeist is an idiosyncratic, alternative black lager. It seeks to recreate the spirit, attitude and autonomy of an age gone by. Its inspiration is found more than 200 years ago. It takes an age-old classic, a forgotten masterpiece and gives it relevance and an avant-garde edge.

“Originally, before the advent of modern pale malting technology, all lagers were black. Progress is not always a good thing. We want to wake up people’s tastebuds with this, let them discover the joys of a real, proper lager.”

BrewDog have taken the beer world by storm in just two years with controversial offerings like Speedball, Tokyo, Punk IPA and Trashy Blonde but are a global success with the USA and Sweden being amongst the countries lining up to buy 120,000 bottles of beer a month. In the UK, Brewdog beers can be found in Tesco, Asda, Oddbins and many other retailers.

Zeitgeist is full of contradictions with its black colour and light flavour and takes inspiration from classic Czech dark lagers to create a highly drinkable lager that is set to be a hit with lager fans, new and old alike.

Available to On Trade in bottles, casks and kegs and the Off Trade in bottles (as well as online via www.zeitgeistbeer.com) this is a chance for people fed up with artificially frothy, bland bubbly lagers to try the real deal.

Fermented at 10 degrees with a lager strain of yeast and hopped with Cascade and Ahtanum, American hops with citrus and spicy notes, Zeitgeist is light in flavour with hints of chocolate and coffee and a fruity twist, making it a lager for both sexes.

Zeitgeist’s edgy attitude extends past that of the name and taste. The bottle’s unique look was created by Scottish art student Heather Brennan, who took her inspiration from what she sees as being today’s zeitgeist.

Heather was picked to be the designer of Zeitgeist after BrewDog ran a competition with art students, giving them the chance to design the logo and look of the new drink.

Heather said: “I looked at what Zeitgeist means in contemporary times from an alternative view. The label represents conformity in today’s society, as people follow the higher authority.

“This sparked my interest in military line-ups and the repressing of their identity in masks and uniform. I’ve tried to emulate this with sheep masks, yet the body shapes reveal personality underneath.

“My influences were from a variety of sources for this project, from artists work, such as Alex Pardee’s linework and Ralph Steadmans’ use of ink, to films such as Metropolis and 1984, anything set in a dystopian landscape.”

And to counter the theme of conformity, the website behind Zeitgeist (www.zeitgeistbeer.com) is the opposite: anyone buying a pack of four Zeitgeists will receive a code for a special website where they can go in and create/upload anything they want, encouraging their creativity. The lager is also online at www.twitter.com/zeitgeist_beer.

The drink has already been a hit online after BrewDog gave beer and lager fans the chance to sample it with beer writers and bloggers like Evan Rail and Darren Turpin praising it.

Darren said online: “Zeitgeist is quite delicious and intense…. I reckon I could happily sit through a session on this one. I found it more flavoursome than Herold and a lot more interesting than Leffe Brun – the other dark lager I’m best acquainted with.”

Zeitgeist will be launched tomorrow evening, Thursday February 26, in London’s Austin Gallery at an exhibition of Heather’s work.

Brewery: BrewDog
Location: Fraserburgh, Scotland
ABV: Various (see below)
Version: Bottled, prototype
Source: BrewDog mail order

A few weeks back I placed an order for a mixed case of independent Scottish brewery BrewDog’s Rip Tide Stout and Paradox Stout, partly to show my support for the brewery in their battle with the Portman Group, partly because I’m on something of a mission to find my perfect stout and I reckon these two could very well be contenders. Almost on a whim, I decided to order a case of BrewDog’s 2009 prototypes as well and this is the selection that arrived a few days later:

Yesterday evening I finally got around to sorting out a sampling session (it would have been sooner, but a bout of food poisoning and then a weekend away put paid to that) and here’s what I discovered:

BrewDog Bad Pixie Wheat Beer (4.7% abv)

First up was Bad Pixie, a wheat beer brewed with juniper and lemon zest to 4.7% abv (which, let’s face it, is quite reserved and sedate for a BrewDog beer). I have to confess that I approached this one with mild trepidation: I have something of a gluten intolerance and whilst not out-and-out allergic, have usually shied away from anything too overtly wheat-based. Plus, Hoegaarden and I did not get on at all well, the one time I ventured there, so all-in-all, I can’t say I was actively looking forward to this one…

Which is probably why I was pleasantly surprised when I cracked open the bottle and poured – the beer was a very pale, very golden colour (see photo, utilising my trusty Leffe balloon goblet) and not at all the murky, cloudy affair I was half-expecting. Aroma-wise there was a light fruitiness, although I had trouble pinning down the specifics. Mouth-feel was good and the flavour was, again, faintly fruity – the juniper and lemon, I assumed – and quite bitter. As the drink went on it developed a distinct dryness which came to dominate, along with a lingering after-taste of… brie. No, seriously. And I think it might have been blue brie at that.

In conclusion: I thought Bad Pixie was a bit of an odd one. Not as unpleasant an experience as I initially feared it might be, but definitely not my cup of tea, either. As I say, I’m no expert on the wheat beer style, so I don’t know how if shapes up to other examples, but any beer with an after-taste of cheese would have to give me pause for thought in future.

Brewdog Zeit Geist Black Lager (5.1% abv)

Zeit Geist is a black lager which “takes inspiration from the Czech classics” and indeed, it reminded me very much indeed of the Herold Bohemian that I sampled a few weeks ago.

As you can see from the photo, it poured a lovely ebony colour (although with ruby highlights that you can’t quite make out here) but that thick, frothy cream head disappeared in pretty short order. The aroma was smoky and spicy on the nose and the first sip provided a big hit of liquorice, which eventually settled down to something deeper, sweeter and fruitier. Jo suggested dried fruit and after thinking about it for a bit I came up with “barbecued raisins”, which makes no sense whatsoever but seemed to sum up the flavour quite nicely. There was a hint of muscovadot sugar in there as well, which made me think of dark rum, and I expected to find a few coffee tones, but they weren’t as obvious as I thought they might have been.

In conclusion: Zeit Geist is quite delicious and intense, but at the same time extremely more-ish. I reckon I could happily sit through a session on this one. I found it more flavoursome than the Herold and a lot more interesting than Leffe Brun – the other dark lager I’m best acquainted with. So, yes, if this one was produced on a larger scale then I’d definitely be interested.

BrewDog Chaos Theory IPA (7.1% ABV)

Described as “a deep copper IPA with insane hops”, Chaos Theory really is a monster of a beer. The first thing you notice is its quite lovely colouring, which – as you can just about make out from the photo – lies somewhere between the advertised copper and a stronger ruby red. But it’s the nose that really leaves a big impression: this beer has an absolutely incredible aroma, an immense fruity tang that really slaps you around the head when you take that first deep sniff and keeps on doing so right to the bottom of the glass.

Taste-wise, Chaos Theory is just as intense. A big slosh of alcohol is followed up by some incredibly complex sweet & sour fruit flavours: raspberries, stewed plums, bitter oranges, mangoes and more, all carried along by a gloriously rich mouth-feel and with a smoothness of finish that belies its strength and power.

In conclusion: Chaos Theory is one is a hell of a beer, and no mistake. A relentless onslaught of flavour upon flavour, it’s definitely a sipper rather than a session beer and certainly not one for the faint-hearted. And this is the one was the eventual winner of the 2009 Prototype Challenge, has since gone into production and is available to buy from BrewDog.

To summarise, then: Bad Pixie wasn’t for me, but it certainly wasn’t awful. Chaos Theory is an incredible, huge beer that could give Meantime IPA a run for its money (although along a slightly different track) but I’m really not sure I could drink more than a glass or so at a time.

Instead, it was Zeit Geist that proved the overall winner for me. An interesting, tasty, highly-enjoyable variant on a style of beer that BrewDog haven’t already brewed en masse, I rather wish that they’d decided to put this one into production instead of Chaos Theory. Not because Chaos Theory isn’t a bloody good beer, but they already have their rather fantastic Punk IPA on the roster, so it seems a shame not to broaden their product base with something a little different. But maybe they’ll relent and brew a batch or two of Zeit Geist in 2009 anyhow. In which case, they can be assured of an order from me.