We teamed up with the wonderful Forum Books in Corbridge, to bring you their recommended book pairings for some of the North East’s best core beers. All beers were purchased from CentrAle and sent on to Helen at Forum to match with her favourite books and take some photos. The links to buy all of the books and beers are below if you’d like to join in…we’d love to hear your thoughts!
Wanderlust + The Frayed Atlantic Edge
Allendale Brewery: Wanderlust – West Coast-style IPA (6.5%) with tropical citrus fruit flavours and aroma.
The Frayed Atlantic Edge: David Gange
David kayaked the weather-ravaged coasts of Atlantic Britain and Ireland from north to south: every cove, sound, inlet, island. Sip a Wanderlust, Allendale Brewery’s West Coast style IPA and let David do the paddling …
Simple Pleasures + These Women
Almasty Brewing Co.: Simple Pleasures – Pale Ale (4%), beautifully balanced daily drinker packed full of aroma and flavour. Bursting with Ekuanot, Mosaic and Simcoe hops. A session strength grapefruit & tropical fruit flavour bomb.
These Women: Ivy Pochoda
Explosive thriller – intense, brutal and glittering – strong reading to leave you reeling & air-punching!
Royal Sovereign + Useless Magic
Cullercoats Brewery: Royal Sovereign – Barley Wine (11%). An all English vintage barley wine – rich plum and fruit flavours, treacly caramel warmth and masses of hop flavour from Challenger, East Kent Goldings and Bramling Cross. The beer is one to sip and savour or lay down to mature further, maybe saved for a future celebration or a present.
Useless Magic: Florence Welch
“Songs can be incredibly prophetic, like subconscious warnings or messages to myself, but I often don’t know what I’m trying to say till years later. Or a prediction comes true and I couldn’t do anything to stop it, so it seems like a kind of useless magic.”
Northern Helles + Twelve Nights
Donzoko Brewing Company: Northern Helles – Helles Lager (4.2%). The brewery’s version of a Bavarian Style unfiltered lager. Sweet malt, subtle floral hops and a crisp refreshing finish. Inspired by lazy days by the river Eisbach, this is their flagship beer that will change what you think about lager.
Twelve Nights: Urs Faes (translated into English by Jamie Lee Searle)
Set in the Black Forest this a hymn to Winter, dense woods, snow-covered hills and a welcome tavern.
Magus + I Wanna Be Yours
Durham Brewery: Magus – Pale Ale (3.8%). It’s their best-selling beer for a reason. Simple pale malts provide a base for a complex blend of hops. The colour is very pale with lemon citrus and floral flavours, progressing to a spicy mouthfeel and a clean earthy bitterness in the finish. Simple yet complex, very pale with a clean earthy bitterness – its John Cooper Clark on the nose.
I Wanna Be Yours: John Cooper Clark
This is a memoir as wry, funny, moving and vivid as its inimitable subject himself. This book is a joy for both lifelong fans and for a whole new generation.
Stell + The Darkest Evening
The First & Last Brewery: Stell – Stout (4.3%). Dark as the Northumbrian night sky and just as captivating. Smooth, rich and moreish. Just how a classic stout should be. Replace ‘stout’ with ‘murder mystery’ and you’ve got the latest Vera ‘The Darkest Evening’ by Ann Cleeves – signed and with an exclusive short story, too.
The Darkest Evening: Ann Cleeves
Driving home during a swirling blizzard, Vera Stanhope’s only thought is to get there quickly. But the snow is so heavy, she becomes disoriented and loses her way…
All Connected + Boy Parts
Northern Alchemy: All Connected – Dark Chocolate & Mint Milk Stout (5.1%). An after dinner mint inspired milk stout, which is both decadent and delicious.
Boy Parts: Eliza Clark
We never want to come off too cocky, but this has been described as a “modern North-East classic” so … yeah its fresh n feisty Boy Parts by Eliza Clark. A pitch-black comedy both shocking and hilarious, fearlessly exploring the taboo regions of sexuality and gender roles in the twenty-first century.
Hoop + Beneath the Bonfire
Full Circle Brew Co.: Hoop – American Pale Ale (5.5%). Hoop is delicious and smooth with a label that harks back to the shipbuilding history of Tyneside. Mega hoppy, with the citrus and pine of the best of US pales. Easy drinking but not low on flavour. Easy reading..? More on the effortless scale … there’s this Chainsaw Soiree to keep you going and guessing…
Beneath the Bonfire: Nickolas Butler
In these ten stories, Nickolas Butler demonstrates his talent for portraying a place and its people with unparalleled tenderness, evoking an American landscape that will be instantly recognisable to readers enchanted by his debut novel, Shotgun Lovesongs.
Lady Marmalade + There There
McColl’s Brewery: Lady Marmalade – Best Bitter (4.4%). A classic, sweet, full-bodied beer. Caramel malt dominates the flavour with light touches of spicy rye, deep citrus hop notes and a long-lasting bitterness.
There There: Tommy Orange
An all-time favourite packed with depth, characters and hell-yeah plot line culminating at a Powwow in Oakland, California
Jakehead + My Darling from the Lions
Wylam Brewery: Jakehead – IPA (6.3%). Supercharged, rich and bright & amber/bronze with lots of American hop aroma. Distinctly bittersweet on the palate with a massive hop complexity fashioned deep within the IPA tradition.
My Darling from the Lions: Rachel Long
Immediate, accessible, funny and heartwarming – everyone needs My Darling from the Lions. Long reveals herself as a razor-sharp and original voice on the issues of sexual politics and cultural inheritance that polarise our current moment.