IPA Day at Mr Foleys

Two weeks after the event, I finally find time to write this post. There have been lots of posts on the various events for International IPA Day, but I'd like to add my own slant on the incredible offering at Mr Foleys in Leeds.

Being a Yorkshireman by birth, its always a pleasure for me to head back to my old home county. But the pleasure was doubled by discovering this gem of a pub in Leeds city centre, opposite the town hall. I had been following their twitter account for over a year so I kinda knew it would be good, but I was still pleasantly surprised.

Dean, the manager, had put a lot of effort into this day. A dedicated beer lover, his passion for serving only the best is something many managers and landlords could learn from. His IPA day offering was nothing short of astounding. Cask offerings included Thornbridge, Buxton, Red Willow, Kirkstall and Roosters, atop some amazing keg beers, Summer Wine's 7C's of Rye (my own personal beer of the night), Magic Rock Human Cannonball (which sold out before I could try it) and Brewdog's classic Punk IPA. Our own Code Black was also on cask and it represented the first time that Dave and I could try our first beer together from the cask.

Opinions differed...

When we had tried it from tank, we didn't think that the hops had come through the dark malts the way we wanted them to. It was good, in fact if we'd been aiming for a freshly hopped porter, we'd have been bang on. But to us at that moment, it wasn't a black IPA.

On cask at Mr Foleys, the hop characteristics were a lot more evident. This worried Dave a bit. We'd just brewed the second gyle of Code Black that very morning with an extra 30% more hops. My own personal opinion was (and still is) that more hops couldn't possibly make it worse, just different. That second gyle is in tank now, due to be racked on Monday, there will be a dozen or so casks, but the rest is going into bottle, probably available some time in late September.

But I digress, which I do a lot. Once I'd gone through the draught offerings, I decided to try a few of the tempting bottle selection Dean had put together, most of which (if not all) were American. I tried four all together, Sierra Nevada Torpedo, Odell IPA, Victory Hopdevil and a can of Maui Big Swell IPA. The Maui was the stand out of these for me, a 6.8% can of hoppy delight. The Torpedo was pretty good too, but the Odell and Victory beers were a little disappointing. I was talking to Neil (whose blog Eating isn't Cheating is a great read) at the time I tried the Odell and a discussion ensued about how there is most likely 6-8 weeks between the beer being bottled and it getting to outlets here in the UK, during which time the hop character just drops away. As Neil has since pointed out on his blog, these beers need to be drunk fresh.

The most innovative part of the night for me was Dean's great efforts to assemble brewers or representatives of 8 or so of the beers available, each given a little slot to describe their beer or talk a little bit about IPA. Well, until HardknottDave popped up...

Every other speaker was gently spoken, passionate but struggling to make themselves heard over the hubbub and humdrum of a pub full of people enjoying themselves, even with a microphone and amplifier. When Dave came up to speak, he put the microphone down and bellowed "GOOD EVENING LEEDS!" I can't remember exact words, I so wish I'd been videoing. There follows a selection of rough quotes from Dave's 'speech'...

"I DON'T NEED THIS MICROPHONE BECAUSE I CAN SHOUT LOUDER THAN YOU!"

"I BREW CODE BLACK. IT'S A BLACK IPA. THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE! IPA STANDS FOR INDIA PALE ALE, IT'S NOT PALE! I TELL YOU ANOTHER THING, IT'S NEVER BEEN ANYWHERE NEAR FUCKING INDIA EITHER!"

"WE DON'T USE THE WORD ALE AT HARDKNOTT. ONLY BEARDY-WEIRDIES DRINK ALE, I'M NOT A BEARDY-WEIRDY..."

At this point there was a slight interjection from the crowd...

"ALRIGHT, MAYBE I AM, BUT I STILL DON'T DRINK ALE, I DRINK BEER."

It electrified the atmosphere somewhat, but it got the crowd involved and despite looking a little mad at the time, he definitely got people talking. Which is what we want, right?

Afterwards, I had opportunity to speak to many fellow beery folk, including Dean, Rich from Magic Rock, Josie Ludford from Brewdog, fellow Shayman Mark Fletcher and Zak Avery (who was probably sick of the sight of me by this time of the week, having pestered him at GBBF too - Sorry Zak!).

I'm fairly certain that I spoke to more people than that, if I've missed you out I apologise. The sands of time and the mists of alcohol etc...

Thanks Dean, see you for #StoutDay?