Tag: food

21st August 201720th August 2017 By Bob Maxfield

The Canal House Birmingham

When we received the opportunity to attend the press night for New World Trading’s newest Birmingham venue, The Canal House, we were intrigued, especially when we heard they had over ’60 ales on offer’.

We have had a positive relationship with The Botanist (New World Trading Company’s other Birmingham based venue) having attended one of their Ale Tastings, and also ran a competition for one of our followers, along with 8 friends, to receive a Free Ale Tasting. We have always been impressed by the quality and diversity of the beers they have on offer and hope to see much of the same at The Canal House.

Image by Dan Sandford-Smith – www.dansmith-photography.co.uk/

The setting is beautiful, using the canal surroundings to its advantage, its faux canal house design sitting comfortably with the marina and former industrial buildings surrounding it. The attention to detail is impressive with lots of little touches inside and outside to enhance the theme.

We are the Midlands Beer Blog, so my priority was to check out the beer list, whilst my wonderful wife couldn’t pass up the opportunity of trying one of the impressive cocktails. The beer list is diverse, with a mixture of styles and well known brewery names along with more ‘crafty’ fair. Beers from the likes of Peroni, Thwaites sit alongside Beavertown, Magic Rock, Wild Beer Co & Lervig. Being big fans of Belgian beer, I was impressed to see Trappist beers, Orval and Rochfort also included in ‘The Ale Inventory’. Check out @theanthologyofales for more detail about the beer on offer.

While my wife supped on her elaborately named cocktail, I opted for ABC’s Oatmeal Pale Ale ‘A the K’. The bar man who served us was attentive and enthusiastic, and told us about how much he had enjoyed learning about the beers they stocked. We followed this up with a Fourpure ‘Juicebox’ before we boarded the Canal Boat Ale Tasting trip.

The boat trip was a special event for the media day, and was designed to introduce those attending to the beers available at venue. Being a self-professed beer geek I already knew details of the beers and beer in general, and enjoyed sharing my knowledge of Trappist beers with the other on the boat. The Ale Tasting offer a good opportunity to learn about different beer styles for the uninitiated.

After the trip we carried ours, and everyone else’s, remaining Orval to our tables. Our tables service was fantastic, with the waitress showing great knowledge of the food and drink available. I’m not a keen lager fan, but felt I owed it to you wonderful readers to try the tank fresh Budweiser Budvar, and I was pleasantly surprised. This beer really benefits from being served fresh, streets ahead of what I have had from the bottle or tap previously and went perfectly with my Fish & Chips.

We are not a food blog so I won’t bore you with my thoughts, besides, there are other blogs out there who are eminently more qualified to speak on that matter including Bite Your Brum.

If you like The Botanist, you will like The Canal House, they share a lot of DNA, and there is little revolutionary about the venue, but it offers a nice venue, and sitting next to the canal drinking some decent beer is a pleasant experience.

It would be unlikely I would choose to visit The Canal House or The Botanist just for the beer, and it wouldn’t get a ticker excited, but not all my friends like beer (regardless of how much i evangelise). These venues offer decent food, decent selection of spirits, cocktails and some interesting beers,so feel it would raise a smile for most people with in a work group night out. I also think the more places that offer good beer, the better.

*the media night was a free event, and we did not pay for food and drink, but this did not impact our views, we care too much about beer to lie. Check out or disclosure page for more details.

1st March 20171st March 2017 By Bob Maxfield

Birmingham Beer Profiles-Lone Wolf is Lone No More

We have said before that Jewellery Quarter is the place to be for independent businesses, especially beer business. The Lord Clifden, The Church & Rose Villa Taverns have been joined by The Gunmakers Arms, 1000 Trades and Pig & Tail over the last year or so. To this group, you can now add Lone Wolf

Brother and Sister duo Josh & Sallie, Birmingham natives, have spent much of their working life managing pubs in the thriving centre of London, and witnessed the growth of the exciting London Beer Scene. As they worked in a managed estate they had limited choice on the beers they could bring in, but jumped at any opportunity to bring in a beer from some of the exciting new breweries popping up across the capital, including Kernel, Beavertown and Camden Town among others.

After becoming increasingly frustrated by the lack of choice and freedom, in 2015 they made the decision to return home to Birmingham, with the plan to open their own independent venue. They looked at a number of venues, and did investigate the possibility of opening a venue in Birmingham City Centre. Unfortunately they ran in to an all too familiar problem, one we have heard regularly, as they found the cost to be prohibitive. While they waited to find the right place, they kept themselves busy by getting reacquainted with the Birmingham scene, and also supported The Button Factory with their opening.

When they decided on the venue they choose 2-10 Constitution Hill, part of the Bismillah Building Buiding. It is within easy walking distance of both St.Chads and St.Pauls Tram line and many buses travel down Consitution Hill on their way to their eventual destination. It is also close to The Gunmaker Arms, The Church and Burning Soul Brewery Tap if you are thinking of adding them to a crawl.

Their focus is on quality local products with coffee provided by Quarter House, pies, cheese and charcuterie provided by a company from Wolverhampton, and fresh bread from just around corner at Peel & Stone. They opened with three keg lines, but have since increased to ten, with a focus on great local beers and quality beers from further afield. Their plans for the future include Meet the Brewer events, as well as art shows and musical performances.

We have been really impressed with the community focused venues opening in Birmingham, such as 1000 Trades and now Lone Wolf, or as will now have to be known as ‘The Wolf’.

After being open for a few weeks Josh & Sallie received a Cease and Desist letter from the Beer Punks themselves Brewdog. Brewdog are in the process of opening their own distillery, which they have chosen to call Lone Wolf…

We are not able to discuss the legal specifics, but the approach taken by Brewdog seems distinctly lacking in any Punk sensibility as they have chosen to use their superior size to force a change, at extra cost, to an independent venue. Josh & Sallie have decided to make the best of the situation, and are planning a relaunch event, a Lone Wolf no more, as they become The Wolf. We will keep you update on their plans in our weekly newsletter.

3rd November 20162nd November 2016 By Catherine Webber

“All the Pig, All the Time” at Peel & Stone Harborne

Only 12 hours after landing back in the UK after our holiday my husband Dave and I were sitting in the cosy surroundings of Peel and Stone in Harborne ready to start our ‘All the Pig, All the Time’ dinner and beer pairing.

Who can resist a menu that starts with something surely Dracula would be proud of ‘Pain Au Blood’!

The first beer was from London Fields a brewery I have to admit to not having tried before. However after tasting their 3 Weiss Monkeys I shall be seeking them out. It was a very crisp, pale white IPA with a sharp lemony flavour. This sharpness of flavour worked well with the buttery croissant where the chocolate was replaced by black pudding, it was a great start food and beer wise – in fact the beer was so good Dave had a second!

The next course was ‘Proper Carbonara’. Sounds simple and I guess it is but I’ve also had some awful ones! This was not one of those – sweet crispy bacon, creamy but not heavy sauce and lashings of parmesan. But the beer….this gem of a dish was paired with Purity’s Lawless Lager. I have to say straight off this is not a beer I like, I find it far too malty and sweet. I can see the idea of the pairing but the sweetness of the bacon cut through the sauce and I would have liked something with a bit more bite be that hoppyness or citrus flavours, it was a sentiment echoed on a few of the tables around us too. Dave had the right idea and kept some of his 3 Weiss Monkeys back to try with it – a much better match.

A light break then with ‘Pig Ear Salad’ – pickled watermelon with crispy strips of pigs ears. To be honest the only pigs ears I’d come across before were the ones you feed to dogs so I was a bit dubious but it was delicious. This was paired with Twisted Barrel’s Saison from Another Place (MBBC 1st Birthday Special Edition). I was so pleased to have a chance to try this beer as I missed out on the birthday party (by being on our aforementioned holiday) and it did not disappoint – lemon curd aroma with a floral, sherberty taste. A very clean tasting beer with an slight lactose flavour (but of course not an ingredient as all their beers are vegan!). It paired really well with the salad creating an almost margarita type flavour with the watermelon. My favourite beer of the evening.

Moving onto the heavy hitters then it was ‘Roasted Pork Rump, Dauphinois, Date Jus and Roasted Veg’ paired with Anspach and Hobday’s Sea Salt and Chilli Stout. I was a little nervous about the rich meal and beer pairing but it absolutely worked. The beer has a rich chocolate, figgy aroma but is so light and easy drinking. There is a hint of the salt and the chilli is warming rather than blow your head off. When paired with the food we also detected some more liquorice notes coming through in the beer which with salt and chilli worked well.

Finally the dessert, how would they get ‘pig’ into this we wondered?! Turns out through lovely sweet bacon strips in the Bacon, Peanut Butter, Chocolate and Cherry concoction served as a little stack in a glass. The beer pairing here was Redchurch’s Hoxton Stout. A very light aroma to this one with a sweet, hoppy, vanilla flavour. The pudding was very rich (but delicious) and this added an interesting bitterness to the beer that was not there when it was drunk alone. An interesting mix of a rich beer with a rich flavoured dessert that created a balance.

I finished off my evening with a Almanac Horchata Milk Stout. A slight bitter aroma to this with a sweet chocolatey flavour. I didn’t get a lot of cinnamon or almonds as you would in the source drink but there was a fruitiness to it that balanced out the sweetness very well.

A cracking first evening back in the UK and we managed to stay awake through to the end! And as always great service and atmosphere in this little ‘hidden gem’.