LAST CLUB NIGHT – Sandstone Brewery

Stuart, from Sandstone Brewery, (Wrexham) brought 5 of his beers for us to taste. Sandstone Brewery was established in 2008 and the brewery was taken over by the current owners in 2013. The beers are available at around 50 outlets in North-West England and North Wales.

Stuart brought a selection of hops and set us a quiz to identify the hop from the list of aromas.

If you want to order any of the beers we tasted on the night except Chesters, which has been replaced by Celtic Pride 4% amber ale, then please let Malcolm know. You can order as many or as few, as you like. Payment would be upon receipt. The cost per bottle, £2.50 (Stuart had mentioned a case of 12 for £25 but this didn’t include VAT). You can e-mail your order to Malcolm. Delivery will be around 4 weeks later.

Please order by 21st November.

Malcolm gave the vote of thanks.

Beers tasted	Details	ABV
Sandstone Edge	Pale, dry, bitter beer	3.8
Morillo	Light, smooth, easy drinking pale ale.	4.2
Chesters Deva IPA	West Coast IPA	5.6
Postmistress	A russet, brown premium bitter,	4.4
Onyx Dragon	Coal black in colour, with hints of chocolate, toffee and caramel.	4.0

NEXT CLUB NIGHT –20th November 2024 at 8pm

Caroline from the North West Air Ambulance Charity is coming to talk to us to raise awareness of their lifesaving work and how they provide enhanced pre-hospital care to the most critically ill and injured patients across the North West. Caroline will be bringing a card reader so that she can accept personal card donations from any of our members who would like to do this.

Stuart has given us a very generous donation of a brewing experience day at Sandstone Brewery, worth £150. The committee has decided to raffle this experience at our November meeting, in place of our normal monthly raffle, with half the proceeds going to our Christmas Charity. Tickets are £5 each, payable by cash or cheque and can only be purchased on the night. So, if you can’t make the next meeting and you want to enter the raffle, then please ask someone to buy the ticket for you.
The experience is for the winner to make approx. 36x500ml bottles of beer. You will be able to choose your own malts, hops and timings to create a beer unique to your tastes (with help from professional Brewers). You can bring extra guests (max 3 others) for £25 each which will cover sampling and a snack lunch and if you have a designated drive (a good idea!) they will receive the sampling and snack lunch free.

Julie will be bringing the Charity Christmas Card to the November meeting for you to sign and David will be providing a tasting of his choice for Wine of the Month.

CRAFTY WINOS

Our last meeting was at Judy and Keith’s house. Jean finished her scarf, and the rest were knitting, cross-stitching, and model making.
Here are some pictures.

The next meeting will be on Wednesday 6th November at 7:30pm at Rob and Perpetua’s.

October WALK

Unfortunately, the October walk was cancelled because of bad weather, so David and Jenny have decided to move it to November – see below.

NEXT WALK – Sunday 24th November
We’ll meet at the carpark in Moore Nature Reserve at the usual time of 11am. If you approach Moore Lane on Runcorn Road from the east, you will pass a café called “The Shed” on your right. We’ll adjourn there after the walk for a bite to eat. They serve paninis, cakes, coffee etc.
The meeting car park is off Lapwing Lane (postcode WA4 6XE, what3words address ///paused.regime.lifted ).

SEPTEMBER NEWSLETTER – QUICK WINE QUIZ – Sauvignac

What is Sauvignac?
a) a distilled spirit using grapes grown near the village of Sauvignac
b) a liqueur produced by the monks of Sauvignac Abbey
c) a white grape
ANSWER
The answer is c) a white grape variety. Although the majority of wine produced throughout the world involves a fairly small number of traditional grape varieties, growers are always on the lookout for new ones. One of these is Sauvignac derived in a large part from crossing Sauvignon Blanc with Riesling and a few other disease resistant varieties. The resulting vines produce bunches with small and moderately compact berries. These are medium in size, with a moderately thick skin and produce light, pleasant wines, with citrus and exotic fruit aromas. However, they can sometimes lack acidity.
Could Sauvignac wines be the next big thing? Only time will tell.

OCTOBER NEWSLETTER – QUICK WINE QUIZ – Lager

Where and when was Lager first brewed in the UK?
a) Edinburgh -1835
b) Wrexham – 1881
c) London – 1881
Many thanks to Peter, who continues to provide us with these Quick Wines Quizzes and the answers, every month. I learn a lot about wines from them. Ed.

JULIE’S TIPPLES

This month, Julie has some suggestions for white wines to pair with vegetables.

That’s all for this month