#ISBFX #Brewday6 : Brewing Up A (Dark) Storm with Runaway Brewery

“When you wake up
It's not the first thing that you wanna know
Can you still count
All of the reasons that you're not alone?“

“Charcoal Baby” - Blood Orange

The day we came “full circle”

Another train station, another sunrise.

This time, however, not quite so far too go, not too complicated a journey.

Northern Fail strike again….. It was easier getting to Glasgow than Stockport!

But seeing Mark's smiling face as he opened the door….

Ah. Mark.

An ISBF OG.

We had the first Cask he ever packaged at the first ISBF (American Brown). In year two we had Runaway IPA - again, cask.

Mark is one of the loveliest, most supportive people I know in this industry and he and Sam have been fervent supporters and advocates of our little bash right from the start.

They even invited us to have an ISBF bar at the Runaway 5th Birthday…..

The ❤️ is mutual.

Brisk hobble from the train station, quick chat, bag down and straight into the brewery to see Chris (#ISBFFamily), Oli & Jake, malt ready and time to get shattered (er…. you mean “started”? Ed)

This was Chris’ day, one he'd been looking forward to for months. And he was soon enthusiastically stirring those beautiful grains, creating that lovely porridge smell.

Now then. Almost all beers have a foundation of Pale barley. This one had almost 40% of a variety of other malts, for colour and flavour…. Got to say, I'm partial to a little roast barley……

As for the colour….. That was only ever going one way.

A little taster sample was taken, to also assess the colour in the glass.

Safe to say that Chris was enamoured…

Hops required being prepared. Chris steeled himself - STEELED HIMSELF I TELL YOU - and broke up substantial quantities of the following hops

Now then. Mark and the team had a cunning plan.

Mark has - as long as I have known him - been a passionate believer in community, locality. For this beer, he was inspired by a local eaterie - stay with me - San Juan on Petersgate.

So. Transfer to copper completed, mash tun dug out, that inspiration provided an exceptional excuse for lunch

That soup. I haven't tasted something THAT delicious since I don't know when.

If you haven't been to this place, you need to. It's THAT good.

Also, best Latte I've ever had. (Leading on to the other reason we were there….)

Coffee. Or to be more exact, Colombian coffee beans, sourced from a collection of small farms in a small area (I WAS told, but ‘old man memory’….)

We got to smell some crushed beans in the cafe, huge aromas of dark bitter chocolate were my first impression. Perfect to accompany the roast and chocolate malts…

Yes. This will be a coffee infused beer. Mark listened to the advice of Luis (owner of the above San Juan - who roasted those beans himself, overnight) and is going to employ a 2 stage addition to bring out the best characteristics of the beans.

A cold steep (for 80% of the beans) and a lukewarm “brew” for the remaining 20%. This should lead to a smoother flavour and complement the roasted barley.

With transfer to FV done, yeast pitched and Oli's meticulous cleaning done, that's what WE were. Done.

And off to the nearby Crown for a beer and a debrief.

So. What have we got for you?

Espresso Stout. 4.8%. Smooth, Roasty, with a nice coffee lift. In both Keg & CASK. (Bringing us - as above - full circle. Back to where we started in 2014.

Runaway. Dark. Cask.)

HUGE thanks to Mark, Oli (who had his brain thoroughly picked by Chris!) and to Jake (who valiantly wrestled with my MS Outlook sync issues! Not to forget Chris, who had a great time!

Back soon. With 3 Brewdays in 4 days! (I'm obviously mad!)

There are a few tickets remaining. Click here for availability. Come join us, we're quite a nice bunch you know!

Be kind to one another.

Jim x

Ooh….. Just one more thing….

Are pigeons really spies? 😁