Thirsty Musing: Back End of Summer and Into Autumn

3 hours ago

3 min read

These weeks and months are absolutely whizzing by; so much so that blogging has hardly been on my mind, for better or worse!

Picking up from the last blog, the electric van has been a revelation since we got it; way more load capacity (which has been needed!), way smoother to drive than the little 1.5l diesel, and about half the energy cost - would defo recommend if your delivery radius isn't more than about 50 miles.

We've had our beers served much further away of late, through a mix of the wholesalers we work with plus our favourite haulage company - Elddis - who've transported the casks across the country. A few of the funky festivals we've been fortunate enough to feature at have been: Spa Valley Railway Real Ale & Cider Festival, Keighley and Worth Valley Beer & Music Festival, Troon, and Nottingham CAMRA Beer & Cider Festival - some coverage!

It'd be impossible for us to sell our beers to these festivals without e-casks - rental casks - however, for our local customers, we've bought some more of our own firkins. Painting ~50 of these is gonna be long and arduous, but worthwhile in the end.

A fresh batch of firkins being pressure-washed outside the Thirsty Moose brewery in Blaydon

There'll be some new beers filling these casks too! First of all, our well-loved wintery best bitter, ONCE UPON A TYNE, was brewed on the day of writing (22/10), so that'll be appearing in early November. We've just brought out a new stout by the name of RASPBERRY MOOSE, blending chocolate and raspberry notes against a backdrop of rich stouty lushness - keep your eyes peeled for that one! We're also going to be releasing another wintery style beer in November, but that one's a secret for the time being! All 3 of these are going to be cask only to begin with.

We're fully stocked on all 7 of our cans ahead of the season of giving. They're available in all of the region's best bottle shops, as well as on our website, which has had some subtle improvements. We now deliver every Tuesday and Thursday to local customers, so you won't have long to wait for your cans if you live in the North East, plus there's free delivery on all orders over £50.

We're also going to be selling our gift sets at Ponteland Memorial Hall on the 6th of December at their Christmas Fayre, so if you're local, come down, say hi, and buy some stupendous presents for the beer snob(s) in your life! We've thoroughly enjoyed running the bar at the PMH quiz nights, plus our own monthly Pop Up Pubs.

I think I'll wrap this up now - check out the list of pubs below for where we're being served currently (sourced from Real Ale Finder, Untappd, and our own memory!) and, of course, Stay Loose Drink Moose.

Cheers,

Sam + team