Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
I had my first Northern Monk beers at this year’s Firestone Walker Invitational. Loved both and now I am longing for their winter seasonal, Festive Star.
“Our annual festive release, Festive Star, returns for 2023. Our Northern Star with a party hat. A silky porter with chocolate, vanilla and cinnamon to get you into the festive spirit. “
This will be sort of a mini-re-hash of the Firestone Walker Invitational at the start of the month. When you have that many good breweries together, you are going to run across something stellar. But I will highlight one other beer from the rest of the month.
For me, what stood out was the Leeds based brewery Northern Monk. Their Very Stable Genius hoppy lager from their Patrons Archive was just bright and tasty which is saying something because the festival is home to a ton of fantastic pilsners and lagers.
Second was the Wild Pirate tiki-esque sour from the BarrelWorks program at Firestone Walker. It had a nice balance of vanilla sweet and fruit sour to be a hybrid of both.
Lastly, no homer-ism but I really took to the Artifex Beer Paper Pale Ale. Yes, I contribute the odd piece to the beer periodical but the beer itself was flavorful and 3-D.
Northern Monk comes to Paso Robles all the way from Leeds in England (where a few American footballers play).
Let’s pick a few beers that I hope to taste at the Invitational next month…
Faith Hazy Pale Ale – “A Hazy Pale Ale packed with soft fruit flavours.”
Don’t Mess with Yorkshire Pale Ale – “with rhubarb and custard”
Heathen NE IPA – “One for the late nights and Hazy mornings.”
Northern Star Porter – chocolate, caramel biscuit “Smooth, creamy and rich.”