Daleside Brewery - Ripon Jewel vs. Daleside Blonde

Daleside Brewery were the main sponsors of the Ale Tent at last weeks Dales Festival of Food and Drink, and seeing as though they were a brewery I was pretty unfamiliar with, I decided to do a little sampling myself!

First up, I was greatly impressed with their Ripon Jewel ale. I had heard good things about this before but I really didn’t know what to expect – it was a really refreshing, caramel-esque beer, which was very easy to drink despite its 5.8 abv. Fans of American micro- brew beers such as Sierra Nevada would love this. Unashamedly flavourful, I would recommend this with your heartier meat dishes, if you were into food pairing and all that…

On the other end of the scale, I feel the Daleside Blonde (4.3 abv) deserves a mention. Daleside decided to make a full-bodied cask ale, but then ‘lager’ the brew using cold-conditioning. The result? A beer that is pretty much a Lager, but with a really complex taste, not dissimilar to a high-end pilsner such as Jever. I took a crate of this stuff home and it really impressed, especially after a couple of days in the fridge. I plan to get more of this stuff for the summer, and it would go down a storm at a barbecue. Think lager has to be bland? Think again.

Daleside are pretty eponymous at the festival these days, but I think this is with good reason. Yet another highly recommended brewery to come out of North Yorkshire.

Daleside Brewery Ltd,

Camwal Road, Harrogate,

HG1 4PT

www.dalesidebrewery.co.uk

The Dales Festival Of Food And Drink 2007

Well, it’s that time of the year again. The Dales Festival of Food & Drink is in full swing, and opening day was as manic as usual.
I’ve visited loads of food festivals, but this is easily my favourite. Stalls seem to grow in number and ambition each year, and the beer tent seems to offer more and more choice. In short, if the weather stays good, it’s a foodie’s paradise.

Over the coming weeks I will be bringing profiles on the suppliers that impressed me the most, as hard as that may be. The standard of this market is incredibly high – and a fantastic advert for local produce.

Raydale Preserves were in attendance as usual, and their excellent Jams and Jellies grow in range year on year. The Rushyford Game stall had a massive queue at lunchtime and their range of game and venison pies and sandwiches looked awesome.

Most impressive, however, were the sausages from The Yorkshire Dales Meat Company. Everything a sausage should be – porky, meaty and cooked to perfection. Their humble sausage sandwich was easily the hit of the weekend for us. Also impressing was the mackerel pate offered by Mackenzie’s Yorkshire Smokehouse. It lived up to the standard set by their bacon, which is outstanding. Smeared thickly on crisp toasts it made the perfect light supper on the return home.

The Pies and pastries on the North Country Lass stall looked absolutely perfect, and Loopy Lisa’s fudge proved that people still have sweet teeth when it comes to home-made fudge. Keep an eye out for profiles of these companies and many more over the forthcoming weeks on The Good Stuff, and a full run-down of the excellent beer festival.

Loopy Lisa’s
4 Loop Lane, Butterknowle, Bishop Auckland, Co Durham DL13 5JR
Tel - 01388718794
E-mail: loopylisasfudge@hotmail.con

Yorkshire Dales Meat Co.

Mill Close Farm, Patrick Brompton, Bedale DL8 1JY Tel. 01748 810042
E-mail: info@yorkshiredalesmeat.com

http://www.northcountrylass.co.uk/
http://www.mackenziesyorkshiresmokehouse.co.uk/
http://www.rushyfordgame.co.uk/
www.thedales.org.uk/RaydalePreserves