Fairytale 4.5% (45SPEC009)

You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap, lousy faggot

No, not you, beer drinkers - that's just a lyric from The Pogues' classic Christmas hit Fairytale of New York and the inspiration for our Winter Ale.  The beer is a pale-mid brown ale finished with festive spices.  The pump clip is a homage to the original record sleeve.  We invited local writer and broadcaster Ian Clayton for a pint or two in Castleford and while in town popped down to the new bridge over the Aire & Calder to get the photo.

Hope you enjoy the beer.  Merry Christmas your arse, I pray god it's our last...

Andrew's favourite albums & songs of 2011

Advent is almost upon us and in the past I've put together compilation CDs and MP3s of my favourite tracks of the year.  This year I thought I'd do it as a blog piece!

War On Drugs 'I Was There' from the album 'Slave Ambient'.

My first PJ Harvey album purchase this year and what a corker.  Here's the last track on side one.

More psych synth rock from Moon Duo

The mighty Blue Aeroplanes back with a fantastic album

This album was originally recorded in/near Castleford! However, the band ditched most of the material and re-recorded it in London. I think this might be one of the original Castleford sessions as it sounds more raw than the version on the album.  Anyways, this is Veronica Falls and the opening track from their debut album.

Still Corners are from London and specialise in dreamy indie pop.  This is, for me, the stand out track from their 2011 debut album (technically I think the song dates from 2010 but who cares?!).

Endless Summer by stillcorners

The first album to have a beer made for it this year before Elbow and The Rifles jumped on the bandwagon.  We got there first!  The album's brilliant - sharp, angular, witty and many other adjectives.

Piglet - Sarandon by Odd Box Records

Wooden Shjips are a band best appreciated after 2 or 3 pints (as a legal substitute for Class A or B drugs). Great live shows and The Brudenell Social Club is a perfect venue to see them.

Wooden Shjips: "Home" by alteredzones

Caught the following act as support to Veronica Falls and Dum Dum Girls recently. They're excellent!

Novella - The Things You Do by DirtyBingo

..and the best for last. My album of the year (All That We See and Seem by The New Lines) and this is the best song I've heard in a long while.

Man Machine 4.5% (45SPEC008)

In early November we brewed Man Machine, a new addition to our Rewind 33 series commemorating a classic album of 33 years ago.  This time the album in question is the iconic Kraftwerk album The Man Machine.  With its memorable sleeve of the band in red shirts and black ties against a red background, the album contained the well-known tracks The Robots and The Model.  The latter track became a hit a few years after it initially appeared on this album.

We had a bit of fun with the pump clip for this one!

The recipe is a 'remix' of our regular beer Kraftwerk Braun Ale.  It still has an English malt backbone and German hops but this time we have altered the hop regime to contain two lighter German noble hops.  We've also used a German ale yeast instead of an English ale yeast.