Month: April 2019

Today marks the last committee meeting of the current committee. With the AGM on Friday, we thought it’d be nice to summarise what can be achieved in a year in office. Over 30,000 pints later – here’s what we got up to.

May:

• First brewery bash held by the new team. Sylvia provided some gorgeous Gyros to accompany the beer.
• The team won the Community Impact Sustainability award from NUSU.
• Emily and Jack gave a Pint of Science talk about ‘Yeast in Brewing’.
• We packed up the 400l kit and TRIPLED in size!!
• Ran a pop-up bar outside the Student’s Union.

June:

• Won ‘The Siemens Award for Outstanding Contribution to Sustainability and the Environment’ at the ‘Pride of Newcastle University Awards’.
• We got a swanky new electric delivery van.
• Another brewery bash saw the big revealed of the new kit.

July:

• Ran a Graduation 2018 bar and launched our newest Saison in the Graduation Saison series.

August:

• Shot some footage with Thumb Design for our nomination for the 2018 Green Gown awards.

September:

• Finally put beer on Eebria Trade.
• Teamed up with Tyneside CAMRA and made a cider.
• Fresher’s Week stall and bar.
• Pizza and Pint night at Newcastle Tap.

October:

• First brewery bash of the academic year.
• Launch of Core Curriculum at the Town Mouse, followed by a bar crawl showing the new students the Newcastle scene.
• Our first batch of cans arrived!

November:

• Green Gown Awards – finalist in enterprise category.
• Final brewery bash of the year.
• Second batch of cans arrived.
• Collaboration with Rob from Two by Two.

December:

• Last pub quiz of the year, at Errant Brewery.
• Return of our third batch of cans.

January:

• Celebrated the end of exams with a MTB session at Coppers.
• After a chat with Zac from Chasing Everest at the MTB, we collaborated the next day to brew ‘Back to School’.

February:

• First brewery bash of 2019.
• Collaborated
• Attended ‘Craft Beer Evolution’ at Tynebank Brewery. Collaborated to make ‘Sticky Imp’.
• We also brewed ‘Gose’berry Jam’ with Red from The First and Last Brewery.
• Hosted Naomi from the Guardian to be interviewed for a feature.

March:

• Provided beer for the Siris Beer Festival held in the Student’s Union.
• End of term Brewery Bash.
• First ever Stu Brew tour!

April:

• Came runner-up at Tyneside & Northumberland CAMRA’s ‘Battle of the Beers’ competition with ‘Exam Room Tears’. The beer was also voted ‘canniest bevvy’. ‘Copy and Paste’ won the same accolade in the cider category.
• Will be hosting the AGM and post-AGM Brewery Bash on Friday the 3rd of May – find out more here!

The year in numbers…

• 30,000 pints brewed.
• The top 6 rated beers on Untappd have been brewed under this committee.
• 4 collaborations with other local brewers.
• The beer has been served in over 50 venues.

What do now?

Going to miss the class of 18/19 and want to know what they’re doing next?
Tom Nesfield – President
Either a yearlong placement (we’ll see how the interview goes) or standing for a position on next year’s committee (probably more likely with his interview track record).
Harry Laing – Secretary
Hopefully standing for a position on next year’s committee.
Will van Woerden – Treasurer
Graduating and starting work back home in Loughborough.
Paulius Rasiukas – Brewmaster
Finishing his PhD and getting married! Congratulations from us all here at Stu Brew!
Harry Conn – Sales
Perusing his dream of becoming Homer Simpson and working in the nuclear industry at Sellafield.
Lucy Brearley – Sales
Completing her Masters
Lydia Joynes – Events
Completing a year long placement at Lucite International.
Rachel D’Amours – Events
Graduating
Liam Plunkett – Creative Design
Completing his PhD
Carey Boyle – Marketing
Graduating
Dom Smith – Quality Analyst
Completing a year abroad.

That’s all from this year’s committee, we’ve had a blast! A big thank you must go to Chris, Sandy and Jake who without we wouldn’t have been able to do what we have. Come down to the bash and have a pint with us this Friday and we can’t wait to welcome the next team. There’s still time to stand for a position and if you’re considering it get in touch with contact@stubrew.com.

Cheers,
The 2018/2019 Stu Brew Team

Last week saw Newcastle host Tyneside and Northumberland CAMRA’s annual beer festival. As every year we were honoured to brew a beer for this year’s ‘Battle of the Beers’ competition, this year entering the flavoured stout category. WE ONLY WENT A SECURED A RUNNERS UP SPOT! Yes, you read that correctly. ‘Exam Room Tears’, a maple and pecan stout went on to secure the runners up spot in a category competing against some of our favourite local breweries. We still haven’t stopped smiling about this and want to give our biggest thanks to Tyneside & Northumberland CAMRA for organising such a great festival. We hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did. A big well done must go out to Firebrick, who won the category with their sugar spun stout; it was a worthy winner! If you fancy having a cask of Exam Room Tears, drop Harry and Lucy a message at sales@stubrew.com – there isn’t much left so get some ASAP!

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Other than not smiling since Wednesday, it has been a fairly quiet week for the team. We do have one of the most exciting events of the year coming up though – the AGM! This year the AGM will be held in L101 of Merz Court at 4-5pm on Friday the 3rd of May. For more information about the positions you lovely people can stand for, check out the event here. To celebrate the new team coming into office / trying to ease the pain of the old team leaving, following the AGM we will be having a Brewery Bash. We’ve even got Fire and Dough providing pizza for the event. Keep your eyes peeled for a Facebook event that’ll be made sometime soon.

That’s all for this week!

Cheers,
The Stu Brew Team x

With tour, a brewery bash and brewing these last few weeks, we haven’t had chance to do our weekly(ish) blog. So here’s your chance to read a little recap about what we’ve been doing these last few weeks.

On the 22nd we had our first outdoor brewery bash of the year, hosted alongside our good friends at Goodtimes Tacos. The event was a pleasure as always to host and it was great to see some of your friendly faces drinking all of the beer. Our next bash is on Friday the 3rd of May from 5pm.

Following the big clean up after the bash; Chris, Alex and Jack were hard at work brewing our entry for Newcastle Beer Festival’s ‘Battle of the Beers’ competition. Our entry this year is ‘Exam Room Tears’, a 5.5% maple and pecan stout. If you would like to get your hands on some find it pouring at the event this week. Stu Brew members can get free entry to the Wednesday and Saturday sessions with a valid student ID card. With 120 cask beers and 50 ciders pouring you’d be a fool to miss out! Alongside ‘Exam Room Tears’, we also have ‘Textbook’ our 4.5% IPA and ‘Copy and Paste’ our 5.0% cider pouring at the festival. Hopefully we will see you all there!

As many of you may have already read, last weekend we had an awesome time in Brussels, if you’ve missed out on the action, catch Carey’s recap here.

Next Saturday marks a year since this year’s committee was elected to their roles. We can honestly say it has been a blast of a year. Sadly, all good things must come to an end. This means it’s time for our AGM which is going to be held on Friday the 3rd of May (4-5pm) in Merz L101. More information can be found on the Facebook event, but if you have any questions for now don’t hesitate to drop us a message on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or email us at contact@stubrew.com.

That’s all for this week – see you all at the beer festival!

Cheers,
The Stu Brew Team x

Hi everyone, Carey here! You might have noticed that we’ve been away last week. We embarked on our first ever Stu Brew Tour. I thought I’d give you all an update to the exciting things we’ve been up whilst we’ve been away.

Our time in Brussels was amazing. Thank you to everyone who came with us. The team stayed in the Meininger Hostel which was an excellent choice. The beds were very comfortable which was perfect after a long day of taking in the sights.

Our first day, Saturday, started at 10am sharp with a tour of Cantillon Brewery. Our guided tour was fantastic. I learnt a lot about the brewing process and it was great to see the different techniques used to create Lambic beer. The brewery was founded in 1900 and is renowned for its Gueuze that is aged in oak casks. The tour lasted half an hour and we were greeted at the bar with two samples. I opted for the classic Gueuze and the Kriek, a sour cherry lambic.

Later that afternoon we went to 3 Fonteinen which is another famous brewery located in Beersel. We spent the day basking in the Belgian sun (I didn’t know this was a thing either…!) tasting some fine Lambic beers. The brewery was in a beautiful location with a superb beer garden. After a short but expensive Uber ride back to the city centre we gathered in Brussels Beer Project for a tasting session. This was one of my highlights of the trip. The experience included the biggest cheeseboard I had ever seen. My favourite beer from BBP was probably the Smoked Blonde Stout – an interesting concept!

The team split into groups the next day. A few of the more cultured members decided to take a trip to the European Parliament to try and sort Brexit out once and for all, but unfortunately things didn’t work out. Harry Conn, one half of our stocks and sales team, tried to get in for a toilet break but was unfortunately turned away.  Better luck next time. Meanwhile, the rest of the team tried out a great bar called Moeder Lambic. We also tried out Brew Dog in Brussels later that evening which I would seriously recommend to anyone visiting the city! The rooftop terrace was the perfect place to make the most of the sunny weather.

The next day I went with Chris, Sandy, Tom, Brett, Dom and Arthur for another visit to Cantillon. This was a lovely afternoon where we had the chance to taste a wider range of Cantillon’s beers exclusive to the tap room. As many of the tour attendees will know my favourite beer was the Kriek! I’m not a huge fan of sour styled beers normally but it seems that my tastes have changed after becoming acquainted with new styles on this trip! Later that evening the whole team paid a visit to Amadeus Rib House. This was a great experience. The Stu Brew record for rib consumption at Amadeus is currently held by Ali Middlemiss who managed to devour 3 full racks of ribs (I’ve just had fajitas for tea and thinking about how much food I ate that night makes me want to pop!) Congrats, Ali!

Our final day saw us taking in some more sights before our flight. A selection of us went to see The Atomium. This is sculpture is an icon of Brussels. I was really impressed at the attraction’s architecture. Whilst we were here we learnt that it was built for the World fair in Brussels in 1958. This was the first post-war World Fair so it pretty much had to blow the world’s socks off. The Atomium remains a popular tourist attraction and it isn’t too hard to see why. I learnt that the nine spheres are supposed to be a replica of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. Not too shabby! After visiting this work of art we popped along to Brasserie De La Senne which was off the beaten tourist path but worth the visit. I particularly enjoyed Brussels Calling which is a Belgian Style Pale Ale!

There were so many great breweries that we visited and Brussels is definitely the kind of place you NEED to visit if you’re a fan of beer and the culture surrounding it.

I was craving cheese and meat for the majority of the holiday – I was so happy when Tom discovered La Mort Subite which was a stone’s throw away from the main square of Brussels. Their mixed meat and cheese board was DIVINE. This was, for me, the perfect end to the trip.

In my opinion, the trip was great! We made some great memories and I would argue that this was the perfect way to end my year of being involved with Stu Brew alongside the majority of my amazing committee.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about our time in Brussels and hopefully this review of the city will tempt you to pay it a visit if you get the chance. Finally, I’d also like to thank our superstar trip co-ordinator, Rachel, for planning the trip! Keep an eye out for our tour video which will be hitting the social media channels in due course.

Bye for now,

Carey