If you go to Sid’s you’ll notice they have a banner up for a drink that is not very well known to us…

It’s for Newcastle Brown Ale, that’s originally from well, Newcastle.

I know very few people who have any bond with Newcastle upon Tyne,
a grey flat city in North East England.
But incidentally i used to live there when my dad was doing his Masters in 1990.
So that made me seven or eight years old in case you were wondering.

My mom used to walk my brother and i over the fields to school,
where we had a massive field for sports (i never got used to tiny school fields after that!)
and affectionate teachers who would give us hugs and kisses (which i never got in KL 0_o).

I really loved school, i loved dinner time, i loved play time,
i loved Postman Pat time (which only happened when the teachers had meetings).
I loved P.E. and remember i wore a bright yellow shirt which accidentally attracted some insects, and made me cry.
But it was okay cos i got a big hug from the teacher after that.
We were so spoilt with affection!
It was nice

An old picture of my friends and i.
As you can see, Newcastle is really flat…
and i remember it had a lot of factories around.

Which is why i wasn’t surprised to read that Newcastle is the first place in Britain to brew beer commercially.
Newcastle has 5 founding breweries which is represented by the 5 points of the blue star on its brown ale bottle.
At least now you know what it stands for!

The bridge in the middle of the blue star represents the bridge over the Tyne river,
which was built at almost the same time Newcastle Brown Ale was invented.
The ale was first brewed in 1927.
The bridge was built in 1928.

Since then, the ale has been the No. 1 selling premium bottle ale in the UK
and available in more than 40 countries.
That’s definitely more countries than i’ve been to!

I must say i’ve taken a fancy to trying ales and brands i haven’t heard of since i spent last summer in UK,
it’s awesome to drink in the afternoons (festivals!), lie around in the sunshine and grass,
and more pleasant than sharp beers.

I had a few bottles of Newcastle Brown Ale that day,
and find that it’s something in between a normal beer and a heavy dark stout.
It’s sweeter than normal beer, and not as heavy as stout – really in between!
It’s also got a caramel-ish taste to its full flavour, which i love, and a slightly nutty aftertaste.

Jess + Clem

Yeah, drinking at a pub on a Monday evening helps prepare us for the rest of the week!

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You can try Newcastle Brown Ale at Sid’s, Finnegan’s, Jarrod & Rawlins, The Apartment, Malones, Delaney’s, Bulldog and more.

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