Hop City Leeds 2017

Opening night on Northern Monk's first beer festival, Hop City Leeds, and anticipation was hot throughout Leeds and neighbouring towns. Held at their brewery, the festival last night was sold out with the queue lining the streets. Spread out over three floors of an old Flax storage building, the festival brought together some big named breweries as well as some lesser known ones who all served up some hoppy beers from their collections. Northern Monk's Brewery itself was decorated with tons of hops so the tasting experience was heightened.

My first stop was to try a beer that Northern Monk had released for the festival, Northern Tropics Pineapple & Grapefruit IPA. This beer was sweet and citrusy with big emphasis on the grapefruit flavour. A great palette cleanser for what was about to come. Down on ground floor, amongst the brewing kit, there was a lot of hype as people queued for beers from The Alchemist. Brought in from America, these beers were limited to one can per person so were highly sought after at the festival. I managed to get hold of Focal Banger and Heady Topper and these did pack a hoppy punch.

I noticed on the beer list that Magic Rock had brought their experimental brew Psychokinesis and I had to give it a try. Having popped along to Huddersfield two days before to Magic Rock's Tap House I could see that this was fermenting in their brewery. I knew it was going to be fresh and it was highly drinkable. I'd never had a beer from Verdant so I decided to give their Putty a try. This beer was so juicy I could have happy drank this for the rest of the night.

The food court at Hop City had a really great selection of street foods. Burgers, Chinese style and Indian foods that definitely helped sort out the munchies halfway through the night. I had the Chinese style salt 'n pepper ribs and chips which were just what I needed after having all these hoppy beers!

To round off the night another beer from The Alchemist, this time the imperial stout Luscious. This was a great beer to finish on as it helped slow things down and give me time to appreciate the flavours of the coffee and bitter chocolate.

Looking around and the party was still in full swing as I left last night. I was really impressed with how well run Hop City was considering it's a new festival. I think Northern Monk have made best of the space they have and I feel it's an interesting setting for this type of event. I hope the rest of the sessions are just as successful this weekend!