‘Walking a mile in someone else’s shoes’ is a phrase which is all about seeing things from their point of view or experiencing the daily challenges they do.
Writing about beer and brewing beer are two very different things and although I’ve done a fair bit of the former (with varying degrees of success), I have severely limited experience in the latter.
Unless you want to call hawking and milling the odd bag of grain and chucking some hops into an already bubbling kettle, I prefer to remain in awe of the superstar brewers who churn out some cracking beers.
Finding those breweries and, perhaps more importantly, where to buy their beers is just one way that website and blog Tilt & Pour helps to promote the local beer scene.
Beginning his musing around a decade ago as Belfast Beer Blog, the man behind what is now Tilt & Pour is Steven Barr.
The site has morphed from those formative days from straight-up blog to an invaluable resource for craft beer followers, giving news updates on the latest developments in the ever-growing beer scene and thoughts and opinions as well as a handy map showing all of Northern Ireland’s breweries and craft-friendly pubs and off licences.
With a clear passion for quality beer, the next logical step for Steven and the folks at Tilt & Pour was to brew their own beer and bring it to market.
Settling on a style was a major part of it and the decision to go with a Helles – a pale German lager – was all to do with making the beer as accessible as possible to the widest range of beer drinker from curious novice to discerning expert.
Next up was finding an accommodating brewer to hand over their kit to enthusiastic amateurs. Mal McCay of Heaney’s was on hand to help out and Tilt & Pour’s Helles Lager was well on its way to being born.
So what about the beer itself? It pours a light amber colour in the glass, a slight bit darker than your average straw-coloured lager.
I’ve often said that lager is the hardest style to brew but the easiest one to drink and this one proves that theory. The malt profile is off white bread and a little hint of biscuity sweetness. Offsetting that is an earthy herbiness and a nicely balanced bitterness, which doesn’t interfere with the smoothness of this beer.
It’s definitely a beer worth writing home about.