Bartender's Choice Jim Thackray, North Bar
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Bartender's Choice: Jim Thackray, North Bar
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“I got a job because I drank here quite frequently,” says Jim, a bartender at New Briggate’s North Bar. “I found it one day and then I just decided I loved all the beer. I asked them for a job one day and they said ‘go for it’. I live in the city centre, I really enjoy it, and I’m a key holder now, so I’ve got some authority.”
As a Leeds lad, Jim learnt his trade at the well respected Coopers in Guiseley (part of the Market Town Taverns chain), where he picked up a taste and a knowledge for real ale. It was coming to North though, with its bewildering array of beers from across the world, that really opened his eyes.
“It’s just North Bar,” he says, “it’s great. If you like beer, I just cannot fault this place. It’s got such a continental style. The amount of knowledge you get in the first two months of working here just open your eyes so much.
“On the first shift you do, you try all 16 beers on draught and from there on we have a bottles tasting every now and then, we have a Christmas beer tasting, a tasting before the Belgian beer fest, the American fest…
“We have to be able to recommend beers to people, and I think we’re some of the best trained staff beer-wise in Leeds. Staff knowledge is so important, to recommend a beer you’ve got to feel passionate about the beer, if you’re not it seems like a wasted opportunity.”
For his bartender’s choice, Jim picks something which both shows his knowledge and the breadth of beers available at North Bar. Regular drinkers at North will know the Schlenkerla brewery for their rauchbier – it’s a strongly smoky flavoured beer that is only really for acquired tastes.
As is traditional among many breweries, Schlenkerla produce a special beer for Christmas, and it is this beer, Aecht Schlenkerla Eiche, that Jim has decided to show off to us today.
“Schlenkerla is a German brewery from Bamberg, and they specialise in smoking their malts,” explains Jim. “It’s one of the oldest ways of brewing, because they need to dry out the malts very quickly. It imparts this crazy smoky taste. This particular version, Eiche, is smoked with oak, rather than beech, which gives it a mellow, vanilla finish, different from the rauchbier from the same brewery, which we have on draft.
“It smells like the smoke beer, but has a real honey sweetness. It’s 8% as well. It’s a Christmas brew they do for people who like smoked beer. They do a whole range of different beers, but this one is brewed for proper beer geeks.
“It’s Marmite beer – on the notice outside we advertise having ‘sausage beer’ and people come in and order ‘the sausage beer’, and they either love it, or despise it. I had people sat at the bar the other day who just hated it and didn’t understand what it was. It’s just that intense. Once you get past the smokiness though, you get a really well-balanced German dark beer that I think people would enjoy.”
The Eiche beer certainly is special, balancing a wonderful sweetness with an intense, smoky nose. It’s a high quality beer, with a price-tag to match. “It’s a bit pricey,” says Jim, “but it’s like a really good bottle of wine. They are quite expensive, but they cost a lot to get here. The quality of them is on a par with a high quality wine. People are still adjusting to paying money for beer, but it’s definitely on the up. We had some expensive beer in at the Belgian beer festival last year which sold so quickly that we didn’t expect it at all.”
So smoked beers at North Bar aside, where else does Jim like drinking, and what does he drink?
“I generally stay in the Northern Quarter, because I know people who work there, we’re quite a close knit community. It’s like the antithesis of Call Lane, but I still drink down that bottom bit of town, Call Lane Social and Jake’s.
“At the moment my favourite beers are American hoppy beers, like the I Hardcore You which we have on draught now (although that’s actually brewed by Scotland’s BrewDog and Danish Mikkeller), and stuff like Flying Dog‘s Raging Bitch as well. Plus stout, because it’s cold outside at the moment.”
Drink: Aecht Schlenkerla Eiche
Price: £7.50 for 500ml
Abv: 8%
Posted on Wednesday 22nd December 2010
TG
North Bar
24 New Briggate, Leeds, LS1 6NU
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