They say that two’s company and three’s a crowd, well a crowd is exactly what’s expected at the third annual Battlesteads Beer Fest, taking place Friday 26th to Sunday 28th July at the popular pub, hotel and restaurant in Wark, near Hexham.

Battlesteads owner Richard Slade said: “The Beer Fest has been getting busier every year so we’re expecting a great turnout. We’re dusting off the marquee, racking up the beers and striking up the band in readiness. We’re just praying for the sun to shine now!”

Now a permanent fixture in the Northumberland events calendar, the Beer Fest draws lovers of beer and live music – as well as a loyal Battlesteads fan base – from as far away as Manchester.

As usual, there will be live music and hot and cold food from the highly renowned Battlesteads kitchen available throughout the weekend. As an added attraction this year, the team at Battlesteads have worked with Claire Watson-Laney of Northumberland Sausage Company, which is also based in Wark, to produce some exclusive new sausages in time for the festival. Brave visitors can try The Raging Norris, the hottest sausage in the world, but Claire also promises a few exotic delights to appease a variety of appetites and palettes.

The beer, lager and cider list runs to 19 this year with the usual local breweries supported as well as a smattering of international guest brews. Visitors to the event will help to raise funds for the Great North Air Ambulance, which also benefited from £500 raised at the 2011 inaugural Beer Fest. Accommodation packages are available for anyone wishing to make the most of the whole weekend.

The fun starts at 4pm on Friday 26th July and carries on until the beer runs out on Sunday 28th July. Tickets cost just £4 including programme and commemorative glass. CAMRA members can purchase discounted tickets for £3. The music line up is:

• Friday night – The Happycats
• Saturday afternoon – The Katy Freeway
• Saturday night – Little Stevie and The Business

For further information and tickets, call Battlesteads on 01434 230 209, email info@battlesteads.com or visit www.battlesteadsbeerfestival.co.uk 

As winner of the Your Northumberland Guide Best Sunday Lunch award in April 2012, it seems fitting that Battlesteads pub, hotel and restaurant in Wark, near Hexham, should be among the first establishments to get behind the inaugural Northumberland Restaurant Week, taking place 18th to 24th March 2013.

Battlesteads has created a special menu for the occasion, which will be available every evening during the week and must be pre-booked. Diners can select from two and three course options and the menu contains lots of seasonal Northumbrian produce, plus interesting and unusual ingredients grown in the Battlesteads polytunnels and gardens to complement the dishes.

Battlesteads owner Richard Slade commented: “We’ve compiled a delicious and varied menu which combines the very best that Northumberland has to offer – locally sourced wild rabbit, lamb, sustainable fish and artisan cheeses, and not forgetting our very own home grown vegetables, herbs and salads.”

The special menu includes a welcome cocktail based on Fentiman’s Victorian Lemonade and wine lovers can enjoy a special wine matching package with their meal for just £15 per person. The wines will be from Battlesteads’ award-winning list of over 25 biodynamic, Fairtrade and eco varieties.

Customers wishing to ‘dine and recline’ during restaurant week can book a room at Battlesteads for the discounted price of £125 per room per night to include the three course menu and breakfast the following morning. This is based on two people sharing and is reduced from £160 per room per night. Subject to availability.

Breakfast is a traditional Northumbrian platter with homemade black pudding and sausages from Wark Village Butchers.

Richard continued: “We’re delighted that Your Northumberland Guide has taken the initiative to create what is going to be a brilliant showcase for the region; an opportunity to promote local suppliers and highlight the talented chefs we have right here on our doorstep.

“Of course, it’s also great for customers! They’ll be spoilt for choice as they’re faced with a wealth of fabulous food offerings at discounted prices in some of the county’s top establishments. What’s not to love?!”

Further information and bookings can be made by contacting Battlesteads on 01434 230 209 or info@battlesteads.com

In honour of British Sausage Week (5th – 11th Nov), Battlesteads Hotel and Restaurant in Wark, near Hexham, has expanded its menu and is offering customers The Great Battlesteads Banger – a specially created recipe of leek, real lager and pork.

The team at Battlesteads set a challenge to Wark-based Northumberland Sausage Company to create ‘The Great Battlesteads Banger’ by providing home-grown leeks from the hotel’s kitchen garden, together with a supply of new cask conditioned Adder Lager from Allendale Brewery. Claire Watson-Laney of The Northumberland Sausage Company is well versed in developing surprising sausage flavours, such as barbecued mealworms and llama and lavender; making the Battlesteads banger relatively straight-forward by comparison!

Claire and her butchers used their speciality sausage-making skills to perfect the balance of leek and real lager together with their own secret seasoning for the new sausage. The Great Battlesteads Banger will be served nestled on a bed of bubble and squeak with steamed kale from our gardens and could be washed down with a pint of Adder Lager – a perfect celebration of the great British sausage.

Battlesteads owner Richard Slade said: “The Great Battlesteads Banger is already proving popular in pre-tasting sessions; the balance of leek, real lager and pork is just right – and because all the produce was grown and sourced locally, it tastes even better! Battlesteads is renowned for its locally-sourced produce and, with our two onsite polytunnels, it’s easy for us to offer plentiful fresh, seasonal vegetables all year round.”

Battlesteads will be serving up the leek and real lager banger on the specials menu priced at £8.95 as part of British Sausage Week.

Sausage Statistics

• During the year to July 2012 the UK ate 196,152 tonnes of sausages, spending £707 million. The banger is the nation’s favourite meat‐based dinner.
• The most popular flavour of sausage is the plain pork sausage, which accounts for 43 per cent of sales, followed by Irish (17 per cent) and Cumberland (13 per cent).
• Sausages were nicknamed bangers during the Second World War.  Their high water content due to the scarcity of other ingredients meant that they were liable to explode when cooked as the water turned to steam.
• Sausages are even older than ancient Greece or Rome ‐ the Sumerians (modern day Iraq) made sausages 5,000 years ago.
• It is believed that sausages were brought to Britain by the Romans some time before 400 AD. Since then various English counties have each had their own way of flavouring their local sausage – e.g. Lincolnshire flavours with fresh sage and Cheshire uses Caraway and Coriander.
• The British sausage even has its own fan club, the British Sausage Appreciation Society.  The Society has over 5,000 members in the UK and the highlight of the society’s year is British Sausage Week.

Source: www.lovepork.co.uk

Seasoned beer drinkers at Battlesteads Hotel and Restaurant in Wark will have their taste buds tested this week when a cask conditioned lager sneaks alongside the bar’s real ales on hand pump as part of Cask Ale Week (28 Sept to 7 Oct). What’s more, a unique ‘Mussels in Magus’ dish is currently making a guest appearance on the menu!

Once the favourite tipple of the Great British pub-goer, national lager sales have been slowing down in comparison to cask ale which is now seeing growth for the first time in 20 years with more younger, female drinkers joining the real ale brigade. In a bid to convert even the most loyal lager fan, Battlesteads has turned to Hexham-based Allendale Brewery to serve Adder Lager - one of the North East’s few true cask conditioned lagers. Slowly fermented in a traditional lager style at zero degrees for eight weeks with not a carbonated keg in sight, even the most ardent ale-lover cannot dispute its cask credentials!

Cask Ale Week is led by Cask Marque and this year has a ‘try before you buy’ theme. Battlesteads will be serving four real ales and a lager in a bid to encourage new cask ale fans and show that there is a beer for everyone.

Battlesteads’ owner Richard Slade joked: “Cask ale is now regarded as our national drink and here at Battlesteads we are proud to support local breweries during Cask Ale Week. We’re even catering for our lager drinkers this time – by attempting to wean them onto a cask conditioned lager!” 

If, after all the sampling and sipping, customers still aren’t swayed by the nation’s favourite drink, then they can join in the fun by selecting a limited-edition ale-inspired dish from Battlesteads’ home-cooked menu. In honour of Cask Ale Week, chef Eddie Shilton has created Mussels in Magus – a twist on Moules Mariniere, where the mussels are cooked in Battlesteads’ most popular real ale Durham Magus.

In addition to Magus and Adder Lager, Battlesteads will be serving: Lovely Nelly and Jack the Devil from Cullercoats Brewery, Tyneside; and a German-style beer from Geltsdale Brewery, Cumbria.

Straw-coloured pale ales, nutty, ruby-red beers, a fruity cider and characterful bitters that pack a punch! There’s something for everyone in the beer line-up for the second annual Battlesteads Beer Fest taking place at the popular Wark pub, hotel and restaurant from Friday 13^th to Sunday 15^th July.

Popular ales from local breweries will be joined by beers, lagers and ciders from elsewhere in the UK and Europe, such as Thornbridge, Dark Star, Abbeydale and Rudgate, either in the marquee located in Battlesteads’ beautiful walled garden or on hand pump in the bar.

Attendees at the Beer Fest will enjoy a fantastic selection of music throughout the weekend from local talent, including Mr Funkster, The Katy Freeway, Alive and Kicking and The Happycats. Meanwhile, the Battlesteads kitchen team are conjuring up a menu of delicious foodie treats to deal with the mid-session munchies, so everyone is set to have a great time.

Multi-award winning Battlesteads has an impressive reputation for great beers as a member of CAMRA North East and a proud recipient of the Cask Marque; a sure sign its real ales are up to scratch

Beer Fest admission includes a commemorative glass and programme and costs £4. Members of CAMRA pay just £3. Always keen to support a good cause, Battlesteads staff and customers will be raising money for the Tynedale Hospice throughout the event.

Beer Fest organiser and Battlesteads assistant general manager Katie Meyrick commented: “Visitors to last year’s Beer Fest will remember the torrential rain but we still had a great time – the beer flowed, the hog roasted and the music entertained. This year, we’re praying for sunshine and we’ve increased the fun by adding music to each session. Four great local bands playing great music, a range of tasty treats and some superb beers to wash it all down with. We’ve been looking forward to this all year!�

Tickets can be purchased via the website www.battlesteads.com, over the phone 01434 230 209 or in person from the hotel.

Weight loss equals money gain for Tynedale Hospice as 75 slimmers raised £1,000 at a charity dinner held at Battlesteads Hotel and Restaurant in Wark on Tyne.

The slimmers are members of the Hexham Slimming World Group and they enjoyed an evening of delicious low calorie food – all made using Slimming World-inspired recipes – great company, a bumper raffle and the odd cheeky glass of wine!

The dinner was masterminded by Battlesteads owner Dee Slade and assistant general manager Katie Meyrick, who between them have lost five and a half stone by following the Slimming World programme. Dee worked closely with Sarah Hollows, who runs the Hexham Slimming World Group, to plan the menus and format for the evening – and Sarah gathered a fantastic set of raffle prizes.

As a result of Dee and Katie’s success and to help other slimmers maintain their weight loss, Battlesteads will soon be introducing starters, mains and desserts to its menus based on popular Slimming World recipes. They will also display the ‘syn’ values of each dish.

Sarah commented: “It was such a treat to be able to go to a lovely restaurant and be among friends whilst knowing that everything we chose to eat that night was allowable on our eating plan.

“Now that Slimming World dishes will be commonplace on the Battlesteads menu, I’m sure we’ll all be back for more!!”

For more details phone 01434 230 209 or visit www.battlesteads.com