Indian street food favourite Bundobust has been secretly brewing its own beer in Manchester for eight months – and now the creation is about to be revealed to the public.
The restaurant has always had a strong reputation for sourcing excellent craft beer, but this new batch has been made to certain specifications.
Head brewer Dan Hocking has been quietly working away at the new brewery on Oxford Road for the best part of a year, using the lockdown-forced reopening delays to play around with new specialty ingredients.
The new Chaitro beer – a smooth and creamy Porter with roast malts, chai masala and fresh ginger / Image: Bundobust
To kick things off, he’s created three new bespoke house beers – a coriander lager, a masala chai porter and a tropical pale ale – that will be available exclusively at Bundobust restaurants.
Now they’re about ready for drinking, meaning they will all be available to try in Manchester at Bundobust’s Piccadilly restaurant from tomorrow, Thursday 24 June.
The new beers will also be available at Bundobust restaurants in Leeds and Liverpool.
New drinks set to be revealed include their 5 percent Chaitro beer – a smooth and creamy Porter with roast malts, chai masala and fresh ginger.
Then, there’s the Peela – an easy-drinking 4 per cent hazy pale ale with tropical fruit flavours.
And last but not least, there’s an adventurous coriander lager the Dhania Pilsner is available at 4.8 per cent.
The popular Indian restaurant’s new brewery is housed in a site on Manchester’s Oxford Road, with construction first starting in 2019.
The home of Bundobust’s secret brewery, due to open to the public later this summer / Image: Bundobust
Initial plans for the venue included a second restaurant and brewhouse, with a small private room in the brewhouse for paired dinners and events but these were postponed by the pandemic.
This delay, however, has given the head brewer time to experiment with more adventurous ingredients.
“It’s been really great to have that time, with no deadlines or pressure, to just focus on the beer and how we can make it exactly how we want it,” said Dan.
“Not a lot of breweries can say they had eight months of practice on the kit before they sold a single beer, so in that respect, I feel really lucky to have had this time to play around.”
All new beers have been created to complement different dishes at Bundbost / Image: Bundobust
Previously at experimental Dutch brewery Uiltje, Dan knows a thing or two about working with weird and wonderful ingredients.
This will come in handy at Bundobust, where the plan seems to be to mix up traditional beer styles with more unusual flavours that will complement their food.
Housed in a unique 100-year-old space within the iconic Grade II listed St James building, the brewery is a custom-built 10-hectolitre facility capable of producing 20,000 pints a month.
Bundobust plans to open its Oxford road brewtap and restaurant in late summer 2021.
Feature image – Bundobust.
Eats
Northern Quarter favourite The Pen and Pencil announces massive 10th birthday party and huge offers
Daisy Jackson
The Pen and Pencil, an absolute staple for brunches and drinks in the Northern Quarter, is celebrating a major milestone this month with a huge party and some unbeatable deals.
The bar and restaurant will be marking 10 years on Tariff Street in September – and it’s only right that we all pile in to celebrate with them.
This spot is one of the city’s original bottomless brunch venues and is similarly famed for its happy hour offerings, and opened in 2015 to bring a taste of Manhattan to Manchester.
Pen and Pencil took its name from the infamous New York City bar that was seen in Mad Men.
And now as it turns 10 years old, it’ll be throwing one big party on Saturday 27 September, featuring 10 hours of DJs, free pints of Red Stripe at 10pm, and a special bottomless brunch offering.
Those DJing on the day will include Drag Race UK’s Banksie, as well as Les Croasdaile, Mark Hogg, Danny Ward and A Deeper Groove.
Pen & Pencil has amazing deals for its 10th birthdayPen & Pencil is a Northern Quarter OG
The Pen and Pencil 10th birthday party will kick off from 2pm and run until late – but if you can’t make that one, there’ll be celebrations all week (and, indeed, month) long.
On Tuesday 23 September, you’ll be able to play for double prize money in The Pen and Pencil quiz, as well as enjoying happy hour drinks all night.
Then on Friday 26 September, it’ll be an all-night happy hour, with free tequila shots at 10pm and music from DJs Nev Johnson and Gareth James from 7pm.
All September long, there’ll be 50% off food every Monday, two-for-£10 cocktails every Wednesday, £10 burgers every Thursday, happy hour all night on Fridays, 10 dishes for £10 and two bloody Marys for £10 on Sundays, plus DJs on Fridays and Saturdays.
There’s a new colourful art installation outside the venue inspired by the bar’s New York roots.
Owner Kevin Connor said: “We’re really excited to be celebrating being part of the Manchester community for ten years!
“New York’s Pen and Pencil was a classic steak and cocktail joint, and we’re proud to have created our very own iconic Northern Quarter hangout. We hope everyone will join us in celebrating ten years on Tariff Street.”
Walk-ins are welcome for The Pen and Pencil 10th birthday party on Saturday 27 September, but booking is encouraged – book your spot HERE.
Featured image: The Manc Group
Eats
Manchester restaurant to give out FREE katsu curries to people called ‘Kat’ or ‘Sue’
Emily Sergeant
In what is a small stroke of genius, a restaurant chain has decided to give out free katsu curries to anyone called ‘Kat’ or ‘Sue’.
Throughout September, award-winning restaurant chain Banana Tree – which has a Greater Manchester site down at Salford Quays – is shining the spotlight on its popular katsu creations, and as a clever way of celebrating National Katsu Day on 27 September has announced a pretty unique giveaway.
That’s right – the restaurant will be serving up katsu dishes to people called Kat, Sue, and every delicious variation of the names in between.
Anyone named Kat, Katie, Katherine, Sue, Suzy, Susan, Suzanne – or close enough to qualify, the list goes on – can head to their local Banana Tree restaurant, and all they’ll need to do is show proof of name and they can enjoy a free katsu dish of their choice, worth up to £16.75.
The chain’s kastu lineup includes three star dishes.
First there’s the much-loved Katsu Curry, as well as the all-new Katsu Burger, which is made from either a crispy chicken or veggie fillet, spicy mayo, puffed noodle crunch, and a drizzle of Katsu sauce tucked into a soft Shokupan bun with a side of salt n pepper chilli chips.
Then there’s also the intriguing newcomer, the Katsu Carbonara – which is described as being a daring East-meets-West mash-up and ‘unapologetically’ Banana Tree.
Banana Tree is giving away free katsu curries to people called ‘Kat’ or ‘Sue’ / Credit: Banana Tree
With each of these dishes usually priced around the £16 mark, the giveaway isn’t just a way of marking National Katsu Day, but it’s also a way to sample the some of the restaurant’s biggest crowd-pleasers entirely free of charge.
To avoid any confusion on who makes the cut, Banana Tree will reveal the full qualifying list of name variations on Instagram soon, so keep your eyes peeled.
“Our Katsu range is one of our proudest creations, so National Katsu Day felt like the perfect moment to have some fun with our fans,” a Banana Tree spokesperson said ahead of the giveaway.
The free katsu offer is available for four days only from Monday 22 to Thursday 25 September, and you just need to head to the Banana Tree website to sign up to the Big Flavour Club here.