My top North East places are in Newcastle, Wylam brewery is also my equal top place rating overall. CentrAle which used to be at Newcastle station was my favourite beer shop and was sad to see it close recently:
I am on that list purely because of a mad drinking weekend in Whitley Bay (April this year), mega brewery tap crawl in Biker and ‘stuff’ in both Durham and Hexham.
Wylam and Durham being my two best rated breweries, neither ever visited.
North East, on RB, always reminds me of the Jocks and the Geordies from the Dandy, in that there’s always a lot of Scottish infiltrators in these regions.
Is it because NE beer makes it over the border regularly enough or because of marauding Scots making day trips south over the border to Newcastle and surrounding area?
I’ve had 3 beers from this area.
2 beers from Wylam one I bought in Belfast and the other had at Underdog in Dublin.
The other beer was way back 2015. It was Flag Porter 1825 from Darwin brewery they must have distributed to NYC back then.
These are from T&W the other 2 counties I’m missing
Fun fact about the North East region … the most deluded football fans in the country who all believe they are supporting MASSIVE clubs … the type who get more excited about counting and boasting on their attendances as opposed to achievements on the pitch.
Rumour has it they share one trophy room outside of Durham (for geographical convenience) to house the one major trophy that they’ve collectively picked up in the last 50 years.
Darlington, Hartelpool(s) and Gateshead are the most liked clubs from the region.
Not a region I’m terribly familiar with, though I have been to Durham and Newcastle a few times. I do want to get up there again at some point to explore properly.
A huge thanks to @danlo for bumping up my stats. Without him I would be at a very sombre point in the leaderboard.
Modest sampling
Tyne & Wear 62
Durham 8
Northumberland 3
The N-E is still to reach the 100 mark. Partly it’s availability as I rarely go there, but judging by the scores, it may also be that there is a lot of uninteresting cask ale of a boring type. I would cite Alnwick Gold, Camerons 150, and Maxim Double Maxim as examples. Wylam is the main attraction but what seems to arrive in our pubs are the same few ales: Jakehead IPA in particular. Almasty is worth finding, but in their case, too, it’s usually a dry-hopped pale.
Not an absolute world away from the top 50 at 130. But myNorth East drinking is pretty slow so I doubt I’ll ever catch up.
Top 5 are identical to my Tyne & Wear top 5: highest Durham rate is 3.8 and highest Northumberland is 3.6:
Wylam / Stigbergets Full Nelson
4.5
Wylam Macchiato
4.1
Wylam Morello Cherry Porter
4
Black Storm Porter
4
Wylam / To Øl A Warning To The Curious
3.9
Most imbibed breweries for are Wylam (19), Full Circle (11), Hops & Dots (9), Camerons (7), Two by Two (6) and Allendale (5). Wylam is actually my 7th highest rated British brewer at 3.66.
I really let the side down with place ratings - only 3 from Haltwhistle in Northumberland (Tyne & Wear and Durham - along with Devon and Cornwall - are my only un-place-rated counties). Time for a holiday perhaps?
