The Tap is Back!

Hi everyone, welcome to 2024, just a quick one today to let you know that we’re emerging from our winter hibernation and will be opening up our taproom very soon! We absolutely love having people down to see the brewery and drink our beers at the source, so we’re incredibly excited to announce that our 2024 taproom dates are:

Saturday 30th March
Saturday 27th April
Saturday 25th May
Saturday 29th June
Saturday 20th July
Saturday 31st August
Saturday 28th September
Saturday 26th October (8th Birthday special!)

I’m also delighted to announce that the magnificent Devina's Mauritian Kitchen will be serving up incredible food at every taproom date this year! If you came to our 7th birthday then you’ll know exactly what to expect, but if not, prepare for delicious Mauritian curries, spring rolls and amazing giant bhajis.

That’s about all for now, please be aware that dates may be subject to change based on us being away at events (we try our absolute hardest not to, but some events are just too big to turn down!) Please check our social media accounts as we’ll always mention any changes on those.

See you at the taproom!

Team Top Rope

Top Rope is 7!

It’s that time of year again, our birthday is fast approaching and this year we’re turning 7!

To celebrate, we’re having a special Birthday Taproom on Saturday 28th October. We’ll have some very special Birthday Beers pouring (more info on those very soon) and, as we’re in the midst of spooky season, fancy dress will of course be encouraged (although by no means essential)!

We’ll be open from 12 till 8 as usual so we’re the perfect first stop before any Halloween parties you may be attending later that evening. There’s no need to buy a ticket, just turn up, say hi and enjoy the beers.

Can’t wait to see you all and to celebrate our 7th Birthday in style!

-Team Top Rope

February Update: Bottling It

Hi everyone, Ben here; I’m going to try and be a bit more active on the blog here this year with regards to keeping you all updated on what’s going on at the brewery. Call it my New Year’s resolution if you like!

Firstly, if you’ve been paying attention to social media you will no doubt have noticed that we’re finally getting back to small pack after what seems like an age. You may also have noticed that we’ve been packaging into glass bottles. Obviously in recent years the trend has been shifting towards canning, so I’d like to take some time to explain why we feel that, for us, bottles make more sense for our current situation.

Firstly, it’s a matter of logistics, as we don’t have our own canning line, we’ve been using a company called Bevcraft (formerly Them That Can) for the last few years. While the service they provide is exemplary (shout out in particular to Andy and Paul, they’ve gone above and beyond for us time after time, I love them and they’re absolutely honouary members of team Top Rope), the way they operate requires a certain minimum quantity of beer to be canned. At our current size, this means having to can 4 or 5 different beers at a time, effectively holding up our beers in tank and preventing the brewhouse from operating at maximum efficiency.

Secondly, there’s an issue of cost, as you would expect, we have to pay our contract canners for their service. Although we’re obviously happy to pay for a job well done, we are aware of the difficult financial environment everybody is facing and understand that keeping our products as accessible as possible is in all of our customer’s best interests. By bringing small pack packaging in house and moving to slightly smaller containers (330ml v 440ml) we can help to offset some of the price rises we’ve faced over the previous months.

Lastly, something which is just starting to get some mainstream media attention, but has been talked about in brewing circles for the last 12 months or so is the Deposit Return Scheme. In brief, the DRS is a series of schemes across the United Kingdom to charge a deposit on small pack containers which would be refunded to the consumer upon them being returned to an approved recycling point. Frustratingly, each nation of the UK has a different scheme in place, with Scotland’s set to launch later this year, with Wales and England & NI (they’re under the same scheme) to follow in 2025. What this means is that small pack producers (everyone from Coke and InBev all the way down to the smallest nanobrewery) will have to pay to join multiple schemes, amend their labelling accordingly, pay deposits on small pack and incur a whole heap of other costs in order to continue to sell packaged products. Crucially, although the Scottish and Welsh schemes apply to aluminium, glass and plastic, the combined England & NI scheme only includes aluminium and plastic. This means that, by packaging into glass bottles, we would be able to continue to sell into England and Northern Ireland without having to incur the obscene costs and needless bureaucracy of engaging with the DRS; although this sadly would mean us no longer being able to sell small pack into Scotland and Wales.

Right, that’s gotten a bit heavy so we’ll leave it there. In short, bottles mean that we can bring you a bigger range of beers, more regularly and at a better price.

Moving on to what we’ve got coming up, we’ve got 2 special one off brews on the schedule for the next few weeks, a big IPA named after a few of my favourite things and a nice fruity sour that is probably going to give a few of you nightmares!

We’re also going to have some of our beers pouring at the Liverpool beer festival in the Crypt next week and we’ll be about on the Thursday session if anyone wants to come say hi!

That’s all for now, see you next month!

Ben

So we are here, 5 years.
5 years of brewing, drinking, travelling, watching and talking about so much wrestling and we wouldn’t change a single moment of it.

So, as we didn’t get to celebrate our 4th birthday properly, we are changing that for this year and WrestAleMania VI is going on the road, travelling to as many places as we can manage in a month (whilst still brewing for you!)

We have 8 special beers that are being prepared for you, 4 going into can and 4 are keg & cask exclusive including the final chapter in our Rowdy Roddy Porter trilogy, a new take on the Cold Stone Cream Austin Birthday Cake and a new lager with 2 limited edition can designs.

Our full calender for the month is:
6th Nov - Taproom Party. 2 sessions of beers, pies and live music. Tickets available now at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wrest-ale-mania-vi-launch-partytop-rope-5th-birthday-bonanza-tickets-169276138487
Fri 12th Nov - Black Cloak, Colwyn Bay - Collab, Tap Takeover & Meet The Brewer
Sat 13th Nov - Beer Heroes, Chester - Tap Takeover & Meet The Brewer
Sat 13th Nov - Beer Heroes, Helsby - Tap Takeover & Meet The Brewer
Thurs 18th Nov - R&G’s Beer Vault, Macclesfield - Tap Takeover & Meet The Brewer

Thurs 18th Nov - Vaux Brewery & Taproom, Sunderland - Collab, Tap Takeover & Meet The Brewer
Fri 19th Nov - Rita’s Pantry, Redcar - Tap Takeover & Meet The Brewer
Sat 20th Nov - The Town Mouse, Newcastle - Tap Takeover & Meet The Brewer
Thurs 25th Nov - The Black Cat, Liverpool- Tap Takeover & Meet The Brewer
Fri 26th Nov - Beatnikz Republic, Manchester - Collab & Tap Takeover & Meet The Brewer

We are so excited to be seeing you all soon for a drink to help us rejoyce in how far we have come and also help us plan for where the next 5 years will take us!

Cheers all
Neil

Tap! Tap! Tap!

If you’ve been following along on our social media over the last few months you’ll have no doubt noticed that back in January we moved the brewery back to Liverpool (well, Bootle) into a lovely big new unit.

One of the main reasons for wanting a bigger unit (aside from having space for more beer) was to allow us to eventually open a taproom and invite all of you wonderful people down to share a few drinks and check out our brewery. It gives me great pleasure to announce that the time is now, we will be opening our taproom to you this bank holiday weekend (Friday 28th, Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th of May).

Would you like some more details? Then read on..

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Opening Hours and Table Availability

We’re going to be open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (gotta take advantage of that bank holiday) from 12pm each day. As for closing times, with it being our first weekend open we’re going to play it a bit by ear and see how things go. We will however announce on social media at least an hour before we intend to close and if you’re making a trip down specially feel free to contact us by email or via social media and we can confirm if we’re still open.

As for tables, we’re not operating a booking system and will greet you at the entrance and seat you when you arrive. We’ve got loads of space and plenty of seats so rest assured we will be able to fit you in! There will be an odd table here or there reserved for friends and family, however we’ve spaced these out over the three days so that the vast, vast majority of our seats will be available for all.

How To Get Here

Getting to the brewery by public transport couldn’t be easier! We’re handily located between Bank Hall and Bootle Oriel Road train stations on the Merseyrail Northern Line (and not too far from Kirkdale station either). Personally, I think the walk from Oriel Road is a bit shorter and slightly more pleasant but you’re no more than 5-10 minutes (depending on your speed) from us whichever station you choose.

Here’s a handy map showing how to get to us from Oriel Road Station (as you exit the station turn right and head under the underpass):

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If you happen to have a designated driver, there is ample parking on Lipton Close outside of office hours (after 6pm on Friday and all day Saturday and Sunday).

COVID Precautions

We can’t wait to welcome you to our brewery tap and we want you to feel safe and comfortable during your time here. As a result we will be implementing the following measures in adherence to the Government’s COVID guidelines:

  • On arrival, a member of staff will greet you, register your details with track and trace and show you to your table.

  • Customers will be required to wear a face covering while entering the premises and when not seated at a table. We have a supply of facemasks available for a charitable donation should you require one (all donations to NHS charities) as well as Top Rope branded facemasks should you fancy something more robust and stylish.

  • We have a hand sanitiser station on arrival as well as in our toilet facilities. In addition, staff can provide sanitiser to your table on request.

  • All ordering will be conducted at your table, we have an online ordering facility allowing you to browse our menu and order direct from your phone or, if you prefer, a member of staff can take your order at your table.

  • We will only be accepting card payments, no cash.

  • All tables will be cleaned and fully sanitised in between customers.

What Do We Have?

As you might expect, we have quite a bit of Top Rope beer! We’ll have 6 draught lines pouring all your Top Rope favourites (and a few special kegs we’ve held onto for just such an occasion). We’ll also have a full range of our beers in cans as well as some guest gluten free options and a low alcohol choice for those noble designated drivers. As with all our beers, we’ve curated our guest selection to ensure everything we serve is suitable for vegans. We also have a special drink involving gin (keep an eye on our social media this week for more info) and a selection of soft drinks, tap water will also be provided for each table on arrival.

Food wise, we will be offering a range of snacks (crisps, nuts and pretzels) although guests are welcome to bring their own food or even order from a local takeaway (both Deliveroo and Uber Eats cover our location) and we are happy to provide cutlery if required.

Similarly, we would also encourage you to bring any board games, card games or Nintendo Switches you would like as entertainment while you’re here (although if you bring a Switch Ben might insist on playing you at Mario Kart). When COVID restrictions are lifted we intend to fully stock ourselves with cool board and card games, but for now it’s safer if you bring your own.

Children are welcome at the taproom but, as we are a working brewery we must request that they remain supervised at all times. We have some low sugar squashes available for children if you would like to avoid fizzy drinks.

We are dog friendly and are happy to provide water bowls, treats and ear scratches on request. All we ask is that dogs remain on a lead for safety reasons.

That should cover pretty much everything, if there is anything we may have missed or if you have any queries or concerns, please email us at info@topropebrewing.com or send us a message on social media and we’ll do our best to sort it for you.

Thanks for reading and we can’t wait to see you soon!

Ben, Neil and everyone at Top Rope Brewing

Movin' On Up..

If I may, I’d like to briefly take you back to the heady days of 2019, a time of beer festivals, pubs, bars and actual human contact..
As you may know, towards the end of 2019 we were brewing to full capacity in our site in Sandycroft, North Wales. We had just taken part in a month long session of meet the brewer events and tap takeovers for our 3rd birthday celebrations and some internal discussions were being had with regards to increasing our capacity.

Our Sandycroft site, as you can see, space is a little bit limited.

Our Sandycroft site, as you can see, space is a little bit limited.

We considered a number of options, including getting a bigger FV (and putting it.. somewhere) and even looking for an additional unit in the same area to turn into a dedicated fermentation space.

In the background of all this discussion, the prospect of moving the brewery was always light-heartedly discussed, we’d end conversations discussing what we’d want in our ideal situation with “well, when we move sites” and stick it all on our imaginary wish list.

Then Covid and lockdown happened, pretty much causing us to spin our wheels in place for the best part of 12 months. We still wanted to expand, but we had to time it right so we were ready to go when restrictions were eased.

While we were waiting out 2020 (and canning and mini kegging as much beer as humanly possible) we became increasingly aware that the lease on our Sandycroft site was due to expire in February 2021. As a result, talks of moving the brewery quickly intensified and ideas and budgets very rapidly firmed up.

We decided that we were going to move the brewery.

I won’t go into all the details of viewing locations, meeting with companies and physically moving a brewery during lockdown (that’s a blog for another time, although let me assure you that everyone we encountered or worked with conducted themselves in a responsible, Covid safe manner) but as I write this towards the end of January we are putting the finishing touches on our brand new site, with the intention of resuming brewing operations within the next few days.

So what about the site? Well, first off here is a (work in progress) picture..

Our lovely FV’s. As you can see, plenty of space and a brand new double sized tank for all your favourite beers!

Our lovely FV’s. As you can see, plenty of space and a brand new double sized tank for all your favourite beers!

So the new site, after an extensive search, we found a fantastic, 3000 sq ft (that’s over 4 times the size of our old site) unit in the Brasenose Road industrial estate. We’re situated in between Bank Hall and Bootle Oriel Road Merseyrail stations, with Oriel Road being about a five minute walk. Most importantly, remember that hypothetical list we talked about before? We got every single thing on there that we wanted, a professional quality brew floor, space for a dedicated office and staff kitchen, single story storage space (no more carrying bags of grain upstairs) and, most excitingly, space to hold tap room events and open sessions so all you lovely people can come and see the place (when lockdown restrictions allow obviously).

It goes without saying that all of us here at Top Rope are beyond excited to get to work in our new site and bring you even more, even better beer as we move forward. We’re delighted to be back in the Liverpool area (although we won’t forget about our North Wales customers and community, don’t you worry) and we’re really looking forward to (hopefully) a fantastic 2021.

See you in the pub (or perhaps even our taproom) somewhere down the line.

Ben xx

All Together Now

This last week was supposed to be a pretty cool one for us, Liverpool were set to parade their newly won Premier League trophy and we were due to host some of our friends from across the pond for an exciting collab (and a good bit of drinking!)

Obviously, neither of those things ended up happening. Instead, we still had a pretty great time, we brewed 4 beers which are set to be canned the first week of June, participated in a brilliant (virtual) collab with our lovely friends at Full Circle Brew Co and chilled out and chatted with the fantastic Drew Harris of Boutilliers. So all things considered we didn’t do too bad.

Still, I couldn’t help but feel a bit bummed, I was fortunate enough to visit New York just before the pandemic and the warmth of the welcome and the generous hospitality of the entire brewing community over there blew me away. I was looking forward to being able to repay that favour, see a few of my friends again and have another slice of that beery fun goodness. I needed to find a way of bringing a little bit of New York over to the North West. So we get to the All Together collaboration project.

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All Together is a project created by Other Half (the hop Supremos of Brooklyn, NY) to help support hospitality professionals and breweries all over the world during this pandemic. The idea is that breweries from all over the world will brew a beer from the same recipe and donate a portion of the proceeds to a local hospitality cause. This is awesome for a few reasons:

  1. We get to brew a super, silly, hoppy beer from a recipe developed by Other Half and then we all get to drink it!

  2. We get to support a great local initiative providing aid to hospitality workers in these difficult times.

  3. We get to bring a bit of that New York beery goodness over to us, albeit in spirit.

The Cause

We’ll be donating a portion of our proceeds from the sales of the All Together beer to the Hospitality Workers Emergency Fund (https://www.wearetipjar.com/emergency-fund/) which provides funding for hospitality staff who are facing financial hardship due to closure of venues. Both Neil and myself worked in hospitality as we grew Top Rope and although a lot of employers (our previous ones included) look after their staff superbly, the nature of the industry means that a lot of staff on zero hours or ad hoc contracts (or even no contract at all) can slip through the cracks and miss out on essential government assistance to see them through these unprecedented times. We have made so many fantastic friends in this industry and are incredibly excited to be able to offer some measure of support.

The Beer

We’ll be brewing a 6.5% IPA hopped with Mosaic, Citra, Simcoe and Cascade. While that doesn’t sound too groundbreaking we’ll also be making some changes to our usual water chemistry to better replicate the brewing water used in Brooklyn as well as trying one or two other little tweaks to get the very best out of all those hops.

We’ll be brewing All Together in the next couple of weeks and are currently set to can it at the start of July, so it should hopefully be in your hands for the beginning of a glorious summer.

As always keep an eye on our social media for updates and brewday pictures!

Love, as always

Ben xx

"The New Normal"

Hi everyone, Ben here; thought I’d best drop you all a quick update on where we are and where we are going at this current time. What with the world the way it is right now, information is power more than ever.

First up, a massive thank you to everyone who’s supported us since lockdown started. That includes our fantastic customers, our wonderful friends in the industry and everyone else who’s bought a Top Rope beer or just had a laugh with us on social media. We managed to get through what we thought would be two months worth of cans in just under three weeks, hence the slight beer drought.

We are now at the point where we have to accept that the way we buy, sell and drink beer has, at least in the short term, has changed. We had big plans this year, with more collabs than ever before (with some of our absolute favourite breweries) festival appearances and a whole shed load of meet the brewer events we were gearing up to make 2020 our busiest year yet. Seriously, it got to the point that I started running my personal appointments past Neil first to make sure I was free.

OK, so that’s enough moaning about what’s not happening, what is happening? Well, first (and arguably most importantly) we’re getting back in the brewhouse. We’ve got a canning run booked in for the start of June and should have four beers canned for your drinking pleasure (including one brand new beer, wooo!)

Secondly, as you’ve probably seen, we’ve launched our range of 5 litre minikegs. The early demand has been staggering but rest assured we’ll have more added as soon as we can fill them and we’ll be adding new beers as quickly as we can. We’re really enthused by the shift the beer industry has seen towards these and we’ll keep offering them for as long as you wonderful folks demand them.

Thirdly, we want to do more to bring you the social experience of a meet the brewer in your very own home. I can’t say too much more about this right now as we’re in the very early stages of a lot of planning but rest assured we’re looking at a number of packaging the full Top Rope experience so you can have it “In Your House” (spoilers).

That’s about it for now then, keep your eyes on social media for all the up to date info such as beer releases and availability and we’ll see you in the pub once this is all over.

Much Love

Ben (and everyone at Top Rope) xxx

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Beer and PPV Pairing, Day 5

Hello again! Welcome to our final beer and PPV pairing blog. Apologies for being slightly late, I got caught up with some baking last night and completely forgot to post (for the record, I’ve made cookies, scones and now pita bread this week all at least partially successfully.) Anyhow, let’s get into it.

Beer 5: Overkill IPA

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The beer that started it all. Overkill was the first beer Neil and myself ever brewed together as homebrewers. It’s named as such as it was brewed the day after Lemmy passed away and we listened to Motorhead for pretty much the entire brewday. Over 5 years later and although we’ve made a few tweeks to the recipe here and there, we still use the same 3 hops (Chinook, Centennial and Citra) and the same simple malt bill to give you those big traditional American flavours you’d expect from a flagship IPA.

Paired With: Wrestlemania 21 (2005)

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Taking place on 3rd April 2005 (fifteen years ago yesterday!) at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles California Wrestlemania 21 featured the second appearance of Motorhead on a WWE PPV. Although their first appearance (Wrestlemania 17) is arguably the greatest Wrestlemania of all time, the actual performance from the band was significantly better here and, as we’re about to explore, the card here was no slouch either.

The show opened with a match between Eddie Gurrero and Rey Mysterio, tag team partners at the time. This match would lead to the infamous feud featuring the two men disputing and ultimately fighting over the parentage of Rey’s son Dominick. This would culminate in a ladder match for the custody of Rey’s child (seriously) at this year’s summer slam. Sadly this event also marks Eddie’s final Mania appearance as he would pass away that November.

Next up is the history making first ever Money in the Bank ladder match. Now a PPV all of it’s own, it began as an annual attraction on the Wrestlemania card. The first iteration saw Edge, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Christian, Kane and Shelton Benjamin compete for the famous briefcase which granted them a championship match at any time of their choosing in the next 365 days. This is a great match and it’s really fun to go back and see the genesis of one of WWE’s most enduring new traditions.

Other matches on the card include the Undertaker gambling his undefeated streak against Randy Orton, who at the time was calling himself the “Legend Killer”, putting down older, established stars in order to bring about a changing of the guard in the company (and making room for himself at the top). This is definitely one of the Undertaker’s better Mania matches, in part down to the athleticism and unorthadox style of the young Randy Orton.

The next notable match is an absolute classic between Kurt Angle and Shawn Michaels. Having these two greats face off one on one is an absolute dream match and they give you everything you want and more, going for almost 30 minutes. Definitely the match of the night and one which should be much more highly rated than it is.

Other matches before the main event see Trish Stratus defending her Women’s Championship against Christy Hemme, The Big Show taking on sumo wrestler Akebono in a sumo match and JBL defending his WWE Championship against John Cena (seeking his first world championship).

The main event sees World Champion Triple H taking on former Evolution member Batista. The match came about after Batista won the Royal Rumble and chose to face his mentor, effectively ending their relationship. To further up the big match feel, the champion is played in by a live rendition of his theme music from Motorhead. While the match doesn’t quite hit the heights of some of the earlier bouts on the card, it’s still good action and caps of a good if somewhat underrated Wrestlemania.

Well. that’s all folks, stay safe and enjoy what is sure to be a Wrestlemania unlike any other this weekend.

Cheers

Ben xx

Beer and PPV Pairing, Day 4

Good evening! Welcome to day 4 of our beer and PPV pairing blog. Just a quick reminder that all these shows are currently available to watch for free on the WWE Network. Now I hope you’re sitting comfortably because we’re about to get extreme.

Beer 4: TNT Dead or Alive Lager

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Originally brewed in partnership with TNT Extreme Wrestling in Liverpool to celebrate their DOA Deathmatch tournament. DOA Lager uses a simple malt base and is fermented with a traditional lager yeast. We the dry hop it with TNT hops (what else?) and lager it at cold temperatures (close to zero degrees) for six weeks. This slow maturation gives us a crisp refreshing lager with a subtle hoppy bite.

Paired with: King of The Ring (1998)

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Taking place on 28th June 1998 in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, we couldn’t choose any other event to pair with our extreme themed lager really. Although most famous (or should that be infamous) for one specific match, some of the other bouts are worth a look as well.

The main focus of the show initially was the final rounds of the King of The Ring tournament. A once beloved yearly tradition which sadly ceased several years ago, the semi finals saw The Rock defeat Dan Severn and Ken Shamrock triumph over Jeff Jarrett. Facing off in the final, you would expect The Rock to be the heavy favourite given his subsequent super-stardom but it’s worth considering just how well thought of and respected Ken Shamrock was as a performer and athlete (he in fact continues to wrestle to this day).

Other highlights on the card include X-Pac taking on Owen Heart and the New Age Outlaws defending their Tag Team Titles. The “main event” featured a first blood match between Stone Cold Steve Austin and Kane for the World Championship. As a special stipulation, Kane vowed to set himself on fire if defeated, raising the stakes considerably. It’s a touch melodramatic but as a piece of wrestling history it’s well worth seeing.

The final match (not the last chronologically though) saw Mankind face off against The Undertaker in the 3rd ever Hell in a Cell match. There’s nothing I can write about this performance that would do it justice except to say that it remains one of the greatest spectacles in the history of professional wrestling and, in many ways, was something of a watershed moment for the business.

There it is folks, same time tomorrow for our final entry.

Cheers

Ben xx

Beer and PPV Pairing, Day 3

Good evening! It’s time for day 3 of our beer and PPV pairing, as always, don’t forget that all of these shows are available to watch for free (currently) on the WWE Network.

Day 3: Canadian Destroyer

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Beer number 3 is Canadian Destroyer, our 6.6% Maple Pecan Stout. This beer uses a complex malt bill including oats, chocolate malt and pitch black carafa malt to give a smooth full body and a deep, dark colour. We finish it off with maple and pecan to give a hit of sweetness and a delicious aroma.

Paired With: Vengeance (2001)

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Taking place on the 9th December in San Francisco California, Vengeance was the last PPV to appear for free on Chanel 4 in the UK. I’ve picked this show because it features a number of Canadian wrestlers in title matches, including Chris Jericho competing in the main event.

The show kicks off with an all Canadian team of Christian and Test taking on Albert and Scotty 2 Hotty. Although this match feels a bit thrown together (nobody is teaming with their regular partner) all 4 men are well versed in tag team wrestling.

Match 2 sees another Canadian, Edge, defending his Intercontinental championship against William Regal. Regal is one of those performers who never really got the respect he deserved during his career and he played his snobbish villain character so well. Edge was thankfully able to recently return to the ring after his career was thought to be over and watching him perform here, in his prime, is an absolute treat.

The next few matches off some solid entertainment, the Dudley Boyz provide solid tag team action, Matt vs Jeff Hardy gives you all the extreme action you’d expect and there’s even the Undertaker making an appearance in a hardcore championship match against Rob Van Dam.

The next prominent Canadian to appear is Trish Stratus defending her women’s championship against Jacqueline. Trish’s career trajectory was remarkable as she grew from an untrained manager to become arguably one of the original architects of the recent women’s revolution. While this match isn’t as defining as her classic clashes with Lita or Mickie James, it’s still an entertaining watch.

The main event is a 3 match unification tournament for the Undisputed championship. Round one sees Stone Cold Steve Austin take on Kurt Angle for the WWF Championship and The Rock vs Chris Jericho (our final Canadian) for the World Championship. With the 4 men in question you know you’re going to get some fantastic wrestling and there’s even some twists and turns thrown in to keep things interesting. The final sees the two winners face off and even sees an appearance from the living legend, Ric Flair.

That’s it for day 3 folks, come back tomorrow for day 4!

Cheers

Ben xx

Beer and PPV Pairing, Day 2

Hello again! I’m back for the second of our beer and PPV pairings. Just another reminder that all these shows are available to watch for free (currently) on the WWE network as long as you sign up for an account. Today’s pairing features one of my favourite beers (certainly my favourite name) and what was, at the time, a record making PPV. Without further ado, let’s go!

Day 2: Cold Stone Cream Austin

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Named after the time a friend drunkenly confused legendary wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin with popular U.S ice cream chain Cold Stone Creamery, Cold Stone Cream Austin has become one of our most popular (albeit hard to say) beers. In the last 6 months, we’ve launched raspberry ripple and orange creamsicle versions on cask and keg but it’s the original we’ll be focusing on today. Cold Stone (for short) is an ice cream pale ale which, like all of our beers, is completely vegan. We use vanilla, hops (Mandarina Bavaria and Cascade) and a couple of special malt related tricks to give it a full creamy body and a sweet vanilla finish.

Paired With: Royal Rumble (2001)

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To be honest, when choosing a Stone Cold focused event I was pretty spoilt for choice; the man is one of the greatest of all time and has had his hand in some of the wrestling industry’s greatest moments of the last 30 years. I very nearly picked the 1996 King of the Ring which gave birth to his now iconic “Austin 3:16” slogan (and, as of this year, lead to him declaring March 16th “Stone Cold Day).

Anyhow, the 2001 Rumble kicks off with a tag team title match between The Dudley Boyz and Edge and Christian. Both teams are at the absolute peak of their powers here, with this match taking place in between the two infamous TLC matches featuring both of these teams alongside the Hardy Boyz.

The second match is an Intercontinental Title match between Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit. I know Benoit is rightly reviled for the horrific acts he committed before his death, so I would 100% support skipping this one. If you can bear to watch, it’s a fantastic performance from the always excellent Jericho and served as a wonderful blow off to the incredible feud the two men were having at the time.

Match 3 features Ivory and Chyna competing for the Women’s title and is well worth checking out. Chyna was an incredible performer and athlete, well ahead of her time and she deserves to be fondly remembered.

The semi main event sees WWE (WWF at the time) champion Kurt Angle defend against Triple H. Kurt Angle is another “all time great” and his championship runs are and absolute delight to re-live. As you’d expect for the time period, there’s some McMahon shenanigans during the match, a bit of interference and Stone Cold himself even pops up briefly.

Lastly we have the Rumble itself. I’m not going to describe it in any detail, but it’s a really good one. It features the first ever celebrity entrant, an absolutely star making performance from Kane (my favourite “big man” of the period), some Rock and Austin action, a few nostalgia entries and, most importantly, all the action called by the classic pairing of Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler.

So there you have it, grab a few cold ones, dive in to a classic Rumble and we’ll see you again tomorrow!

Cheers

Ben xx

Beer and PPV Pairing, Day 1

Hello! While we’re all stuck inside with a little bit more free time than usual, I thought I’d drop a quick blog post to suggest some classic WWE PPV’s to pair with the beers currently available on our webshop. WWE have recently made all classic content free on the WWE Network, so if you’ve got an account (you can sign up for free) you should be able to give all of these a go if you fancy. We’ll be posting one of these each night until the weekend so it’ll take us right up to Wrestlemania, perfectly filling all your wrestling needs.

Day 1: Idaho Train

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If you’ve had a look at our social media lately, you’ll have seen our latest beer release. Idaho Train is a 7% IPA made with a malt bill of pale malt, oats and wheat and dry hopped heavily with Idaho 7, El Dorado and Citra. It packs tropical fruit flavours with subtle hints of pine and a slightly bitter finish

Paired With: Backlash (1999)

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Taking place on April 25 1999, in Providence, Rhode Island, this was the first ever PPV under the Backlash name. The main reason we’re choosing this event is because it features (to my knowledge) the only PPV defence of the Godfather’s Intercontinental Championship, with him taking on Goldust in a rematch of the bout which saw the “Pimp Daddy” capture the gold on a previous RAW (having made a dubious deal with the Big Boss Man to ensure his involvement).

Other treats on the card include Mankind taking on the Big Show in a Boiler Room Brawl (Mankind being originally billed as “from the Boiler Room”) in a match born out of their dealings with the corporation; a rare showdown between Triple H and X-Pac with all the usual DX antics you’d expect and a Hardcore Title match between Hardcore Holly and Al Snow (a follow up from when Holly famously beat Snow by pinning him on the banks of the Mississippi river).

Other performers to look out for include Edge and Christian (still part of Gangrel’s Brood), a very early sighting of the team that would become Too Cool (Scott Taylor and Brian Christopher, at this time called Too Much) and the New Age Outlaws taking on Jeff Jarrett and Owen Heart (who would tragically pass away in May of the same year).

The main event is another episode in the classic rivalry between Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, with the two men going to war once again over the World Championship. As you’d expect, it’s a roller coaster of a match with multiple twists and turns and an utterly breathless finish. No spoilers, but make sure you watch until the very end so you don’t miss anything.

Right, that’s 3 hours of classic action to keep you occupied, so grab a few cans of Idaho Train and kick back. Most importantly, stay safe and stay indoors!

Cheers

Ben xx

All In

Hi all, it’s been a bit of a ride this last 6 months or so here at the brewery. If you’ve been paying attention you’ve probably spotted a bit more of our beer out and about in your favourite bars, pubs and bottle shops. While this has been fantastic, it has lead to a situation where we’ve had less choice available for our wonderful trade customers; less choice for them means less choice for you, our fans and customers, that’s something which is definitely not cool.

If you’ll allow me a slightly nostalgic segway, Top Rope started, in principle, just over 3 years ago with myself (Ben) and Neil brewing 20L batches of homebrew in my parent’s kitchen. It was those early brewdays which laid the foundation for some of the beers we still brew today (although, thankfully, with greatly improved recipies) and over the last 3 years it’s been a wonderful, humbling and rewarding experience to see our beer enjoyed by so many people.

So, in the words of Austin Powers, “What does it all mean?”, well, from the 1st of September of this year, we’ll be doubling our operating capacity at the brewery, pretty much brewing as much beer as a kit the size of ours can handle. This means 2 beers a week entering production, a minimum of 1 dedicated delivery day to make sure you can all get the good stuff when it’s ready and the wonderful chaps from Them That Can visiting once a month to package 3 beers into can for your portable drinking pleasure.

This also means that both Neil and myself will have to dedicate more time to the brewing, packaging and general brewery upkeep parts of the job. If you’re local to Liverpool, or visit often, you may well have seen us pop up behind a well known bar or two and serve a few drinks. Sadly, with the increase in workload, that part of our lives has to wind down. Never fear though, we’re hoping to expand our festival presence over the next 12 months and we’ll always be down to chat beer (or wrestling, or pretty much anything) if you spot us out in the wild). So, in short, more time at the brewery means a lot more time for obsessing over pH and temperature (for me) and more focusing on organising sales and logistics (for Neil). Oh, and lots more cleaning, always more cleaning. This means that we''ll be able to get higher quality beer out to all you lovely people, more efficiently and more regularly, and we’ll even be able to drink it alongside some of you occasionally as well!

I’m going to leave it there, save rambling on for too long. I’ll be back soon with an update on our 3rd birthday plans (yes, we have plans, they’re fairly epic and if I say anything now Neil will probably kill me, so you’ll have to wait). So as always, thanks for your continued support and watch this space.

Ben

Online Shop Now Open!

Hi all, some absolutely huge news to announce today; as of RIGHT NOW, our online store is officially open! Truth be told, we were hoping to get everything sorted for our second birthday but decided to bide our time a bit and make sure everything was ready and in place before we unleashed it.

Apologies in advance but this post is going to serve as something of an FAQ so there’s going to be a lot of info, here goes:

Ordering

Everything we have in stock will be available to order direct from our website, once an order is placed, we’ll get it packed and ready for delivery. Payment is being handled by Stripe, it’s safe, easy and accepts all major credit and debit cards. Once your order has been paid for and received by us, you’ll get an email and we’ll get it all packed up and ready for you. You’ll also be sent a second email once your order has been shipped (more on that below).

Shipping

All our orders will be shipped via UK Mail with next day delivery. We weighed up a number of options and felt that this offered the best service and value for our customers. Because of the way we operate at the brewery (we’re a very small team at the moment) all orders placed before 5pm each Monday will be dispatched that Tuesday for delivery on Wednesday. This helps ensure that you get your beer delivered to you in the best condition possible.

The price of shipping is £5, however on orders of £30 or more we are able to offer it for free, simply enter “FREE” in the coupon box while checking out and the cost of shipping will be deducted from your total.

We also have a special shipping rate of £2 for orders containing apparel only (hats, T-Shirts etc). These orders will be sent via Royal Mail Signed For and may be subject to slightly quicker dispatch times (due to not having to keep clothes in a cold store!) Please however note that this shipping option does not apply to any orders containing beer. Orders placed using the incorrect shipping option will be cancelled and will delay your beer arriving!

Contacting Us/Queries/Issues

While we hope our online shop will run smoothly, it is an almost inevitability that there will be some small hiccups here and there. If you ever experience any issues while using our online shop, or have any queries regarding the service, we are reachable by email at topropebrewing@gmail.com. This is a fully manually monitored address, so we’ll never fob you off with an automated response and will get back to you as soon as we possibly can (definitely within 24 hours).

I think that covers everything from a general sense. In terms of seasonal news, we’ll be dispatching all orders received this week on Tuesday 18th December, in time for Christmas. We’ll then be taking a short Christmas break until the first week of January (Tuesday is actually New Year’s day, so things might get a bit strange that week, but we’ll keep you posted and everything should be back to normal by the 8th of January.)

Thanks for reading this far, have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year

Ben