2013 Golden Pints

Gearing up to make a mix tape of the best beery things of the last year 

takes me some time to prepare for. I quite enjoy the therapeutic nature of

reflecting back on where I’ve been and what I’ve drunk (and often the 

people I've met and time I've spent with friends along the way).  I put on

an album – something instrumental from Marc Moulin (a good one to get 

you thinking), sit down and let the memories drift back. Next stage is to

trawl through my back catalogue of photos; I seem to have a bit of

an itchy trigger finger when it comes to capturing beer visually. Somehow I

think it’s more to do with my inherent drive to catalogue and collect ‘stuff’

call me a beer magpie if you like.

Well here you go……..

Best UK Cask Beer

Both of these beers reminded me why all hail goes to the pale side and

provided me moments of clarity. Top of the pile was Fyne Ales – Freya 5.5%

on cask at The Hanging Bat in Edinburgh. I believe Fyne was awarded top

billing for another one of its ales at the Scottish Real Ale Festival in the

same weekend I enjoyed this thirst quenching little number. The hops used,

I’d never even heard of, Belma and Multihead which are two big citrusy

American hops and Freya is the Norse god of love!

Big Job from St Austel – a powerful 7.3% IPA, lots of Cornish barley and

Citra and Centennial hops thrust into the mix. Roger Ryman brews great

beer, fact, and I hugely enjoyed suppin’ this at The British Guild of Beer
Writers 25^th Anniversary event; a joyous ale for a momentous event.

Sometimes with all the hype of new small start-up breweries you forget the

good stuff that’s staring you in the face.

Best UK Keg Beer

Thornbridge’s Bayern (5%) is a classic Bavarian Pilsner having been lagered

for 10 weeks. This made my New Year’s Eve (and yes and I did drink

it before midnight, so it counts!); my Untapped profile may even show a

triple hitting enjoyment of this one. Noble hops, delicate flavours 
completely moreish. 

Best UK Bottled or Canned Beer

Tempest – Marmalade on Toast 6%. This could have also gone down in the

best collaboration category as it was a tag team brew affair with the

Brewdog Edinburgh bar. Orange, tart marmalade, gingerbread, toasted

malts = pale ale goodness. For me completely original beer of the year and I

haven’t tasted anything close to this since. Props to Paddington Bear.    

Best Overseas Draught Beer

Dieu du Ciel – Peche Mortel an Imperial Stout 9.5% from this Montreal based

Canadian brewery / brewpub. Extremely smooth rich roasted flavours,

deceptively not 9.5%! Thanks to Chris Hall for suggesting to meet at the

Brewdog Shepherds Bush where I found this sensational brew. Sometimes

you can get a bit jaded, then you try a beer like this and it reminds you to

stop bloody moaning about life.     

Best Overseas Bottled or Canned Beer

I’ve gone saison silly with two American takes on the Belgium farmhouse

style as best overseas bottled: Brooklyn Brewery – Sorachi Ace 7.6% and

Prairie –Prairie Ale 8.2%. Both presented in ornately designed and packaged

hefty bottles.

Brooklyn’s is a single-hop saison with Sorachi Ace hops using their own 

special strain of Belgian yeast then champagne yeast in the secondary

fermentation. Garrett Oliver attended the Siba Beer X event back in March in

Sheffield as keynote speaker and in true Garrett style ended his speech by 

producing bottles of Sorachi Ace for the audience to join him in a toast to

“Beer is people”. I was luckily sat near the front and managed to partake in

the tasty saison toasting.

Siba Beer X

The Prairie saison was a birthday present from my other half and it made me

realise how well he knows me (which is a good thing). Prairie is two brothers

in Tulsa who want to brew “super good beer”. I like simple statements,

especially when the beer matches up to it. They raised over $23k to fund

their new oak barrel aged addition to the brewery on Kickstarter and I’m glad

they did. With Pirate Noir – an Imperial stout aged in Jamaican rum barrels

coming out of this, I look forward to more on the horizon.  

Best Collaboration Brew

Buxton & To Ol’s – Sky Mountain sour beer collaboration at 4.9% based

on the same malt and hop profile as their Samarbejds Ødelæggelse  IPA

collaboration. I would have liked to try both beers in this experiment but

glad I managed to try the sour at The Bow Bar in Edinburgh. A Berliner

Weisse with lots of ripe fruity flavours like rhubarb, apricot/peach; nice level

of sharp sourness not a full circus of it.

Best Overall Beer

Weird Beard’s Fade to Black 6.3% black IPA has to take the best overall for

me. Maybe it’s something to do with that mad multi-hop layers of Summit,

Citra and Sorachi Ace used in the brew? A toasted lemongrass and coconut

creamy dark brew in nature – kind of messes with your head. Thanks Weird

Beard.  

Best Branding, Pumpclip or Label

It’s a top 5 on this one:

·         Kelham Island Brewery- The Sheffield Snog. Pete McKee produced this design for his one day only ‘Joy of Sheffield’ exhibition this year. After travelling to the exhibition on a 1950s double decker bus then enjoying Pete’s artwork you could indulge in a pint and yes I did all of the above. 

·         Partizan Brewing – Alec Doherty’s artwork, colours, intricate designs and typography beautifully executed and exceptionally original.

·         Wild beer Co – Iconic logo & descriptive one liners screen printed direct on bottles.

·         Nomada Brewing – reminds me of Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas.

·         Mad Hatter Brewing Company – Alice in Wonderland inspired hand drawn designs.

Best UK Brewery

It’s been a real pleasure to watch Buxton Brewery develop and transform

over the last 12 months. It’s been a proper good year for those guys who’ve

produced consistently great beers, enacted a whole re-design on their

bottled range, taken part in interesting and exciting collaborations (To Ol,

Toccalmatto), barrel aged brews and produced the most drinkable sour beers

(Wolfscote – a black sour mild). It’s all come together in 2013 and ended

with their new venture – the Buxton Tap which opened in September.

Best Overseas Brewery

Dutch hitters Brouwerij De Molen; anyone who has a ‘Beerography’ contents

page on their website rockets to bestest best for me. Their simple low-key

black and white bottled labels hiding the mad professor like contents – only

hinted at by the name. One of the stand out drinks at Birmingham Beer Bash

in the summer was their Imperial Russian stout – Rasputin 10.7%. 

Best New Brewery Opening 2013

I got a little bit excited about Liverpool duo Mad Hatter Brewing Company

who began brewing back in February commercially. Within months they’d

outgrown their initial space and had to move. Their flavour and ingredient 

combinations were alluring with Black Truffle Tripel (8.7% made with Italian

black truffles), a panetonne inspired beer infused with saffron and Damson

Saison (6% made with plums from local allotments) and delivered on taste. 

Pub/Bar of the Year

The Hanging Bat, Edinburgh – it was my first time visiting the city in over 10

years and was a real eye opener. The Bat was the icing on the cake and I

ended up most of my nights on the European Beer Bloggers Conference here 

– good beer, huge range, nice space and good chat.

Three stags Heads, Derbyshire – greyhounds, taxidermy rabbits shooting

guns, stags’ skulls outside, local beer, open fires.

Best New Pub/Bar Opening 2013

Can’t really say a best of here. I liked the new Brewdog Shepherds Bush as

it actually felt comfortable, less in your face (than other BDs) and the use 

of a cinema style, lit up, beer board was a nice touch to share the large 

selection on offer. Ones I'm excited about but have had no free time to visit 

in 2013, so it’s on my 2014 list – Buxton Brewery Tap and both the Tap Co’s 

new outlets in Harrogate and Leeds.

Brewdog cinema listings...no wait beer

Beer Festival of the Year

For me it was a light bolt moment waiting to happen really. In a city the

size of Birmingham I couldn't quite believe an indie beer festival hadn't

already happened. 2013 saw a group of like-minded beer lovers pull together

and find a quirky characterful venue in the city centre (a feat unto itself!).

The Beer Bash situated in old Victorian canal buildings set around a 

courtyard was a joyous celebration of beer with lots of ace breweries 

getting involved and with an unpretentious vibe. David Shipman, one of the 

organisers, kindly let me interview him for my blog and he came across like

a really genuine beer obsessed geezer.  

Independent Retailer of the Year

Difficult to answer as I launched my own indie beer shop Hop Hideout 

in Sheffield in November of this year. So I haven’t been to many others!

I’m really excited about The Curious Hop and Clapton Craft beer shops too.

We all launched at very similar times in different areas of the UK but had a

real sense of affinity and we’ve been supporting each other along the way.

Also BeerMoth in Manchester – I find exciting in the range and events they

put on, which is just over the peaks.

http://www.hophideout.co.uk

Online Retailer of the Year

I always follow The Bottle Shop and Beer Ritz online entities (if I lived close
 I would pop in their shops too!) in terms of finding out about interesting
new beers. Both their websites are really informative and both
runs blog/newletters updates. However I don’t actually buy any beer online.
I like to go into a shop and peruse the bottles (yes I’m one of those!). The
only thing I buy online now-a-days are records.

Best Beer Book or Magazine

Leigh Linley’s Great Yorkshire Beer book; it’s in the title really. It highlights

how vibrant the Yorkshire beer scene is, as the stand-out takeaway and of

course the recipes are cracking. Leigh writes in a really engaging accessible

way about beer, breweries and food.

Tom Kerridge’s Proper Pub Food – a Michelin chef who runs a pub and

portrayed pub food in the light it deserves (UK pubs serve good food to

millions of people a year). His television series saw him cooking at a local

brewery with their ale and I enjoyed Tom’s affirmative ethos of the beer and

food marriage.  

Beer Blogs or Website I enjoy reading (regularly)

Chris Hall, a master beer-jabberer.

Leigh Linley, making cooking fun by reminding you to have a beer with it.  

Wee Beefy, keeping me amused by all things beer and pub related in

Sheffield.

Wild Beer Co., a brewery that like to share their beery stories.    

Rogue, awe inspiring and full of humour in equal measures.

John’s Beard, “I am the beard that rests on the face of @RogueAles

Brewmaster John Maier. Join me on my hairy adventures”. 

Best Beer App

Untapped – only app I've recently signed up to and use regularly. It helps 

the memory. I like to search on the similar beers lists and make wishlist of

American beers I might get to try in about 10 years’ time.

Simon Johnson Award for Best Beer Twitterer

Sheffield legend in his own backyard, the beer and pub botherer known as

Wee Beefy @WBeefy.

Best Brewery Website/Social media

Rogue for content, Rogue Nation, it’s newlsetters on ISSUU and the Beard

Blog by brewmaster John Maier: http://johnsbeard.com.

John & his beard

Food and Beer Pairing of the Year

A special mention goes to a number of indie music festivals that have put 

beer and food at the top of the priority list (with the music). Green Man in 

Wales has run a dedicated cask ale bar for a few years now (and I’ve had

the pleasure of working behind that bar in 2011 and 2012). However I 
missed the festival in 2013 to go to End of The Road in North Dorset 
instead. Food and beer pairing of handmade lamb and mint pie with mushy 

peas and gravy tasted fantastic with Welbeck Abbey’s golden ale 

Henrietta. EOTR have definitely upped the stakes on offering great beer and 
food for festival goers and its about time. So had to give them an  
honourable mention here.   

Beer and Music Pairing of the Year

Black IPAs and Black Sabbath. Weird beard’s Fade to Black and title track

Black Sabbath from their 1970 self-titled LP. I saw Sabbath play in Sheffield

in December which was a highlight of my year so seems right to match with

the best overall beer. Black IPAs fittingly go with Black Metal I reckon.

  

Just thought.....there's a lot of Scottish breweries and beers on this list. There's a proper  beer explosion going on up there and it's really showing. From Fyne to Tempest to Stewart to West and William Bros breweries  and great bars like The Bow and Hanging Bat.