Real Ale Reviews

This week we have a friend coming to stay on our desert island. Welcome Leigh Linley!

Born and bred in Leeds, Leigh has been writing about beer and food on his blog, The Good Stuff, since 2005, which makes him one of the longest serving food and beer bloggers in Yorkshire. And he sure knows his stuff.

Leigh Linley of The Good Stuff

In conjunction with Dough Bistro (and soon also the famous Beer Ritz beer shop in Leeds) Leigh hosts beer and food evenings, as well as contributing to Leeds CAMRA’s Full Measure magazine and editing the ‘Tavern Tales’ section of Culture Vulture, which looks at pubs and pub Life rather than the beer in the glass.

Having witnessed Leigh once get on a train to Leeds only to realise it was actually a train to Sheffield, we can attest to the fact he’s a solid drinking companion (that’s what a Twissup session will do to a man!).

When not drinking and writing about beer and circumnavigating Yorkshire’s railways he writes fiction, watches Leeds United (through his fingers) and causes minor havoc on the streets of Leeds with his border terrier, Wilson.

The Beers

So Leigh, which five beers will you be taking with you?

1. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (U.S.A – 5.6%).
   “My gateway beer, as it happens. From this one American icon my obsession with beer – enough to make me want to do as much as I can to help the industry – was birthed. It still tastes so good today, although Torpedo takes some beating. For me, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale has the perfect balance of sweet and bitter, and it’s a taste that still hasn’t been replicated.”
2. Magic Rock Brewing Co. Human Cannonball (Huddersfield, U.K. – 9.2%)
   “For my stronger beer, Human Cannonball just fits the bill so perfectly at the moment. My current obsession, Human Cannonball hides the ABV so well amongst all that sweetness, but the bitter finish makes it so finely poised. Ruinously drinkable.”
3. Rooster’s Wild Mule (Knaresborough U.K. – 3.9%)
   “For a refreshing taste of home in the desert heat.”
4. Buxton Brewery Co. Black Rocks (Buxton U.K. – 5.5%)
   “One of the best – if not the best – Black IPA I’ve ever tasted. Wonderful stuff.”
5. Brooklyn Brewery Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout (U.S.A. – 10.0%)
   “Another beer that I think still has no serious rival. And it satisfies my sweet tooth.

And which beer (of those selected) do you regard most highly? Read the rest of this entry »

60% of questions on University Challenge are unanswerable to me. Another 30% are there for the taking – Copernicus, Darwin, Tchaikovsky, Keats, all familiar names worth an educated guess. I’m being ambitious if I was so bold to say I actually know the answer to 10% of questions. So imagine my delight when the answer to a starter question was ‘beer’.

The fact it didn’t occur to me that the art of brewing might be the answer only spurned me on to achieve a full house of correct bonus answers (identifying brewing kit no less!). And then, this week, beer pops up again.

“What consumer organisation was formed in 1971 after four friends holidayed to Ireland?”

Easy.

Four decades after the birth of CAMRA and the resurgence of real ale is not continuing but proliferating. Beer festivals suffer queues these days. Pubs might still be closing, but the good ones are thriving, adapting. Independent beer bars are expanding their portfolio, not reining it in. New breweries are popping up in cities where the art seemed dead. Real ale is helping. But brewers and drinkers are the driving force, and they are drinking great beer, not all of which meets CAMRA’s criteria for championing.

Beer is a product that’s developed over many centuries, from the inns of the early highways to the beer houses of the smog covered cities. It’s evolved from the syrup of malted barley, perfumed with hops, heather and hedgerow, and seen itself become darker, lighter, more hopped, less hopped, lagered, smoked, filtered and decocted.

Back in the early seventies craft beer was unheard of and kegged lager dominated an ailing pub landscape. That was before those unwitting friends came up with their famous idea to protect the cask beer they valued, a product threatened by the brewing conglomerates of the 1970s.

The 2010′s sit against a very different backdrop to the 1970′s that nurtured CAMRA: since then it’s become the UK’s largest single issue consumer group.

And there lies a potential issue with CAMRA’s issue. Central to the doctrine is just a single issue: real ale.

It’s an admirable issue indeed, alongside the other pillars of CAMRA: community pubs and consumer rights.

Is something missing though? Despite the fiscal fortunes of our over-loaned economies, beer might just be booming. 40 years on, does a single focus on real ale blinker beers most influential voice?

Guest beers at Saltaire Beer Festival

Lagers and bottled beer galore at GBBF 2010

SIBA and CAMRA beer awards

Belgium, where dispense matters less

Many pubs and breweries sell excellent beers with excellent food and not all conform to CAMRA’s philosophy. Should those pubs be excluded from the Good Beer Guide? Should amazing tasting kegged pilsner from Ipswich – a million miles from the smoothflows or wannabe continental lagers of 40 years ago - be excluded from beer festivals or articles in BEER magazine? Should the talent of these brewers never feature in What’s Brewing?

Now hold on, but CAMRA does allow these things. Yes, is it not sometimes with reticence that CAMRA embrace things that don’t conform to the real ale requirements? The world beer bars at The Great British Beer Festival are eclectic to say the least, and encouraged not hampered by CAMRA. Yet still obsolete debates continue over keg vs. cask, bottled conditioned beer and the taxonomy of what beer can be defined by which specific term.

Ultimately CAMRA is based on a few founding principles: good beer, good pubs and ensuring that the craft of brewing doesn’t end up being a footnote in our history. Galvanised by its successes and its membership, CAMRA has the power to lobby for beer drinkers, pub goers and all the people who work in the related trades, regardless of their favourite beer style.

Is now the right time for CAMRA to revisit the original motivations behind their campaign? On the cusp of another recession, should CAMRA revisit its core pillars and extend its welcome to the diversity of brewing in the 21st century?

Or should they stand firm and say, ‘We are for real ale!”

We’ve little doubt that CAMRA is a good thing, but it would perhaps be a shame if the Campaign For The Revitalisation of Ale (as they were first known) missed the opportunity to preserve its real ale mandate whilst improving its overall purpose by becoming the chief campaigner for good beer, good pubs and the highest of standards throughout. Agree?

It’s a drinking hole essentially, underneath it all. For all the domed skylights and stained glass, people come here to let off steam, to pass the time, to forget the day. To drink.

But to say that is to do York Tap a disservice as it stands resplendent next to the revived station complex. Like its Sheffield counterpart it was born in an old resting room, and the 104 year old building suits its new life as a pub, with big windows and plenty of seating space.

It’s the prettiest of the Taps, painted pink on the outside and showing off a bar cradled in curves. Large windows scatter light towards the central bar where you might expect the beer to be served on starched doilies in pristine hand painted china cups.

Attention gravitates towards the mahogany island in the centre of the bar, which is heavy with beer engines displaying an array of local and national cask ales, mostly renowned models from the most revered manufacturers. And though the bar is also heavy with the broad smiles of scooping punters the service doesn’t falter (not even when interrogates as to why they don’t serve John Smith’s Smooth).

Tonight the glistening keg fonts are the focus as Camden Town Brewery have taken over with their refreshing Helles lager, their broody Camden Ink stout, and Bleedin’ Hops, a black IPA that haemorrhages bitterness. Camden’s beers are excellent; particularly the staple wheat beer, noble and nubile in its tall narrow glass.

Locals test out guest beers; visitors inquire about the local beers. Tasting glasses pile up, halves and conics stack high. The night draws closer, the conversation brisker, louder, vivacious. In a place like this Rose de Gambrinus (spontaneously fermented sour beer from Brussels) is served in the same round as Great Heck’s latest mash in (a Yorkshire bitter brewed just down down the Selby Road). A limited edition beer from London is sampled alongside an old favourite from California. Tradition and progression sit side by side in this boozy chapel of rejuvenation.

Beers are shared, stories told, lives catch up with other lives. A night here is a journey and as the clock strikes somewhere just before midnight everyone heads for the train, lubricated for the last leg home.

Pretty in pink

Beautiful domed roof

York Tap as a tea room

York Tap's interior

Due to a broken camera lens (and possibly inebriation) our photos of the York Tap are useless, we borrowed some official ones. And Turnip Rail wrote about the Tap’s history as the railway station’s tea room. Thanks to both.

This weeks Desert Island Beers features the founder and owner of Maui Brewing Co, Garrett Marrero. Talk about brewing beer in paradise, for Garrett founded Maui Brewing in Lahaina, on the island of Maui, Hawaii in 2005.

When asked how he got started and why Maui, he says it was pretty simple — he loved good beer, was an investment consultant in California and came to Maui on a vacation and fell in love with the spirit of the island. From there it was simply figuring out how to be there. Being that there was nothing like Maui Brewing Co. in the state, he saw an opportunity.

Garrett Marrero Maui Brewing Hawaii

Garrett says there are clearly challenges to brewing in such a remote location, principally shipping; with fuel and utility costs constantly on the rise and insurance, labour, and taxes all substantially higher in Hawaii than anywhere else in the U.S.A. (other than possibly Alaska!!)

Garrett also chose cans instead of bottles. He says this was for several reasons principally he believes the can is a better vessel to protect beer! He says it’s not that canned beer is automatically better—the bottle, can, or keg, are merely vessels to transport the beverage, but that a poorly brewed beer is not going to get better by being in any one of those packages; but a can will protect high-quality beers better than a bottle. Also he is able to source cans locally as there is a can making plant on Maui and as big supporters of buying local and supporting local labour this was also an important factor.

The Beers

So Garrett, which five beers will you be taking with you?

1. Maui Brewing Co. Mana Wheat (Hawaii, U.S.A. – 5.5%)
   “I know I know…its one of mine, but it’s a great go-to beer for anytime of the day. The addition of Maui Gold Pineapple adds just a hint of fruit flavor and killer aroma. A beer for anytime of the day, especially in the heat!”
2. Brouwerij Girardin Gueuze Girardin 1882 (Belgium – 5.0%)
   “The first beer I had in Belgium and it has always stuck with me. Takes me back to Ghent and a meal of local salami, mustard, and cheese. Fond memories.”
3. Port Brewing Co. Pizza Port (Ocean Beach) Foam Ball (San Diego, U.S.A – N/A)
   “This is a lesser known beer, not packaged so maybe my island has growlers, but its brewed by Yiga at Ocean Beach Pizza Port, an English style Pale, very well-balanced and clean. The Port guys are good friends so again, good memories. I figure being stuck on an island you’d need memories to hang on to.”
4. Gasthaus & Gosebrauerei Bayerischer Bahnhof Leipziger Gose (Germany 4.6%)
   “Crazy beer, low alcohol, tart, slightly salty, coriander, refreshing and complex at the same time. Very unique and offers quite a bit of flavor to hold you over.”
5. Pabst Brewing Company Pabst Blu Ribbon (Illinois, U.S.A. – 4.7%)
   “Tall boys, sorry, I know you said beer, but I’m assuming the water might not be good to drink and PBR is probably the next best thing to stay hydrated, sometimes you just need water with a bit of alcohol. IF I was going to drink a domestic lager, this would likely be it.”

All hail the canned ale!

And which beer (of those selected) do you regard most highly? Read the rest of this entry »

Home at 11.30 on a school night, sniffing my coat. It’s been a good few months since I last let a cigarette pass my lips.

Tonight’s a school night, a strange night to jump off the nicotine wagon, but conversation was deep and my companion had Marlborough Reds.

There’s nothing beneficial about smoking, not one bit. Perhaps a temporary relief of stress, or a short-term substitute for another vice, but ultimately each cigarette is a minor health hazard.

Booze is different, especially beer.

Tonight both feel good, regardless of the facts. Each over-zealous drag is a rebellion against the toils of everyday, against the norm and all its nagging restrictions. Each gulp is two fingers to the meetings in the diary and the moaners moaning about their moronic new year resolutions.

We don’t let fiscal concerns or our Tuesday morning alarms constrain our smoking or our week night drinking. We have plenty to discuss: from the finer arts of Thierry Henry’s cool finishing to the inner torments of cyclical depression. We touch on the genetic susceptibility to alcohol abuse as I bring back alcohol heavy American IPAs from the bar.

Putting the world to rights demands concentration, at least two cigarettes (or was it three?), a robust beer and somewhere warm to sit.

And then, just as we get onto the interesting stuff (who was fit from school, or uni or long forgotten workplaces) the science hits me. The protracted but relaxing inhale becomes a forceful, lingering exhale as my mind beats the spell. Each puff turns from a moments escapism to a contrived act of fakery. “Don’t let a gasp of that cancer smoke remain in your mouth” my mind tells me.

“Fuck off brain” says the drink in me; says the petulant child wanting to stay up past his bedtime on a Monday, wishing he could afford to miss the last train.

Luckily beer is synced with the angels, and with a dry glass and just over ten minutes spare, reason wins over. Soles of boot hits stone floor (thump, twist!) and another nicotine grave stains the floor of the heated beer garden.

Now where’s that train ticket?

Quite frankly, the White Horse was a terrible pub.

Nothing made going there enjoyable. Defeat hung in the air, fighting for headroom amongst depression and drink problems. The lights and jingles from the slots an unnerving theme tune to a nicotine stained prison.

Unfair perhaps, as I only ventured there a handful of times in the four years it competed to be my local. The Commercial that overlooks the same t-junction was a lively, friendlier place to spend time. (It was easy to choose Carling and karaoke at The Commerical over empirical research into a less salubrious side of pub going at The White Horse. And a cheerful bar manager helped too). Not that karaoke would have helped The White Horse survive.

Now the wooden boards are down from the windows, light once more hits the columns that used to block the view of the bar. It’s a Friday night and The White Horse is heaving again.

The mucky sign still hangs over the door, but it no longer lead to sticky carpets and dingy rooms. Instead the building is refreshed as a family run Italian restaurant, bustling with chatter and brimming with customers.

White walls are banded with travertine tiles, not a yellow stain in sight. Decaying lounge furniture is long gone in place of treated wooden tables and chairs with intricate iron cast finishing. Immaculate floors, a wood burning stove, walls covered in frames of family snaps, all the family, and it’s a big family, celebrating their communal efforts. The kitchen, somewhat oddly, looks out onto the street, as pizza bases fly in the air and vegetables disappear under the knife.

But it’s the noise and smell that have changed the most. The vibrancy of cooking rushes through what was a dank and musty chamber. The clatter, clash and splash of pans; a symphony of oil, ingredients, spice and chefs gesticulations; even the lick of a flame, silent but somehow resonating aurally – wispy and crackling against metal.

And cook these guys can. Chorizo – with those fatty bits that perturb me and my mediocre flash frying skills – is no trouble for the chefs at Kasa Rosa, and served with garden peas and shallots the salty meat lifts penne pasta and a tomato sauce from something you could attempt at home to something there’s no point trying.

What more could you want from a local restaurant?

And what more could you want from a broken and finished pub building, long since a lost cause to the local community?

A better pub in its place perhaps? Of course, but on this occasion I, along with many other local people, am counting my blessings.

Meet Søren Eriksen, a nomadic Dane who, like most red-blooded Kiwi’s loves playing poker with the boys and making home-brewed beer. The only difference is that Søren indulges both passions with the scale and skill most can only dream about: Søren is a two-time New Zealand poker champ (2009/10) and founder and head-brewer of critically-acclaimed craft label, 8 Wired Brewing Co.

8 Wired was recently announced at The Brewers Guild of New Zealand Awards as Champion Brewery for 2011. 8 Wired contract brew at Renaissance Brewing in Blenheim: contract brewed in the sense that 8 Wired does not own its own equipment but rent Renaissance Brewing’s. The beer is brewed by Søren, whose day job is a brewer for Renaissance.

For all non-Kiwi’s, No 8 Wire is a specific gauge of wire originally used for electric fencing. In New Zealand it’s use though is widespread, Kiwi’s having used it to fix just about anything. Over the years it has become a symbol of Kiwi ingenuity so Søren chose the name because he thought it fitted his company pretty well.

Soren Eriksen 8 Wired Brewing. Photo by Jed Sloane.

Søren has always been a big traveller and says he was always interested in the local beer, in which sense he was always a beer geek, but nonetheless by his own admission all he did was seek out the same style of bland lager with a different label. That began to change in 2005 when living with his now wife, Monique, in Perth, where he was finishing a master’s degree in biochemistry. They were frequent visitors to the Little Creatures brew pub in Fremantle when Søren started to realise there was a lot more to beer than the usual fizzy yellow stuff.

For Christmas that year, Monique bought him a Cooper’s homebrew kit: basically a plastic bucket, a can of malt extract and some yeast. He was hooked. After moving to New Zealand in 2006 he became more serious and got in to all-grain home brewing. However it wasn’t until 2008 his thoughts really took shape as along with Monique he did a road-trip through the USA and stopped by every brewpub they passed and that’s when he decided he wanted to give professional brewing a go.

In September 2008 he quit biochemistry – he was researching Kina (sea urchins) at the University of Auckland. The initial plan was to open a brewpub on the upper North Island and to get commercial experience they moved to Blenheim where Søren had landed a job with Renaissance Brewing Co. The plan was to stay for three months but years later they are still in Marlborough.

The Beers

So Søren what five beers will you be taking with you?

1. Russian River Brewing Co. Pliny the Elder (U.S.A – 8.0%)
   “The best IPA ever made and I love hops!”
2. Russian River Brewing Co. Consecration (U.S.A – 10.0%)
   “The best sour beer ever made and I love sour beers!”
3. 8 Wired Brewing Co. Batch 18 Barrel Aged Imperial Stout (New Zealand – 12.5%)
   “The best Imperial Stout I have ever tasted, if I may be so modest.”
4. Ardbeg Distillery Single Islay Malt Scotch Whisky -10 year old (Scotland – 46%)
   “Whisky is distilled beer right? This is my favorite of the mainstream malts and on my regular duty free shopping list.”
5. ???????????
   “After all that I’m gonna need something quaff-able. Maybe an Epic Pale Ale, Little Creatures Pale Ale or an Emersons Pils.”

And which beer (of those selected) do you regard most highly?

“Russian River Consecration. This is the most difficult beer to make of the selected and it is just perfect. It pushes the boundaries right to the edge but maintains perfect balance. A work of art and truly inspirational.”

Pliny the Elder Russian River

Russian River Consecration

Ardberg limited edition - Soren's Xmas Pressie!

8 Wired Barrel Aged Imperial Stout

The Meal

You can also take one meal to go with your beers, what would it be?

“I reckon I can catch my own fish on the island (which I would eat marinated raw, Pacific Island style) so I’d bring something a bit more sturdy: A great burger perhaps. Awesome but unpretentious.”

The Books

You might be waiting a long time on your lonesome on the desert island, so we will automatically allow you a few books to keep your mind busy. You can pick between two beer books and two tomes: ‘The Brewmaster’s Table: Discovering the Pleasures of Real Beer with Real Food’ by Garrett Oliver, or ‘Beer’ by Michael Jackson; plus The Bible, or another appropriate religious or philosophical work

“Brewmasters Table. One of the best beer books I have ever read. Food and beer. Two of my favorite subjects. And The Bible. I’ve never read the real thing, the most published book of all times. I have to see what the fuss is all about.”

And a non-beery book?

“I used to read a lot but haven’t had time or interest lately. I like to read books that are entertaining but also have some grounds in reality and teach the reader something about life, science or history. A book by Dan Brown or Khaled Hosseini perhaps.”

The record

You have a CD/mp3/long player but you can only take one album. Choose wisely!

“Only one? Pink Floyd The Wall. Hours of listening pleasure that also have a story to tell.”

The Luxury Item

And finally, what luxury item would help make your stay on the island bearable?

“Apart from beer and food? Season 6 of Seinfeld. Best season of the best TV show ever made without contest.”

Thanks to Søren for stopping by our desert island (and for the pics from his interesting twitter feed!), we know he is busy!
Borrowing kit from Renaissance can’t always meet demand for 8 Wired’s beer so recently the most popular brew, HopWired, has been outsourced to Steam Brewing Company Brewing Co. 8 Wired currently export to the United States, Australia, Denmark and the UK (where the aforementioned Batch 18 Barrel Aged Imperial Stout is available).

This article syndicated with All Gates Brewery blog as part of our ‘Desert Island Beers’ collaboration.

…my true love gave to me a delicious homemade lasagne. It really was absolutely scrumptious, but not particularly in-keeping with the season.

So to accompany this feast and herald a climax to the Yuletide festivities, I brought a centuries old recipe back to life in the form of wassail.

This winter warmer is a heady concoction of dark ale and spices fortified with a splash of something a little stronger. It’s a bit like mulled wine for real men.

Various versions of this traditional English beverage are described, many based on cider, some on wine, others on ale. Many recipes involve mixing raw eggs with hot beer rendering a rather bizarre form of eggnog, but I fancied something a little more palatable.

Thankfully – and somewhat miraculously – I still had a third of a barrel of home-brewed stout left over from Christmas. The perfect base for my wassail was at hand!

Wassail and toast

Read the rest of this entry »

This weeks Desert Island Beers features the owner and founder of The Lagunitas Brewing Company, Tony Magee.

I asked Tony for a brief bio. and this was it!

For a bio I can only tell you a few things with any certainty…
1. I was born at a very early age…
2. I live in Point Reyes Station, CA, USA…
3. I started Lagunitas Brewing on my kitchen stove in 1993….
Anything that I might write down beyond this would be pure conjecture….

Chairs to you and yours!

Tony Magee
Sea Eeefukin Owe
Lagunitas Brewing
Petaluma, Lyydikandiiic, and the World

Anyway after some research I can tell you that Tony did indeed found Lagunitas in 1993 in Forest Knolls, California and moved it a year later to nearby Petaluma, when they quickly outgrew their original West Marin premises.

Tony Magee, Lagunitas Brewing

Lagunitas are best known for iconoclastic interpretations of traditional beer styles, and irreverent descriptive text and stories on their packaging. Their flagship, IPA, is consistently the best-selling IPA in the state of California and Lagunitas is one of the fastest-growing craft breweries in the United States, increasing production from 27,000 barrels in 2004 to 106,000 barrels in 2010 when they were the second fasting growing brewery in the country, behind Dogfish Head. The brewery announced a $9.5 million expansion in 2011 which will increase brewing capacity to 600,000 barrels. Read the rest of this entry »

We saw the New Year in with Asti, barley wine and a drop of whisky. And cheese. And board games.

And in suitably reflective mood this morning, here’s a little celebration of the year we’ve just waved adieu too.

These are a small bunch of highlights of a 2011 that was action packed, even though it meant blogging was harder than ever. Rather than awards, these are people and places we’d like to buy a drink for, for enhancing beer during 2011.

(For more Golden Pint Awards, search Google…)

Best Draught Beer:

The selection of imperial stouts at the Dial Arch near Woolwich Docks for the launch of the Baltic Adventure was one of the best draught beer experiences: 15 dark, strong baltic porters, cask conditioned and ready for their journey. We didn’t make notes but just dived in, so which ones we enjoyed is lost to memory, but the sensory experience was a real treat. In a similar vein, visiting 57 Thomas St in Manchester, where Lagonda IPA (amongst others)  sat in casks on the bar. But the most poignant draught beer this year occurred as  I sat with a friend drinking a perfectly conditioned pint of Tetley Bitter just days after the doors to the great brewery in Leeds shut. Brewed in the Midlands for a few years now, it pained to drink such well balanced bitter, hints of fruit merged seamlessly with ‘you will have another sip’ bitterness. Simple, wonderful – but mostly ironic.

Best Bottled Beer:

In the depths of the Fullers Brewery in Chiswick, Past Masters Reserve straight from the cellar will never be forgotten. From the shops, both Williams Caesar Augustus and Williams Good Times were perfect post-work refreshers.  But the my favourite bottled beer? BabyFaced Assassin by Tom Fozard. Because it was brewed at home, yet it would easily be in my top ten beers drunk in 2011. I drank it thinking of the members of Gomez inadvertently creating a Mercury Prize winning album in their garage. “Bubble Gum Beers” wouldn’t quite do Tom’s efforts justice.

The famous Fullers Wisteria

Best overseas draught beer:

Jever  is always brilliant on draught,  but didn’t quite alter my perceptions in the way that unfiltered Pilsner Urquell opened my mind to how simple beer beer can be yet deliver such pleasure.  Both are however are pipped to the post by De Garre Tripel, the house beer of the eponymous beer bar in Bruges. It’s a beer almost life affirming in its magical properties: light, warming, strong as hell but mystifyingly drinkable.

Best overseas bottled beer:

Rugbord Rye Ale was a splendid big brown beer to see us through the autumn months, De La Senne’s Taras Boulba helped make a hot day in Brussels just a little more hazy and a little more tasty. If I had to pick one though is would be Zona Cesarini – passionfruit positively bursts from the neck, as does the beer if care isn’t taken when opening. Italian brewing, naybrewing, at its best.

Best overall beer:

Ouch. Really? Ok hows this: “Beer I’ve come back to most often in 2011′. That would be Fullers Bengal Lancer.

Fullers Bengal Lancer

Best pump clip:

It could have been a tie between Magic Rock (fresh beautifully woven design) and Brasserie de la Senne (with all their hidden meanings) but nothing compares to Uinta’s bottle designs for their Crooked Line range. The Double IPA and Porter are two of the most exciting beers I’ve seen and drunk in 2011, and a bottle of porter is ageing day by day in my beer cupboard. Thanks to @GhostDrinker for the pics

Uinta Crooked Line Double IPA

Best UK brewery:

Wow, so many to choose from and so many not sampled. For consistency of beer quality, and given the size of the operation, Kernel.

Best overseas brewery:

So many to choose form, so many ne’er drunk from. If the award is based on tours, De Halve Maan in Bruges wins this year. Based on beer, Mikkeller, for consisting breaking boundaries (though of course that also means breaking wallets).

Pub/bar of the year:

We found wonder at Worship St Whistling Shop, and we found country dining of the highest quality at the Hare & Hounds in the Lakes. Craft in London is  now my favourite place to drink beer in the capital (in the evening). And special thanks, for continuing to be a home from home, to North Bar in Leeds (and for looking after lost notebooks and science books (and Foley’s for hosting great events and helping me cancel lost bank cards!))

But the pub that was most fun to be in this year? That’s the Faltering Fullback in Finsbury Park. It’s an eden of laughter and merriment, even if there’s just the one handpump (London Pride, naturally). A garden of gaiety, three rooms of rowdy celebration, and beautiful barmaids. We’ll wish you never told you about it.

Best festival:

Belgian Beer Weekend in Brussels. Helped hugely by the inexplicably good weather and the beer blessing ceremony beforehand.

Belgian Beer Weekend

Supermarket of Year:

All the major supermarkets have a good beer range. Let’s face it, they do. Beers from around the UK, tick. Beers from the continent, tick. Beers from North America, tick. For the ambitiious there’s Hardcore IPA, Flying Dog. For the traditionalists there’s Shepherd Neame. For bravado there’s Meantime IPA, for the conservative drinker there’s Black Sheep. For the collector there’s Fullers Vintage. Things aren’t so bad, are they?

But… though from a consumer perspective things are interesting, the supermarkets aren’t all good for beer. So no award, but plenty of food for thought.

Independent Retailer of The Year:

The only one I’ve used for beer this year is Beer Ritz, who I may as well set up a monthly direct debit with. But for the personable service, independent advice and reasonable prices, my glass is raised to Morley Home Brew Shop.

meat and beer

Best Beer Book or magazine:

I’ve not read any of the new beer books this year, but if you fancy a damn good page turner, Deborah Cadbury’s Seven Wonders of The Industrial World is a joy to learn from. And for honourable beer and football mentions, Paxman’s The English.

Best Beer Blog or Website:

Because it’s a personal outlet, because here this person writes for themselves alone,  for the ebbs and flows and brilliant use of punctuation, it can only be Called to the Bar. Honourable mentions to Pints & Panels for the illustrations, Three Sheets for the beery instagrams, BeerLens for the amazing pics, and Beer & Life Matching for a concept that rarely tires.

Best Beer Twitter:

No one beats  Simon H Johnson’s scoops for satire and slapstick.

Best Online Brewery Presence:

Black Isle Boy and Summer Wine chaps for tweeting. Website? Hmm, room for improvement required methinks. Why not Marble  for bucking the trend with their entirely “post-modern-broadband” web experience.

Marble Beers

Beer and Food pairing of the year:

Meat and beer at Meat & Liqueur wins out as the best gastronomic pairing of the year, even though the specific beer was largely irrelevant compared to

the beer style (it was Meantime Lager and Old Scratch, which were fine partners to the juice of the burgers). Also sublime was Alice Porter with passionfruit cheesecake at the BGBW dinner, and at home, jerk chicken and ginger beer.

In 2012 I’d most like to:

Well I never get round to doing these things, but I hope things are different this time around! So, in 2012 I pledge to actually write about things in a timely manner (our trips to Bruges (April), Brussels (September), Bratislava (November), Lakes (October), London (May, December) are merely notes in a notebook!). And as always here’s to visiting more pubs, more places and more people. Oh and practising brewing so I can brew a beer for my wedding in 2013!

The made up award:

“Most frustrating moment when I couldn’t have a beer in 2011”

After soon-to-be-Mrs Monkey said ‘Yes’ to my marriage proposal. And then I had to drive us back to the hotel, only 45 minutes away. It was a happy drive, but sweet Cambrinus (or is it Gambrinus?!) did I need a beer!

There are so many other people doing great things for beer, apologies that there isn’t space or time to mention you. For all those who we’ve shared beer with in 2011, whether it was over football, on a visit to London, in Belgium, in Slovakia, in breweries, at festivals, thank you and cheers. Beer, ale, whatever, all the best for 2012!