Golden Pints 2011

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!