Golden Pints 2015

Best Cask

One of my favourite places to drink this year has been the new Moor tap room. It was here I probably drank most of my cask offerings (not bad considering I'm not often in Bristol!) and it was here I had my favourite cask beer of the year. B-Moor is punny continuation of their porter Amoor with the distinctive blueberry, jammy notes from mosaic. Delicious and spot on carbonation. Sloe walker on cask also very interesting.

Best Keg

Although I try not to list limited beers as winners (how cn others try them if so?) I need to make an exception for Beavertown/Prairie Barrel Aged 'Spresso. On draught at ABV and like drinking a tiramisu, especially with added ice-cream float!

Best Bottle/Can

Hands-down the highest rated new beer this year was Cloudwater DIPA. After a somewhat shaky start they really nailed their beers with the DIPA being the pinnacle, clean malt bill, fresh and juicy hops and barely a hint of its 9% ABV. A recent revisit has confirmed its holding up well. Cloudwater don't intend to rebrew any of their beers, but am hoping they make an exception for this.

Others worth of mention are Brewdog Born to Die & Beavertown Power of The Voodoo, both of which I hope will continue as occasional brews.

Best Collab

I've had a few this year, these by their very nature are usually one offs. I have enjoyed the dinner for.. range from Elusive/Siren and the aforementioned 'Spresso but my favourite has to be Marble Howgate and Kemp. Fantastic news that JK will be commencing as head brewer there from next year.

Best Overall

There can only be one winner here, excellent on both keg and bottle, with the November batch being particularly superlative. I make no apologies that my favourite UK beer is still Buxton Axe Edge.

Best Brewery

Logic follows that the brewer of my favourite beer would be a shoo in for brewer of the year and indeed Buxton has released a continued range of interesting beers this year (though a few I've not been mad keen on). I'm going to jointly award the crown to Beavertown however as I've not had a bad beer from them this year, and gamma ray/neck oil in cans has been a welcome hoppy reprieve on numerous occasions! Honourable mention to Brew By Numbers for producing excellent beers across all manner of styles (though was't as keen on their BA iterations of Gyle 100 unfortunately...).

Best Oveseas Draught

There's a beer I drank four times in three days, each time bringing delight to my mouth. Gorgeous in colour, tart with a heap of raspberries - Girardin Kriekenlambic was that beer. Highly recommended and cheers to Ian for the recommendation of where to find it!(see below). Was also v impressed by Pohjalla on draught at Indyman - ones to watch!

Best Overseas Bottle/ Can

My favourite bottle this year was a 2011 vintage of Goose Island Bourbon County Vanilla Stout, but since that's not available any more my winner is instead Ballast Point Dorado. I don't care who owns it, the beer is excellent and I hope it remains so. I'm just disappointed it may be harderto track their stuff down in the UK for a while now Brewdog have ceased importing them. Mikkeller's Nelson Sauvignon also really impressed though value-wise its lower in the ranking.

Best Overseas Brewery

I ummed and ahhed about this, there are a few contenders such as Stone  and Boon  but in terms of consistency across a wide range and drinkability this year's award goes to De La Senne. I was also impressed by the few I tried from Amager; if I'd had a few more they'd certainly be in contention.

Best Overseas Bar

To drink my girardin kriekenlambic four times I visited the same bar; belle epoque wall tat, grafittied terrace, various seating areas, free nibbles and a well chosen beer list this award goes to Fleur En Papier Doree. I'll definitely be back.

Best Brewery Opening

This ones a little harder my Ireland winner Boundary is definitely a contender as is Manchester buzz-generator Cloudwater but I'm actually giving the crown this year to Left Handed Giant who have gone from strength to strength with a decent core range and some excellent specials. Glad they're now bottling too; will certainly be drinking some this Christmas!

Best pub/Bar

Alongside the Moor brewing tap room, the places I've visited most this year are Small Bar the Famous Royal Navy Volunteer. Both have a fantastic range of beer, TFRNV has great food, Small Bar has comfy chairs and a bookshelf. Joint award to these two this year! Bag O'Nails continues to hold a special place in my heart replete with cantankerous landlord & many cats.

Best New pub/bar

I enjoy the Moor Brewery Tap but was also really impressed with attention to detail at St Andrews Brewing Co Tap, great guest beers, a fab range of spirits and plenty of care taken on garnishes. Plus good value and filling grub and a bottle fridge rammed full.

Best Food and Beer

More best food with tasty beer alongside this year it has to go to Chomp for fantastic burgers and beer from Wiper & True.

Best Festival

I didn't make it to as many festivals as I would have liked this year but I did finally make it to IMBC which was enjoyable if hectic and too short. However its the Belfast based festival inspired by it that I most enjoyed (working as bar manager for all 3 sessions). Congrats to Matt, Darren, Felicia and Michael the team behind ABV, best festival in the UK, fab venue, excellent food choices, interesting tastings and fantastic beer range, heres to 2016!

Best Branding

As always there are a number of contenders, but for putting the "can" in canvas the award has to go to Beavertown, great work Nick! I particularly liked the shiny stickers on the Phantoms and Bone King which now adorn my chromebook. I also love the bespoke paintings inspired by Boundary's beers; so they're my runner up!

Best Book/ Magazine

We've really gotten to a great time for Drinks coverage in print media with Hot Rum Cow, Hops and Barley, Ferment and Beer to name but a few but I think my favourite is informative & enthusiastic whilst remaining current - Original Gravity.

Online retailer

I've used fewer retailers this year, but the one that continues to impress is Eebria... after all - anyone who can facilitate getting my favourite beer delivered to my door within a few days must be on to a good thing.

Independent Retailer

I was really impressed by the depth and breadth of beers in Manchetser's Beer Moth but as I didn't buy any I can't really nominate them! (will have to take a suitcsase to Indyman next year!) One new opening I did really like was the tiny Brew off St Nicholas Market in Bristol, select but interesting range, lots of local stuff, decent tunes and a home-brew corner.

Best Blogger(s)

I've not added many blogs to my roll this year, with a number of old favourites falling by the wayside. Boak & Bailey still continue to churn out a variety of interesting stuff but this year the award goes to the (old)newcomer- Stonch (or more specifically the collective voice behind the blog). I enjoy the travelogues, enjoyment of beer, cantankerousness, digging, weekly round-ups and everything in between. The comments are usually well attended and often spark a slew of spin-off posts. There have been rumours of winding down again - please don't.

Simon Johnson Award

Always bang on with the wry humour and dubious puns and featuring on my blog a few times this year this has to go to Twatty Beer Doodles.

Can you dig it?

Logan Plant of Beavertown proud
with his newly canned Gamma Ray

Canned beers have long been associated with mass-market, "stack-em high, sell 'em cheap" beers and often have connotations of low quality, metallic tasting beverages for cheap home drinking only. Yet 2014 saw the installation of canning lines at some of the UK's foremost craft brewers (Camden Town, Fourpure and Beavertown) with Roosters online in 2015 and Magic Rock Following hot on their heels with a line ordered for the new brewery. Brewdog are also moving their canning in house. So what's changed people's perceptions?

Craft beer in America has seen the can treatment for more than decade, with Oskar Blues leading the charge in 2002 and many other breweries following suit in the years since. The confusingly named Cask Brewing Systems (the supplier of most of the new UK systems) started off supplying brew kits to customers in Canada. They saw an opportunity to help brewers in the US differentiate themselves from competitors in the oversupply crisis of the late 90s and came up with the canning solution:
"These brewers were looking for creative and economical ways to increase sales“and we’ve always prided ourselves in finding solutions for our customers.  We knew that consumers were ready for cans if someone would just provide that option. So our solution for struggling brewers was to help them utilize the aluminum[sic ;)] can.” Peter Love, Founder

Cask have been there since the beginning and have done a lot of the ground work (along with the brave breweries who took the canning plunge!) debunking the canning myths and much hostility from established brewers who offered only bottled product. In the first year, Oskar Blues' (later at cask) employee in charge of can promotion (Marty Jones) even received a letter stating “I look forward to the day your company fails for attempting such a ridiculous idea.” charming!

Once these myths were put to bed however; any rational person could see that canned beer had numerous advantages over bottled beer and often preferable to draught dispense methods.The obvious one is that obviously cans are lighter than bottles; so not only easier to lug around once you've bought them, but cheaper to transport from brewery to stores. This also makes them more environmentally friendly and the life-cycle of aluminium from ground through smelting to finished product and numerous recyclings is less carbon intensive than glass manufacture.

Once you've got the can's home its easier to get them in the fridge and they cool more quickly. Its easier to drink them surreptitiously and you can take them to places where glass is banned (sports events and festivals).

In addition to this the beer actually tastes better, well all know about light strike, the process by which UV light reacts with hop compounds in bottled beers to produce a "skunky" aroma and taste. Yes, brown bottles slow down the process but canned beers eliminate this completely. Another less well appreciated issue is oxygen pick-up in the packaging process, often lead to a stale or papery tasting beer. Oxygen can also get in through bottle-caps but again cans are impervious. Modern canning lines can limit oxygen pickup to as little as 15-20ppb (that's parts per billion!). (For comparison purposes Brewdog's dissolved oxygen with all of their fancy kit is usually in the range 25-40ppb)*

Aesthetically cans look better too; giving the brewers more space to play with for eye catching visuals and they stack well creating a pleasing display in shops.

But I didn't start the post to expound the benefits of canning, I'm sure most of you know them already. No, today's post is to bring you news that the first Irish canning line has now been installed and will soon be producing beer with all of the above benefits for us to buy in the shops! From their inauspicious start Cask have gone on to work with hundreds of breweries and canned beer sales have grown in the US by >80% in the past year (whilst bottle sales grew by a mere 16%); no wonder the Irish breweries want a piece of the action!

"So who is it?!" I hear you cry; well those who have been paying attention to the Twitter sphere will already know but those of you who haven't the brewery is Metalman. As first adopters they'll have their work cut out but there are plenty of decent off-licences in the country that will stock them. Indeed the last few months of 2014 saw the arrival of some of the aforementioned UK brewers' products for sale over here. Look out for Camden Town IHL, Beavertown Gamma Ray and Fourpure Pils for three must-stock Fridge Beers

Cans being printed

 The fact that they produce decent beer (and unavailable until now in takeaway packaging) will of course see them through without any teething problems. As I type this Gráinne, Tim and the team are seeing their can designs produced in Wakefield ready to fill in to at the end of the month.

For those of the more geeky inclination, the ACS model Metalman have chosen can can 30 cans per minute. That's 1800 an hour, or the best part of 5000litres in an 8 hour day; so there should be plenty to go around if they already stretched brewery capacity can keep up! Until recently Metalman brewed on the rescued kit of one of the early microbrewing pioneers in Ireland, Biddy Early, who unfortunately were ahead of their time. This investment should help Metalman to remain a fixture in the Irish beer scene for a long time yet. Their machine also has a small footprint meaning its not eating into space required for an expanding battalion of fermenters!

(L2R:Dave Fitzgerald, Grainne Walsh, Wayne Jacques,
Tim Barber, Adam Doyle, Jacqui Kelleher.)

The first beers will be shipped on February 1st,  I for one am looking forward to buying a case!

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*In itself a massive improvement on their 100ppb plus dissolved oxygen content at their previous brew house.

Ones to Watch 2015

From Commence

So how did my predictions made at the start of the year fare?

Partizan is now well established on the Bermondsey mile and continues to pump out beers apace including some more interesting variants. Pressure Drop too continue to produce solid beers, but seem to have been less visible this year. One brewery that has been growing is Brew By Numbers, who (with the support of Brewdog) have increased their capacity, begun releasing barrel aged beers and featuring in many people's Golden Pints this year.

Wiper and True have continued to impress and are beginning to be seen out and about but are still relatively small. Tiny Rebel and Celt between them are now the best regarded brewers in Wales, with Celt continuing to produce plenty of interesting collaborations.

Top Out are another brewery who are continuing solidly but (aside from featuring in a Beers 52 selection box) have been fairly quiet. The Hanging Bat certainly seem to be producing some beers, with a slew of collaborations appearing but no facilities built as far as I'm aware!

Kinsale and Brown Paper Bag both continued to excel this year and I look forward to more from them. Farmageddon make interesting beers but some have been affected at the packaging stage. The Gold on cask at Belfast Beer Festival was excellent however. Red Hand has been fairly quiet, struggling on with their pilot kit and hopefully scaling up over the next year or so.

So that's the review of 2014 predictions (a mixed bag perhaps?) "What are your tips for 2015?!" (aside from Golden Pints) I hear you ask, well read on dear readers!

If you've been paying attention you'll know I expect big things from Boundary (I am now a part-owner after all!) with plenty of collaborations and specials already on the cards. I'm also looking forward to Belfast Brewing, helmed by the North's only Brewster,Alex (Hilden excepted, which Ann has been Brewstering at since the start, though I think Owen now does most of the day to day brewing!) Alex's beers impressed in the samples I picked up earlier this year; so look forward to seeing how they pan out when made on a bigger scale!

Moving south of the border Chris at Galway Bay has had a fantastic 2014 so expect 2015 to be the year they finally break out of Ireland and perhaps set up a bar in Belfast (please?!) and have some spare beer to send to thirsty beer drinkers across the water (either direction!). Metalman have just installed a canning line (the first in Ireland!) so looking forward to trying their excellent pale in this format. (previously only available on draught).

 See also my Irish Golden Pints, Brews to watch out for and summary of 2014 brewery openings. 

Moving across to the mainland Burning Sky is another brewery that has had an excellent year (sneaking into my top five at the last minute with the tasty saison l'Ete). Mark formerly brewed at Dark Star and was recognised by the British Guild of Beer Writers this year; so grab the beer when you get a chance! I'm yet to find one I've not enjoyed.

Northern Alchemy really impressed on a recent trip to Newcastle, bringing interesting ingredient additions to conventional styles, the beers are solid and interesting, good stuff! Look out for their chocolate and mint saison plus their excellent hopped pilsner.

Elusive brewing should hopefully hit its stride in 2015. Helmed by Andy Parker (@tabamatu) (winner of 2014 Craft Beer Co home brew competition) you can expect lots of hop forward pales, Belgian ales and experimental weirdness if his previous releases and home brew blogs are anything to go by!

Aside from those above pretty much anything from Buxton, Siren, Wild Beer Co, Beavertown, Partizan, Brew By Numbers, Marble, Hawkshead, Magic Rock, Tiny Rebel, Wiper & True, Redchurch, Pressure Drop & The Kernel will see you in good stead.

No suggestions for Scotland this year I'm afraid, I've not had a chance to visit since January but Stewart, Fyne, Tempest and Pilot all continue to impress, seek them out!

Golden Pints 2014

Its mid December (12th) so about time I began my Golden pints post. As usual I won't be publishing until the 31st because there's still a chance that things could change before then. This year I've done a duplicate set of answers specifically for the island of Ireland as things have come on leaps and bounds since last year See Also: my beers to look out for in Ireland and look out for my "ones to Watch" post later this week.




UK&RoW

Best UK Cask Beer very few drunk this year, though I'll drink Buxton SPA whenever I see it.

Best UK Keg Beer Buxton Double Axe was superb

Best UK Bottled or Canned Beer BBNo IPA 05/05 (Simcoe and Chinook), Redchurch Hoxton Stout and Siren shattered dream were my top rated UK bottled beers. Canned: Fourpure Pils really stood out and impressed.

Best Overseas Draught again, very few tried been happy with UK & Ireland stuff.





Best Overseas Bottled Great Divide Impressed as usual with both Old Ruffian and chocolate Yeti tried for the first time this year. Mikeller Amarillo IIPA also very juicy.
 
Best collaboration brew Wild Beer/ Beavertown Rubus Maximus, Tiny Rebel/ Dark Star Rebel Alliance and Hawkshead/ Lervig Green Juniper & Hemp DIPA

Best Overall Beer Wiper & True Pale Ale the Summer (but any Pale ale from W&T equally worthy of trying!)

Best Branding, Pumpclip or Label Bad Seed, single colour, basic type and parcel tags.

Best UK Brewery Wiper and True probably my top UK brewer right now Runners Up:Brew By Numbers & Buxton

Best Overseas Brewery Still Great Divide based on what I've had this year!

Best New Brewery Opening 2014 Anspach and Hobday impressed on their launch with both Porter and Smoked Brown...look forward to visiting again in 2015.

Pub/Bar of the Year Not got to very many, Famous Royal Navy Volunteer in Bristol

Best New Pub/Bar Opening 2014 was Small Bar this year? Edit ah they were tail end of 2013, but as I didn't visit until this year they still win it!

Best beer and food pairing Cheese and Beer ;)

Beer Festival of the Year N/a

Supermarket of the Year N/a

Independent Retailer of the Year Alesela for keeping me topped up with Scottish stuff and for keeping me entertained for an evening in Glasgow. Ales By Mail are also still fantastic of course.

From B&B's blog

Online Retailer of the Year Eebria is a fantastic new service, good selection boxes but ordering direct from brewers is a great idea...just waiting on a Beermondsey box now!

Best Beer Book or Magazine Boak & Bailey have won this hands down though there have been many excellent books this year. Hot Rum Cow still best drinks mag.

Best Beer Blog or Website Its still The BeerCast, Zythophile and Boak & Bailey I read most these days. Special mention to Larsblog for his fantastic series on Norweigan Farmhouse Ales.

Best Beer App Ratebeer

Simon Johnson Award for Best Beer Twitterer Matthew Curtis (despite regularly making me jealous!)

Green Shoots

Three contract brewing arrangements today, though in each case the new breweries do get involved to a lesser or greater extent. The first two are new Irish breweries (beers purchased from Drinkstore) and the final beer comes across from England.

All striking but completely different brands, all use green, the colour of new growth.

 

Mountain Man's beers are currently brewed at Eight Degrees. Green Bullet (4%) is an eponymous brew of that work-horse Antipodean hop as enjoyed in Bowman beers for a number of years and to my knowledge the first Kiwi hop I tried. Unfortunately this beer doesn't showcase it all that well, with a mere dusting of hops poking through the malt laden base. Hazy pale burnished gold with fluffy white head. Bready with dusty peaches. Medium carbonation, dough, dry bitterness becoming astringent. 

The branding is good but more work required on the beer.

Baile Brew Pale Ale is a bit heftier at 5% but still doesn't give the best of showing to its hops. Darker hazy burnished gold with dense white foam head. Dusty yeast esters and sweet malt on nose. Medium carbonation, slight kiss of tropical fruit balanced by biscuit malt and a touch of toffee. Fairly short finish.

And finally Northern Monk New World IPA, 6.2%: a beer I was keen to try as I've enjoyed home-brew from David before and he's one of my longest and most interesting followers/ followees. He's currently contract brewing at Hambleton in lieu of being able to afford his own kit but still has full creative control whilst Hambleton's kit gets used more fully, a win-win situation.David kindly sent me a bottle of his beer to try.

 It pours a pale amber with off-white head and caramalt sweetness, natural yoghurt and sharp lemon. Low carbonation, cheesecake, sweet malt, finishes a little quickly. 

I really wanted to like this but it didn't quite live up to expectations. This one is two months old now; so may not be a true reflection of how it tasted fresh. I've a bottle of David's collaboration (Bad Habit) with Weird Beard to try which sounds more promising and their new Imperial stout is one I'm definitely keen to try.

So not a terrible start for any of these three, but I look forward to trying more of their wares once they've had a chance to bed in a bit

Autumn Beer Extravaganza (Wetherspoon Autumn Beer Festival 2013)

Its that time of year again, autumn is upon us which can only mean one thing...Wetherspoon are back with another selection of cask ales for their real ale festival. This time around we have an extra special treat, all ten of the collaboration (collabeeration!) beers (that's 20% fact fans!) were brewed by American brewers with UK breweries. Brewers from 7 states took part producing beers in 8 different styles. Plenty for the tickers amongst you! Remember they're all one offs too; so make sure you get along to try them out. Here's a preview of those beers and others that I'm most looking forward to.

Shaun O'Sullivan from 21st amendment in San Francisco California travelled to Wychwood to brew American Bitter Red a sessionable Amber Ale with "agressive" hopping. 

The brewery is of course named for the repeal of prohibition, without which this brewery and all of the others below would have been unable to exist. @21stAmendmentBrewery

Next up is Restoration Pale Ale brewed by Mark Wilson of Abita Brewing Co with Wetherspoon collaboration stalwarts Wadworth. Normally based in Louisiana Mark rocked up in Devizes and used a large amount of cascade to get plenty of citrus character into this beer. @TheAbitaBeer

Ballast Point are a well known US craft brewer from San Diego California; so  "session IPA" Even Keel brewed at Marstons should be something special (and is a recreation of a 3.8% regular beer in cask form). Again using new world hops; so expect plenty of citrus character but there's also some noble hops in there to provide plenty of bitterness too. @BPBrewing

There's an unusual sounding brew from Will Meyers of Massachusetts' Cambridge Brewing Co - Beatles inspired Sgt Pepper is a saison with rye malt and four types of peppercorn. I think its great that Wetherspoon make this kind of creative ale available to the UK drinking public at large and well done to Everards for collaborating on this!
@CambridgeBrewer





Another fantastic sounding beer is Seattle's Elysian's Avatar, a jasmine IPA brewed by brewer Dick Cantwell with Thwaites on their "Crafty Dan" kit on 17th September.

via Thwaites

Featuring the fairly recent Glacier hop alongside superstar Amarillo and bittering stalwart Northern Brewer. At 6.3% its fairly hefty too and should work well as a warmer for the journey home.
@ElysianBrewing



 Sunshine Daydream is a 5% brew named for a Grateful Dead documentary released in 1972. It was brewed by Matt Cole owner of Ohio's Fat Head's brewery at Batemans on 9th September (welcomed by an Ohio state flag!) with centennial, citra and simcoe triple-teaming on the hop-front to produce a citrus bomb IPA.
@FatHeadsBeer






Harpoon IPA was brewed by brewer Jamie Schier at Bank's. Its been brewed in their Boston brewery for 20 years; so great to get a UK cask version brewed over here.
 @harpoon_brewery






Another uncommon beer style for the UK and the first outing at a Wetherspoon fest is Cream Ale. This one has been brewed by Oregon's Ninkasi at Caledonian in Edinburgh. Cream ale is a light fruity ale using simcoe and liberty for fruity apricot and mango notes, then lagered (cold conditioned) a hybrid style akin to kolsch.
@NinkasiBrewing





 
Mitch from Stone has documented his trip to the UK here. He brewed Supremely Self Conscious alongside Fergus at Adnams. I'm a big fan of Stone beers and Adnams is a well respected brewer plus I love Black IPAs; so this is surely my most anticipated beer at the fest this year.
@StoneBrewingCo







And last but not least is Spike Buckowski of Georgia brewery Terrapin's collaboration with Shepherd Neame - Treehugger. Its another rarely seen beer for the UK a German style Altbier with authentic Hallertau region hops.
@TerrapinBeerCo

I'm also looking forward to Roosters All Star Brewster's Aromatic Porter and even the GK Abbot's Confession. but there should be something for everyone with 50 beers to choose from! I think you'll agree with me that Wetherspoon have outdone themselves with the selection this year, I'm not sure how they'll raise the bar again in 2014!

All the tasting notes for these beers may be read in the festival program, along with interesting background stories for each of the brewers. All of the beers have already been added to ratebeer, so I've linked them in to the above. Remember that you can get three thirds for the price of the pint during the festival, making it easier to try the full range (don't try 50 in one day!)

Northern Ireland CAMRA and Beoir are coming together to celebrate the festival in the Bridge House Belfast on Saturday 19th October, all are welcome. Its a chance for you to meet fellow beer enthusiasts, a brewer or two and hopefully try all ten US cask beers at the same time.

Thanks are due to Gary Holmes and the marketing team at JDWcreative for sending me through a PDF with all of the pumpclip artwork, cheers guys.

Revelation Cat

Its very unusual that I get a message out of nowhere offering me beer for free. Its even less frequent (read: this is the first time) that the brewer hasn't specifically asked for publicity/ a review in return rather just my opinion shared with him in whatever manner I saw fit. I actually really enjoyed the beers (not a function of them being free); so have decided to let readers of this blog know about them so that they can get hold of them for themselves.

    

Revelation Cat started off as a gypsy brewer along the lines of Mikkeller, though primarily based in Italy. Brewer Alex is also the driving force behind Rome's Brasserie 4:20 one of the premier beer venues in that country. Recently they have been brewing batches of beer in Kent with Eddy Gadd, which has proved successful enough for Alex to invest in brew kit of his own next door. He's sharing the mash tun and kettle but everything post boil including fermentation is done on Revelation Cat's premises. In effect that means we have another new brewer in the UK!

I had a pleasant surprise when the beer arrived, not only were there 7 different beers to try I had received multiple bottles of each! I made my usual review notes on rate beer and from the scores that emerged decided that it was well worth telling you about the beers.

Take My AdWeisse is a US-hopped wheat ale with a gentle satsuma pith nose and part of the "session series". At 4.5% its at the higher end of the scale, but I could certainly happily sink a few pints of this. It becomes more resinous as it warms but retains the thick creamy mouth-feel and wheat spiciness throughout. I found myself craving some weisses banana and clove esters though and would perhaps still opt for a traditional weisse or hoppy pale ale over this. I can certainly see a lot of space in the market for this though.

I wasn't quite so taken with the dry hop Thriller. A hazy pale amber ale with apricot and lemon on the nose. The carbonation and mouthfeel are about right to make this sessionable, but the balance is skewed too much towards the hops leaving a bit too much pithy bitterness and a chalky finish to be truly enjoyable. 

Green-hopped F.R.E.S.H is all about the aroma which is at once soporific and enlivening. Rich resinous hops with underlying ginger, toffee and bergamot. In the mouth its pretty sweet, sticky marmalade and carrot juice but its a pleasing beer, all the more so because its made using indigenous UK and European varieties. Proof that the flavour is already there if the hops are used in the right quantities.

HopAddendum is a proper pale West-Coast IPA in the vein of Stone and Brewdog. Certainly no caramalt here! Complex and intriguing nose of red apple, kiwi and strawberries. The apples arrive first to the tongue, followed by satsuma, resin, pith, bitter hops, long fruity finish. Despite its 6% ABV I'd certainly be happy to stick with this one beer all night and certainly prefer it to Punk IPA (previously a firm favourite).

Following right in behind is California Moonset, a double IPA at 7% ABV. This one pours hazy dark amber with fluffy white head. Pithy citrus with smoother grape flavours beneath. Centennial and Nelson Sauvin perhaps? The bitterness is up front followed by jammy blackcurrant and tangerine. Long dry moreish finish. No tacky crystal here either, another sessionable big hitter. Zak would probably describe it as ruinously drinkable.

The penultimate beer is into silly territory at 13%. I don't know where all that alcohol was hiding though tasting closer to 9%. Hop Animal is a "double double IPA" (think Brewdog Anarchist/ Alchemist for comparison). It reminds me of an US-style barley wine like Sierra Nevada Bigfoot. The malt is fairly robust but the heavy hitting hops are lurking in behind ready to assault your palate. Dark ruby with white lacing with fruity malt loaf and brandy nose with supporting Seville marmalade. Concentrated citrus fruit, tongue tingling mouth watering pithiness with robust toffee underscore. Long citrus refrain. Masterful.

And now for something completely different. Black Knight is very sparse in details from the label, but I can tell from the 14% ABV its going to be a monster. Turns out its an imperial stout, and not barrel aged which means all of that alcohol got there by fermentation. Its pretty heavy going and warming, 500ml is perhaps too big a bottle but I had people to share it with. Dark chocolate, booze soaked raisins, tobacco and molasses on the nose. Pours viscous black with sizeable cola head that becomes a lacing. Starts off sweet and finishes very dry with some woody tannins, coal smoke, a touch of caramel. A complex and evolving beast.It could perhaps afford to be a few percentage points lower in the alcohol stakes, and this would put it on an equal footing with such UK masters as Magic Rock Bearded Lady and Kernel Imperial Brown Stout.

From this showcase I'm certainly excited to find out what else Alex has up his sleeves (UK Brasserie 4:20 anyone?!) and certainly hope to come across some of these in the pub. According to Alex they've had to expand capacity already; so they should certainly be appearing in UK outlets any time now!

Twitter: @RevelationCat

NWAF Beer List

Camra's National Winter Ales Festival (on Twitter here) opens in 2 weeks; so thought I'd post the beer list as it stands. There are 256 from 113 breweries cask beers on offer (barring any changes or counting failures) as well as a good selection of continental draught and bottles from all over the world. There's cider too if you like that kind of thing. I've got a few ideas of what to go for (and avoid!); I'm heading along on Friday, maybe see some of you there! 

1648
Ginger No1
Triple Champion

Acorn
Barnsley Gold
Gorlovka
Old Moor Porter
Winter Pale Ale
Yorkshire Pride

Allgates
Mad Monk
NZ Cascade
Palo Santo Porter 
Pretoria

Sloe Stout


Amber
Chocolate Orange Stout
Imperial IPA
Winter Ruby

Angel
Angel Ale
Banefyre

Ascot Ales
Anastasia’s Imperial Stout
On the rails

Bank Top
Leprechaun Stout
Port O Call

Batemans
Salem Porter

Beartown
Ginger Beer
Polar Eclipse

Beowulf
Dark Raven

Big Bog
Quagmire
Swampy

Black Hole
Asteroid Ale
Black Hole bitter

Black Sheep
Riggwelter
Ruddy Ram

Blythe
Johnson’s Porter

Boggart Hole Clough
Cascade
Rum Porter

Bollington
Best
Long Hop
Night Porter
Oat Mill Stout
Winter Reserve

Bootleg
Black Widow
Mistletoe

Bradfield
Farmers Belgian Blue
Farmers Blonde

Brecon Brewing
Genesis 1:ii

Gold Beacons
Prophet Porter

Bridgehouse
Heathcliff Stout
Stokers Bitter

Brunswick
Black Sabbath
Father Mike’s Dark Ruby

Burscough
Black Canon Stout
Ringtail Bitter

Bushy’s
Manx Bitter
Ruby 1874 Mild

Cairngorm
Black Gold

Cambridge Moonshine
Black Hole Stout

Chalk Hill
Flintknapper’s Mild

Clearwater
Real Smiler
Winters Ale

Coniston
No 9 Barley Wine
Special Oatmeal Stout

Conwy
Telford Porter
Cross Bay

Cross-Bay
Dusk

Nightfall
Sunset
Winter Moon

Dent
Porter
T’owd Tup

Derwent
Auld Kendal

Dow Bridge
Decimus
Praetorian Porter

Driftwood
Alfie’s Revenge
Lou’s Brew

Dunham Massey
Dunham Porter

Elland
1872 Porter

Frodsham
Sledgin’
Wintafest

Fullers
Black Cab Stout
Chiswick Bitter
ESB
Gales HSB
Gales Seafarers
Golden Pride
Jack Frost
London Porter
London Pride

Fuzzy Duck
Cunning Stunt
Mucky Duck

Goachers
Old 1066 Ale

Great Gable
Yewbarrow

Hammerpot
Bottle Wreck Porter

Happy Valley
Black Magic
Little Rascal

Harbour
Winter

Hawkshead

Brodie’s Prime
NZPA
Stout
Dry Stone


Heart of Wales
High as a Kite
Inn-stable
Welsh Black

Hesket Newmarket
Old Carrock Strong Ale

Highgate
Davenports Saddlers Ale
Highgate Old Ale

Holt
Bitter
IPA
Maple Moon

Hopback
Entire Stout
Odyssey

Hornbeam
January Special?
Top Hop

Howard Town
Dark Peak
Robin’s Nest
Wren’s Nest

Hydes
Dark Mild
Manchester’s Finest
Winter Fuggle
XXXX

Ilkley
Mary Jane
Stout Mary

Imperial
Bees Knees
Blonde

Inveralmond
Duncans IPA
Thrappledouser

Irwell Works
3 Bad Shepherds
Copper Plate
Tin Plate

Isle of Skye
Black Cuillin
Cuillin Beast

Jennings
Sneck Lifter

Kelham Island
Kelham Best
Easy Rider

Pale Rider
Riders on the Storm

Kinver
Over the Edge

Kirkby Lonsdale
Jubilee Stout

Lancaster
Amber
Black
Blonde
Red

Lees
Bitter
Brewers Dark
Moonraker
The Govenor

Leyden
Crowning Glory

Liverpool Organic
Best Bitter
Empire Ale
Imperial IPA
Imperial Russian Stout
Kitty Wilkinson Chocolate & Vanilla Stout

Lymestone
Foundation Stone
Stone the Crows
Stoney Broke

Lytham
Gold
IPA

Magic Rock
High Wire
Rapture

Marble
Chocolate Marble
Ginger
Manchester
Pint
Stouter Stout

Mighty Oak
Oscar Wilde – CBoB 2011
Plum Pudding
Yellow Snow

Milestone
Dark Galleon
Dark Knight

Milk Street
Gulp
Zig Zag Stout

Moor
Old Freddy Walker

Moorhouses
Black cat
Blond Witch
Pendle Witches Brew
Premier Bitter
Pride of Pendle

Nant
Mwnci Nell

Nethergate
Old Growler

Northern
Deep Dark Secret

Oakham
Attila
Inferno

Offbeat
Out of Step IPA
Way Out Wheat

Okells
Aile
Alt
Saison

Outstanding
Matron’s Delight
Pushing Out

Palmers
Dorset Gold
Tally Ho!

Peerless
Dark Cascade
Full Whack
Jack Frost Blonde
Red Rocks

Pictish
Alchemists Ale
Porter

Redwillow
Heartless
Smokeless
Wreckless

Robinsons
Chocolate Tom
Long Kiss Goodnight
Old Tom

Rossendale
Glen top
Sunshine

Saddleworth
Shaftbender

Saltaire
Blonde
Cascadian Black IPA

Scottish Borders
Foxy Blonde
Game Bird

Shaws
Quantum Stout
Stella IPA

Springhead
Roaring Meg
The Leveller

Strands
Barley Wine

Sulwath
Black Galloway

Solway Mist

Tatton
Yeti

Theakston
Lightfoot

Old Peculier
XB

Thornbridge
Black Harry
Saint Petersburg
Sequoia
Halcyon

Thwaites
Old Dan
Tavern Porter
Wainwright

Titanic
Full Steam Ahead
Stout

Tunnel
Northern Lights
Rodger The Reindeer

Ulverston
Fra Diavolo

Wapping
Smoked Porter
Winter Ale

Wells & Youngs
Courage Directors
Wells Bombardier
Young’s Bitter
Young’s Gold
Young’s Special
Youngs Winter Warmer

Wentworth
Auzzie Blonde
Bumble Beer

Wessex
Russian Stoat
Warminster Warrior

Wharfebank
Tether Blond
WISPA

Wickwar
BOB
Station Porter


William Worthington’s
Red Shield
White Shield
Winter Shield


Windsor & Eton
Conquerer Black IPA
Windsor Knot

Wolf
Straw Dog
Woild Moild

York
Centurions Ghost
Dark Knight Porter

(NB I am not involved with the organisation of the beer festival)