The end of year usually signals an influx of "Golden Pints" posts and indeed I have joined in for the last four or five years. However, whilst giving it some thought as we moved into December I realised that little had changed in the names that fell under each category. Best cask beer, keg beer, small pack beer, brewery etc... would all be the same repetitive answers given for the last two or three.
It is a little bit of
a shame as few people have joined in this year and I didn't want to stop as
well. That doesn't mean that I haven't got mental lists of beers, breweries and
events that I enjoyed in 2019; au contraire I have more thoughts than ever.
With that in mind,
I've opted for two (perhaps three, depending how long I go on for) lists of
those attributes that made Beer in 2019 for me. The first are my eleven
favourite beers of the year, for whatever reason that may be. Enjoy.
Beers
Jarl - Fyne Ales - Cask - Various
In a regular Golden
Pints format we would start with “Best UK Cask Beer” and my winner for the last
two years remains the same now. It went further in 2019 though – I fell in love
with Jarl. I’d flirted with it previously, had a couple of rendezvous on the
quiet, gone through the “will they, won’t they” phase where it was all exciting
and new. But in 2019 I fell deep into comfortable love, ready to commit for all
time. Jarl and I are now spending fireside evenings together, with a cat on our
lap, watching idle television together. We complete each other.
If that sounds a
little extreme (or worrying) I did write about how I want to drink nothing but Jarl after
a trip to Edinburgh and Glasgow - where I did drink nothing but Jarl. If I do
return to Scotland in 2020, I will be on the lookout solely for Jarl. I drank
Jarl last night. I’m hoping there will be Jarl left tonight. I love Jarl.
Nor’Hop - Moor Beer Co – Cask – Stalybridge Buffet Bar
Whilst the above
statement on Jarl is true, it was more a reflection that, like many before me,
I want to drink really well made pale ale served by cask at a relatively steady
ABV. Hardly ground-breaking of course and really no different to the vast
majority of the nation’s beer drinkers favouring a certain style and strength
of beer.
But, whilst I singled
out Jarl as the exceptional case, there are others that fall into the category
and on one post work pint (that turned into many more) I was reminded of a beer
I’d nearly forgotten about. Seeing Moor on cask in the north seems to be a much
rarer experience than it was a few years ago and therefore it had been some
time since I’d seen either Nor’Hop or So’Hop anywhere.
“I’m drinking a beer
I haven’t seen for a while and am wondering why I bother drinking anything
else” was my response to these pints on Twitter. Absolutely glorious.
Primacy Effect - Buxton Brewery and Magic Rock Brewing Co – Can – Home
There was a small
movement, certainly in the first half of 2019, back to the crisper and more
bitter IPAs that we enjoyed six years ago; though this time they were clearly
labelled as West Coast IPAs. I’ve been meaning to write about
my feelings towards these modern iterations as many of them didn’t quite hit
the mark for me in what I was looking for and what I remember enjoying a few
years ago, even some that were almost universally praised.
This Buxton and Magic
Rock collaboration though, one half of a duo of beers brewed at each brewery,
was everything I enjoy in the style; everything I regularly enjoyed five or six
years ago. That perfect marriage of citrus aromatics and grapefruit bitterness
was a nostalgic treat, though it really is sad that it has to be that way just
a few years later. The fact that we have made the style that transformed this
industry into a piece of history is... no... save it for another blog post
Mark... right... great beer though!
It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye - Green Cheek Beer Co - Keg - Friends and Family Festival
 |
| May not be stated beer in this picture |
All that being said
about an excellent West Coast style India Pale brewed in this country, I have
had several American imports this year that have served as hurtful reminders of
how far behind we remain on this style’s quality more often than not. Of the many
tried, this from Green Cheek Beer Co really stood out. It was the only
beer at Cloudwater’s Friends & Family event that I returned too for extra
helpings, with the first 120ml pour not being enough. The beer was the
definition of those definitionless words: piney and resinous.
Delicious.
Dogs of War: Battalion Bull Terrier 2019:1 - Torrside Brewing - Bottle - Various
If truth be told I
could have made an entire list from beers exclusively sourced and tasted from
Torrside Brwery, especially the Monster’s Series. I have obviously enjoyed my
previous Golden Pints Winner, Rauchwine, many a time. Then there is the Heavy
Rauch and it’s fruit added editions, King Bugbear, Impending Sense of Doom,
Cascadia, Tears of the Gorax, Kneel Before Grod,, Time Capsule, Power Mallard,
Space Commander, Even Death May Die, American Barleyw........
The Monsters were
also joined in 2019 with the Dogs of War series of beers, another range of
superb bottles that could have all found a place on the list. I have chosen the
Dogs of War – Battalion Bull Terrier 2019:1 though, not just because this blend
of oak and beech wood smoked barleywine aged in Sauternes barrels was probably
my favourite of the Dogs of War series, but because I took it onto the Beer
O’Clock Show Hopinions podcast as part of the smoked beer special that I
appeared on. Enjoying the beer solo is one thing but getting the opportunity to
share and discuss it with two good friends of mine was an honour.
Goddess of Thunder – Torrside Brewing and Neptune Brewery – Bottle – Home
Okay, so maybe one
Monster’s beer deserves a mention. This collaboration with Neptune Brewery
really blew me away. Cherry and Stout sound like an ideal pairing but somehow
most breweries seem to misuse it in the Imperial versions, using a fruit that
is powerful and tart and creating something that is somehow dry and bitter. Not
this beer though. This got it absolutely perfect in a way that I’d never tasted
Cherry in an Imperial Stout before. To reiterate, I was blown away by just
about all of the Monster’s again this year, but this really made me gush.
Cider Apple Saison – Burning Sky – Keg – Indy Man Beer Con ’19
2019 was a personal
turning point in the many styles that I, rightly or wrongly, house under
Farmhouse and Wild Fermentation beers. They are beers that I have previously
not been as enamoured by as others. However, at beer festivals and in bottles
they have been some of my favourites, only not becoming regular fridge
favourites due to their higher price tags. More of those beers should have made
this list, though will be mentioned more in my breweries of the year.
I spent most of Indy
Man Beer Con 2019 drinking beers from Burning Sky. I wouldn’t say that this
beer was a stand-out but I enjoyed it more perhaps due to its unique quality. A
terrific blend of saison and apples that I was lucky enough to return to
it at the Independent Salford Beer Festival as part of the wonderful cider talk
on the Thursday evening,.
Double Denim – Tempest Brew Co – Bottle – Home
It may have been apparent
that I love the style Smoked Barleywine. Thusfar though, that has been
quite a limited category as Torrside were the only breweries making them.
Then, in the month of December I tried two offerings from north of the border
as I revelled in the idea that the style might be catching on (catching on in
that it is at least 0.0000000000001% of all beer produced in the country now.)
The Double Denim from
Tempest Brew Co stopped me in my tracks the way that Rauchwine originally did.
This beer is a little sweeter in barleywine terms with the smoke a little
mellower but still present. Beautifully balanced, I very much approved.
(Torrside have said
they are disappointed the style hasn’t been kept as Rauchwine but if this is
indeed going to be the hyped style of 2020 (!) then it is good that this
particular word still infers to one specific beer.)
Polly’s Brew Citra Mosaic IPA – Can – Home
I weighed up
mentioning this beer as I've already included a couple of IPAs but this
enduring style is still the punctuation in my home drinking. If I want “just a
beer” indoors that doesn’t require thought or contemplation – usually to be
drunk whilst concentrating on cooking or writing – I’ll look at what IPAs I
have in so that the only assessment needs be a quick nod, lip smack and telling
the inattentive cats “S’alright that”
Which is why it is
always a pleasant surprise when one of those IPAs makes you double take whilst
in the middle of putting your glass back down. A wide eyed exhale. An
exclamation to the room that involves language the cats need not here. A pause
in the other task to pay a bit more attention to the beer in the glass. That is
what happened with this Polly’s Brew Co IPA, a beer given to me as a gift and
expected to be an entirely predictable marriage of 2017’s hottest hops.
Instead it was a
reminder of why these hops were so popular as a pairing and why they work
together so well. I had a lot of great IPAs this year, like every year, but
this may have been the best in this style.
Murphy’s Irish Stout – Keg – O’Neill’s Bar & Kitchen
Guinness is a special
beer for me and some of my family members. There are various times and places
when it is the only drink I could have, especially on a trip to watch non-league
football in October (post coming in January.) Therefore, I was genuinely
thrilled to be invited over by Diageo for International Stout Day to visit the
Storehouse and Open Gate breweries. It meant a little more to me and was
probably the first time my mum thought that a beer blog could exist for more
than just an excuse to drink.
However, in an
unintentional middle finger to the Guinness family, it is the Murphy’s Irish
Stout I had in Dublin that was really special. Murphy’s is the drink that was
always in my Nan’s cupboard and often my mother’s. It is also rarely seen on
draught over here now. It was once permanently on in Stalybridge Buffet Bar. It
(and here I would say the phrase “rather randomly”) was on in the downstairs
bar of Oceana, Leeds when I was a student, leading me to lead my way through
the throngs of Vodka-Red Bull drinkers with a pint of poorly kept keg in
hand.
It was in O'Neill's on Suffolk Street in Dublin that I truly enjoyed this beer for the first time
in a good while. No, it was not the best stout that I had that day, never mind
last year but sometimes beer means something a little more.
Here be Dragons - Brass Castle Brewery - Cask - Independent Salford Beer Festival VI
As each year passes
it seems more likely that one cannot be without loss. It comes in many guises,
entangled in the family trees and paths that you lead. Every now and then they
intertwine with beer and I felt that this year. You don’t want beers to remind
you of loss, like places that you can no longer bring yourself to visit or
songs that can’t be listened to. Instead, it is nice to have beers that bring
memory, reflection and a little toast.
That wasn’t the
intention with the recipe form Brass Catle of this American Brown Ale. But for
two moments in Hemsley House in November, I had the chance to miss somebody
recently gone. The beer is a tasty example of a style not seen enough at
present in the UK beer scene and you should take the opportunity to try some.
For me, it represents a moment, a place and a good friend. That makes it a beer
of the year contender for me.
A little more
detailed than anybody needed this year but those were the beers that made last year extra special. Part two will
look at the breweries, events and ... ahem .... communicators I enjoyed in
2019. I would like to tell you it will be some time tomorrow but the likelihood
it will be in March. Cheers.
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