Well Folks, put down that glass of
Birra Obscura and pin back your lugholes. This is the feet on
the ground, 'Golden Pint Awards. No strange beers that you have to
choke down while holding your nose, or collaborations between
brewers, who have you pay for them meeting up with their chums and no
beers aged in feta cheese barrels or any other such bollocks and no
beers to share. Just good old beer that you buy yourself and drink
yourself. The key to my selections is always
drinkability. Boring eh, but you are stuck with it.
Best UK Draught Beer
Tricky one this. There is always
the delight of Hawkshead Windermere Pale, or NZPA, which never
fail to please, or Brodies All Brett IPA, or their Sunshine even.
What about great beers from Allgates or Green Mill Cat's Whiskers?
(my best mild of 2012). Many worthy possibilities, but my awards goes
to Ossett Citra. A beautiful example of a single hopped beer,
which I just kept repeat ordering until the last bus.
Best UK Bottled or Canned Beer
Even trickier since I rarely
drink any. I have enjoyed the beers from my local Wilson Potter
Brewery, which mimic cask so well and anything from Stringers in a
bottle is very worthwhile. Thornbridge beers in bottle have a
wonderful freshness that I really like, so it is Thornbridge Chiron.
Balanced, hoppy and with great drinakability.
Best Overseas Draught Beer
Bohemia Regent is a strong contender -
a lovely beer. Schneider Mein Hopfenweisse also impressed me greatly,
so is a contender, but is has to be Rodenbach. In a great little
boozer in snowy Blankenberg, it was oh so drinkable, with its touch
of sourness and oh so memorable. Since I write almost nothing down
these days, it has to stick in the memory and does.
Best Overseas Bottled or Canned
Beer
Schneider Meine Hopfenweisse. Dangerously drinkable.
Best Overall Beer
No overall winner. I just couldn't pick
one. Different beers are best in certain circumstances.
Best Pumpclip or Label
Lees Bitter. It means home to me beer
wise.
Best UK Brewery
My "go to" breweries are
Hawkshead and Thornbridge, but even though I haven't mentioned
individual beers, it has to be Summer Wine. If they have a
house style, it is cleanness. Their beers, no matter whether on
cask or keg, complex or not, are wonderfully clean. They even
do styles I don't like that much well and they are one of the few
breweries whose keg beer has something to recommend it. Now that I
think about it, their Rouge Hop could have been beer of the year and
I don't like red ales.
Best Overseas Brewery
De Cam. Spectacularly good beers
as I wrote in my blog.
Pub/Bar of the Year
I drink in a lot of really good places,
so again it is down to good times with good people. Honourable
mentions to the Holborn Whippet, Port St Beer House, that little pub
in Blankenberg, the Ship in near home, my local the Tandle Hill
Tavern and many more. There isn't an overall winner, but I'd rather
be drinking "twiggy" beer with friends than great beer with
strangers.
Beer Festival of the Year
National Winter Ales of course.
I do help organise it after all. And GBBF was rather good back
at Olympia.
Supermarket of the Year
No views
Independent Retailer of the Year
No views
Online Retailer of the Year
No views
Best Beer Book or Magazine
Beer Magazine
Best Beer Blog or Website
Honourable mentions to Boak and Bailey
- relentless, but very insightful at times. Pete Brown for authority,
Curmudgeon for topicality, Paul Bailey for pubs and Beer Nut for
tasting notes. Overall winner though is Pump Clip Parade for
its campaigning role against sexism and bad taste in British Brewing.
Best Beer Twitterer
Kristy McCready. She is
brilliant. A great loss to the industry, but still interested in it you can
tell.
Best Online Brewery Presence
Hardknott. Funny and likeable and they
are lovely people.
Food and Beer Pairing of the Year
I'll pass on this one, but everything
at the European Beer Bloggers Conference worked well.
In 2013 I’d most like to...
Still be here.
Open category - Most Improved Cask Ale
Brewery
Allgates of Wigan. These boys are
hitting their stride
Biggest Tossers in British Brewing?
Guess? Correct!
Sorry about the formatting. I had terrible trouble with it.
Sorry about the formatting. I had terrible trouble with it.
9 comments:
I gave in and downloaded google chrome to use when doing the blog. It does work better.
Cheers for the mention :-)
And I think your blog is one that understands both traditional British pub culture and beer quality.
Boak & Bailey: "Relentless" - yes, that's the word I've been looking for
No supermarket of the year?
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I'm surprised at your inclusion of The Holborn Whippet.
Meeting a rabid beer blogger for drinks there earlier this year was much anticipated but quite a letdown.
The beer was okayish but nothing to rave about and the bar itself is like an untidy All Bar One.
Not bad but not great.
The bar that is, not the rabid beer blogger.
"I'd rather be drinking "twiggy" beer with friends than great beer with strangers."
I couldn't agree more, Tandleman. In their quest for the perfect pint people sometimes lose sight that this is what beer appreciation is all about. A pint amongst friends has to be up there as one of the very best experiences in life; no more so than at this time of the year.
Have a great Christmas, and glad you have found my musings on Kent pubs enjoyable.
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