Friday 20 December 2013

Beers of the Year, 2013

I'm not going to do Golden Pints but i am going to do a few posts with some highlights of the year.

Starting with beers of the year, 2013. Beers, plural because i'm doing 1st, 2nd & 3rd for eight categories.

PALE ALE
1) 5 Points, Pale Ale - was blown away by this on cask in August.
2) Oakham, Citra - consistently great beer.
3) Mallinsons, Alias - very recently i had this for the first time and it was sublime.
Very special mention to Burning Sky's Aurora & Plateau! This brewery IS the next big thing.

IPA
1) Otley, Motley Brew - I am biased, yes but i also drank more of this IPA than anything else this year and I love it!
2) Bear Republic, Racer 5. Stands up against any good American IPA.
3) Brewdog, Punk IPA - Amazing bottle of this at Heathrow whilst waiting for a plane to Cape Town.

D.A.B - No disrespect intended here, these aren't the most exciting beers around but are still very good beers.
1) Fullers, London Pride - had this at the Hock Cellar and it's hard to beat a fresh pint of this!
2) Butcombe, Bitter - excellent when fresh.
3) Oldershaws, Great Expectations - a bottle of this hit the spot a while back, what a lovely drop!

PORTER
1) Tap East, Smokestack - a collab with Greg Hall, again, yes I am slightly biased but this beer just got better and better!
2) Birra del Borgo, Keto Reporter - this is amazing on draught.
3) Titanic, Plum Porter - Just, wow.

STOUT
1) O'Hanlons, Port Stout - Had this for the first time in a while recently and it's still a great beer.
2) Titanic, Chocolate Vanilla Stout - Very moreish.
3) Hardknott, Dark Energy - On keg this is hard to beat.

FRUIT
1) Cantillon, Kriek. - love it, sour and cherry, what's not to like?
2) Flying Dog, Pineapple Saison - this really surprised me actually, Flying Dog are a great brewery so it shouldn't have but it did.
3) Van Honsbrouck, Kasteel Rouge - gets on the list because i haven't seen any Echte Kriek all year, where's it gone???

LAGER
1) Jever, Pils - in a bottle, very important, loses loads of aroma on draught!
2) Fullers, Frontier - Very easy to drink this one. 
3) Sly Fox, Helles - Canned lager, who'da thunk it. 

SOUR
1) Cantillon, Gueuze - goes down like water for me, possibly the beer of 2013 for me.
2) Timmermans, Lambicus - What a great beer and so easy to drink!
3) Horals, Mega Blend - I said this about another beer but it must be said again, just wow!
Special Mention - Kernel Sour & Beavertown Sour - finally the London breweries are starting to make great sours!

It's been a great year for brewing all over the globe and i'm still proud to be in this industry, no matter what sort of hard time it gets from people. Next up my brewers of the year.

4 comments:

Ed said...

What's D.A.B stand for?

rabidbarfly said...

so called 'Dull and Brown' by someone i will not name but it's fairly accurate most of the time.

Ed said...

You'd better add B.A.B. for 'Blond and Boring' as there's a lot of those out there too.

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