More goldener pints

Hello.

          last year, or rather at the end of the last year before last, I "went mad" and completed my list of the Golden Pints of 2012. My first foray was notable for my having not paid $4.95 to Google to increase my image storage limit so I didn't have a logo. And this year is no different. They can keep their lousy storage limits....

Anyway, having experienced almost incalculable pleasure in compiling a list of things which were good, I felt I should perhaps have a stab at it again. So I have :

Best UK cask beer - um. Is this a top twenty? God this is difficult! How does one choose? Am thinking somewhere between the bestest, and the most often tried, with a sprinkling of consistency. Revolutions Demo unfined(imfiltered) was a beauty, Thornbridge Melba was high up there, and most Mallinsons should feature but for outright consistent brilliance Anarchy Brew Co Sublime Chaos gets my vote. Just delicious.

Best UK keg beer - well, this has to be a tie between Magic Rock Human Cannonball and Thornbridge Halcyon. Possibly the ball edged it.

Best UK bottled or canned beer - Thornbridge/Dark Star EDIT - sorry, it was Brooklyn! Alliance 2007. And any of the different reserves. All were impeccable.

Best Overseas draught beer - Anchor Old Foghorn. A very very complex and powerful strong ale without raspberry, fir-cones or mace in it.

Best Overseas bottled or canned beer - Santorini Crazy Donkey IPA. Mind you, it bloody wants to be at that price.... (see here for a review of all 3 donkey beers)

Best Collaboration brew - Steel City Brewing/North Riding CC. Alas, not a beer dedicated to the gentle pursuits of county cricket, but a far ruder acronym. Lots and lots of very complimentary citrus hops combine to make this a very quaffable strong pale ale which I had far too much of.

Best Overall beer - that is Burning Sky Saison. The only way of improving on Dark Star's excellent saison from 2012 was...to have the brewer leave and set up his own brewery and brew an even better saison.

Best branding, pumpclips or label - Magic Rock, mainly because thy have a lot of material, but if it were bottle labels alone then I think Beavertown and Weird Beard Brew Co both have brilliant designs.

Best UK Brewery - Aaah. Another top 20. I'm going to say Art Brew, just because everything they brew is ace.

Best Overseas brewery - having become enlightened and joined the saison appreciation society (and continuing to be a member even though I'm supposed to like sour and gose) I'd suggest Brasserie Fantome.

Best new brewery - Burning Sky. Not just because of their saison.

Pub/bar of the year - Shakespeares ale and cider house, Gibraltar street, Sheffield. My home from home which just so happens to feature a magnificent clock, an impeccable range of whiskies, great staff and an excellent range of beer - not to mention order in curry from across the road.

Best new pub/bar - The Closed Shop Commonside - I know it was already a pub but it has no connection in terms of qualities, with it's previous incarnation.

Beer festival of the year - SIBA Beerex. Especially for Unpro and Katedave. Hugs....

Supermarket of the year - can I say Booths even though I've never shopped there? Otherwise it would have to be Waitrose, beer wise.

Independent retailer of the year -  a bloody strong field in Sheffield, impartiality means I shouldn't nominate my former employer - but I will, if only because I haven't (apart from buying two bottles on launch day) sampled the three newcomers yet. So its Archer Road Beer Stop. Go there!

Best beer book/magazine - I rarely read beer books but this year I am in the process of reading Pete Brown's Three Sheets To The Wind - however, since I haven't finished it, I perhaps ought to give the award to Doghouse magazine....

Best beer blog or website - Dimpled Mug. More nepotism, since Mr M is a friend of mine, but I never miss any pics he posts on his pub photo blog.

Simon Johnson award for best beer twitterer - Can he win his own award?

Best brewery website/social media - it is rare that I actually like reading a brewery website - since most of them are out of date misleading or written in poor English. However, I like the Revolutions Brew Co one for having useful info on,like what their beers are called, and Kelham Island's for the same reason.

Food and beer pairing of the year - Blue Monkey Marmoset with Moroccan chicken and saffron casserole. I just made that up.

NEW CATEGORY ALERT !
Next beer fad - OK, its got to be a popular continental style, possibly with a twist, or an obscure one which only a handful of beer geeks will have tried, having paid £15,000.00 to travel to the other side of the world to sample it. So...I dunno. Black gueze. Lemon mai bock. Unfiltered cask rauchbier (actually, that sounds lovely!)

So, that's it. That is what rocked my world in 2013. Lets hope 2014 can bring a similar cavalcade of quality cask and keg, and that I'll be struggling to single out winners in most of the categories once again in 12 months time.


Cheers!

Wee Beefy

Simian and ape thought procesess in beer rating

Hello,

          a few weeks a go me and Davefromtshop had our biannual beer tasting - this time it was at Chez Boeuf, and comprised an odd mixture of aged beers, beers bought in pubs, beers shipped across Europe, beers from Supermarkets and beers form specialist beer shops. This time, to ensure a fair reviewing and reporting process, we recorded everything we said and slurred, about the beers, on video. What follows is the *potentially* choice excerpts form he untranscribable nonsense we uttered, along with salient points about which beers were best...

I described the first four beers, noting that Santorini Yellow Donkey was unfiltered and refreshing. Ilkely Dinner Ale was  a hoppy and refreshing low gravity beer which was very very hoppy...Geeves Presidents Ale was very nice actually, pleasingly hoppy, but probably could have done with being a but stronger, and Shepherd Neame Mainbrace IPA was in effect, a bit poor. It didn't really have an aftertaste, and was not really an IPA, whatever an IPA is....

Dave reckoned the Santorini Red Donkey was very fruity and very satisfying. It followed on well form their Yellow Donkey but the IPA crowned the whole set (see later). Tatton Obscure was really interesting with lots of licorice flavours which provably shouldn't have been there but tasted all the better for it. Dave would have liked to try a fresher beer to compare. He also liked the Blue Monkey Marmoset, considering it a valuable addition to their range. Its low gravity emphasised the hop nature of the beer, and it was totally different to anything else they brew. Meanwhile 

Shepherd Neame IPA (6%) was a great contrast to the Mainbrace, as there was nice hoppiness, good aroma, and it balances well. Lastly, we both thought Santorini Crazy Donkey was a very interesting beer in a nice way, with  prickly hoppiness, and fruitiness to support it. It had good texture, and was really a good classic beer.

Nogne imperial Brown was reviewed by us both at some stage but "somebody" forgot to video almost all of our reviews - I thought it was very strong but smooth with quite intense flavours but Dave felt it didn't go anywhere, dropping away towards the end. Meanwhile Dave reviewed 60 Degrees North lager from the Hebrides  a lager that "wasn't necessarily complex but is remarkably clean and does a good job of cleansing the palate but it does stop right dead there. It was a worthy beer however. 

On next to the big hitter - Thornbridge and Dark Star Coalition Old Ale, a beer which was no doubt about £10.00 a bottle and which I had been preciously refusing to open for years on account of nobody else I knew owning one. Here are the "highlights" of our increasingly tangential musings on a much anticipated drink:

Beefy:  its not that dark...

Dave: lots of carbonation which is always a good sign, 

Beefy: ooh God it smells nice! (note, this is a professional beer sommelieres phrase). 

Dave: ooh! That's not bad at all. 

Beefy: orange as well, in a really really good way, that's good its ever so slightly ascorbic which is brilliant, because its actually quite sweet. There's definitely orange in there. 

(I think this is why no-one writes blogs entirely from transcribed reviews. I mean, who is this guy?)

Dave: very floral, quite well balanced, for its strength you'd expect some sort of punch there. It is very mellow and I suppose that's what the brewer would want to achieve with an aged beer. Ooh with a bit of a candy follow through,. 

Beefy: its a really accomplished mix of sort of orange and then there's a kind of candy sort of a flavour and also a little dry bitterness but thats not as strong as you would expect.....

Dave:  its got good depth, its got a deal of fruit to it, I would have expected a bit more but nevertheless its a good beer, 

Beefy: I think that you expect it to be dark for a start, and expecting more kind of dark malt and you think of Harveys old ale from the same county as Dark Star - its more like a Belgian to me

Dave: It probably epitomises the expectation versus delivery point. It does seem to have altered a little bit,  there are notes there that weren't there before but nevertheless its not the full package.

Beefy : I like it but like you say its not what I was expecting it to be,  its expected to be a smooth malty dark beer and its not, but its still good.

And finally, with increasingly ponderous assessments - the conclusions!

Dave: Its between Crazy Donkey and the Nogne Brown 

Beefy: its a tie between Red Donkey and Crazy donkey and Marmoset.

Dave: Marmoset, on a  blow for blow account because it delivers much more than you expect.... 

Beefy: Crazy Donkey has a lot to it, its incredibly impressive but does tail off to the end a little, the Red Donkey I could drink all night basically and Marmoset is just a victory of delivery over expectation; and expectation is the key.

Dave: tonight has been exceptionally good because there are no beers there that are bad but there are some that deliver more than the others and I think given the range that we've tried that  is where we will get a winner and.......

Beefy:  Marmoset could be the winner....?

Dave: it gets my vote!

Beefy: in which case I go for that; Marmoset beer of the day, donkeys red and silver and Nogne imperial brown and Coalition all brilliant but actually Marmoset is more ballsy, it does more than you expect it to do, it confounds your expectations and therefore, Marmoset is the winner.

For reference, prior to tasting the last two beers here are our top four beers.

Me: 

1. Santorini Red Donkey

2. Blue MonkeyMarmoset

3. Ilkley Dinner ale

4. Santorini Crazy Donkey

Dave :

1. Santorini Crazy Donkey 

Equal 2nd: Shepherd Neame IPA/Blue Monkey Marmoset

Equal 3rd: Red donkey/Tatton Obscure

4. Santorini Yellow Donkey

I'm not sure whet this tells us, apart from suggesting that the limbic brain which is possibly more prevalent in simian and ape thought processes (I'm making this up by the way but it sound convincing...) helps us to identify beers named after monkeys as the best...?

Or, alternatively, it might not....

Wee Beefy 

Three newcomers

Hello,

     amidst the debris of a roller-coaster week of wild excesses and celebrations, some notable green shoots have appeared. As happened around this time last year, Sheffield is once more to gain a few additions. As have I....

First on the register is a specialist beer shop opening on Abbeydale Road called Hop Hideout. The Vintedge building at number 444 houses an antiques and collect-ables shop, in which is a small unit, as well as a shop on the side next to the Broadfield pub which is to be a pop up cafe. The beer business is the brainchild of Jules and Will, who have assembled  a fairly impressive rosta of bottles to sell to a public which they hope, and I suspect will be, thirsty for interesting bottled beers.

With Stanmore Boss opening soon in Sharrow and Beer Central in the Moor markets hot on its heels, and with stalwarts the Archer Road Beer Stop and the Dram Shop clocking up several decades trading between them, Sheffield consumers could well find themselves spoilt for choice by the range of ales on offer, and soon, by the different places they can purchase them. And why not, since with the exception of the Sainsbury's beer hunt (assuming all the ales are stocked in the Sheffield branches, which they never seem to be), plus a handful of curios from Tesco and Waitrose, the supermarkets haven't shown much interest in having evolving ranges or selling something a bit unusual.

Whcih is good news since most micro breweries can't produce enough for the behemothic bully boys so that ought to leave the market open for them to produce and sell small quantities of quality bottled products to equally small independent retailers.

And Hop Hideout is certainly small. Perfectly filling the tiny room in Vintedge the hideout boasts shelving for what I estimate would be 100 bottles, with understated and (gleefully for me) black decor, featuring iconic Magic Rock advertisements, which make it seem cosy and, well, hidden. The shop officially opens today from 12.00 - here is a link to their blog which also has links to all their social media, for further details.

One thing that will be interesting about this new clutch of beer shop babies will be the prices. Its too early to comment on Hop Hideout's pricing policies as they were still formulating them last night but thinking of established specialist beer shops outside Sheffield, and the bottled beer range in places like the Tap and DAda and the Old House, there seems to be rather distasteful love of overcharging. I understand the gamble - that the sheer uniqueness or rarity will persuade customers to dutch their usual price expectations - but this rouse is very misleading and could, indeed should, result in retailers being bitten on the bum. Not literally...

Which subject nicely leads me to another clutch of newcomers - this time in the form of some other Bokkuls. Of bowze. Which came by magic flying elephant all the way from the island of Santorini.

At the invitation of Chala I was offered the chance to buy half a mixed case of donkey beers form the island's Santorini Brewing Company. Initial interest was sparked by the idea that the beer was actually made by donkeys but alas this was a fanciful flight from sense. Of course it wasn't. It was made by men on an island with almost no natural soutce of almost all the ingredients required to make beer. Cue costs...

Without immersing you in the sordid details its fair to say the initial price quoted by Santorini Brewing Company, which I agreed to "against my better judgement" was, in reality, even higher. The main sticking point was the shipping, which added a very hefty charge onto the tab, not helped by our having such a small order. Oh, and there was the cost in worry - because I'd never drunk a donkey beer in my life. In any sense of the words.

To her credit Chala correctly identified the beers as being very nice indeed - the Yellow Donkey reminds me of the almost unfindable Columba wheat beer which I love - but they chuffing want to be nice considering the cost....

 The beers are unfiltered and unpasteurised and frighteningly easy to drink - but unlike old style Greek beers, they are packed full of ingredients and flavours. I have tried the Yellow and Red Donkey and have one of each left to share with Davefromtshop along with a 750ml bottle of Crazy Donkey which is a 6.5% IPA. On the basis of the other beers tried and the excellent produce of Septem and Volkan I'm expecting a very tasty brew - its just a shame that, irrespective of shipping costs, the Donkey Brewery appear to be having a giraffe....

Mt third trio is just one. This will make sense I promise. Mr Stephens, the multi millionaire pub magnate, has now added a preposterous third venue to his unstoppable, ever growing, pub monopoly. Three! I ask you! Three pubs in Sheffield...he virtually runs all of them...(see "Thornbridge"). The latest boozer to get the Mr Andrew treatment is the Three Tuns on Silver Street Head in the city centre.

An iconic building featuring an interesting internal layout and which seemingly has always sold eal ale, the Tuns is a Sheffield institution. Not in a mental hospital way you understand, but in that it seems to have a place in the hearts of plenty of drinkers in the Steel city. Great news then that the place has received a tidy up and started selling brownies (I realise the sale of brownies alone is not the only prerequisite to a pub being good...) and has continued selling real ales.

Last night's secret reopening (?) featured some fine ales including two from Raw Brewery. Myself and Miss N both opted for the Dark Peak Stout which was on excellent form and decent value for the centre at £3.00 a pint. Plans afoot which I have secured access to via torture and surveillance include not changing very much really, and continuing to sell things that are already sold.

Knowing from first hand experience how excellent the Closed Shop has become and the Rutland has remained it looks like a positive development that the Three Tuns is to be an Andrew-inn. However, for once, not as a direct result of too much beer, I actually don't have many details about this development. So  heartily recommend you pop down and take a look at the pub for yourself.

Cheers!

Wee Beefy