My ten favourite breweries that I forgot to put in my top ten favourite breweries

As is already tiresomely well established, I love top tens and indeed lists of any type.  They keep me off the street.

Now, in last week's issue I listed my top ten breweries and was happy to do so.  Unfortunately it seems that in the course of that top ten I a) took leave of my senses and b) have subsequently remembered some more breweries that I really like, but which I failed to include, but which I now want to pay homage to, in whatever cockeyed route is still available to me.  What an appalling opening to a blog post this has been so far.  Genuinely terrible.  >>>Fast forward>>>

So then, here are 10 more outstanding breweries, who I love for my own reasons, and who could quite easily have been interchanged with any of the previous top 10*.  These ones are in no particular order. 

i) Stone

Original Yank powerhouse brewery.  I tried Arrogant Bastard and Ruination in 2004 and was blown away.  More recently in 2011, Sublimely Self Righteous was the first good Black IPA I ever tried.

ii) Great Divide

Can't believe I didn't include this lot in the original list, not least because my two highest rated beers of all time, were both brewed by them - Hercules and Yeti.  Wowsers.

iii) Andechs

Fabulous Munich** brewery - great lagers and weisse beers.

iv) Oakham

Another headshaker.  Cannot believe that I forgot to include the people who gave me Citra and Bishops Farewell, in my original list.  Green Devil is a new favourite. 

v) Buxton

I just cannot resist Buxton.  Such a sweet hop blend in all their beers.  Their Black IPA is magnificent, and so is Axe Edge.

vi) Brodies

Wonderful London microbrewery.  So fresh and full of experimentation, and yet so weighted down with finesse and quality. 

vii) Everards

Yes, they are from Leicester, so they sneak in through the local connection, and through happy memories of childhood.  But, in all fairness, Tiger is a brilliant ruddy Bitter.

viii) Crouch Vale

They predate the 'craft revolution', but their attention to hops fits well into this new paradigm.  Brewers Gold was a classic back in 2003, and they continue to churn out hoppy golden treats. 

ix) Paulaner

A wide variety of German proficiency is available from this giant.  Their Hefe is a classic, but it's their Roggen which is, for me, a classic beer sadly absent from these shores, in recent times.

x) Dark Star/Marble/Bristol Beer Factory/Magic Rock/Moor

Lists are always unsatisfactory (and yet I love them).  There will always be breweries I'm not able to include, but whom I love.  Here are a fistful of massively brilliant UK names, who deserve to be namechecked in any list of top breweries. 

I may write shortly about the lovely story which featured in the Birmingham Post.




*perhaps. To be fair to the previous top 10, they deserved their exalted status.
**not actually based in Munich, but close-ish.

 

MBA - State of the Dan Nation

The other day, or yesterday (whenever it was), I pinned up a quick note about the state of the beer scene in Birmingham now (as in ‘now’), plus a vision of where we are headed and whether things are looking good.  Which they are. 

But what about me?  Where am I located on the graph?  Well, I clocked up 221 rates on Ratebeer so far this year, which is a healthy number.  Travel-wise, I've managed very enjoyable visits to London and Sheffield, and popped home to the Swan andRushes - all of which have reinforced (quite thickly), my excitement about beer and my passion to continue seeking out the very best. 

But. 

I can see trouble on the horizon, and it is this: I am starting (ever so slightly) to be priced out of the craft beer revolution. 

I have a job, I pay my bills etc, so I am not claiming poverty by any means; BUT the general state of the economy means there is less disposable income at my, err disposal than previously.  In fact the economy might not even be the principal factor in limiting my pocket money.  It's more likely something to do with the fact that I am no longer a young, thrusting urbanite, instead, I am grown up (sort of) and have responsibilities.  Being a parent invariably requires a different allocation of financial resources, with beer ranking lower on the family spending plan, than e.g. clothes for one's child (me and my mixed up priorities, eh?).  But anyway, less disposable income, coupled with the very real increase in the cost of today's 'premium' beer products, means that I end up with less bang for my buck.  Like it or not, good beer is an expensive business these days***.

This is frustrating for a number of reasons, but mainly because I feel that with over a decade's experience of hunting for great beer 'under my belt', I now know a thing or two about quality, style etc etc.  It's just that I can't ruddy well afford to keep my knowledge up to date.  In my brain of brains (honestly) I do know that a barrel-aged imperial stout will be more interesting and flavoursome than a Polish Mocne, but if I want to have a couple of drinks whilst watching The Big Question, with NickyCampbell on TV, what am I more likely to buy?  Which of those two can I afford to buy?*

There is obviously a sliding scale of cost, with lots of great UK beer available at perfectly reasonable prices (yes I'm talking about Bristol Beer Factory, Buxton, Summer Wine and so forth), but there are also an increasing number of products with price-boosting features - i) limited editions, ii) higher strength beers, iii) imported beers, iv) super trendy beers, v) collaborations, vi) all of the above.  With my own twisted logic I can** say YES to a £6 Nogne #100, which is a very strong beer, flown over the fjords from expensive Norway (plus I already know how delicious it is); but I am always going to struggle to say YES to a Brewdog/Nogne/Mikkeller collaboration for £17, no matter how fantastic it might be.  {I also hate having to cough up for 750ml bottles, which I might not like or might have to share, but that is an unrelated grumble.}

In short, I have to limit my involvement in the craft beer scene, due to rising costs.  I'm not all in; I'm a % of the way in.  Am I the only one?  How do other beer fans on a budget cope?  If I lived in London for example I would want to be in Craft Beer Co or Euston Tap every day sampling halves of £4.95 foreign DIPAs, but I wouldn't be able to. 

Depressing though it is, maybe I was more ignorant and blissful, when Birmingham was more rubbish for beer.  Being confronted with good beer, with increasing ease and frequency, is turning me green with envy.  Gosh, that is bad karma on my part.

Hence the ‘Second Summer of German Beer’, which I keep trailing, and honestly will explain very shortly. 

*you know the answer to this.  It's called a rhetorical question.

**just about.

*** with a few notable exceptions, e.g. Brodies

4 dark beers and DownDIPA/Eurovision

Sometimes the joy of beer is in sharing.  The best case scenario is to share the beer experience in 'real time' either with friends in the pub, or via the medium of off-licence, at home (also with friends).

However, for someone like me with burgeoningly anti-social habits, the Internet offers a remarkably pain free way of sharing good beer experiences, with some complete strangers/friends who feel obliged to read your blog.

Here is a quick resume of my most recent 'good' beer experience.  Actually, I'll give you my two most recent best experiences... how's that for a BOGOF?

i) 19th May AKA Champions League Final.

This evening saw four dark beers stashed in the fridge, and supped whilst Chelsea put Munich away on penalties.  In fact, because I'm rather a slow drinker, this session probably lasted until well after the Chelsea fans had downed their last stein of Augustiner Helles in Munchen.

Things kicked off with Buxton Imperial Black IPA, an absolutely belting beast.  Hoppy, ashy, smooth with licorice and good, clean earth.  From that high point, it was a tough ask to top it.

But Magic Rock Dark Arts had a good stab at living up to Buxton's err blazing trail.  Dark Arts is une grande Stout: chiseled blocks of graphite, bobbing in a sea of blended hop and sweetness.

Next up a Brewdog Dogma - an example of the style which is known as a Scotch Ale.  What exactly is a Scotch Ale Dan?  Did the style originate in Scotland presumably, Dan? Err, well yes, but it's been popularised by our US craft-brewing cousins.  Dogma is everything which I profess to be err not necessarily enamoured with: thick, sweet, extremely malty, with not much hops.  But, this was very delicious; exceptionally smooth and compelling.  Another winner.  But hang on, could it be that I'm deliberately lauding a Brewdog beer, because I'm so delighted that they are opening a new bar in Birmingham?  Perhaps subconsciously.  But honestly the beer was great.  Great news about Brewdog opening a bar in Birmingham, by the way.  Can't wait until August.

Fourth and [thankfully*] last of the evening, was a Bristol Beer Factory Raspberry Stout.  Now this was plainly a nice beer, but I'm afraid my tastebuds were shot by this point.  In fact my sense of reason had wandered down Hagley Road some time previously.**  It didn't hit the heights of the others.

* With ABVs of 7.5%, 6%, 7.4% and 7.7% respectively, I was at full capacity.
** Please see above sentence and try to pay more attention.

Buxton won the night.

ii) 26th May AKA Eurovision

Oh yes - Eurovision.  But oh, not just Eurovision, also DownDIPA, the Campaign for Really Good Beer's celebration of Double India Pale Ales.

Not quite as socially unacceptable as the evening detailed above, this night saw the consumption of three beers of 7.2%, 9% and 4.9% content.

First up was Ageless, a very tasty hopfiend from Redwillow.  This was more of a single IPA, rather than a double, but that's missing the point; the point being that it was a very tasty, hoppy, orange rock and parma violet accented beer.

Then came a genuine DIPA - Summer Wine Maelstrom.  For those who need to know, Summer Wine are a really very good UK 'craft' brewery from Holmfirth (yes, the place where they filmed Last of the Summer Wine). Maelstrom was thin, sticky and packed with very bitter, oily alcoholic menace. Excellent.

At that point I was sensible (for once) and opted out of any further DIPAs.  I had a Dunkelweizen instead.  Maisels Weisse Dunkel in fact.  Yes, it suffered in comparison with the two previous beers, lacking their hoppy, high content flavour.  But it was nice to relieve some happy Germanic memories of Summer's gone by.  More proof that this Summer will be the 'Second Summer of German beer' (which I will explain another time, but basically means that I am aiming to drink lots of delicious German beers this Summer, in some futile attempt to regain my fast fading heyday).

Any way, the Maisels was smooth, nutty and full of frothy sweetness.  One day soon I might tell you my top ten Dunkelweizens***

Eurovision is obviously a hoot, and the beer was equally good.  Here's to the next DownDIPA.

*** If you are particularly naughty.      

   

Saturday's stolen 'crawl' and a craft beer checklist

Well it was stolen, but not a crawl.  I left work yesterday, pinched borrowed 5 bob off leather-clad chum Malcy, legged it straight to the Welly and necked two halves in ten minutes, as follows:

Black Iris Bitter - a proper old-skool, 'real man' type Bitter, which makes no concessions to fruity transatlantic flavour, just a wallop of grizzled UK hops and chiselled sandpaper malt.  It was alright though.  Interestingly enough, having tried all five beers from this newish Derby-based microbrewer, I am now their top rater in the World.  Consider personal trumpet thoroughly parped.

Second was a new beer from Oakham - always a pleasant sight to greet a weatherbeaten beer fan, upon entering a boozer.  This one, entitled 'Preacher' was a suntanned bronze colour, with a luscious aroma of tropical fruit.  Taste was right upfront in the 'delicious mango and passionfruit' department and as balanced as my current account* throughout.  Really good from Oakham.  As always.  Which got me thinking....

How many of the top, top UK breweries' products actually make it to Birmingham on a regular basis?

Oakham - We are lucky to have one of their own pubs serving all their best stuff, plus their beers always make it to the Welly.

Crouch Vale - they pop up in the Welly, fairly frequently.

Moor - Nicholsons carry them, so four chances for their beers to appear in the City centre.

Brewdog - no bar in Birmingham as yet, and their stuff hardly ever pops up on cask, except occasionally in the Bleagle.  Nowhere in Brum serves craft beer on keg, so we are fairly scuppered for Brewdog generally.  Their bottles make it to Stirchley Wines; as do >>>

The Kernel - no pubs in Brum take these bottled masterpieces.  Thankfully Stirchley Wines are doing Birmingham proud.

Magic Rock - to my knowledge, none of their beers have ever appeared in a Birmingham pub, which is nothing short of a scandal, given their reputation as one of the UK's hottest new brewers.  Thankfully Stirchley Wines have just picked up their bottled range (are you noticing pattern here?).

Summer Wine - they very (very) occasionally pop up in the Welly - I've sampled them there twice. 

Thornbridge - pretty good coverage with Post Office Vaults, Wellington and the Nicholsons' pubs taking them.  Unfortunately no one serves their keg efforts, so we have never seen Versa, Italia or Kill Your Darlings, to name but three.

Dark Star - these appear in the Welly with almost acceptable frequency.

Brodies - never glimpsed in Brum.

Redwillow - spotted twice in the Welly by my good self.

Marble - occasional visitors to the Welly, but a full bottled range is at... wait for it.... Asda Stirchley Wines.

Bristol Beer Factory - not spotted in any Brum pubs for a good wee while, luckily someone has some bottles for your delectation. 

Hard Knott - Stirchley only.

Hawkshead - interestingly enough, Wetherspoons are your best bet for these Cumbrian beauties.

Gargoyles - The Anchor is your best bet to try these Devonian treats on cask, which is the same story for...

Steel City - only spotted in the Spanker.

Camden Town - only Nicholsons have sported a beer from this lot so far, but then again, they are primarily keg only.

Buxton - yawn, I'm boring myself now ... these are spotted very occasionally in the Welly, but Stirchley take their bottled range.    

As a City, the end of term report reads "Must do better".  Beer fans like you and me must request these brewers' products and our band of dedicated landlords must seek them out. 



*perhaps more so actually.