Wednesday, December 31, 2008

I've got a good feeling about this!

Left 4 Dead is my Game of the Year 2008 and here's why - coming soon!

Beers, Brewers and Beer Festivals of the Year 2008

This year has been a fruitful one for me on the drinking front. Due to Ratebeer being down for most of November, I'm not up to date with my rates, but I estimate that I sampled close to 800 new beers in 2008. There were some exceptional brews among them and if 2009 is even as half as good to me, I'll be a happy man.

Four beer festivals that I attended stand out this year. In February, I was able to attend the Battersea Beer Festival for the first time since 2004 as I wasn't attending Casual Connect in Amsterdam, which had caused me to miss the previous three years. I had a great time hanging out with Maria, Ang, Mes and some of the other Ratebeerians. I had a half dozen superb milds during the festival but the highest score I gave out was for the Alvinne Balthazar (a bottled Belgian ale).

August brings GBBF, the Great British Beer Festival, staged in Earls Court. I took the whole week off work and was able to relax and drink my way through some wonderful beer in the always-pleasant company of the Ratebeer crew. I got through 100 beers in the week and it's very hard to pick a single best one from the top half dozen. De Molen Tsarina Ezra and Lost Abbey Angel's Share are both incredible beers but for something you could drink every day, I'd say Brewdog Speedball. "Class A Strong Ale" indeed.


The following month saw the inaugral European Beer Festival in Copenhagen. This counts as my main holiday of the year I guess - I stayed in the stylish Hotel Fox with Maria and sallied forth to spend a nearly obscene amount of money on beer. I have so many good memories from the trip - standing outside Ølbutikken on a cold Saturday morning for the special Mikkeller "Six Pack" release (120 beer geeks drinking Beer Geek Breakfast for breakfast - superb!) , finally getting my hands on some Kaggen Stormaktsporter again after losing my GBBF 2007 rates, Royce's giant measure of Mikkeller Black, the deserted Heineken bar (with its stunning barmaids), the 'moshpit' around Stand 28 at each Mikkeller hourly release, Maria's tales of her night out with Christian and Jens, drinking 8% American Double IPA for breakfast, playing table football with FatPhil, paying £5 a pint for rubbish beer in the hilarious Scottish theme pub during the post-festival come-down and enjoying a final beer at the Norrebro bar in the airport with Ang. This was the festival of the year for me - outstanding beer, superb company and a lovely atmosphere. Choosing a beer of the festival is very hard, so I'm going to recommend Amager Herr Frederiksen, De Molen Steen & Been and Avery The Maharaja, on top of the Kaggen and anything from Bryggeriet Djævlebryg (see below).


Last but not least, the quietly excellent Eastbourne Beer Festival in October. I picked this festival as it gave me an excellent opportunity to catch up with Roger from the Beachy Head Brewery. He didn't let me down - giving an enjoyable talk on the brewery (with Charlie), showing off his elite Morris Dancing skills and taking home the award for Sussex microbrewed beer of the festival for Legless Rambler! It was a very well-run festival - lots of seating, decent entertainment, a great selection of beers in very good condition, filling food and a good vibe. More info on how it went can be found here. My personal favourite beer of the festival was Welton's Horsham Old Ale.


Picking a brewery of the year is actually easier than choosing a beer of the year, especially as I'm minded to choose a brewery that I wasn't aware of twelve months ago. That said, I'm still going to go with two choices - Bryggeriet Djævlebryg of Copenhagen and Brewdog of Fraserburgh.

Bryggeriet Djævlebryg (literally 'The Brewery Devil's Brew', but I think 'The Devil's Brewery' is a better translation in terms of sense) stood out in the Copenhagen programme with their stylish logo and their unique twist on a charity beer. I worked my way through their restrained seven beer range and can say that there isn't a bad beer among them. For the sheer strength-in-depth quality of their line-up, they've earned the title of brewery of the year. Here's to more from the purveyors of "Satan's Good Ale" in 2009.


On the other side of the North Sea, Brewdog ended up in the headlines when the Portman Group (the drinks industry's own watchdog) attacked them over the wording on some of their labels. However, you should already be following them as they are (in my opinion) showing the way that a new UK micro should conduct themselves. Superb beers backed with bags of attitude, great branding and a sense of adventure. Not content with producing superb Imperial Stouts barrel-aged in whisky casks, they also make very decent amber ales and lagers, not to mention a mild, Edge, that Ratebeer (and I) currently consider the best in the world! They kick off 2009 with an exciting plan to make a true British IPA and able to celebrate a victory for common sense over the Portman Group. More power to their elbow in 2009!


I enjoy reading maeib's Beer of the Month posts on his blog and I'm going to try and post in a similar fashion here in 2009 but for now, here are a few more beers that caught my eye in 2008 and which you really should check out. I may come back to some of these and talk a bit more about them if I get the time. All the beers I recommend in the festival section make this list as well, of course.

Session beers

Alehouse NCR21
Bowman Quiver
Bowman Swift One
Mikkeller Draft Bear (well, I consider it sessionable!)

Milds

Brewdog Edge
Hobson's Mild

Strong dark beers (porters & stouts)

Harvey's Gunpowder (yes, finally got hold of some - thanks Ang!)
Thornbridge St. Petersburg
Brewdog Paradox Smokehead

IPAs

Stone Ruination
Mikkeller Simcoe IPA
Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA

Sours

Phil's Wild Mild (Valley Brew Stockton Sour)
Mikkeller Blueberry Lambic
Rodenbach Vin de Cereale

Other

St. Sylvestre 3 Monts
Ayinger Weiss Bock
Kunkel Alter Kahlgrunder Speierling Apfelwein ;-)

Special beer moment of the year: people who know me well will know that on election days, I like to stay up all night and watch the results come in (while drinking) and I thoroughly enjoyed watching Barack Obama's historic victory on November 4th/5th. I toasted the moment the result became offical with a large bottle of Stone Arrogant Bastard and it tasted fantastic! Interesting note: the beer served at Obama's victory party came from well-regarded local Chicago brewery Goose Island. McCain opted for Budweiser courtesy of his wife's distribution company for his event. Says it all really!


Wrapping things up, here are the beers that I will be seeing the New Year in with. I'm going to finish off 2008 with bottles of Brewdog Zeitgeist and Wye Valley Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout and then start 2009 with a bottle of Avery New World Porter. It's a new world out there, baby so here's to drinking more fantastic beers in 2009!