Golden Pint Awards 2012

I've always considered the Golden Pint Awards to be a great bit of fun, even if it is only really observed by our own little beery world. I think it's a great opportunity to give a shout out to the brewers and others in the industry that really deserve it, so without further babbling, here's my list for 2012...


Best UK Draught Beer: Hawkshead Windermere Pale. runner-up Roosters Fort Smith.

Best UK Bottled Or Canned Beer: Oakham Green Devil. runner-up  Moor Hoppiness.

Best Overseas Draught Beer: Oscar Blues Dales Pale Ale. runner-up Nogne-O Oaked Sunturn brew.

Best Overseas Bottled Or Canned Beer: Flying Dog Kujo. runner-up Brewfist Caterpillar.

Best Overall Beer: Oakham Green Devil. runner-up Goose Island Bourbon County Stout.

Best Pumpclip Or Label: Rukus Brewing Hoptimus Prime. runner-up Pipeworks Brewing Ninja vs Unicorn. (just look at them!!)

Best UK Brewery: Ilkley Brewery. runner-up Hawkshead Brewery.

Best Overseas Brewery: Stone. runner-up Mikkeller.

Pub/Bar Of The Year: ARCADIA Headingley, Leeds. runner-up North Bar.

Beer Festival Of The Year: Leeds International Beer Festival at Leeds Town Hall.

Supermarket Of The Year: Sainsburys down the road from us - for consistently having a crap selection of beer and thusly not competing with us!

Independent Retailer Of The Year: Beer Ritz of course!

Online Retailer Of The Year: Beer Paradise.

Best Beer Book Or Magazine: Melissa Cole - Let Me Tell You About Beer.

Best Beer Blog Or Website: Tandleman. runner-up Real Ale Reviews.

Best Beer Twitterer: Melissa Cole. runner-up Kristy McCready.

Best Online Brewery Presence: Thornbridge.

Food And Beer Pairing Of The Year: Applewood Smoked Cheese and Moor Amoor Peated Porter from the Beer Ritz beer-and-cheese-off hosted by Leigh.

In 2013 I'd Most Like To See: More UK Breweries making Imperial Stouts!

I guess that's all for now. Let the chaos and heavy drinking of the Christmas and New Year season commence!!

Do Brewers Know, Or Want To Know??

We've all had an instance of having a bad bottle of beer before. I know I've certainly chucked a couple of beers down the drain in my time, be it because it was infected, flat or just not very good. But the ugly question of what to do about it when it happens has been popping up in my head for the past few days...

Do you quietly slag off the beer on twitter hoping that the brewery won't see your tweet...?

Do you actually tell the brewery, on twitter or otherwise...?

Do you take it on the chin and accept that this is now part of "crafty craft beer culture"...?

Or do you (go to an extreme in my opinion) and not buy beer from that brewery again...?

We get bottles brought back to the shop from time to time (it's actually very rare) and we obviously give a refund. When it comes to a case of beer that's infected the brewery is usually informed and it is replaced or refunded, but when it's a single bottle would they like to know..?

I suspect that the brewers would actually like to be told.. or would they? I'm not a commercial brewer so I wouldn't really know. Also, I know myself, telling a brewery that I had a bad bottle from them would be quite embarrassing.. It smacks of me trying to say; "I had a crap beer from you, I want a free one now!". I think this is what some others might think and so, just take it on the chin and chalk it up to a bad bottle and move on without saying anything.

I've also heard some conspiracies about brewers purposely putting out beer that they know isn't up to their standards.. I didn't really pay this any mind, but thinking about it, all these new breweries that are starting up and have a hard time of it on the cash terms, if they make a big batch of beer and it's got a slight fault do they A; sell it and know that someone will drink it, or B; chuck it down the drain and lose a hefty sum of money which is quite vital to a new brewery? This is probably over thinking things a little too much, but I still think consistency is one of the most important things in beer when it comes to customer loyalty.

Another thing that's really bothered me lately about consistency is bottle labels. Now every now and then we'll get a case of beer without any labels on. This obviously happens when a case from the fermentation room gets mixed up or something similar. This problem is very usually quickly fixed. We'll give the brewery a DM, and until now all brewers have been very polite about sending us a sheet of labels which we put on ourselves.

More often than not unfortunately though, it's the odd one or two bottles in a case that don't have a label on. It would be a little pedantic to go asking the brewery to mail us one label.. or would it?

It's really difficult to sell a bottle of beer without a label. Really. Not to mention possibly illegal? Most of the time they go in the pound bin, which is very damaging to the brewery from a customers point of view. "What beer is this?" they ask.. "Why doesn't it have a label?" to which answers are given but looked upon like it's a bit of a poor show.

I know quality control is a very high priority in every brewery, but when it's coming up to the busiest time of the year, it's not a time to rush things and make simple mistakes, they end up costing a lot more, in my view.

What Makes A Good Whisky

You can find a lot of comparisons and quite a few similarities between breweries and distilleries these days. It's not just brewers who compete with each other for titles... For instance, lots of breweries like to make beers as strong as possible. Some distillers like to make whisky as strong as possible. Some breweries like to make a beer with the most IBUs in the world. Some distillers like to produce the most heavily peated whiskies in the world. Some breweries and distillers like to produce the world's most expensive beers and whiskies... the list goes on, but there is something you can take from this.

When it comes to asking the question of what makes a good whisky the answer is always going to be one which is based on a personal level. One persons good Scotch might not fit into another persons good Scotch; for instance, I really don't like Laphroaig, but I know plenty of people that do.

Just as "what is craft beer" is seen to be answered on a personal level by most people, what makes a good whisky is also going to be answered on a personal level. I do have a good rule of thumb (which I stole off Zak) when it comes to identifying a good beer though. It all comes down to drinkability for me. If it's going to be a good beer it has to be a beer which delivers the second time round. How many times have you told yourself; "It's good, but not as good as the first time I had it..." I know I have many times. Maybe this is to do with us big-ing the beer up in our heads or maybe it's not.

I think the mark of a really good whisky is one that you want to come back to time and time again.

Sure you can get a whisky which is stupidly strong, or ridiculously flavour packed, and while these might be very 'good' whiskies, I've never really been that drawn to them, and I certainly only drink them here and there. It's pretty difficult to be impartial though and actually identify the difference between a good whisky and a whisky I just really like. This is where I think the drinkability comes back into it. This is still a personal opinion, but I think a whisky which you can have a few drams of without it destroying your throat or making you hit the floor is a much better whisky.

It's very often that the entry level whiskies from distilleries are the ones I most favour. Look toward Edradour 10yr, Highland Park 12yr. Bowmore 12yr and Ardbeg 10yr. Calling them the standard whiskies that the distilleries make would be doing them a great diservice, because they're anything but 'standard', but these are the whiskies I often go for.

Don't get me wrong I do love my crazy whiskies. The pictures I've added alongside here are deliberately whiskies I wouldn't drink much of, but that's not to say I wouldn't appreciate them, not at all. The thing is though, it's always the entry level whiskies I find myself coming back to, because of their drinkability, and I think it's that that makes them good whiskies.


Speaking of good whisky, I thought this was a fantastic (but a little expensive) idea!

Bradford Cockerel

It's back to Roosters brewery this week for another interesting looking bottled beer. Roosters bottles are rarer than hen's teeth round here, and when they do show themselves on our shelves they don't roost for long! In fact the case of this beer we got into the shop sold out in a matter of hours...

Transatlanticism is a hop forward Porter coming in at 7.3%. It was brewed in collaboration with David Bishop, who took part in the Rooster's home brew competition, with Transatlanticism being the winning entry.

The aroma is rich and roasted with hints of toasted oats and dry hay. There's also a lot of fruitiness about it too with orange marmalade notes and a little sherbet citrusy/spritsy quality. It looks fantastic in a cleanly polished glass, almost like a big round solid block of jet.

The first thing you notice about the flavour is the big roasted barley hit that rolls across your tongue. This mellows out leaving a gently bitter taste with dry coffee, some earthy essence and just the right amount of warming alcohol so you don't knock it back too quickly. If you look a little deeper you do get the big presence of the hop bruisers coming out, with big names like Cascade, Chinook and Simcoe adding to the dry fruity punch. More dry hopping on top of that with Cascade and Centennial only adds to the hop profile.

As I was drinking the beer I didn't really think that it was a hop forward Porter though... I didn't think it had enough body about it. On further evaluations though I realised I've never actually had a beer which has described itself as a 'hop forward Porter' so i've got nothing to judge it against in terms of style, so that argument is rather redundant. I guess the best thing to do was judge this as a very nice beer, and at the same time, something a little different from Roosters brewery.

It would be great to see a few more of their bottles on our shelves now...    

A Night With A Rooster

Arcadia real ale and wine bar in Headingly hosted a Meet the Brewer night a couple of days ago with some of our local favourites - Rooster brothers Ol & Tom Fozard. Now I didn't exactly manage to get down for the talk they gave, which I heard was very well received, but I made sure I got down for all the beers they had put on show.

Buckeye 3.5%
The first one I opted for was the most obvious choice for a starter, but not a Roosters beer that I'm actually familiar with. Buckeye is a pale gold session Bitter with an inviting straw/grassy/citrusy aroma - think lemon and hay too. On initial sips (gulps) you notice a light bitterness among a very soft and floral body. It's not that light for the % though. The gentle malt backbone which is supported by new world hops gives a really nice body and mouthfeel. Finish it off with a classic Roosters bitter sweet finish and it's a real good refresher. A beer that can easily be supped in five minutes with you going back for another 3 or 4 without worrying about the next day. A great starter.

Fort Smith 5.0%
Next along the line of pumps was Fort Smith IPA, which is a little bit of something special! I've had this brew a few times before, but it's not a beer that I can see getting old anytime soon. It's only a shade darker than the Buckeye and the five big name hops used in the beer push the aroma in the general juicy hop direction. You can tell from the first sip how much flavour this beer really has - it's a hop bomb powerhouse, but at the same time still has that classic soft and floral Roosters quality. It's got some dry sherbet and tonnes of orange rind. It's really juicy, but very bitter too, a bit like a orange and grapefruit juice mix. It's a bit of a strange IPA but not in a bad way. It seems to be very new world-ish but at the same time you know you're drinking an English IPA.

Londinium 5.5%
For the last of what was on show, Londinium coffee Porter really finished things off nicely. It's a pitch black beer with sweet mocha aromas. On further analysis I get hints of chocolate and a little dusty dry oak. It's got a really nice thick rich malt body which gives a perfect mouthfeel. It's a beer packed out with flavour; lots of vanilla, roasted coffee beans and oaky/woody notes - I can agree with Tom when he says it makes a great nightcap.

Rooster Brewery seem to be going from strength to strength these days. I think their pump clips might even be winning me over when I can see them all side by side like they were. After hosting a homebrew competition they went on to produce the winning entry on their trial plant to be put in bottles. We got 12 of these bottles at Beer Ritz. They took about 2 hours to sell out.... I'm pretty confident that's the quickest we've ever sold a case of beer. They've also had what looks like great success in relaunching the Outlaw Brewing arm of the company, for more info on this pop over to Leigh's blog to get the downlow. I'm looking forward to seeing what they come out with next.