Best UK Cask Beer
I.
Cheshire Brewhouse – Sorachi Ace
II.
Siren/Magic Rock/Beavertown - Rule of Thirds
III.
Bexar County – Tinto de Sepia con Miso
An honourable mention to must go to Axiom Brewery for ‘New Dawn’, which was utterly fantastic for a first brew.
Best UK Keg Beer
I.
Quantum – Stockport Sour
II.
Freedom - Bourbon BA Pilsner
III.
Buxton – Ace Edge
Best UK Bottled or
Canned Beer
I.
Burning Sky – Saison a la Provision (Chardonnay
Barrel Aged)
II.
Magic Rock - Unhuman Cannonball 2014
III.
Beavertown – Black Betty (Can)
Best Overseas Draught
I.
Brasserie Dupont - Saison Dupont Cuvee 2014
(Dry Hopped)
II.
Brewfist/De Molen – Beautiful & Strange
Best Overseas Bottled
or Canned Beer
I.
Prairie Artisan Ales – Prairie Ale
II.
G Schneider & Sohn – Mein Aventinus
Barrique (Tap X)
III.
Emmelise – Smoked Rye IPA
A
very honourable side note mention for Emmelise's BA Aceto Balsamico; the most frighteningly alpha sour
beer to have passed my lips this year, enough to put hairs on my already
considerately hairy chest!
Best collaboration
brew
I.
Magic Rock/Evil Twin – Pognophobia
II.
Elusive/Weird Beard – Lord Nelson
III.
Siren/Prarie - Ratchet
Hearts and minds may well have been won over
by the Buxton/Omnipollo Yellow Belly; however for my money Pognophobia was the
best of an excellent field of collaborative efforts this year. Simply a
classy take on a much underrepresented style of beer currently available from
the collective UK brewing scene. From first sip to the end this reveals
layer after layer of taste each one welcome and the dry hopping is not in any
obtrusive. This is a contender for cellaring for a few years to see how
exactly it evolves over time!
Best Overall Beer
Burning
Sky – Saison a la Provision (Chardonnay Barrel Aged)
With this opening salvo Mark Tranter neatly
laid out the blueprint of what was and is to come from Burning Sky; a saison
that is so accurate in its execution that it makes you think that maybe Belgium
as a whole has been annexed and moved wholesale to Sussex. To then take that and evolve it even further
ageing it in ex-chardonnay barrels adds a whole other level of complexity
again. I’ve seen this done a few times
since but never have they been quite as good!
Best Branding,
Pumpclip or Label
Buxton/Omnipollo
– Yellow Belly
As a beer Yellow Belly was all at once glorious,
perverse and so wrong it was right; the packaging however was on another level
completly and got a very healthy debate started on the message it was trying to
communicate. I’ve been a fan of the
Omnipollo artwork for a while now (I’ve been coveting their T-Shirts from a
distance for a few years) so to be able to get my hands something bourn of the
collaborative minds of these two excellent breweries made my year.
Best UK Brewery
Burning
Sky
Best Overseas Brewery
Emmelise
Under the direction of Kees Bubberman this
brewery has delighted and surprised for the last few years; I predict more of
the same from both Emmelise and Kees’ own new project next year.
Best New Brewery
Opening 2014
Atom
Brewery
Pub/Bar of the Year
The
Craven Arms
Birmingham has been slow on the uptake of good
beer; very much resting on its laurels for certainly the majority of recent
memory. However things have changed over
the last couple of years and leading the pack is this unassuming one room
boozer which has a killer selection of beer from select breweries around the
UK.
Best New Pub/Bar
Opening 2014
So many great places have opened this year and
I don’t think I’ve made it to any of them.
Still honourable mentions need to go to Northern Monk’s Refractory and Red
Willow’s new venture in Macclesfield; both of which are now etched on my
things to do list for 2015.
Best beer and food
pairing
Karkli
(@ChompKarkli) with
everything; discovered on chance at Birmingham Beer Bash this year this is a addictively
spicy crunchy snack that just works with everything.
Beer Festival of the
Year
Birmingham
Beer Bash… no beating about the
bush this year (also I didn’t get to IndyMan this year for comparison). This is hands down the most fun I had this
year, I’ve loved being involved in the development of the festival and all the
hard work feels worth it when people comment on a well delivered and conceived
beer list. The weather, the venue, the
breweries, all of the Beer Bash team and the punters all combined make it a joy
to be at.
Supermarket of the
Year
Due to the distinct lack of Booths anywhere
but the North West; Waitrose takes
this as the most improved beer range available consistently on their shelves.
All this without wandering into the needless territory of playing the
re-branding game (or latterly the ‘brewed for’ game).
Independent Retailer
of the Year
Having two of the best independent retailers
of beer in the UK located in Birmingham can sometimes feel like we’re
spoiled. Both are equally good at what
they do and have well considered ranges so this one goes to both Stirchley Wines and Cotteridge Wines.
Best Beer Book or
Magazine
Brew
Britannia (The Strange Rebirth of British Brewing)
Best Beer Blog or
Website
The
Mad Fermentationist (http://www.themadfermentationist.com/) a blog upon which I can spend many an hour daily
commuting whiling away the time. With Port 66 (http://www.port66.co.uk/) running a very close second.
Best Beer App
Untappd even though I don’t use it with nearly the
same fervour I used to.
Simon Johnson Award
for Best Beer Twitterer
Punnery aside there is only one way to follow ‘Otter’s Tears’ and ‘Craft Rope’ and that quite simply put is #TwattyBeerDoodles so step forward @BroadfordBrewer. Thought provoking, guffaw inducing simplicity in the same vein as walking into a packed bar to find Scoops himself with two computer monitors that he happened to come expressly to Birmingham to collect.
Best Brewery
Website/Social media
Magic Rock, Wild
Beer and Siren all get this as
they are the most readily socially active breweries that I have interacted with
this year. They all have fantastically easy
to navigate websites too, which is a bonus!
A special mention also to Buxton
for providing longitude, latitude and altitude on their website.
