New Adventures in Lye-Fi

With the increase in active breweries in the UK there is a line of thinking (one which I would support) that suggests that in order to survive brewers not only need to ensure quality across their craft but also give the public a reason to further talk about them.  The humble brewery tap is definitely one way in which a number of rising stars of brewing are achieving this.

Sadler's Brewery has been firmly established as part of the brewing scene in the Black Country.  Founded in 1900 in Oldbury to serve an estate of 12 pubs, the brewery and passion of Nathaniel Sadler has been passed  from generation to generation and is still thriving in its new home Lye near Stourbridge.  

Under the watchful eye of current Managing Director Chris Sadler the brewery has been going from strength to strength since 2004.  Bringing with him a keen eye for quality and a solid core range of beers, that can be found up and down the region and increasingly further afield.  In recent years this core range has grown with the introduction of a number of contemporary recipes being added to the cannon including a Black IPA 'Peaky Blinder', a double/imperial IPA 'Dr Hardwickes' and a grown up and very uninhibited imperial version of their classic 'Mud City Stout'.

Rumours of a brewery extension for Sadler's have been floating around the ether for a couple of years, so when not only an increase of of brewing length (from 10 bbl to 30 bbl at the new facility) but also a dedicated brewery tap was announced recently it grabbed my attention.

Having secured an invite the official opening event I headed along with Krishan from Stirchley Wines who I met on the train to Lye (the brewery and indeed the tap being a whole 30 second walk from the station).  Upon arrival we wandered up into the taphouse situated above the new brewery and having had a quick look around the very well presented bar before grabbing a couple of the Sadler's signature beers on offer.  The bar set up is well put together with 6 cask and 6 keg offerings available along with several fridges stuffed to the gills with beers from the UK (Siren, Mad Hatter and Pressure Drop amongst those represented) and further afield (Lervig, Mikeller, Evil Twin et al).  Stand out beers for the day being 'Boris Citrov' from Sadler's; a punchy pale ale hopped with a mix of American and English hops to give a rich citrus finish almost bordering on marmalade.  Of the bottled beers Siren's 'Smoke Signals' a dry hopped Berliner Weisse with a gentle smoke present in the carbonation. 

Having managed to grab a few minutes with Chris in-between his rushing around the bar on hosting duties.  He confirmed that plans for the old 10 barrel brewery were to use this to brew predominantly small batch beers in the vein of 'Dr Hardwick's Double IPA' and 'Imperial Mud City Stout'.  I then took the opportunity to have a wander around the new brewing setup with Chris' dad John Sadler who is just as enthusiastic about brewing and Sadler's place in the current scene.  The new 30 bbl set-up is in a word very impressive and gives massive scope for a number of directions for the brewery to go in, including a proposed line of kegged products for release in the near future.

All in all with this Sadler's are making a bold statement about how a brewery tap should be presented and as long as they continue to give the public at large a reason to go there long may it flourish.

Sadler's Brewhouse & Bar will be open Thu/Fri/Sat

Golden Pints 2014

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.

Golden Pints 2013

Golden Pints 2013 - @PolymathTim

Best UK Cask Beer

1.    Thornbridge – Otter’s Tears

2.    Marble – Decadence (2011)

3.    Offbeat – Dotty DIPA

Honourable mentions go to Salopian Brewery “Automaton”, Blackjack Brewery/Otherton Ales “Phoneticus” and Durham Brewery “Hellfire”

Best UK Keg Beer

1.    Wild Beer/Good George/Burning Sky - Schnoodlepip

2.    Siren Craft Brewing – Half Mast QIPA

3.    Magic Rock - Dark Arts (Soured In Bruichladdich With Raspberries)

4.    Hopcraft – Statement of Intent

Best UK Bottled or Canned Beer

1.    Beavertown – Barley Champagne

2.    Buxton Brewery – Stronge Extra Stout

3.    Magic Rock – Un Human Cannonball

4.    Quantum – Barleywine USA

Best Overseas Draught Beer

1.    Emelisse - White Label Barleywine (Buffalo Trace BA)

2.    Toccalomato – Zona Cessarini (Cask)

Best Overseas Bottled or Canned Beer

1.    De Molen - Bommen & Granaten (Bordeaux BA)

2.    De Struise – Tsjeeses (Port Barrel Aged)

3.    Duvel - Triple Hop 2013 (Sorachi)

Best Collaboration Brew

It’s always fantastic to see the UK brewing scene engage enthusiastically with the UK homebrewing scene, so when news filtered through that Weird Beard & Elusive Brew would be upscaling Nelson Saison, I immediately added it to my wants list.  Cue a thoroughly good day out in Macclesfield for the official launch as part of the Macc Triangle Twissup to get my hands on some.

Best Overall Beer

This has to go to Magic Rock – Salty Kiss (Gooseberry), for being one of the best all round reinterpretations of an existing style to hit bars this year.

Best Branding, Pumpclip or Label

Branding wise Wild Beer Co has been streets ahead of the curve this year, clean and massively informative as branding should be.

Best UK Brewery

Last year was undoubtedly the year Magic Rock dominated UK brewing, this year however a shock of southern breweries have proved to be hot on the North’s trail.  Honourable mentions should go to Partizan, Howling Hops, Weird Beard et al. But Siren Craft Brewing just edges it out, for putting out there some really quite fantastic beers.

Best Overseas Brewery

De Rooie Dop and Toccalomato are my nominations for this category.  The former for seemingly having everything in place for a brewery in its infancy and for creating a damn fine beer in their “Utrecht Strong Ale”.  The later for proving without a doubt that there is definitely a place for Italian beers at the table.

Best New Brewery Opening 2013

Hopcraft arrived with a bang and have continued down an uncompromising route since; it helps that in the brew team they have the irrepressible Gazza Prescott, and a perverse love of hops.  That aside though every single thing that I’ve had out of the brewery to date has been well conceived and delivered bags of flavour.

Pub/Bar of the Year

Port Street Beer House, an excellent ever changing line up of beers, great beery events, knowledgeable and helpful staff... What’s not to like?!?

Best New Pub/Bar Opening 2013

For simply proving that it’s the little pub that can: The Craven Arms, Birmingham; in less than 7 months Chris and Sharon have laid down the blueprint for how a pub in Birmingham should be operating in the current climate.

    

Beer Festival of the Year

This was always going to be a difficult one for me to make a fair nomination for without cries of nepotism being bandied around due to my involvement in the festival committee for a beer festival this year.  So in the spirit of fairness (and because I only attended two this year), I am going to make a joint award here to Birmingham Beer Bash and Indy Man Beer Con.  Both festivals to my mind are excellent examples of how the modern beer festival should be no divisive restrictions on the delivery of beer, just good simple celebrations of beer in all its many forms.  Throw into that mix the brewers behind the beers and you have the trappings of a true “beer festival”.

  

Supermarket of the Year

Say what you will about supermarkets and their general debasement of beer as a whole, but for me this year Sainsbury’s have gone the extra mile with their Great British Beer Hunt.  Okay so the eventual winner was far from surprising, but for putting together a pretty well spread shortlist they get my vote.

Independent Retailer of the Year

For general aesthetic feel this goes to Beermoth; on my singular visit there this year, I was impressed by the depth of the overall range of beers on offer.  From domestic to the more fanciful and exotic, all well thought out and fantastically presented.

Online Retailer of the Year

AleselA are the only folks I’ve ordered any beer from this year; that aside their communication and delivery was attentive and ultra fast.

Best Beer Book or Magazine

Stan Hieronymus - For the Love of Hops: The Practical Guide to Aroma, Bitterness & the Culture of Hops

  

Best Beer Blog or Website

Of the blogs I have read over the last year the one that seems to me to be the most relevant to me is BeerSay, I could be accused of making this selection based on geographical proximity.  However I would counter that based on Phil Hardy’s involvement in arranging the Mac Triangle Twissup, which I am again going on record as saying was pretty spectacular day out.  (Just don’t mention the “Macclesfield Drop”).

Best Beer App

I’m quite partial to Brewing Assistant from Brewology101.com, nice easy to use brewing app for quick and easy recipe design when the mood strikes.

Simon Johnson Award for Best Beer Twitterer

In its first year this should by all rights be awarded to Simon Johnson himself #RIPScoop

Best Brewery Website/Social media

Website wise there has been a quantum shift in the layout and overall feel of a lot of brewery websites this year and as much as it’s a cop-out there seems to be a common theme linking these improved sites in Lemontop Creative.  Similarly a lot of breweries have a grasp of social media and are happy to correspond with the punter on the ground, so it would be unfair to single any one out over the others.

Food and Beer Pairing of the Year

Original Patty Men (@OriginalPattyM) – Krispy Kreme Burger/Buxton Brewery – Axe Rocks (although I concede that the Krispy Kreme burger could well go with anything and be equally as good).