Goatee Phil's Best of 2017
What's shakin', Phil?
What a year it's been for beer! I started the year as something of a craft beer sceptic. Now, twelve months later, I’ve changed my mind almost completely. I used to have reservations about the temperature of keg beer. Now I feel that it’s often an advantage. I admit too that I did go through a period of thinking that strong beers, ie anything 6% or above, were the only ones with enough flavour to withstand the drop in temperature. These days I’m finding that even session beers taste fine on keg as long as they have a distinctive enough flavour.
It also helps to have bars like the newly opened Bison Craft House in Hove, where the staff are passionate about what they sell. They stock no cask ale but have a rapidly changing selection of excellent keg brews, from the likes of Cloudwater, Buxton, Verdant, Vibrant Forest and more. So, I shall ask myself again: which is better, cask or keg? Answer: neither. They're just different.
Before I reveal my best bits from the year, what about this blog? Are you liking it? Why not leave me a comment at the end, or send me a tweet to @goateephil? Even better, share the blog or retweet. Thank you.
And now ...
The best brewery
The last beer that I drank in 2017 was at the Brunswick in Hove, with my wife Charita, where we’d gone to watch local soul covers band The South Coast Soul Revue. It was Siren’s Hard Rollin’ IPA, brewed in collaboration with Denmark’s Dry and Bitter. I enjoyed it a lot as I did virtually every Siren beer I sampled during the year.
Siren seem to embody all the classic elements of the modern, ambitious, innovative craft brewer. They have a solid core of regular beers, including the pale ales Soundwave and Undercurrent, Broken Dreams, a breakfast stout and Liquid Mistress, a red IPA. Added to that they have a huge and growing portfolio of occasional and one-off brews, like the 12% triple IPA Tickle Monster, brewed in collaboration with Denmark’s To Øl.
Siren seem to embody all the classic elements of the modern, ambitious, innovative craft brewer. They have a solid core of regular beers, including the pale ales Soundwave and Undercurrent, Broken Dreams, a breakfast stout and Liquid Mistress, a red IPA. Added to that they have a huge and growing portfolio of occasional and one-off brews, like the 12% triple IPA Tickle Monster, brewed in collaboration with Denmark’s To Øl.
And then there's Dark Star. The Brighton pub The Evening Star is one of my regular drinking haunts and since it’s a Dark Star tied house I usually get to try their new and occasional brews as they appear. Also, intriguingly, they offer many of their beers in both cask and keg form although not usually at the same time. One of their new beers in 2017 was Tropical KO, a really fruity, summery IPA. Having enjoyed the keg version I was intrigued to see how different the cask version tasted. Unfortunately the beer was so popular that I never got the chance!
I’ve always enjoyed Dark Star’s American Pale Ale, the modern equivalent, for me, of classics like Marston’s Pedigree, Youngs’ Special and Timothy Taylor Landlord. But it’s Dark Star’s stronger beers that I especially enjoy. Hophead Extra was a fine addition to their roster but, Six Hop aside, my favourites were the Green Hopped IPA (6.5%) and the rich, velvety Imperial Stout (10.5%).
I’ve always enjoyed Dark Star’s American Pale Ale, the modern equivalent, for me, of classics like Marston’s Pedigree, Youngs’ Special and Timothy Taylor Landlord. But it’s Dark Star’s stronger beers that I especially enjoy. Hophead Extra was a fine addition to their roster but, Six Hop aside, my favourites were the Green Hopped IPA (6.5%) and the rich, velvety Imperial Stout (10.5%).
But the brewery that delivered more than any other in 2017 was Bristol-based Arbor. The first of their beers that I came across this year set a very high bar indeed. It was their Super Yakima Double IPA, a hefty 9.5%, and it’s no criticism to say that it didn’t taste a lot like the other DIPAs I’d been drinking. It had the hoppy bite and vanilla smoothness I associate with the style but it also had the warming sweetness of a barley wine. Arbor do know how to make a proper barley wine as I discovered later in the year via their Barley Davidson but the Super Yakima was a bit special.
It seems though that they make a success of everything they turn their hands to. Two of their core beers – Yakima APA and Breakfast Stout - are terrific, the first fruity and the second rich, and both strong, at 7% and 7.4% respectively, but the beer that I was particularly impressed by was the delicate, gently fruity Shangri-la session IPA, a much more modest 4.2%. I look forward to sampling more of their fine beers in 2018.
The best pub
Let me begin with a confession. I don’t visit many pubs. This is in spite of the fact that I live in Brighton – well, Portslade actually – where I am surrounded by drinking holes, many of them well worth a visit. The truth is that I’m more interested in the beers than the ambience so I am drawn to those venues that offer the most interesting selection of ales. Plus, those ales need to change on a regular basis.
But I do have favourite spots. In Brighton and Hove the Evening Star, the Watchmakers Arms, the Craft Beer Co, Brighton Beer Dispensary, Brighton Bier Haus and Bison Craft House are the bars that I visit the most frequently. Most of these are within easy reach of a station or the #1 bus route because, you guessed it, I make most of my visits to the pub on my way home from work.
Of the above list the pick for me is the Watchmakers Arms. Somewhat surprisingly they are still the only micropub in Brighton and Hove and I remember following the saga of their search for premises. The original choice for a site was an empty shop in Richardson Road, Hove. They would probably have done OK there but they would have been a long way from the main shopping areas. Fortunately, as things turned out, there were issues with the site so they continued their search and found another empty shop just down from Hove station. It is the perfect spot.
Like the Evening Star, a similar distance from Brighton station, they draw a lot of their evening clientele from the likes of me – wage slaves on their way home – and, as is the way with all the micropubs I’ve visited, the sheer friendliness of the owners, Ruth, Rick, Dave and Ali, encourages conversation among the drinkers. I often visit pubs on my own but, more often than not, at the Watchmakers I will spend most of my time talking to other customers.
The beers are served from the cask and are housed in a cool room behind the counter. Most of the breweries that supply them are local, either Sussex, Surrey or Hampshire, but they occasionally bring in beers from further afield, from the likes of Thornbridge, Saltaire and Mad Hatter. In the last few months they have added a couple of keg lines. This enables them to stock stronger ales which might otherwise go off before they sold out.
A fine pub – I highly recommend it!
But I do have favourite spots. In Brighton and Hove the Evening Star, the Watchmakers Arms, the Craft Beer Co, Brighton Beer Dispensary, Brighton Bier Haus and Bison Craft House are the bars that I visit the most frequently. Most of these are within easy reach of a station or the #1 bus route because, you guessed it, I make most of my visits to the pub on my way home from work.
Of the above list the pick for me is the Watchmakers Arms. Somewhat surprisingly they are still the only micropub in Brighton and Hove and I remember following the saga of their search for premises. The original choice for a site was an empty shop in Richardson Road, Hove. They would probably have done OK there but they would have been a long way from the main shopping areas. Fortunately, as things turned out, there were issues with the site so they continued their search and found another empty shop just down from Hove station. It is the perfect spot.
Like the Evening Star, a similar distance from Brighton station, they draw a lot of their evening clientele from the likes of me – wage slaves on their way home – and, as is the way with all the micropubs I’ve visited, the sheer friendliness of the owners, Ruth, Rick, Dave and Ali, encourages conversation among the drinkers. I often visit pubs on my own but, more often than not, at the Watchmakers I will spend most of my time talking to other customers.
The beers are served from the cask and are housed in a cool room behind the counter. Most of the breweries that supply them are local, either Sussex, Surrey or Hampshire, but they occasionally bring in beers from further afield, from the likes of Thornbridge, Saltaire and Mad Hatter. In the last few months they have added a couple of keg lines. This enables them to stock stronger ales which might otherwise go off before they sold out.
A fine pub – I highly recommend it!
Best books?
As well as drinking them I have found various different ways during the year to teach myself about the different craft beers available and, being a librarian by trade, and therefore a keen reader, some of this has involved reading books.
This year I’ve enjoyed the works of veteran writers such as Roger Protz, whose new book IPA : a legend in our time was one of my presents from Santa, Jeff Evans – I learned a lot from his So you want to be a beer expert? – and Pete Brown, whose story The story of craft beer came free with my subscription to online beer suppliers Beer 52. But the two best books I’ve read this year were both histories, one of the UK beer scene, the other American.
Jessica Boak and Ray Bailey are beer bloggers and they’re among the best. If you follow their blog, or their twitter feed (@BoakandBailey), then you’ll probably already have come across their book Brew Britannia : the strange rebirth of British beer. It’s an excellent overview of the story of British beer, all the way up to the craft beer scene in the 21st century and is particularly strong on the history of CAMRA. What particularly impressed me was their attention to detail and the fact that they sought out some important but overlooked players in the recent history of UK ale, such as David Bruce, founder of the Firkin chain of free houses.
Brew Britannia was first published in 2013. Boak and Bailey had a new book out in 2017 The 20th century pub. I look forward to reading that too.
The other book I found particularly fascinating was The craft beer revolution by Steve Hindy, one of the founders of Brooklyn brewery. This concentrates on the US scene and was an eye-opener for me. I knew next to nothing about the history of beer in the US and I learned a lot from reading it. If I was going to pick one theme out from the many it would be the influence of home brewing on US brewing. So many important breweries across the country developed from the efforts of enthusiasts. Those hop-forward IPAs you’re so fond of? They probably got their start in someone’s garage. How rock’n’roll is that?
The best of the rest?
This year I’ve enjoyed the works of veteran writers such as Roger Protz, whose new book IPA : a legend in our time was one of my presents from Santa, Jeff Evans – I learned a lot from his So you want to be a beer expert? – and Pete Brown, whose story The story of craft beer came free with my subscription to online beer suppliers Beer 52. But the two best books I’ve read this year were both histories, one of the UK beer scene, the other American.
Jessica Boak and Ray Bailey are beer bloggers and they’re among the best. If you follow their blog, or their twitter feed (@BoakandBailey), then you’ll probably already have come across their book Brew Britannia : the strange rebirth of British beer. It’s an excellent overview of the story of British beer, all the way up to the craft beer scene in the 21st century and is particularly strong on the history of CAMRA. What particularly impressed me was their attention to detail and the fact that they sought out some important but overlooked players in the recent history of UK ale, such as David Bruce, founder of the Firkin chain of free houses.
Brew Britannia was first published in 2013. Boak and Bailey had a new book out in 2017 The 20th century pub. I look forward to reading that too.
The other book I found particularly fascinating was The craft beer revolution by Steve Hindy, one of the founders of Brooklyn brewery. This concentrates on the US scene and was an eye-opener for me. I knew next to nothing about the history of beer in the US and I learned a lot from reading it. If I was going to pick one theme out from the many it would be the influence of home brewing on US brewing. So many important breweries across the country developed from the efforts of enthusiasts. Those hop-forward IPAs you’re so fond of? They probably got their start in someone’s garage. How rock’n’roll is that?
The best of the rest?
Another key influence this year, and regular source of information, has been the Fermentation Beer and Brewing Radio Show. It’s a monthly programme on Brighton’s Radio Reverb, a station on which I used to present a music show, and you can stream the podcast version on both itunes and Podomatic. Presenter Emma Inch is a brewer herself and she covers the minutiae of her subject, interviewing key names in the field of beer: brewers, hop growers, beer sommeliers and more. It’s an unmissable show and Emma deservedly won the Best Beer Communicator Online award in 2017 from the British Guild of Beer Writers.
What's next?
I wrote in the last blog post about the holiday that Charita and I had recently in Iceland. I also talked a bit about our visits, a couple of years earlier, to Prague and Berlin. Next month I'm going back to Berlin, a city that we couldn't do justice to in just three days. I have a massively long list of bars and breweries that I'd like to visit and, being a music fan, I'll almost certainly be doing at least one music tour. Look out for the next blog post towards the end of February!
Until then - well, what did you think of the blog? Leave me a comment below or you can get in touch with me on twitter. My hashtag is @goateephil.
Prost!
Until then - well, what did you think of the blog? Leave me a comment below or you can get in touch with me on twitter. My hashtag is @goateephil.
Prost!
Pictures
Apart from the Fermentation image, which is taken from the Podomatic website, and the Dark Star pumps, which were snapped at the Evening Star, the only picture which requires explanation is the last one. It shows the bill of fare at the Vagabund Brauerei, another excellent craft house in Berlin, on the night that I visited in 2015. I may well find my way back there next month. Time will tell.
.jpg)
Comments
Post a Comment