Stop the year, I want to get off - the best of 2020
Goatee Phil picks his best from a COVID-riddled year
Well, you don't need me to tell you what a shit year this has been. I guess we have learnt a lot about ourselves. Maybe the biggest lesson is that we all have routines and there's nothing more irritating than having your routines upended. We now have to rethink everything. All that we do, even the consumption of beer - where we buy it, where we drink it and its place in the scheme of things - is up for renegotiation.
But in spite of all the disruption, all the trauma, there are some constants. Beer is still one, thankfully, and my guess is that most of my "best of"s would have been the same had 2020 been the same as 2019. I guess we'll never know though, eh?
Best Pub: The Foghorn (Portslade)
Runners-up: Watchmakers Arms (Hove), Brighton Bier Haus (Brighton), Brunswick (Hove)
Best pub again? Of course it is. Granted, I haven't visited nearly as many pubs this year as I would normally do but I do know that this fine little alehouse would be high in my affections even if I had been able to bar hop furiously.
2020 was a year when every pub has had to think quickly to protect its very existence and Niall, Tim and Tommy have done just that. When faced with the first shutdown they quickly reinvented themselves as a beer delivery service, with an impressive range of cans, bottles and kegs. I bet I'm not the only Foghorn regular who quickly found that he was spending more on deliveries than in the pub itself.
When lockdown was relaxed, I wondered how such a tiny space could be made secure. It didn't matter so much at first because we were blessed (no, really!) with good summer weather, that made outside drinking a pleasure. But when the rain and wind finally drove us indoors, we found a room that had had a simple but well thought out blend of perspex screens and less furniture. Yes, you now had to book but that was a small inconvenience.
The most recent service variation was the government's bizarre "substantial meal" dodge. How was the Foghorn going to manage that, small as it was, and with no onsite kitchen? Simple: by making use of contacts. Niall used to work at the Curry Leaf Cafe and his connection there meant the arrival of massive tiffin boxes, full of potent curries (even Charita, aka Momma Cherri, found them hot!)
Now that the Strawman (you know who I'm talking about) has invented another tier, the Foghorn's delivery arm, Deliverbrew, lives again. But whatever 2021 chucks at this tiny but defiant establishment, you feel that Tim, Niall and Tommy will just brush themselves down and say "Huh! Is that the best you can do?"
Long may they run.
Best new pub: Vine Street Tap (Brighton)
Runners-up: The Arundel Brewhouse Project
If you're a beer drinker who has lived in Brighton for upwards of five years and haven't been served a pint by Jim Paine, then all I can say is you're drinking in the wrong places. He's probably best known as the genial mein host at the Brighton Beer Dispensary but I've run into him at the Free Haus and even the Watchmakers. He was probably at several of my other regular haunts, just not when I was there.
When I read that he was going to be fronting a new venture called the Vine Street Tap, I immediately sat up and took notice. When I discovered that it was going to be a taproom for the excellent Good Things Brewing operation, well, my schooner ranneth over.
I've only been there once, on their second day. There I ran into Niall from the Foghorn (see? Word gets around) but I immediately loved the cosy space, tucked into one of those North Laine streets that run between the main thoroughfares of North, Church, Gloucester and Trafalgar Streets. Even socially distanced it was a welcoming space, small enough for Jim to be heard throughout. During the "substantial meal" phase, he has had an arrangement with a local pizza joint.
Now that we're at tier 5 the Tap has had to revert to off-licence status but as it's Good Things beers he's selling, Jim'll be all right. I sure hope so. I'm already looking forward to the next half dozen visits!
Best Brewery: Northern Monk
Runners-up: Good Things Brewing, Burning Sky, The Kernel
It was summer 2019 when the Foghorn had a tap takeover from Northern Monk, which coincided neatly with the first Momma Cherri pop-up there. I was already familiar with several of the Leeds brewery's core range, and I'd also had their wonderfully named Death imperial stout. The tap takeover gave me the chance to try a range of their beers, including an extraordinary dark ale called We were mint to be. That's exactly how it tasted - just sweet enough but not forgetting the dryness that makes a classic stout.
Largely as a result of this experience, when Charita invited me to curate the beers for one of her Air bnb cooking experiences, I decided that Faith Pale would be a fine accompaniment to dishes like Southern fried chicken and Jambalaya. Unfortunately, when I went shopping for the beer, Faith was not available but the slightly stronger, hoppier New World IPA was. It turned out to be the perfect match.
This summer, when the Foghorn transformed itself into Deliverbrew, two of their staple offerings were Faith and the New England IPA, Heathen. Both were included in every order from me until they ran out. They are, for me, style classics. Every Northern Monk beer that I've drunk this year has been excellent and some have been better than that.
Can I join the Brethren, even though I'm from Manchester?
Best Beer (UK) : Red Cat - Imperial #19
Runners-up: Northern Monk - Faith Pale, BrewByNumbers - 55 (Double IPA), Burning Sky - Before the Dawn Imperial Stout
The beer was Red Cat's Imperial #19 and boy, was she ever right. Like New England IPA, the imperial stout market is getting increasingly crowded. This is great news for drinkers but it does mean that a beer needs to go that extra mile to really stand out.What I loved about the Red Cat brew was its balance. It has the dark coffee notes, it has bitter chocolate and it has that licorice bite that, for me, guarantees that any sweetness gets kicked in the nuts toot sweet. A bit of barrel ageing, particularly bourbon, is always welcome but its absence here is no problem at all.
The Red Cat Imperial saw off some serious competition, particularly from the all-conquering Faith, but also from the Kernel's suite of brilliant export stouts and porters and a fantastic double IPA from the underrated (certainly by me) BrewByNumbers. But I did want to be sure that it was as good as I remembered from the Dispensary so when I discovered that the Hornet Alehouse in Chichester had bottles of the stuff, I had to invent an excuse to get over there.
I bought a 750ml bottle.It cost me £15.00, though that did include its own glass. I drank the lot on Boxing Day. It is indeed a fabulous beer and it's my UK beer of 2020. Cheers!
Best Beer (International): Sierra Nevada - Hoptimum (Triple IPA)
Runners-up: Cigar City - The Benwood DIPA, Paulaner - Salvator Dopplebock, Abbaye Notre Dame de St Remy: Trappiste Rochefort 10
I remember when I first noticed that beer and the beer world was changing. It was the first time I tasted Thornbridge Jaipur IPA. It was fantastically bitter at a time when this was unusual. The next beer I drank that was similar was Dark Star's massively hoppy Six Hop. Both beers tasted as though the brewer had crammed as many hops as possible into the boil. I had the same experience when I drank my first double IPA, the legendary Ruination from Stone.
Sierra Nevada's formidable Hoptimum has brought back that taste sensation and, as it's reckoned to be a triple IPA, just imagine the hop load. I'm not sure I can improve upon my verdict, as expressed on Untappd:
A deliciously rich, viciously hoppy brew that manages also to be smooth. There's toffee, there are grassy notes too and the hops spin around the back of your tongue as you swallow.
I should here offer the first tip of my hat to Beer Hop, a new operation that specialises in importing American beers. I bought my Sierra Nevada beers from them and also Cigar City, Evil Twin, Lupulin, Anchor, Flying Dog and Oskar Blues titles. Their prices are very reasonable and delivery is impressively. I raise my hat to them!
Best (re)discovery : Beer delivery clubs and bottle shops
Well, of course, neither of these is a new service but, with all the restrictions placed on access to pubs this year, both methods of supply became significantly more important. This is the year when Trafalgar Wines would have cleaned up but sadly they are no more. Happily, for me at least, there are two excellent bottle shops within fairly easy reach: the Wine Barrel, which is on Brighton's Western Road, roughly opposite Norfolk Square, and Higgins of Hove, which is on Palmeira Square itself.
Higgins are always quick to new local brews and generally have a decent selection of all your craft favourites: Burnt Mill, Tiny Rebel, Cloudwater, Northern Monk, Polly's and more. The Wine Barrel have a smaller selection of UK crafts but score strongly on Belgian and German beers. They also have, usually three, beers on tap. These two, plus Deliverbrew, supply most of my beery needs. What they don't have much of though is American ales.
Enter Beer Hop. I had pretty much given up on the various beer clubs, like Beer 52, not because of poor service but because their original modus operandi was to curate mixed cases which they then sold to you. You couldn't pick and choose your beers. With Beer Hop you can and, even better, their speciality is American beers. They currently only offer brews from a dozen breweries, but these do include Stone, Sierra Nevada, Oskar Blues, Flying Dog and Cigar City. I've already had three deliveries from them - the first one is shown above - and, as they expand their range in 2021, I only see that continuing.
God bless America(n beer)!
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Yep, Beer Hop are top drawer. The best out there.
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