Cask, Covid and Crossing the Atlantic - Goatee Phil's best of 2021

 Beer and plenty of it

Beers at Yard House, Addison TX  

So, was 2021 the year that the hospitality industry recovered from the shitshow caused by Coronavirus or have we learned to live in a permanently compromised world? I suspect the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Life doesn't feel back to normal, and that's assuming that we can agree on what normal is.

As I write, we've just emerged from Christmas and whereas last year, in the UK, we were heading for a lockdown, this year a rather surprising reversal is happening. Our government is now resisting calls to 

clamp down but people have reacted on their own. A week or so ago I met a friend in the Evening Star, one of Brighton's most popular pubs. On the last Monday before Christmas, a day you would expect pubs to be heaving, it was practically empty. The following day, Charita met friends in the Hobgoblin, another busy Brighton pub, and it was the same story.

Teasing the positives out of that disconcerting observation, I could say that the good news is that people are now making their own minds up about what's risky and what isn't, and not relying on this feckless government. This is surely a good thing. But there's no doubt that, in the long term, pubs and bars are going to close and there's not a damn thing we can do to stop it.

Best Pub - The Foghorn

Runners-up: Watchmakers Arms, Evening Star, Duke of Wellington (Shoreham).

Me and Charita outside the
 (newly painted) Foghorn

Well, no one has seriously threatened to take the Foghorn's best pub title this year. True, a lot of the pubs that I used to visit regularly have hardly seen my face of late but the Foghorn is still the most welcoming pub I know. It's also worth noting that when I have had the chance to sample the same beer in different pubs, as I did recently with Burning Sky Aurora, the Foghorn's pint is always the best kept. 

There's also great news afoot in 2022, with the launch of the Foghorn's first official beer! Brewed in collaboration with the ever-reliable Downlands, it's due around February time. If it's close to being as good as Dance Commander, the imperial stout that Tommy brewed for the home brew competition at the Watchmakers, before the Foghorn had even got planning permission, then it will be well worth the visit. Not that you need another reason to visit Portslade (and Hove - and Brighton)'s best pub.

Best new pub - The Hole in the Wall

Runners-up: Beak Brewery Taproom, Brighton Bier Taproom, BRZN Arms

Jim'll fix it

He's only gone and done it again.  My best new pub last year was the Vine Street Tap, fronted by the legend that is Jim Paine and this year he's turned a tiny, two bar pub, hidden away between Regency Square and the Brighton seafront into a must-visit venue for all Brighton beer buffs. 

The Hole in the Wall is small and because of its size, and the conviviality of its gaffer, it has the same intimacy as the best micropubs. You can't come in here and sit quietly in a corner. There are no corners! If you're on your own, I guarantee that by the end of your visit you'll have made at least one new best friend. It's that sort of place.

But let's not forget the beers. There are always four on cask and eight on tap, plus a good selection of ciders. Many of them are the names you'd expect - Burning Sky, the Kernel, Thornbridge, Howling Hops - but Jim has an eye, rivalled only by the Evening Star, for picking the less obvious, such as 6 Degrees North, Newtown Park and Red Willow.

Spend an evening in the Hole in the Wall and you never know - you might end up competing in the Brighton Toad League!

Best Brewery - Beak 

Runners-up: Pentrich, Burning Sky, Northern Monk

Everybody loves Beak and it really isn't that hard to see why. Just a few years ago, they hit the ground running and since then have produced a steady stream of flavourful pales, IPAs, stouts and sours, many of them in collaboration with the likes of Northern Monk, Verdant, Pomona Island and more. 

They have also opened a welcoming taproom on the outskirts of Lewes which benefits from a spectacular view of the white cliffs. The glass of Supp, their New England IPA, that I had there was pretty spectacular too. But my favourite beer of theirs is the Trumbo DIPA - fruity, but with a citrussy sharpness. Their stouts are damn fine too, and so is their packaging. When did you last laugh at the drawing on a can of beer (see the illustration for the last time I did)?

Plus a word for one of the runners-up - in 2022, I shall be looking out for Pentrich, a Derbyshire brewery of great quality. I had five different beers of theirs this year and they were all superb.

Best Beer (UK): Burning Sky - Aurora Pale

Runners-up: Kernel - Export India Porter, Cloudwater - Crystallography DIPA, Burning Sky - Saison Anniversaire

Mine's a pint of Aurora - Mark 
seems to be on the Imperial Stout

Earlier in the year I wrote about how lockdown had made me acutely aware of the importance of cask and the fact that, no matter how good modern canned and bottled beers were, there was no substitute for a well-kept pint of cask ale, served in a pub. I could have also mentioned that there was one beer that I was pining for, the simple reason being that it's never been sold in bottles and cans since its launch.

That beer is the mighty Aurora Pale, perhaps the finest beer in a portfolio that is positively overflowing with fine beers. It's the archetypal modern pale, being fruity and delicate but with a sharpness that leaves you wanting more. Agonisingly, once lockdown had finished, it was still several months before Aurora reappeared in pubs. It now seems to be back to being a regular fixture in many of my favourite pubs. If you have never tasted it, get yourself into a Brighton pub ASAP and have a pint. Tell them Goatee Phil sent you.

Best Beer (International) - Bronx Brewery - Now youse can't leave DIPA.

Runners-up: Oskar Blues - Ten Fidy Imperial Stout, Rogue - 6 Hop IPA, Jackie O's - Carrots and sticks Strong Ale.

I originally wrote about this exceptional beer back in March, as part of a survey of US beer importers. Since drinking it, I have tasted a number of other double IPAs that were similar - sweet, fruity and heavy, with a pronounced flavour of marmalade - but the simple fact is they weren't as good.

Now youse can't leave is just a perfect balance. It's not too sweet, not too heavy, not too fruity and it stays just the right side of the line between IPA and barley wine. It's that most dangerous of strong ales - it's so damn drinkable!

There are some other fine beers in Bronx Brewery's portfolio and when I next make it to New York, I shall most definitely seek them out. In the meanwhile, I recommend you petition Beer Bruvs to get more cans over this side of the pond. It's a game changer!

Best of the rest

Another superb US IPA from Odell  

Well, as the line-up of international beers tends to show, my obsession with American beers has continued through 2021. Ironically, my visit to Texas in November yielded fewer memorable beers than my orders from Beer Hop, Beer Bruvs and Beer Merchants have done. What was noticeable though was craft beer's sheer prevalence. You can go into any reasonably sized supermarket and find an impressive range of (usually local) craft beers. Many restaurants, like the Yard House, whose impressive beer menu would shame many bars, have a long list of good beers.

I still feel that the quality of IPAs, and mid-range stouts (the ones that weigh in at between 7% and 8%) is better overall than it is here, except from the best breweries (Northern Monk, Beak, Cloudwater etc). Admittedly, it's a haphazard selection I use, but I still believe it to be true. So here, in no particular order, are the best American beers I've drunk this year, along with the details of where (and via which outlet) I drank them:

Bronx Brewery - Now youse can't leave DIPA (10.1%) - Beer Bruvs
Cigar City - Jai Alai IPA (7.5%) - Beer Hop

Sierra Nevada - Narwhal Imperial Stout (10.2%) - Beer Hop

Oskar Blues - Ten Fidy Imperial Stout (10.5%) - Total Wine & More, Pearland TX

Workhorse Brewing - Russian Imperial Stout (9.5%) - Beer Bruvs

Big Oyster - Noir et bleu Belgian Tripel (9.0%) - Beer Bruvs

Departed Soles - Bogan Barley Wine (10.1%) - Beer Bruvs

Dogfish Head - Hazy-O NEIPA (7.1%) - Yard House, Addison TX

Odell - Mountain Standard IPA (6.5%) - Total Wine & More, Pearland TX

Sierra Nevada - Hoptimum TIPA (11.0%) - Beer Hop
Rogue - 6 Hop IPA (6.6%) - Beer Bruvs
Jackie O's - Carrots and Sticks Strong Ale (13.9%) - Beer Merchants

Illustrations

There are two images that deserve more context. The one accompaying my Best New Pub article is, of course, Jim Paine behind the bar at the Hole in the Wall (he'll probably kill me when he sees that picture).

The other, also taken at the Hole in the Wall, that accompanies the Best UK Beer article, shows me and Mark Tranter, Burning Sky's legendary founder and owner, at the brewery's December tap takeover.

Oh and the first image shows the eye-watering list of beers available at the Yard House, in Addison TX.