My word of the year: Clean

If one word defines the way my taste has evolved this year, then it’s ‘clean’.

Beer is perpetually in motion. Always evolving. And drinkers move like a school of fish around it, swaying one way and then another with the current. Right now feels like we’re at a launching point (though it seems like it’s felt this way forever, already). But there’s things between now and next.

A lot of the beer we drink tastes obvious. American Pale Ales, IPAs and Black IPAs are the styles which continue to grab attention. But I think IPAs are elevated in status simply because they have big flavour, regardless of how great that flavour is. And the flavour is obvious. A sniff is like slamming your face in a bowl of over-ripe citrus. That’s fine, good in many cases, but it’s easy. And it hides a lot of problems.

Which is another issue: there’s a lot of average, bad or faulty beer sold in the UK. There are over 1,000 breweries in Britain now. That’s a lot. Maybe even too many. And the quality isn’t high enough in many. I’ve had too many beers with diacetyl, sulphur and acetaldehyde in them. A beer with no faults that tastes a bit bland has become more appealing than an over-hopped beer that is badly brewed. It seems like the search for impact has forgotten one of the key elements of beer-making: time. Just a little extra time and these beers could be better.

So my taste is towards clean beers. I want simple done well, I want subtlety and depth, I want to have to work with the beer not just sit back and let booze or hops beat me up. I think too many beers are obvious tasting – they are one dimensional and exaggerated in their flavour profile as they slam into your senses. The photo above is all the beer on tap at Odell's taproom. If you want clean, full flavour, then that's the place to go.

Clean, to me, means technically faultless, it means a clarity of flavours, an articulate, precise kind of taste in which you can drink it and experience all the elements in a clear way and not a riot of flavours which overpowers or a muddiness which means the ingredients are making a noise instead of playing a fine tune. It’s about elegance.

And you can absolutely get clean elegance in full-flavoured beer. The best IPAs have got structure, depth, hop flavour and aroma yet you can precisely taste everything, but they have this flavour from using the right amount of hops, at the right time, not simply by using lots of them.

The best Bitters I’ve had this year have had that see-saw brilliance between chewy malt and dry, bitter hop. The best lagers are defined by their clean depth of flavour. The best stouts have texture and that bittersweet mix of pale malt, dark malt and hop. The best sour beers sway between tartness, funk and something holding it all together. Think about the best beers you’ve had. What made them stand out? I bet it was the way in which all the flavours just worked wonderfully together and they left a beer which had a real clarity of flavour.

Clean beer. That’s what I want. Beer which is fresh, flavoursome, but considered. Most of all I just want beer which is well made, beer which has elegance and a clear, clean precision of flavours. That’s what I’m looking for in 2013.

The Golden Pint Responses

I’ve had a few Golden Pint responses emailed to me, so here they are. There’s also a list of all the other ones which I’ve seen online. Now I hope someone has got a few hours free to churn some data and figure out if there are any overall winners worth mentioning?!

Kristian Robinson, Three Friends Brewing Co. @3FriendsBeer 

Best UK Draught Beer

Redemption Trinity. I always like to start my drinking with a pint of something drinkable and low abv to get me in mood. This is always in good condition. Marble Pint and Fyne Jarl are other great starters (Marble Pint would win this if i could get it more often). There are certainly beers that are more 'exciting' but I know these will start me off well. And they never bore me.

Best UK Bottled or Canned Beer

Brodie’s London Lager. Made me very happy on a very hot day at a packed pub.

Best Overseas Draught Beer

Jandrain Jandrenouille - VI Wheat

Best Overseas Bottled or Canned Beer

Heady Topper. Can't describe how incredible this was. I'd happily pay way over the odds for another can. Or maybe make my next holiday location. Vermont.

Best Overall Beer

Magic Rock Cannonball. More recently on Keg it has been superb. 

Best Label

Wild Beer. Stylish. Clean. Consistent.

Best Pumpclip

Kernel. No effort required. Yet gets away with it. Love it.

Best UK Brewery

It has to be Magic Rock. Great core range and new additions have been more adventurous and no doubt will continue to be.

Best Overseas Brewery

Hmmm tough one. Firestone Walker. Tried a few beers and they have blown me away. Double Double in particular. So impressive.

Pub/Bar of the Year

The Hope in Carshalton. Doing so much despite being in village close to London. Passion. Enthusiasm. Great beer. Great community pub. A festival every month.

Supermarket of the Year

Waitrose. It has a fairly good range and appears to be adapting a little.

Independent Retailer.

Cobbetts in Dorking. Great little shop. Enthusiastic. Always helpful.

Online Retailer of the Year

Beeritz. Never let me down

Best Beer Book or Magazine

Brew your Own magazine

In 2013 I’d most like to...

I’m going to Mikkeller in May. And making our first commercial beer in January... Two dreams ticked off already

Best Brewpub

Cock Tavern, Howling Hops

Jennifer Nicholls @palate4hire

Best UK Draught Beer - Magic Rock High Wire

Best UK Bottled or Canned Beer - Thornbridge Kipling

Best Overseas Draught Beer - Erdinger Dunkel

Best UK Brewery - Thornbridge

Beer Festival of the Year - IndyManBeerCon

Supermarket of the Year - Waitrose

Independent Retailer of the Year - Beers of Europe

Best Beer Book or Magazine - Melissa Cole, Let me Tell you about Beer

Best Beer Blog or Website - Pete Brown Blog

Best Online Brewery Presence - Summer Wine

Food and Beer Pairing of the Year - Saison Du Pont, with Peters Yard crispbreads cream cheese and smoked salmon

In 2013 I’d most like to... get to Belgium for a brewery tour

Simon James - @gueuzel

Best UK Draught Beer

Greene King 5X at GBBF. A revelation. Why GK keep this beer locked up is anyone's guess.

Best UK Bottled or Canned Beer

Thornbridge Kipling. Grapefruit in a glass. Consistently challenging and drinkable in equal measure.

Best Overseas Draught Beer

Mahr's Ungespundet. So technically it's been a couple of years since I had it on draught. But no foreign draught beer I've had since has come close.

Best Overseas Bottled or Canned Beer

Bear Republic Racer 5. It was love at first sight when we met at Byron. Where had you been all my life before then?

Best Overall Beer

Fuller's Chiswick. OK so I haven't nominated it for any of the categories above. There are beers that shout louder and dazzle more. But there is no beer which is better.

Best Pumpclip or Label

Pumpclips by Truefitt (http://www.truefittbrewing.co.uk/). I should declare an interest as I grew up on Teesside so there's an element of nostalgia in seeing the words Erimus and Ironopolis. But I think the simple, eye-catching designs are great.

Best UK Brewery

Fuller's. They pump out God knows how much beer each year and could take the easy route. But as well as keeping an amazingly consistent core range, a few of their specials this year have really impressed (Wild River, Traitors' Gate on draught, not to mention their Past Masters series).

Best Overseas Brewery

Cantillon. Hasn't done anything particularly extraordinary this year. It's just stayed the same. Which is really my whole point.

Pub/Bar of the Year

BrewDog Camden. It pains me to give this to somewhere that doesn't serve cask beer out of "ideology". But what wins it for me is the bar staff with their knowledge and enthusiasm, particularly when asked the question "What lager have you got?" If anyone will get the young hipsters off Peroni, it's these guys.

Beer Festival of the Year

GBBF, solely because of the decision to move back to Olympia. Felt like they'd put the "Festival" back in to GBBF.

Supermarket of the Year

Waitrose. Not the widest range but well-chosen. And it's through them that I first came across Thornbridge Kipling.

Independent Retailer of the Year

Utobeer probably edge it. Always my first stop in London if I'm looking for a few interesting bottles.

Online Retailer of the Year

Beers of Europe, who finally updated their, er, "retro" site and made it a pleasure to use. Others probably serve a few more specialist tastes but these guys have all the main players, and the prices are very competitive.

Best Beer Book or Magazine

London Drinker. Always a pleasure when it pops through the letter box. Pleasingly irreverent, and comprehensive when it comes to what's going on in the London bar and brewing scene.

Best Beer Blog or Website

Boak and Bailey. In truth the recent trend towards historical research isn't my sort of thing, but they consistently put a new angle on things and question assumptions. (Nice to meet them too at GBBF this year.)

Best Beer Twitterer

Pumpclip Parade. Fighting a lonely war with the odds stacked against them. But by God it's a war that needs fighting.

Best Online Brewery Presence

No-one. Yes, one or two breweries probably make the grade. But the huge majority of brewery websites are like something done by a ten-year old. So I'm refusing to nominate anyone here as an entirely futile protest. But it has made me feel better.

Food and Beer Pairing of the Year

Any Byron burger with anything on their craft beer list. I would eat there every night if my wallet and waist line could cope.

In 2013 I’d most like to...

Go on the Toer de Geuze. Which, with a bit of luck and advance planning, I will.

Best Beer Tasting

A tasting of lambics organised by The Craft Beer Co (at their original home in Clerkenwell). This was an event which didn't patronise and went into some pretty obscure detail. But what shone most of all was the passion of the guy who was giving the talk. Informative and inspirational.

And here are all the other Golden Pint entries that I’ve seen (There are probably more, too...)

Make Mine a Half

Beer Advice 

Barl Fire 

Graphed Beer 

Ghost Drinker 

The Beer Boy 

A Beer On The Downs 

Mediocre Beer Adventures 

Rabid Bar Fly 

Brewing Shed 

Wee Beefys Pub Blog 

Eating Isn't Cheating 

Hopzine 

Broadford Brewer 

Total Ales 

Pete Drinks 

Tyson's Beer Blog 

Oh Beery Me 

Booze Beats Bites 

Mrdavidj

Boak and Bailey (1976) 

Boak and Bailey (2012) 

Pints & Pubs 

Beers I've Known 

Taste Sensations 

Tandleman 

Beersay 

Beer And Food And Stuff 

Beer Viking 

Beer Talk 

A Good Beer Blog 

Ale & Stuff 

Beer Reviews 

Beer and Food Adventuring 

Beers with Christmas Dinner

My favourite meal of the year is tomorrow! The fridge is bursting with food and the boxes of beer in the garage are constantly calling me. Here’s what I’ll be opening on Christmas day...

The sipping beer for the morning and during the cooking will be Kernel’s terrific Table Beer. I think I’m in love/obsessed with it. So light yet so excitingly overflowing with flavour and juicy hop aroma – my early Christmas present to myself was buying a bunch of these. I’ll probably also open a Thornbridge Tzara which is one of the best new British beers this year, I reckon.

Pre-dinner livener will be an appetite-grabbing gueuze. That brisk carbonation, the tartness and the dry finish makes me ferociously hungry. I’ve got a Drie Fonteinen that’s looking more delicious by the hour.

Starter this year will be pea soup. Simple: smoked bacon, leek, garlic, peas, water, thyme and mint. With that will be a Westmalle Tripel where the slight sweet sulphurous edge is going to mirror the depth of the alliums. It’s also another beer which I’ve come to love this year.

Main course is the full-on turkey experience. Bird, roast potatoes, every kind of veg you can fit on a plate, stuffing, pigs in blankets, gravy in the gaps. It’s a mountainous meal and a tough one to tackle with a beer... I reckon it’s the veg and gravy that you want the beer to match with. I’m going with Fuller’s Past Master’s Old Burton which is rich with nuttiness, there’s hints of chocolate, berries and earthiness, while staying wonderfully light and not overpowering – my gravy gets made with port so that's work wonderfully. 

Dessert is always Christmas pudding, obviously. Richly fruity, boozy and bolstered by brandy butter, you need a big beer to handle it. I’ve got some BrewDog Tokyo* or Black Tokyo Horizon which will be up for the job. Port-like, deep with chocolate and dark stewed fruit plus an uplifting floral backnote which keeps it fresh.

Then after dessert I flop onto the sofa with a packet of Rennie – anyone who gets out a cheese board at this point is an obscene food pervert. Maybe later in the evening I’ll go back for some more Table Beer or just grab random nice bottles from the cupboard. Or, more likely, I’ll move over to wine when I visit the in-laws.

Merry Christmas!

(Top image from here)

My Golden Pint Awards 2012

It’s been a crazy, busy, strange kind of year. I’ve drunk more beer in more places than I thought would ever happen this time last year, which means I’ve got a lot of beers to run through in my head before coming up with any winners. But here they are, my Golden Pints for 2012... And, nicely, it’s coming as my 600^th blog post.

Best UK Draught Beer

Camden Town USA Hells. Ignore the bias, this is a seriously good beer. If I owned a brewery then I would make this beer as my main brand. It’s exactly the sort of thing I love: clean and dry, unfiltered which gives a smooth body, then juicy and fruity with American hops.

Others worth high-fiving: Tiny Rebel’s Billabong was the definition of why some beers are best on cask as the hops were remarkably fresh and fantastic; The Foundry Belgian IPA at Planet Thanet was a burst of hops and spicy yeast; Lovibonds Sour Grapes and the Berliner Weisse-esque version are seriously good beers that I wish I could drink more of.

Best UK Bottled or Canned Beer

The Kernel’s Table Beer. What a marvellous little thing. Briskly carbonated, brightly hoppy, fresh and something I never want to stop drinking.

Big up: Fuller’s Past Master’s Old Burton Ale which is gorgeously complex; I drank my BrewDog Zephyr this year and it’ll be hard to drink something better, ever; Moor Revival is another beer that seems to be made to fit exactly my tastebuds.

Best Overseas Draught Beer

I don’t get Belgian Reds or Browns. Or I didn’t get them until I had Odell’s The Meddler. What an incredible beer. Teasing acetic sharpness is hidden in the background, there’s lots of oak and body, a smooth fullness and a winning sweet-sour balance.

Back-slaps go to: Santorini Brewing White Donkey, a sensational Wit that I drank from tank at the brewery; Birrificio Italiano Bibock that was bright, light and fresh; Avery 3point5 after GABF when I was thirsty for something light, hoppy and delicious – USA nailing pale and hoppy.

Best Overseas Bottled or Canned Beer

Pretty Things Lovely Saint Winefride and St Botolph’s Town – I’m not sure I’ve had any beers which have ever struck me as more completely and utterly breathtaking. The texture, the depth of flavour, the way that every gulp is magical and different. Beers which are beyond brilliant.

Fist-bumps for: Duvel Triple Hop which pimps the classic beer with Citra; Camba Bavaria Pale Ale – a German US-style IPA that was superb; Crooked Stave WWBI is a masterpiece of brett, barrel and fruit.

Best Overall Beer

Aargh, so hard to choose just one of those... But I’m going for the two Pretty Things beers purely because no beer has ever made me react like these did (back flips, hollering, bowing down in reverence, speechlessness...) and Pretty Things made two of them.

Best Pumpclip or Label

Anything by Half Acre. I also love Brasserie Saint Helene (images from their designers).

Best UK Brewery

I'm going local: Gadds. They might be based nearby but I rarely see their beer; when I do, I get excited and I order it. Not many breweries make me feel that. This year the Green Hop ale was excellent, No. 3 is a proper classic Kentish Ale, while the dark duo of Dogbolter and Black Pearl are always good. Camden Town also need a shout: USA Hells, Rude Boy, Gentleman's Wit, Pale Ale, Hells Lager... I've spent all year drinking them and love the quality and clean depth in the beers. 

Best Overseas Brewery

I’ve visited and drunk beer in around 30 breweries this year and a few stand out in my memory: I always knew Odell Brewing was good but going to the brewery blew my mind; Haymarket and Half Acre in Chicago were both fun and the beers were exceptional; Septem and Sanorini in Greece put great beer in different places. But the best... this year I’m going for Brasserie de la Senne. Taras Boulba and Jambe de Bois kick ass and they remind me of a fun weekend drinking in Brussels.  

Pub/Bar of the Year

I really like the Earl of Essex. The best bar I drank in outside of the UK was Sugar Maple in Milwaukee – we drank 36 beers and spent $80 there in a few crazy hours at the end of a weird and wonderful day. I also loved Pizza Port Ocean Beach – a walk by the Pacific and then a flight of great beer with a delicious pizza. Moeder Lambic also rocks (see photo above).

Beer Festival of the Year

I went to GABF this year so that gets my vote. Indy Man Beer Con is favourite to win this category next year.

Supermarket of the Year

Torpedo IPA, Thornbridge Kipling and Fuller’s Vintage in Waitrose? Winner.

Independent Retailer of the Year

The Bottle Shop in Canterbury. I love that place.

Online Retailer of the Year

Ales By Mail and BeerMerchants share it because they are the ones I use most of the time.

Best Beer Book or Magazine

The World Atlas of Beer is excellent; I really like Beer Craft by William Bostwick and Jessi Rymill; Andrew Jefford’s Peat Smoke and Spirit isn’t about beer and wasn’t released this year, but it is a great book.

Best Beer Blog or Website

I’ve struggled to keep up with all the blog reading this year, almost as much as I’ve struggled to write anything... Beervana is consistently excellent and well informed and I return to it more than any others.

And two completely opposing websites need mentioning. For services to great graphic design, Oh Beautiful Beer is the best. For services to utter shite and pointing out the horrors of British beer branding, Pumpclip Parade is fighting a campaign which we should all get behind.

Best Beer Twitterer

@WinBassett always has a stream of relevant and interesting things. If I’m bored on the train or in the pub, I find Win’s feed and there’s always a link nearby (whether about beer or something else) that’s worth reading.

I always look out for @Broadfordbrewer’s tweets for their mix of beer and one-liners, @ThornbridgeDom mixes technical detail and silliness in a great way and there’s always something interesting to see from @alessioxleone

Best Online Brewery Presence

I genuinely don’t know... I guess that means no one is standing out for the right reasons.

Food and Beer Match of the Year

Fried chicken tenders, fries and a Pliny the Elder sitting in the sun at Falling Rock in Denver. It was my idea of perfection, even if I did nearly miss my flight because of it.

In 2013 I’d most like to...

Do better; sell a million copies of my book (dream big); write another book; go to Germany; learn a new language (learn my own language a little better); win the Paris marathon (I’ll settle for finishing it); get published writing about something that’s not beer-related; catch up on life; spend more time with Lauren. That last one is the most important.

Golden Pints 2012

Time to round up the year of drinking with the Golden Pints, something Andy Mogg and I have been arranging for the last few years. Below are the categories we always go with – feel free to add further categories to the end of your responses. If you aren’t in the UK then just swap ‘UK’ in the categories for wherever you are based. You can put single word answers down, top 3s or go into long detail on each, whatever you prefer. Let’s get these up before the end of the year. And use the image above.

Best UK Draught Beer

Best UK Bottled or Canned Beer

Best Overseas Draught Beer

Best Overseas Bottled or Canned Beer

Best Overall Beer

Best Pumpclip or Label

Best UK Brewery

Best Overseas Brewery

Pub/Bar of the Year

Beer Festival of the Year

Supermarket of the Year

Independent Retailer of the Year

Online Retailer of the Year

Best Beer Book or Magazine

Best Beer Blog or Website

Best Beer Twitterer

Best Online Brewery Presence

Food and Beer Pairing of the Year

In 2013 I’d most like to...

Open category – you decide the topic

If you want to give your submissions then paste them in the comments below or email markdredge@gmail.com and I’ll pull a few together and post them all.