I really enjoy the nostalgic 8-bit of Elusive Brewing’s pump clips.Ĭan’t this be a can? If so, Northern Monk Travel Notes was a stunner. The Patrons Project is a wild success for me – bringing together and curating both beer and art forms.

Northern Monk gets the nod from me for the sheer variation, daring, innovation and gorgeousness of their labels. If there is no occasion, then the freshest German helles that I can find. It’s a beautiful sour with a lot more complexity than most kettle sours, while still feeling just a hint like a soft drink. I could talk more about the juicebombs we had over in the States, but I want to mention Puca – a berry and hibiscus sour from Ireland’s White Hag. Dry, champagne-y and puckering it takes over your entire palate, nose and brain with bubbling sherbet and vinous acidity. This has to be 3 Fonteinen Cuvee & Amand Gaston, pushing Boon Black Label down a peg in my mindlist of world’s best geuzes. I don’t want to brag…but drinking Pliny by the pint for $3.50 on a Sunday is as close to attending Church as I got this year. It was such a gimmicky concept but the acai berries really, really worked adding a complex layer of fruitiness that was hard to pin down but set it apart from the flood of hazy juicebombs that came out of British breweries this year. I also bloody loved Travel Notes from Northern Monk. We drank it during our tips for the best breweries of 2017, in which we definitely scored 3 out of 4 for.Ĭloudwater/The Veil Chubbles was my standout from both a flavour and technical point of view. I think it has to go to Little Earth Project’s bretted stock ale – lambic-y, ciderous, orange juicy – it was complex yet remarkably approachable. Good lord this is a tough one – I mean, I probably drank 500 different bottles this year thanks to the Craft Beer Channel and Beer merchants tasting sessions. Honourable mention to some stunning pales I’ve had Vibrant Forest. It’s not as good as the seminal Hacker-Pschorr Kellerbier but it’s close and some more tweaking will mean we can finally tell Germany we’ve bettered one of their classics. Moreish, reviving and refreshing yet full-bodied and full-flavoured. It’s been said many times during Golden Pints and before, but Lost and Grounded Kellerpils is simply the most drinkable beer in the UK.

All of us were hungover to hell after a party the night before, but somehow I still sunk 5 pints of Burning Sky Plateau and skidded home happy. The other memory is our first Good Beer hunting editorial meeting, just a few weeks ago. It was sweet with caramel and vanilla, an absolute malt bomb perfect for winter. It was, in fact, the recipe for the first beer he ever made. It had been aged on oak chips and was actually based on the original homebrew recipe of the brewery’s founder. Similarly I got to try a cask beer at the Bear Republic taproom in Santa Rosa – a wee heavy, to be precise. Thick, boozy, spicy and malty in the malted-milk sense it was a wonder that stuck to my teeth and my gut to make for a visceral, delicious experience. The most remarkable was a cask of Cloudwater/To Øl’s Christmas Cake Stout at Bottleshop Bermondsey. I have three standout cask memories this year. For example, if you love travelling and beer then why not take a look at Travelwanker.World? A blog all about beer and seeing the greatest places in the world, how could you go wrong? But for me, #goldenpints a chance to relive all the amazing moments of 2017, by which I mean times with the beer and the people, and to give shoutouts to those who made it possible, whether it’s brewers or friends. Sometimes writing listicles like this can be seen as cynical and cheap.

We need to embrace the challenges, but also remember to shut the fuck up for a moment and enjoy the actual beer. Don’t let the sad and distressing news about buyouts deny that. British beer, indeed global beer, had its best year ever. We won an award, joined the Good Beer Hunting team and finished our second book (out Feb!).īut all that success and growth PALES in comparison to the achievements of the amazing brewers we film and write about. We grew by 10,000 subscribers, very nearly hit 50,000 subs and 2,000,000 views. We visited the West Coast of America, the Arctic Circle, Munich and Belgium so many times we lost count. Dear beer lovers/ #goldenpints chasers, it’s hard to believe another year has come and gone.

Brew thefuck cli