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22-12-2012, 09:42
Visit the Tandleman's Beer Blog site (http://tandlemanbeerblog.blogspot.com/2012/12/golden-pint-awards.html)
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YrfL3gYgkUY/UNRBUd7iFiI/AAAAAAAAEZg/RSNJL8jHUZY/s1600/golden+pints.png (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YrfL3gYgkUY/UNRBUd7iFiI/AAAAAAAAEZg/RSNJL8jHUZY/s1600/golden+pints.png)
Well Folks, put down that glass of Birra Obscura and pin back your lugholes. This is the feet on the ground, 'Golden Pint Awards. No strange beers that you have to choke down while holding your nose, or collaborations between brewers, who have you pay for them meeting up with their chums and no beers aged in feta cheese barrels or any other such bollocks and no beers to share. Just good old beer that you buy yourself and drink yourself. The key to my selections is always drinkability. Boring eh, but you are stuck with it.
Best UK Draught Beer
Tricky one this. There is always the delight of Hawkshead Windermere Pale, or NZPA, which never fail to please, or Brodies All Brett IPA, or their Sunshine even. What about great beers from Allgates or Green Mill Cat's Whiskers? (my best mild of 2012). Many worthy possibilities, but my awards goes to Ossett Citra. A beautiful example of a single hopped beer, which I just kept repeat ordering until the last bus.
Best UK Bottled or Canned Beer
Even trickier since I rarely drink any. I have enjoyed the beers from my local Wilson Potter Brewery, which mimic cask so well and anything from Stringers in a bottle is very worthwhile. Thornbridge beers in bottle have a wonderful freshness that I really like, so it is Thornbridge Chiron. Balanced, hoppy and with great drinakability.
Best Overseas Draught Beer
Bohemia Regent is a strong contender - a lovely beer. Schneider Mein Hopfenweisse also impressed me greatly, so is a contender, but is has to be Rodenbach. In a great little boozer in snowy Blankenberg, it was oh so drinkable, with its touch of sourness and oh so memorable. Since I write almost nothing down these days, it has to stick in the memory and does.
Best Overseas Bottled or Canned Beer
Schneider Meine Hopfenweisse. Dangerously drinkable.
Best Overall Beer
No overall winner. I just couldn't pick one. Different beers are best in certain circumstances.
Best Pumpclip or Label
Lees Bitter. It means home to me beer wise.
Best UK Brewery
My "go to" breweries are Hawkshead and Thornbridge, but even though I haven't mentioned individual beers, it has to be Summer Wine. If they have a house style, it is cleanness. Their beers, no matter whether on cask or keg, complex or not, are wonderfully clean. They even do styles I don't like that much well and they are one of the few breweries whose keg beer has something to recommend it. Now that I think about it, their Rouge Hop could have been beer of the year and I don't like red ales.
Best Overseas Brewery
De Cam. Spectacularly good beers as I wrote in my blog.
Pub/Bar of the Year
I drink in a lot of really good places, so again it is down to good times with good people. Honourable mentions to the Holborn Whippet, Port St Beer House, that little pub in Blankenberg, the Ship in near home, my local the Tandle Hill Tavern and many more. There isn't an overall winner, but I'd rather be drinking "twiggy" beer with friends than great beer with strangers.
Beer Festival of the Year
National Winter Ales of course. I do help organise it after all. And GBBF was rather good back at Olympia.
Supermarket of the Year
No views
Independent Retailer of the Year
No views
Online Retailer of the Year
No views
Best Beer Book or Magazine
Beer Magazine
Best Beer Blog or Website
Honourable mentions to Boak and Bailey - relentless, but very insightful at times. Pete Brown for authority, Curmudgeon for topicality, Paul Bailey for pubs and Beer Nut for tasting notes. Overall winner though is Pump Clip Parade for its campaigning role against sexism and bad taste in British Brewing.
Best Beer Twitterer
Kristy McCready. She is brilliant. A great loss to the industry, but still interested in it you can tell.
Best Online Brewery Presence
Hardknott. Funny and likeable and they are lovely people.
Food and Beer Pairing of the Year
I'll pass on this one, but everything at the European Beer Bloggers Conference worked well.
In 2013 I’d most like to...
Still be here.
Open category - Most Improved Cask Ale Brewery
Allgates of Wigan. These boys are hitting their stride
Biggest Tossers in British Brewing?
Guess? Correct!
Sorry about the formatting. I had terrible trouble with it.
More... (http://tandlemanbeerblog.blogspot.com/2012/12/golden-pint-awards.html)
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YrfL3gYgkUY/UNRBUd7iFiI/AAAAAAAAEZg/RSNJL8jHUZY/s1600/golden+pints.png (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YrfL3gYgkUY/UNRBUd7iFiI/AAAAAAAAEZg/RSNJL8jHUZY/s1600/golden+pints.png)
Well Folks, put down that glass of Birra Obscura and pin back your lugholes. This is the feet on the ground, 'Golden Pint Awards. No strange beers that you have to choke down while holding your nose, or collaborations between brewers, who have you pay for them meeting up with their chums and no beers aged in feta cheese barrels or any other such bollocks and no beers to share. Just good old beer that you buy yourself and drink yourself. The key to my selections is always drinkability. Boring eh, but you are stuck with it.
Best UK Draught Beer
Tricky one this. There is always the delight of Hawkshead Windermere Pale, or NZPA, which never fail to please, or Brodies All Brett IPA, or their Sunshine even. What about great beers from Allgates or Green Mill Cat's Whiskers? (my best mild of 2012). Many worthy possibilities, but my awards goes to Ossett Citra. A beautiful example of a single hopped beer, which I just kept repeat ordering until the last bus.
Best UK Bottled or Canned Beer
Even trickier since I rarely drink any. I have enjoyed the beers from my local Wilson Potter Brewery, which mimic cask so well and anything from Stringers in a bottle is very worthwhile. Thornbridge beers in bottle have a wonderful freshness that I really like, so it is Thornbridge Chiron. Balanced, hoppy and with great drinakability.
Best Overseas Draught Beer
Bohemia Regent is a strong contender - a lovely beer. Schneider Mein Hopfenweisse also impressed me greatly, so is a contender, but is has to be Rodenbach. In a great little boozer in snowy Blankenberg, it was oh so drinkable, with its touch of sourness and oh so memorable. Since I write almost nothing down these days, it has to stick in the memory and does.
Best Overseas Bottled or Canned Beer
Schneider Meine Hopfenweisse. Dangerously drinkable.
Best Overall Beer
No overall winner. I just couldn't pick one. Different beers are best in certain circumstances.
Best Pumpclip or Label
Lees Bitter. It means home to me beer wise.
Best UK Brewery
My "go to" breweries are Hawkshead and Thornbridge, but even though I haven't mentioned individual beers, it has to be Summer Wine. If they have a house style, it is cleanness. Their beers, no matter whether on cask or keg, complex or not, are wonderfully clean. They even do styles I don't like that much well and they are one of the few breweries whose keg beer has something to recommend it. Now that I think about it, their Rouge Hop could have been beer of the year and I don't like red ales.
Best Overseas Brewery
De Cam. Spectacularly good beers as I wrote in my blog.
Pub/Bar of the Year
I drink in a lot of really good places, so again it is down to good times with good people. Honourable mentions to the Holborn Whippet, Port St Beer House, that little pub in Blankenberg, the Ship in near home, my local the Tandle Hill Tavern and many more. There isn't an overall winner, but I'd rather be drinking "twiggy" beer with friends than great beer with strangers.
Beer Festival of the Year
National Winter Ales of course. I do help organise it after all. And GBBF was rather good back at Olympia.
Supermarket of the Year
No views
Independent Retailer of the Year
No views
Online Retailer of the Year
No views
Best Beer Book or Magazine
Beer Magazine
Best Beer Blog or Website
Honourable mentions to Boak and Bailey - relentless, but very insightful at times. Pete Brown for authority, Curmudgeon for topicality, Paul Bailey for pubs and Beer Nut for tasting notes. Overall winner though is Pump Clip Parade for its campaigning role against sexism and bad taste in British Brewing.
Best Beer Twitterer
Kristy McCready. She is brilliant. A great loss to the industry, but still interested in it you can tell.
Best Online Brewery Presence
Hardknott. Funny and likeable and they are lovely people.
Food and Beer Pairing of the Year
I'll pass on this one, but everything at the European Beer Bloggers Conference worked well.
In 2013 I’d most like to...
Still be here.
Open category - Most Improved Cask Ale Brewery
Allgates of Wigan. These boys are hitting their stride
Biggest Tossers in British Brewing?
Guess? Correct!
Sorry about the formatting. I had terrible trouble with it.
More... (http://tandlemanbeerblog.blogspot.com/2012/12/golden-pint-awards.html)