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14-12-2018, 07:55
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This is always an interesting exercise for us but all the more so as we’ve got better at keeping records throughout the year.Those records, in the form of just-about-weekly Patreon posts (https://www.patreon.com/boakandbailey) on which beers we’ve enjoyed most each weekend and spreadsheets from #EveryPubInBristol (https://twitter.com/hashtag/everypubinbristol?f=tweets&vertical=default&src=hash), help to avoid the recency effect (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial-position_effect#Recency_effect) and push us to be honest.
So, after a good bit of back-and-forth over Lemsips on*Wednesday night, here’s our list of the best beers and pubs of the year.
The best English pub of 2018It’s been a year of pub lists for us (1 (https://boakandbailey.com/2018/06/our-advice-on-beer-and-pubs-in-bristol/) | 2 (http://allaboutbeer.com/decoding-the-english-pub/) | 3 (https://boakandbailey.com/2018/10/these-are-a-few-of-our-favourite-pubs/) | 4 (https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2018/oct/27/50-best-uk-pubs-sunday-lunch-craft-beer-history-dog-friendly)) and we’ve visited some great places that were new to us, as well as looping back to old favourites.
But let’s be honest, there’s only one winner: our local,*The Drapers Arms, on Gloucester Road in Bristol.
https://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/drapers_arms_collage.jpgA selection of our ‘Drapers‘ photos from Twitter (https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&q=from%3Aboakandbailey%20Drapers.&src=typd).It’s a micropub and has funny hours. It tends to be either a bit quiet (Monday evening, Saturday afternoon) or crammed (the entire rest of the time). Occasionally, we wish there was a regular, reliable beer on the list.
But the stats speak for themselves: at the time of writing, we’re just shy of our hundredth visit since moving to Bristol. (Not including the times one of us has been in without the other.)
Now, that’s partly down to proximity – it really is the closest pub to our house – but we’ve challenged ourselves on this: is our number three pub, the Barley Mow near Temple Meads, better than the Drapers? No, it isn’t.
https://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/best_pub_drapers_arms_bristol_650.pngBest non-Bristol pubThe Royal Oak at Borough, London, is the best pub in London, for now (https://twitter.com/totalcurtis/status/1061966143852867586), and that’s not opinion, it’s scientific fact.*Sussex Best! Those salt beef sandwiches!
The best Belgian barWe find ourselves going back to Brasserie De L’Union in Saint-Gilles, Brussels, so that’s our winner. It’s earthy, a bit grotty, utterly bewildering, and there’s usually someone behaving downright weirdly. The beer is cheap, the service cheeky, and a diplomat’s girlfriend forced us to accept a gift of exotic fruit. And maybe the most important thing – we found it for ourselves.
The best German beer gardenWe had such a nice time pretending to be regulars at the Michaeligarten in Munich in the autumn (https://boakandbailey.com/2018/09/lederhosen-in-lidl-beer-for-breakfast-some-reflections-on-munich/) and can’t stop dreaming about going there again.
The best beer of 2018Certain beers came up repeatedly in our Beers of the Weekend posts on Patreon, some of which surprised us when we looked back:


Young’s Ordinary
Young’s Double Chocolate Stout
Lost & Grounded Keller Pils
Five Points Pils
Bath Ales Sulis
Bristol Beer Factory Pale Blue Dot
Harvey’s Sussex Best
Dark Star Hophead
Thornbridge Jaipur
De le Senne Taras Boulba
Tiny Rebel Stay Puft and Imperial Puft
Titanic Plum Porter
Zero Degrees Bohemian
Zero Degrees Dark Lager

And there were also some one-offs that we remembered, and remembered fondly, even months down the line: Siren Kisetsu, a saison with yuzu fruit and tea, for example, or Elgood’s Coolship Mango Sour.
But there’s one beer that we both agreed has become a favourite – that we find ourselves excited to encounter, and sticking on when we find it in a pub – and that’s Cheddar Ales Bitter Bully (https://www.cheddarales.co.uk/bitter-bully-pale-ale/a/3/). It’s clean, consistent, properly bitter, and a very digestible 3.8%. It also almost in that northern style (https://boakandbailey.com/2018/02/gold-pale-mancunian/) for which we’ve got such a soft spot.
https://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/best_beer_bitter_bully_650.pngBest foreign beerBased on volume consumed, and time spent dreaming about, it’s got to be De le Senne Taras Boulba.
Best TripelLook, we’ve been over this: it’s Westmalle (https://boakandbailey.com/2018/10/tripel-off-final-westmalle-vs-karmeliet/), but, boy, are we loving Karmeliet right now.
Best blendTucher Weizen with Oakham Green Devil – Hopfenweisse!
Best blog/writerWith a year’s worth of news, nuggets and longreads posts to look over, this is another we don’t need to leave to guesswork because certain blogs (or writers) got linked to time and again:


Lars Marius Garshol (http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/)
Mark Johnson (http://www.beercompurgation.co.uk)
Katie Taylor (https://thesnapandthehiss.co.uk/)
Eoghan Walsh (https://www.beercity.brussels/)

But there’s one blog we reckon stands above the rest for its frequency and depth, and for the measured insight it offers into a beer culture not our own, and that’s*Jeff Alworth’s Beervana (https://www.beervanablog.com).
https://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/best_blog_beervana.pngBest beer TwittererIt’s @thebeernut (https://twitter.com/thebeernut). Again.
Best beer publicationOriginal Gravity (http://www.originalgravitymag.com/) because it’s*different, both in terms of editorial approach (creative, impressionistic, thematic) and distribution model (free, in pubs). Good job, ATJ! (Disclosure: we’ve been paid to write a couple of bits for*OG.)

* * *And that’s us done. We’ll also try to find time for our usual Best Reading and Best Tweets round-ups in the next week or so.
Our Golden Pints for 2018 (https://boakandbailey.com/2018/12/our-golden-pints-for-2018/) originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog (https://boakandbailey.com)


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