2014 Mobys

[Mobyduck]

Still a few days to go so possible editing ahead but this is the best of my years efforts.

Pubs of the year
1- The Gunmakers , a repeat of last year but now sadly changed hands (not tried since) but had a fantastic leaving party night in there.
2- Masons Arms, brilliant.
3- Williams Ale And Cider House, a great find thanks to London Calling, cheers John.
4 -Old Red Lion - a surprise discovery ,really good.
5-Hand in Hand - suitably quirky.
6 - The Antelope - Two visits this year, more to come next year.

Beers of the Year
1- Siren Craft Brew - Broken Dream 6.0% , indescribably good.
2 - Darkstar Hophead Simcoe 3.8% ,a brilliant twist on the regular beer.
3 - Salopian Automaton 7.0% - a very dangerous but very moreish beer.
4 - Vibrant Forest - Black Forest 4.9% - a very good Porter and a rare good beer originating from my home county of Hampshire.
5 - Brew Dog - Dead Pony Club - 3.8% - Keg , cold and fizzy but so much flavour, it will do for me.

Breweries of the year
1- Siren Craft
2- Burning Sky
3- Weird Beard
4- Arbor
5- Oakham.

[Bucking Fastard]

No more pub visits for me ,so looking back over 2014 to reply to this thread made me realise how epic 2014 was.A slow yet grand tour of the midlands and north by boat produced some outstanding pubs and pints .The PuG crawls were also top drawer,I never realised just how impressive Worcester has become.
I will stick to a top 5 in each category,some of the ales and pubs that failed to make the cut still get a 10.

Pubs of the Year

Marble Arch
Baum
Craven Arms
Royal Exchange
Rat & Ratchet


Beers of the Year (only one per brewery)

Marble Lagonda IPA
Titanic Plum Porter
Blue Monkey Ape Ale
Burning Sky Aurora
Oakham Citra


Breweries of the Year

Marble
Titanic
Blue Monkey
Burning Sky
Great Heck

[Aqualung]

Earlier this year I made a list of great pubs I remembered from the distant past and using a Senile railcard would see how many I can get to. Ironically one of these was the Tan Hill Inn mentioned elsewhere but I haven't been there and doubt that I will. These are the eight from the list I've managed to get to.

Compasses, Littley Green, Essex
Red Lion, Snargate, Kent
Hare and Hounds, Wadsworth near Hebden Bridge, W Yorks
Great Western, Wolverhampton
Vine, Brierley Hill, W Midlands
Lamp Tavern, Dudley, W Midlands
Beacon Hotel, Sedgley, W Midlands
Royal Exchange, Stourbridge, W Midlands

These are other ones stumbled across that I rated very highly :-

Britannia, Upper Gornal, W Midlands
Jolly Crispin, Upper Gornal, W Midlands
Organ Grinder, Loughborough, Leics
Codsall Station, W Midlands
Rising Sun, Berkamsted, Herts
Kings Head, Hailsham, E Sussex
Wellington, Sheffield, S Yorks
Shakespeares, Sheffield, S Yorks
New Zealand Arms, Derby
The All Nations, Madeley, Telford
Duke William, Stourbridge, W Midlands


Deciding on individual beers is just too big a task.


These are more or less new breweries for me that have impressed this year :-

Blue Monkey
Kinver
Tiny Rebel
Saltaire
Tillingbourne

There are probably others that I've missed out.


Biggest disappointment of the year was the Cambridge Blue.
The pub that for years was the top pub in Cambridge is now a manic dive. There is still a good range of well kept ales in there but there are now numerous pubs within easy walking distance that also have that and are much more enjoyable.

[Pubsignman]

This has been a good year in terms of quality, with lots of great pubs and very few duffers, so it's tough trying to pick out a top five, but I've decided to go with the following:

1) The Fat Cat - Norwich
2) Old Spot Inn - Dursley
3) Black Horse Hotel - Preston
4) The Victoria - Great Harwood
5) The Craven Arms - Birmingham

with honorable mentions to Strawberry Gardens - Fleetwood, Taps - Lytham, Swan with Two Necks - Pendleton, Elm Tree - Cambridge, Bartons Arms - Birmingham and Beacon Hotel - Sedgley.

Beer of the year was Oakham Inferno, by quite some distance. Other stand out pints include:

Blackedge - Black
Kissingate - Black Cherry Mild
Sadlers - Boris Citrov
Gipsy Hill - Beatnik

And top breweries:

Oakham
Bristol Beer Factory
Bank Top
Buxton
Marble

And finally, the best crawls this year were:

1) Norwich
2) Birmingham
3) Bristol
4) Derby
5) Ribble Valley

[oldboots]

I've looked back over my drinking diary for last year and surprisingly I didn't stray that far from home this year, still as they say "a day out of Yorkshire's a day wasted".

Apart from the Rugby PuG do, I thoroughly enjoyed my two Liverpool crawls especially the one to avoid the Tour de bloody France with hardly a bad pub visited on either occasion. The best crawl was to Edinburgh and the first among equals was the previously unvisited Athletic Arms (Diggers), although my favourite pub of the year has to be the Harrogate Tap. Pub wise Bradford is coming up but not quite there yet and Leeds goes from strength to strength but Otley still punches a long way above its weight.

Surprising crawl of the year was round Newark, in addition to a Blue Monkey pub it has one of the best micro-pubs I've found and I'm definately going to hunt out some more in 2015.

As for breweries those that have impressed me most have been Magic Rock, Great Heck, Northern Monk, Red Willow and Brass Castle, but in spite of this the beers that have never disappointed this year are the dark rich Sarah Hughes Ruby Mild and Acorn's Barnsley Bitter; Roosters pale 4.3% beers (name usually immaterial) always hit the spot as well.

[london calling]

Pubs of the year (all London)
bohemia n12
old shades sw1
red lion e11
craft beer co wc1
masons arms tw8

beers of the year
weird beard -dark hofler
magic rock -dart arts with raspberries
siren -limoncello
beavertown -blood orange ipa
dark horse ( American) -tres blueberry stout
quite amazed that 3 would be dark beers and 4 have fruit.
cheers john

[Aqualung]

As for breweries those that have impressed me most have been Magic Rock, Great Heck, Northern Monk, Red Willow and Brass Castle.

Red Willow is one that impressed me greatly in the Great Western at Wolverhampton in October but that was just one drink. I get the impression that their bar in Macclesfield is trendy, expensive and mostly keg. My mate in Chingford went to the Northern Monk Refectory recently but I think he said the only cask on offer was from Kelham Island.

[Wittenden]

I started off with good intentions, but got side tracked:

Beers of the Year

Black Cat-Original
Canterbury Ales-Wife of Bath’s ale
Dent-Aviator
Long Man-Old Man
Hop Fuzz-Yellow Zinger

Pubs of the Year

http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/39543/,West The Cat Inn, West Hoathly
The Castle Inn, Chiddingstone
http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/42647/, The Chequers,Ledsham, tied withhttp://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/65697/, The Old Hill Inn,Chapel-le-Dale
The Plough Inn, Stalisfield
http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/58503/,East Witton.The Cover Bridge Inn, East Witton. I hadn't intended to mention this pub,not wishing to be repetitive, but I realised it provided 3 five star beers on one brief lunchtime session.

Breweries of the Year

Breweries of the Year
Hop Fuzz
Black Cat
Mad Cat
Brown Cow
Long Man

[Real Ale Ray]

Hard to pick top pubs for the year, so many good ones visited, but here goes:

Pubs of the Year

Star Inn
Black Horse Hotel
The Bhurtpore Inn
Greys Inn
The Victoria
Lower Buck Inn
The Turks Head

Beers

Anarchy - Blonde Star
Reedley Hallows - Filly Close Blonde
Bowland - Headless Peg
Acton - Seahouses Pale
XT - 2

Breweries

Bowland
Peerless
Reedley Hallows
Connoisseur


Top crawls of the year

Northumberland
Ribble Valley
Stockport
Black Country
Worcester

Here's to a good year ahead

[Thuck Phat]

Always a tricky one this.
I'm going for 5 per category: pubs which I've enjoyed this year and have been new where possible, beer which I've enjoyed and is again new to me where possible and top breweries producing consistently top quality ale.

PUBS

Roebuck Hotel
Rat and Ratchet
Baum
Black Lion
Coachmaker Arms

BEERS

Hopcraft/Northern Monk - Crafty Monk
Whim - Flower Power
Offbeat - Odd Ball Red
Hebden Bridge - Girl Crush
Sunny Republic - Hop Dog

BREWERIES

Marble
Titanic
Blue Monkey
Oakham
Hart Family Brewers