Friday 23 December 2011

Golden Pint Beer Awards 2011


It's that time of year when we look back before looking forward to the new one. With that in mind, below are my Golden Pint Beer Awards nominations for 2011.
Best UK Draught (Cask or Keg) Beer: Magic Rock Human Cannonball, a revelation from a new brewery that’s really going places.
Best UK Bottled or Canned Beer: Kernel Saison, absolutely amazing both kegged and bottled. Brings back memories of sitting in the garden in the Summer sun.
Best Overseas Draught Beer: Russian River Blind Pig IPA, was blown away by this when visiting the brewery this year, and only $3.25 during happy hour! Pliny wasn’t bad either :)
Best Overseas Bottled or Canned Beer: Ballast Point Sculpin, the perfect west coast IPA. Was amazing fresh at the Brewery on keg too.
Best Overall Beer: Thornbridge Raven. I just kept going back to this and always have it when i see it.
Best Pumpclip or Label: Magic Rock have creating an appealing, modern brand which plays out well on all their pump clips although I’ll go with Human Cannonball because I love the metallic look.
Best UK Brewery: Kernel. Amazing.
Best Overseas Brewery: Stone, continues to deliver great beer and I fell in love with their Bistro/Garden Bar when visiting this year. Can’t wait to go back there.
Pub/Bar of the Year: Craft Beer Co, Leather Lane. It can get exceptionally busy but visit on a Saturday afternoon for a real treat without the chaos. Honourable mention to Brewdog Camden. May have only opened a couple of weeks ago but already a must visit when in London. Their bottled selection is impressive and reasonably priced.
Beer Festival of the Year: Only went to one sadly – GBBF.
Supermarket of the Year: Sainsbury’s (for their great british beer hunt)
Independent Retailer of the Year: The Bottle Shop, Canterbury. We visited in the Summer and had a great afternoon. If Carlsberg did beer shops… oh, hang on.
Online Retailer of the Year: myBreweryTap. Their amazing pick and mix list has emptied my wallet more than once!
Best Beer Book or Magazine: Melissa Cole’s Let me tell you… still sat on my coffee table two months later.
Best Beer Blog or Website: The Beer Monkey (by @rhodeshannah) is both insightful and entertaining, and also very well written.
Best Beer Twitterer: @beerymatt, funny, beery and a thoroughly nice chap to boot.
Best Online Brewery Presence: Summer Wine Brewery
Food and Beer Pairing of the Year: AB:06 and Toulouse Sausages – an amazing pairing suggested by @rickfurzer as part of a pairing for AB:01 to AB:06               
Best Online Brewery presence: Summer Wine Brewery
In 2012 I’d Most Like To: Start homebrewing!
Open Category: You Choose: Most pointless debate: Cask v Keg v Bottle v Can v Wheelie Bin – I don’t care as long as the brewer is happy I’m getting their product via a dispense method which does it justice.

2 comments:

  1. A very decent selection Andy, and am really pleased you enjoyed the AB:06 and Toulouse pairing.

    It's kinda awe-inspiring, drinking so many amazing brews and I'm completely with you on now wanting to start home-brewing and experimenting with the wonders of beer.

    Here's to a cracking 2012!

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  2. All the pairings work well Rick - your suggestions made for a cracking night of food and beer matching. That's something I'd also like to explore further in 2012.

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