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Aromatherapy… Photo: Tom Stainer Here are 30 beers which really stood out from the many others I tasted during 2009. They’re not necessarily new beers, just beers I hadn’t tasted before, or for a long time, and that from the first taste made me want to laugh, jump, shout or simply chill out […] Would you buy a CAMRA membership from this man? National Winter Ales Festival, Manchester 2010. Photo: Tim Hampson The National Winter Ales Festival is very much the little brother of CAMRA’s two national festivals: with an attendance of 8,350 this year, it’s about an eighth the size of the Great British Beer Festival […] National Winter Ales Festival 2010 ABV: 6.5% Origin: Elland, West Yorkshire, England Website: www.eandsbrewery.co.uk E&S Elland 1872 Porter 2010’s overall Champion Beer of Britain is a previous runner-up, the highly deserving Elland 1872 porter, based on a recipe from the eponymous year. The brewery, in the small Calderdale town of Elland, originates from […] National Winter Ales Festival 2010 Top Tastings 2010 ABV: 5.5% Origin: Manchester, England Website: http://www.marblebeers.com/ Marble Arch, Manchester M4 The Grade II-listed Marble Arch in Ancoats, on the Rochdale Road just north of Manchester’s city centre ring road, would be an essential stop for anyone with an interest in historic pubs, with its […] National Winter Ales Festival 2010 ABV: 4.8% Origin: Leeds, West Yorkshire, England Website: www.leedsbrewery.co.uk Leeds Midnight Bell Midnight Bell is a fine and rich dark mild named in honour of its brewery’s showcase pub in Leeds’ round foundry development. The brewery, opened in 2007, is currently the only independent in the city, with […] Top Tastings 2009 ABV: 4.5% Origin: Kilkeel, Dúin, Northern Ireland Website: www.whitewaterbrewing.com Whitewater Belfast Ale Ireland is a mixed bag of a country for the beer connoisseur. The island gave us one of the world’s classic styles in dry Irish stout, but domestically the nitrogenated evolution of that style has been instrumental in […] Top Tastings 2009 ABV: 4.8% Origin: Malle, Antwerpen, Vlaanderen Website: www.trappistwestmalle.be Westmalle Extra The Cistercian Trappist Abdij Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van het Heilig Hart van Westmalle, on the main N12 road between Antwerpen and Turnhout in the Belgian Kempen, is home to arguably the most influential, and alongside Chimay the most commercially active, of the […] Top Tastings 2009 ABV: 4.9% Origin: Glasgow, Scotland Website: www.westbeer.com West For four decades cask ale has been the focus of the British beer consumer movement, and the technical specifications for its production and dispense have become embedded in the ideology of beer appreciation as if they’re judgements of value and quality, with […] Top Tastings 2009 ABV: 2.8% Origin: Horsham, West Sussex, England Website: www.weltonsbeer.com Weltons Pridenjoy Overall this Top Tastings selection exhibits a bias towards very strong beers demanding contemplative sipping, but I also have an affection for low gravity beers, which in many ways are a more demanding test of the brewer’s art. Ray […] Top Tastings 2009 ABV: 5% Origin: Wambeek, Vlaams Brabant, Vlaanderen Website: www.detroch.be De Troch Chapeau Lambic De Troch of Wambeek is one of the lambic breweries you really wish you could think more highly of. Its pedigree is impeccable: it’s a farmhouse brewery founded by Pieter de Troch in 1780 in the lambic […] |
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