They say…

Des de Moor
Best beer and travel writing award 2015, 2011 -- British Guild of Beer Writers Awards
Accredited Beer Sommelier
Writer of "Probably the best book about beer in London" - Londonist
"A necessity if you're a beer geek travelling to London town" - Beer Advocate
"A joy to read" - Roger Protz
"Very authoritative" - Tim Webb.
"One of the top beer writers in the UK" - Mark Dredge.
"A beer guru" - Popbitch.
Des de Moor

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Ale House Rock at the Snooty Fox!

Mixing it up on the wheels of steel. Or something. Pic: Ian Harris

Next weekend (2-5 February 2012) sees the latest beer and music themed festival at the very welcoming and decent Snooty Fox pub at Canonbury. Yes, you’ll be able to enjoy some great beers, but you’ll also be able to catch […]

Marble Old Manchester Ale

Top Tastings 2011

ABV: 7.3% Origin: Manchester, England Website: www.marblebeers.co.uk, www.fullers.co.uk

Fuller's head brewer John Keeling with Marble Old Manchester. "Old and from Manchester." Pic: Fuller's

Collaboration beers are especially popular among the new generation of craft brewers, often across national boundaries, and have produced some fascinating results. But here’s one that crosses […]

Moonlight Death & Taxes

Top Tastings 2011

ABV: 5% Origin: Santa Rosa, California, USA Website: www.moonlightbrewing.com

Moonlight Death & Taxes Black Beer

The name refers to the old proverb about certainty, attributed among many others to Benjamin Franklin. And it’s a quality that I’ve come to associate over the past few years with Moonlight beers – the […]

Moncada Notting Hill Amber

Top Tastings 2011

ABV: 4.9% Origin: London W10, England Website: moncadabrewery.co.uk

Julio Moncada at the London Brewers Showcase, October 2011

2011 was an extraordinary year for brewing in London. When I sent the final text of London’s Best Beer, Bars and Pubs off to CAMRA Books in early March, I felt the capital […]

Mighty Oak Oscar Wilde

Top Tastings 2011

ABV: 3.7% Origin: Maldon, Essex, England Website: www.mightyoakbrewery.co.uk

Mighty Oak Oscar Wilde

This beer won Champion Beer of Britain (CBoB) at the Great British Beer Festival in August 2011, much to the consternation of some craft beer aficianados who saw this as further evidence of CAMRA conservatism and fustiness – […]

Is cask craft?

Cask or craft? Can Boris tell the difference? Opening of Lovibonds brewery 2006, with brewer Jeff Rosenmeier (right). Pic: Lovibonds

This is the first in what will undoubtedly become an occasional series of posts addressing some of the theoretical and policy debates currently besetting British beer culture. If your interest in beer is […]

Kernel Imperial Brown Stout London 1856

Top Tastings 2011

ABV: 10.1% Origin: London SE1, England Website: www.thekernelbrewery.com

The Kernel Brewery

Beers from the Kernel, surely London’s second world class brewery, loomed large in my drinking in 2011. I admit I was a bit late in catching up on them – my first encounter was in January when I visited […]

Harveys Christmas Ale

Top Tastings 2011

ABV: 8.1% Origin: Lewes, East Sussex, England Website: www.harveys.org.uk

Harveys Christmas Ale

The end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011 found me tasting an unusually large number of British cask ales as I worked my way round potential places to drink for my London guide. Normally, to preserve as […]

Goose Island Bourbon County Coffee Stout 2010

Top Tastings 2011

ABV: 13% Origin: Chicago, Illinois, USA Website: www.gooseisland.com

Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout

I’ve been a fan of Chicago’s Goose Island beers ever since receiving some review samples of their pale ales when they were first imported to the UK (see Goose Island Honker’s Ale), and their pioneering […]

Fyne Jarl

Top Tastings 2011

ABV: 3.8% Origin: Cairndow, Argyll & Bute, Scotland Website: www.fyneales.com

Fyne Ales Jarl

Cask golden ales are now as ubiquitous in Britain as traditional bitter, and most, it’s sad to say, make for relatively bland, if refreshing, drinking. One of the ways some of them are marking themselves out is […]