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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Top Tastings 2009

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 […]

Whitewater Belfast Ale

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 […]

Westmalle Extra

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 […]

West Dunkel

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 […]

Weltons Pridenjoy

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 […]

Troch Chapeau Oude Lambik

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 […]

Traquair House Ale 1000th Brew 2001

Top Tastings 2009

ABV: 10% Origin: Innerleithen, Scottish Borders, Scotland Website: www.traquair.co.uk

Traquair House by James McIntosh Patrick, National Galleries of Scotland

Traquair House is the oldest inhabited stately home in Scotland and a new wave craft brewer ahead of its time. In 1965, several years before the launch of CAMRA, the rediscovery […]

Thornbridge Alliance Strong Ale Reserve 2007

Top Tastings 2009

ABV: 11% Origin: Ashford-in-the-Water, Derbyshire, England Website: www.thornbridgebrewery.co.uk

Thornbridge is currently one of the most exciting and innovative breweries in Britain, complimenting a range of high quality cask ales with a selection of bottled specialities including fine India Pale Ales and Imperial Stouts and the unclassifiable dark honey beer Bracia. It […]

Thiriez Vieille Brune

Top Tastings 2009

ABV: 5.8% Origin: Esquelbec, Nord, France Website: www.brasseriethiriez.com

Brasserie Thiriez

Daniel Thiriez seems incapable of making uninteresting beer: everything I’ve tasted from his self-named brewery has had something to say for itself as well as being consistently of high quality. The brewery is in the historic beer country of French […]

Theakston Old Peculier

Top Tastings 2009

ABV: 5.6% Origin: Masham, North Yorkshire, England Website: www.theakstons.co.uk

Theakston Old Peculier

Theakston Old Peculier is a stalwart icon of British real ale. Back in the 1970s it was the sort of beer enthusiasts discussed in hushed and reverential tones, with a pedigree dating back to the 1890s, appreciated not […]