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

Ads


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 […]

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 – […]

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 […]

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 […]

Box Steam Funnel Blower

Box Steam Funnel Blower

Top Tastings 2011 Southwest porters and strong beers

ABV: 4.5% Origin: Colerne, Wiltshire, England Website: www.boxsteambrewery.com

Family-owned Box Steam, founded in 2004 near Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s celebrated Great Western Railway tunnel under Box Hill in rural Wiltshire, is a brewery well worth keeping an eye on. I bumped into […]

Sambrook’s Junction, Powerhouse Porter and Pale Ale

London Beer Tastings 2011 Junction was featured in a piece on bottle conditioned beers from London in BEER August 2011. Read more about London bottle conditioned beers.

ABV: 4.5%, 4.7% (5% in bottle) and 4.2% Origin: Battersea, London SW11, England Website: www.sambrooksbrewery.co.uk

Sambrook's Junction

The departure of Young’s from London in 2006 […]

Redemption Trinity and Redemption/Kernel Number One Strong Dark Mild

London Beer Tastings 2011

ABV: 3% and 6.1% Origin: Tottenham, London N17, England Website: www.redemptionbrewing.co.uk

Redemption Trinity

Redemption, launched early in 2010, now seems like something of a veteran among the new wave of London brewers. Impressive from the start, it’s rapidly settled down into a consistently performing and reliable source of decent […]

Kernel India Pale Ale Black, India Pale Ale and Pale Ale

London Beer Tastings 2011. For more background on the brewery, see previous post.

ABV: 6.8%, 7.1% and 5.5% Origin: Bermondsey, London SE1, England Website: www.thekernelbrewery.com

Kernel Pale Ale

Besides its old fashioned dark beers, Kernel brews contemporary beers fresh with the flavours of new world hops. These too are of exceptional quality, […]