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Green Flash Trippel Ale Best Damn Beer Shop ABV: 9.7% Origin: Vista, California, USA Website: www.greenflashbrew.com Created to mark the brewery’s third anniversary in 2005, the curiously spelt Trippel has the traditional looking ingredients list of a Belgian abbey beer, with added sugar, Styrian Goldings and Czech Žatec hops and Trappist yeast, but […] Ballast Point Black Marlin Porter Best Damn Beer Shop ABV: 6% Origin: San Diego, California, USA Website: www.ballastpoint.com Underlining the vital link between commercial craft brewing and homebrewing around which the vibrant beer culture of San Diego flourishes, the Ballast Point brewery actually began in a homebrewing supplies shop. Opened in 1992, Jack […] Alpine Pure Hoppiness. Best Damn Beer Shop ABV: 8% Origin: Alpine, California, USA Website: alpinebrewing.com When you think about it, “Pure Hoppiness” is such an obvious punning name for a hop-focused beer, it’s surprising someone didn’t grab it years ago. Instead, it’s fallen to a very small but high achieving craft brewery in […] AleSmith Wee Heavy Scotch Style Ale Best Damn Beer Shop ABV: 10% Origin: San Diego, California, USA Website: www.alesmith.com I first heard about the buzz around beer in San Diego from some itinerant locals who struck up a conversation with me at Belgium’s Zythos Bierfestival in 2008. They also very kindly gave me […] Your author sampling the wares at the Borefts Bierfestival, Bodegraven, Netherlands, September 2012. Pic: Stephen Robinson. 2012 was another great year for tasting beer. Britain’s brewers got ever more eclectic and adventurous, and London’s share of good breweries and top venues multiplied apace. The developing Belgian scene was well reflected in the newly […] Weihenstephaner Vitus Top Tastings 2012 ABV: 7.7% Origin: Freising, Bayern, Germany Website: www.weihenstephaner.de My 2012 top tastings feature not just the brewery that claims to be Britain’s oldest (Shepherd Neame), but the one that claims to be the world’s oldest too. Weihenstephan, or ‘Holy Stephen’, began brewing as a Benedictine monastery in Freising […] Schneider Weisse Tap X Mein Nelson Sauvin. Top Tastings 2012 ABV: 7.3% Origin: Kelheim, Bayern, Germany Website: www.schneider-weisse.de Of all the great European brewing industries, Germany’s seems the most conservative, complacent and insulated from international trends. Many of the country’s vast numbers of brewers still seem to think no further than their immediate […] Tempest Brave New World Top Tastings 2012 ABV: 7.8% Origin: Kelso, Scottish Borders, Scotland Website: www.tempestbrewingco.com In May 2012 I hosted an IPA tasting downstairs at Mason & Taylor in Shoreditch – one of my favourite new craft beer bars in London until BrewDog made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. Manager Steve […] Beers and brewhouse at Societe Brewing, San Diego CA. Top Tastings 2012 (The Pupil) ABV: 9.8%, 6% and 7.7% Origin: San Diego, California, USA Website: www.societebrewing.com San Diego, a naval and university city in California’s far southwestern corner, is also a top craft beer producer, boasting heavy hitters like AleSmith, Port and Stone […] Ska Steel Toe Working Class Milk Stout Top Tastings 2012 ABV: 5.4% Origin: Durango, Colorado, USA Website: www.skabrewing.com With my soft spot for the smarter and sharper side of mid-1960s music and fashion and its later revivalist derivatives, I was intrigued to find a Colorado craft brewery calling itself Ska and borrowing its […] |
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