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Best beer and travel writing award 2015, 2011 -- British Guild of Beer Writers Awards
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 Weltenburger Kloster Asam Bock Beer sellers: Beers of Europe
ABV: 6.9%
Origin: Kelheim, Bayern, Germany
Website: www.weltenburger.de
The Low Countries aren’t the only part of the world where monks mix with mash tuns: the German-speaking countries too have their brewing brothers, or at least breweries located in working monastery premises. Weltenburger Kloster, a Benedictine abbey on a scenic peninsula of the river Donau, the Donaudurchbruch, near Kelheim in Lower Bavaria, dates its founding to 620 and claims to be the oldest monastery in Bavaria, though monastic life was suspended during the secularisation of Bavaria between 1803-42. Its brewery also claims to be the world’s oldest established monastery brewery, known to have operated since 1050 — almost a thousand years.
The abbey is particularly celebrated for its spectacular late baroque church, created between 1716-39 by architect and sculptor Cosmas Damian Asam, assisted by his brother Egid Quirin. Asam commemorated by the brewery with Asam Bock, an outstanding dark bockbier that’s easily one of the best of its style.
It’s a very deep reddish chestnut with a thick, fine yellow head and a nutty, malty toffeeish aroma with a faint hint of estery banana. A fresh, soft, toasty and slightly winy malt palate has nutty cherry notes, hops, and a slight acidic tangy balancing the biscuit. The long, sappy and vinous finish is rich with nutty malt, a little chocolate and a dab of oak.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/weltenburger-kloster-asam-bock/4025/
Beer sellers: Beers of Europe
ABV: 6.5%
Origin: Berkel-Enschot, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands
Website: www.latrappe.nl
 Koningshoeven La Trappe Dubbel The only official Trappist brewery outside Belgium is operated by the secular Bavaria brewery in partnership with the brothers of the Abdij Onze Lieve Vrouw van Koningshoeven near Tilburg — for more background see the review of La Trappe Blonde. These days the monastery brews a somewhat uncharacteristic range for a Trappist brewery, but retains at its core a trio of traditional monastic ales — this dubbel, a tripel and a noteworthy extra strong quadrupel. Interestingly, these date only from 1980 — back in 1884, brewery founder Brother Romaldus opted for a cold fermenting lager plant, then a rare beast in North Brabant. Nearly a century later, when the brothers brought the brewery back under their control after the ending of a partnership with Artois (now AB-InBev), lager brewing finally ended and the Trappe brand was developed for a range of products more in keeping with what the beer world generally expects from a Trappist brewery.
The dubbel, created from pale and coloured barley malts, caramel, candy sugar and German hops, isn’t the top choice in the style but is certainly a decent example, notably improved in recent years. A red-tinged chestnut colour with a thick yellowy head, it tempts with a malty fruity aroma with a waft of nuts and dusty books. The palate is thinnish for the style but nicely malty, with roast nuts, candy and a port-like note. A light swallow leads to a pleasant dark fruit finish with quite firm roast and light hops, and a note of plain chocolate and mint.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/la-trappe-dubbel/4563/
Beer sellers: Beers of Europe
ABV: 4.7%
Origin: České Budějovice, Jihočeský kraj, Czech Republic
Website: www.budvar.cz, www.budweiserbudvar.co.uk
 Budějovický Budvar tmavý ležák / Dark Lager Alongside Plzeňský Prazdroj (Pilsner Urquell), Budvar was already a famous Czech name in international beer circles before the Velvet Revolution, thanks in part to the international currency of the term Budweiser — meaning ‘from Budweis’, the German name for České Budějovice — for a quality lager. This mixed blessing had also provided the pretext for St Louis brewer Anheuser Busch (now part of AB-InBev) to drag the South Bohemian brewery through the international courts for alleged trademark infringement. As a result Budvar is now obliged to use the ugly alias Czechvar in the USA and some other markets, despite actually being Budweiser in literal fact.
Still, Budvar’s strength rests on far greater foundations than a claim to a historic name. One of the better supported breweries during the Stalinist period, it’s flourished since 1989, yet remains for the time being state owned — it’s been permanently on the brink of privatisation for a while, but perhaps the example of what happened to fellow icon Plzeňský Prazdroj when it was absorbed by SAB-Miller has helped keep it in public hands. Its golden 12° lager, for decades its only product, remains a world classic.
In recent years Budvar has expanded its brand portfolio, including the launch of this fine dark lager in 2004. Tmavý ležák, broadly comparable to German Dunkelbier, has long been a familiar minority style in the Czech lands, a remnant of brewing practice before the mid-19th century invention of clear, pale lager in Plzeň. But Budvar hadn’t traditionally offered one, so this was a self-conscious retro move playing on respect for the country’s brewing past. The stuff of myths — now there are some pubs in London making a big deal of selling a half-and-half cocktail of dark and pale draught Budvar as if it’s a centuries-old Czech tradition.
Brewed from Moravian Pilsner, Munich, caramel and roasted barley malt and Žatec hops, this is a mahogany beer with a bubbly fawn head. The mineral malt and caramel aroma has light cola nights and a touch of fruit, setting up a soft malty caramel palate with a light roast note and tingly hops. A clean mild dark malt finish emerges from a cleansing swallow, with lightly tangy, chocolatey hints. It’s a quiet but considered dark beer, not intensely flavoured but very pleasant and well-balanced.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/budweiser-budvar-tmavy-lezak-dark-lager/36339/
Beer sellers: Beers of Europe
ABV: 8.5%
Origin: Achouffe, Luxembourg, Wallonie
Website: www.achouffe.be
 Achouffe La Chouffe and Mc Chouffe Today the Achouffe brewery is one of the most internationally familiar of Belgian micros, with its cheerful trademark “chouffes” (gnomes) grinning out from beer store shelves in more than 20 countries. All this must have seemed unthinkable back in 1982 when Pierre Gobron and Chris Bauweraerts set up shop on a shoestring in the small village of Achouffe, near Houffalize in Belgian Luxembourg, deep in the Ardennes. But Pierre and Chris knew a thing or two about marketing – the rosy-cheeked chouffe, drawn from local folklore, formed the core of a regional brand identity that now encompasses a fan club and an annual event, La Grande Choufferie, based at the well-regarded brewery tap in the village.
The still tiny brewery was well positioned to benefit from the growing international interest in Belgian beer that developed from the late 1980s, and it became a pioneer exporter, with the Dutch and the Québecois the first to succumb to the chouffe’s charms. In 2006 the business was sold to expanding Belgian new national Duvel-Moortgat, though so far little has changed except improved access to market. For years the brewery insisted on selling nearly all its beers, including this one, in 750ml bottles, but most have since been made available in 330ml sizes too.
Besides La Chouffe, the flagship blond ale with which it launched, Achouffe has long offered a second regular beer, the vaguely Scottish-accented Mc Chouffe, originally inspired by a Scottish friend of the brewers, though it also reflects a significant strand in Belgian taste — there has long been a significant market in the country for “wee heavy” style beers, some of which were brewed in Scotland especially for Belgium. Mc Chouffe stretches the definition a bit but the influence is discernible.
It’s a cloudy brown bottle conditioned beer with a good foam head and a moderate aroma of burnt twigs, fruit and flowers. A quite fizzy but rich palate has grape-like fruit, a herbal coriander touch, and some sharpish roast which dries out the swallow. The finish turns slightly sweeter with ashy roast tones percolating to the surface through rich malt, leaving a lingering tang.
Some serious beer fans can get a bit snobby about Achouffe, but it’s a little unfair. Like its golden older brother, Mc Chouffe isn’t an overwhelmingly brilliant world beater, and isn’t specially authentic to its style. However it’s an enjoyable, easy drinking craft-brewed ale with its own distinctive character, and there’s no shame in that.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/mc-chouffe/1615/
Top Tastings 2010 (Oldgott Barique)
ABV: 5.2% and 12.6%
Origin: Praha 1, Hlavní město Praha, Czech Republic
Website: www.umedvidku.cz
 U Medvidků, Praha 1 The Czech lands gave birth to the world’s most ubiquitous brewing style and the modern day Czech Republic is still one of the great beer nations, so it’s rather remiss of me to wait almost a year before finally adding a Czech brewery to this ste. Sadly only a severely limited range of Czech beers is available in the UK, so it’s taken a long overdue trip to Prague to furnish some recent tasting notes of the more interesting stuff.
And more interesting stuff there definitely is besides the obvious “heritage” pale lagers. Following a rapacious period of consolidation and globalisation ushered in by the restoration of the market, pockets of independent thinking are developing, and a new craft brewing culture is starting to emerge that both takes pride in indigenous brewing traditions and is open to innovation, and influence from abroad.
The microbrewery at Medvidků, on the edge of the historic Staré Město (Old Town) district right in the city centre, is a great example. U Medvidků (‘At the [sign of the] Little Bears’) is a classic sprawling Prague pub and hotel with half a millennium’s worth of history behind it, long appreciated by discerning drinkers as a more amenable and less tourist-saturated alternative to slightly better known drinking holes like U Fleků and U Zlatého tygra. For years it stocked only one beer, the standard draught 12° golden lager from Budějovický Budvar, which it was renowned for keeping exceptionally well. Then on 17 November 2004, the 15th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, onsite brewing was revived for the first time since 1895 using a 250l-capacity microbrewery newly installed in the former malthouse. Wisely the brewers chose not to challenge the popularity of Budvar but instead developed a range of their own specialities, traditionally lagered in wooden barrels and served unpasteurised and unfiltered.
Oldgott Barique, the regular beer, is an amber polotmavý or ‘half-dark’ lager, a traditional style near extinct by the turn of the millennium and since rejuvenated, though still a relatively rare speciality. Its closeness to the more widely known Vienna style associated with Anton Dreher reflects the region’s history as a former province of Austria-Hungary.
This example is a cloudy amber with a thick nutmeggy light beige head, served at the pub in a chunky multifaceted glass mug. A fresh, slightly yeasty aroma has lightly tart strawberry notes. The palate is dry-sweet and spicy with a slight touch of burnt wood, a hint of dates and strawberries and a bite of herbal hops over very smooth and generous toffeeish malt, with perhaps a fleeting touch of mint. The dry, spicy smack persists in a quite rooty, hoppy and bittering finish with tart plummy notes softened by yeasty malt. It’s a striking, unusual and very distinctive beer.
 U Medvidků X Beer 33 Better still is X Beer 33, an extraordinary strong lager brewed once a month from Pilsner and caramel barley malts at an original gravity of over 33° Plato and matured for up to a year in oak barrels using a special yeast. It’s also available bottled, but I sampled the draught version, which arrived at my table a deep hazy ruby-brown with a thick beige head. A tannic, grapy, oaky aroma has some fresh fruity esters, heralding a big bodied grapy-fruity palate, notably sweet but with a plummy, tannic, balsamic edge, Rodenbach-like sour tones and complex spiced orange liqueur notes. For all the complexity, there’s a soft, clean character that identifies the beer as a lager rather than an ale. The finish is long, complex and marmaladey, with a little powdery dry pursing hops and a late splash of vanilla. Of course it’s by no means the strongest beer in the world, as its publicity still claims, but it’s certainly among the most remarkable.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/u-medvidk367-x33-beer/58029/
ABV: 7.7%
Origin: Ashford-in-the-Water, Derbyshire, England
Website: www.thornbridgebrewery.co.uk
 Thornbridge Halcyon Green Hopped IPA. Pic: Mark Dredge, www.pencilandspoon.com Peak District-based Thornbridge continues to demonstrate its world class credentials with its latest batch of special bottles. This limited edition of Halcyon, already an impressive India Pale Ale, was brewed during last year’s hop harvest and dosed with “massive amounts of freshly picked Target hops from Mr Capper’s farm in Herefordshire”. Target is not a variety commonly linked with the phrase “massive amounts” in the brewers’ vocabulary but it certainly makes the best of its turn in the spotlight here.
For those unfamiliar with green hopped beers, unlike most beers which use dry whole hops, pellets or extract, these use fresh hops straight from the farm. The result, well demonstrated here, should be a definite hop character accompanied by a freshness and slightly vegetal quality that’s notably distinct from conventional hopping.
This pale gold hop-hazed beer pours with a thick off-white head, exuding a piny, resiny and peachy aroma with slightly sulphurous and lightly honeyed notes. There’s peach and strawberry fruit up front on the palate but intense piny, resiny hop flavours soon develop on the tongue, although with a very smooth and creamy touch. A clean, lightly malty finish stays smooth while developing an assertive lettucey bitterness.
Thornbridge has flourished as one of Britain’s most innovative and consistent craft breweries under brewery manager Kelly Ryan. Kelly is about to return to his native New Zealand. Beer Culture wishes him the very best of luck and looks forward to sampling the great beers he’s sure to continue brewing in the southern hemisphere. He’ll be a hard act to follow in the northern one.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/thornbridge-halcyon/84956/
ABV: 6.5%
Origin: Kobbegem, Vlaams-Brabant
Website: http://www.mort-subite.be
 De Keersmaeker Mort Subite Oude Kriek This is an expanded review of a beer that featured as a fruit beer on the bottled beer review page in the August 2010 issue of
BEER magazine, sent free every quarter to CAMRA members, who can also view it online. The magazine is also available in selected newsagents.
Belgium is the country most associated with fruit beers but its reputation has become a little tarnished thanks to a glut of oversweet commercial varieties dosed with artificial fruit syrups. So it’s pleasing to see a subsidiary of one of the world’s biggest brewers, Heineken, working hard to produce a beer that complies with the EU-recognised designation of Oude Kriek (“old cherry beer”), a category originally lobbied for by smaller producers to protect the most traditional and artisanal spontaneously fermented cherry lambic beers.
The brand name might mean “Sudden Death” (derived originally from the name of a pub game played at a famous Brussels café) but this bottle conditioned beer, from De Keersmaeker brewery at Kobbegem in the heart of the lambic country of the Pajottenland west of Brussels, is life affirming. It’s made to a traditional lambic grist of barley malt, unmalted wheat and aged hops, and matured for a minimum of two months with a 25% proportion of fresh cherries.
The result is a hazy warm cherry red with a fine pinkish head and a plump cherry skin aroma with a sour lambic touch and a farmyardy note. A beautifully balanced palate has obvious natural-tasting cherry fruit and a dry, sour, foamy, slightly cidery and woody lambic sting, but it’s not overtart, with broader malt than some. There’s more juicy but sour cherry in the long finish which turns oaky with lovely lightly vinegary tart notes. It’s an authentic example that’s less challenging than some and a good entry point if you’re new to the style.
Buy this beer from AlesbyMail.com as part of a special pack containing all the beers featured on my beer review page in BEER this month. BEER readers receive a special discount by entering the voucher code shown in the magazine.
To download BEER if you’re a CAMRA member, see http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=beer.
To find out more about CAMRA membership, see http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=joinus.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/mort-subite-oude-kriek/56718/
ABV: 4%
Origin: Larbert, Falkirk, Scotland
Website: http://www.trystbrewery.co.uk
This is an expanded review of a beer that featured as a fruit beer on the bottled beer review page in the August 2010 issue of BEER magazine, sent free every quarter to CAMRA members, who can also view it online. The magazine is also available in selected newsagents.
 Tryst Blàthan Hops and ale yeasts can lend beers flowery notes, so adding real flowers seems a logical step. The perfumed but refreshingly spicy flavour of elderflower, already indelibly associated with balmy British summer days, makes a good match for quenching golden beers, and one of the best such uses is in this magnificently engineered example from excellent Scottish brewer Tryst, based near Falkirk in the Forth Valley. The name, pronounced BLAH-hun, means “little blossom” in Gaelic, reflecting the inclusion of Scottish flowers alongside a single hop, Challenger.
The beer is a pale delicate gold and lively with a thick fine white head. A rich elderflower aroma has crisp hop and lemon notes, leading to a complex but refreshing palate, with a notable weight of pale malt that recalls a Belgian blond. The spicy elderflower notes are beautifully matched with nicely bitterish hops, some sweetish fruit and a hint of toast. A hoppy finish has a slightly floury, bready quality, finally turning quite bitter, chewy and peppery. An ideal al fresco ale.
Buy this beer from AlesbyMail.com as part of a special pack containing all the beers featured on my beer review page in BEER this month. BEER readers receive a special discount by entering the voucher code shown in the magazine.
To download BEER if you’re a CAMRA member, see http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=beer.
To find out more about CAMRA membership, see http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=joinus.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/tryst-blathan/98788/
ABV: 6.5%
Origin: London SE7, England
Website: www.meantimebrewing.com
 Meantime Raspberry Grand Cru This is an expanded review of a beer that featured as a fruit beer on the bottled beer review page in the August 2010 issue of
BEER magazine, sent free every quarter to CAMRA members, who can also view it online. The magazine is also available in selected newsagents.
London brewer Meantime, currently based in Charlton but soon to move a little upriver to Greenwich, set out from the start to brew beers outside the usual British micro parameters, including a range of fruit and wheat beers with a detectable Belgian inspiration. Raspberry Grand Cru, at a serious 6.5%, is one of the best, created by adding fresh raspberries to the brewery’s strong wheat beer before secondary fermentation.
It’s a reddish gold, with some fine white head, and a natural raspberry and sharp hops aroma with a touch of grassy wheat quality. The crisp and dry palate has a slight ciderish note, with definite hops and a more subtle raspberry flavour than the aroma has led you to expect. A shortish lightly fruity and tangy cereal finish closes off a perilously refreshing beer.
Buy this beer from AlesbyMail.com as part of a special pack containing all the beers featured on my beer review page in BEER this month. BEER readers receive a special discount by entering the voucher code shown in the magazine.
To download BEER if you’re a CAMRA member, see http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=beer.
To find out more about CAMRA membership, see http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=joinus.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/meantime-raspberry-grand-cru/55323/
ABV: 5.5%
Origin: Newquay, Cornwall
Website: www.atlanticbrewery.com
This is an expanded review of a beer that featured as a fruit beer on the bottled beer review page in the August 2010 issue of BEER magazine, sent free every quarter to CAMRA members, who can also view it online. The magazine is also available in selected newsagents.
 Atlantic Brewery Atlantic, just outside Newquay, is one of the smallest of Cornwall’s impressive band of craft brewers, mainly specialising in bottle conditioned beers. As with Sharps, Atlantic beers found a market in the local restaurant trade, leading to brewer Stuart Thomson teaming up with chef Nathan Outlaw to create a “Discovery” series of “fine dining beers” flavoured with well-chosen ingredients, each one labelled with food suggestions. And while it’d be a shame if Cornwall’s fine diners got the mistaken impression only beers with added stuff are suitable for dining, there’s no denying some of these beers work very well.
This recipe might sound like a posh pseudo-Mexican flavour of chocolate or crisps, but it works well as a beer: the lime peel is a twist on the more familiar use of orange citrus peel, root ginger has some pedigree as a brewer’s spice. Chilli is botanically a fruit, and not unknown as an ingredient in beer. Vindaloo-gorging capsaicin addicts will be disappointed, though, as it’s used here with admirable discretion to give a warming glow rather than a sweat-raising flush.
This is a pale golden beer with a fine white head and a very marked ginger and lime aroma that’s just a little cough mixturish. There’s a slightly astringent tang of citrus on the palate, with soft malt and a light chilli touch, and earthy ginger developing, well matched with bitterish hops. A lightly spicy finish turns bitterish rather than chilli-hot, with malt cut by an enduring citric tang. Chicken, fish and pasta are the recommended food pairings, but this could cut through oily foods too. It only loses marks for the clear glass bottle.
Buy this beer from AlesbyMail.com as part of a special pack containing all the beers featured on my beer review page in BEER this month. BEER readers receive a special discount by entering the voucher code shown in the magazine.
To download BEER if you’re a CAMRA member, see http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=beer.
To find out more about CAMRA membership, see http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=joinus.
Read more about Atlantic beers at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/brewers//atlantic-uk/6227/
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Cask  This pioneering new book explains what makes cask beer so special, and explores its past, present and future. Order now from CAMRA Books. Read more here.
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