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 2010

Pic: Gillian Evans.

Here’s my Top Tastings list for 2010, a little late thanks to the time dedicated to my forthcoming book (see right or under London above). As in previous years, they’re not necessarily new beers, just beers I happened to taste for the first time, or retaste after a long break, […]

Timothy Taylor Landlord

Timothy Taylor Landlord

Top Tastings 2010

ABV: 4.1% Origin: Keighley, West Yorkshire, England Website: www.timothy-taylor.co.uk

Established in 1858, Timothy Taylor had long enjoyed the respect of discerning beer drinkers as one of the best of the surviving regional independents when in 2003 a certain musician by the name of Madonna […]

Port Hop-15

Top Tastings 2010

ABV: 10% Origin: San Marcos, California, USA Website: www.portbrewing.com

Port Hop-15

I was delighted to discover bomber bottles of this classic US imperial India pale ale on sale in outstanding London beer seller Kris Wines. The name refers to its origin as a celebration ale for the 15th anniversary of […]

Mordue Workie Ticket

Top Tastings 2010

ABV: 4.5% Origin: North Shields, Tyne & Wear, England Website: www.morduebrewery.com

Mordue Workie Ticket

The Newcastle conurbation is famous for its internationally known Brown Ale, now made in Gateshead on the south bank of the Tyne, but there are far, far better beers made in the region. Several of them […]

Molen Hel en Verdoemenis 666

Top Tastings 2010

ABV: 10% Origin: Bodegraven, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands Website: www.brouwerijdemolen.nl

De Molen Hel en Verdoemenis 666

World renowned Dutch craft brewer Menno Olivier brews phenomenal beers in numerous styles, but perhaps his strongest suit is his imperial stouts, of which there are several, as well as variants within variants. ‘Hell and Damnation’ […]

Modrá Hvězda Dobřanská Hvězda světly ležak 12°

Pivovar Restaurant Hotel Modrá Hvězda

Top Tastings 2010

ABV: 4.5% Origin: Dobřany, Plzeňský Kraj, Czech Republic Website: www.modra-hvezda.cz

Mash tuns were fired again in Dobřany, once an important brewing town a little south of Plzeň, in 1998 when the ‘Blue Star’ hotel sprouted one of the first of a new generation […]

Green Flash Le Freak

Top Tastings 2010

ABV: 9.2% Origin: Vista, California, USA Website: www.greenflashbrew.com

Green Flash Le Freak

Founded in 2002 by former pub owners Mike and Lisa Hinkley near San Diego, joined shortly afterwards by head brewer Chuck Silva, Green Flash has established itself as a favoured source of innovative and sometimes extreme beers with […]

George Gale Prize Old Ale 2007

Top Tastings 2010

ABV: 9% Origin: Horndean, Hampshire, England

George Gale Prize Old Ale 2007

Gale’s Prize Old Ale is a real slice of British brewing heritage. Created by a Yorkshireman who worked at the company’s 1860s tower brewery in the early 20th century, it perpetuated an already declining technique in British brewing, […]

Duck-Rabbit Schwarzbier

Top Tastings 2010

ABV: 5.8% Origin: Farmville, North Carolina, USA Website: www.duckrabbitbrewery.com

The Duck-Rabbit Schwarzbier (black lager)

Only a philosopher could think to call a brewery Duck-Rabbit, after the ambiguous drawing seen as either a duck or a rabbit discussed in Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophische Untersuchungen (Philosophical Investigations, 1953). And sure enough founder Paul […]

Dry Dock Bismark Alt

Top Tastings 2010

ABV: 5.3% Origin: Aurora, Colorado, USA Website: www.drydockbrewing.com

Dry Dock Brewing

Kevin DeLange already owned a small homebrew store when in 2005 he decided to add a microbrewery with its own tiny taproom. Such was the success of this move that in 2009 the taproom and brewery relocated to a […]