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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Bend Hop-Head Imperial India Pale Ale

Top Tastings 2011, Beer sellers: The Beermongers

ABV: 9% Origin: Bend, Oregon, USA Website: www.bendbrewingco.com

Bend Hop-Head Imperial India Pale Ale

My trip to one of the US’s top craft beer cities, Portland, Oregon, in Autumn 2011 could easily have accounted for half my Top Tastings of the year, but to spread […]

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 […]

Fuller’s Vintage Ale

Top Tastings 2009 / CAMRA North London Tasting 2010 / London beer tastings 2011 / Top Tastings 2011 (2001 vintage)

ABV: 8.5% Origin: Chiswick, London W6, England Website: www.fullers.co.uk

A run of Fuller's Vintage Ale poses for the camera, Hock Cellar, Fuller's Brewery, London W6, October 2011

Until the recent resurgence that […]

Tryst Drovers 80/-

Beer sellers: Scottish Real Ale Shop; Top Tastings 2011

ABV: 4% Origin: Larbert, Falkirk, Scotland Website www.trystbrewery.co.uk

Tryst Drovers 80/-

Tryst is a strong candidate for the list of the most underrated breweries in the UK — I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad beer from this micro just outside Falkirk. […]

Tilquin Gueuze à l’ancienne 2011

Gueuzerie Tilquin; Top Tastings 2011

ABV: 6% Origin: Rebecq-Bierghes, Brabant-Wallonie, Wallonie Website: www.gueuzerietilquin.be

Tilquin Gueuze à l'ancienne 2011, à la main de M Tilquin soi-même.

This is the first release of new lambic blender Tilquin’s Oude Geuze, or Gueuze à l’ancienne as the Wallonian-based enterprise prefers to label it. A little controversially, […]

Broumov Opat Kvasničák Pepper

Great British Beer Festival 2011, Top Tastings 2011

ABV: 5% Origin: Broumov, Králové Hradecký kraj, Czech Republic Website: www.pivovarbroumov.cz

Broumov Opat Kvasničák Pepper

The Broumov brewery, by the Polish border, claims a history back to 1348, when the townspeople were first granted rights to brew, although the current plant dates from 1866. […]

Kinshachi Nagoya Akamiso Lager

Kinshachi Nagoya Akamiso Lager

Japanese beer tasting, White Horse, London SW6, June 2011; Top Tastings 2011

ABV: 6% Origin: Nagoya, Chūbu, Japan Website: www.kinshachi.jp

Based in Japan’s third biggest city, Nagoya, Kinshachi was established in 1996 as the Landbeer brewery, though points to an earlier local tradition of brewing in the 1880s. […]

Plzeňský Prazdroj kvasnicový

European Beer Bloggers Conference 2011, Top Tastings 2011

ABV: 4.4% Origin: Plzeň, Plzeňský kraj, Czech Republic Website: www.prazdroj.cz

Plzeňský Prazdroj's head brewer Václav Berka serves up his Kvasnicový at the European Beer Bloggers Conference, London, May 2011. Pic: Reuben Gray, www.taleofale.com

The second word in the name of this famous Bohemian brewery […]

Nynäshamns Bedarö Bitter

European Beer Bloggers Conference 2011, Top Tastings 2011

ABV: 4.5% Origin: Nynäshamn, Södermanland, Sweden Website: www.nyab.se

Nynäshamns Bedarö Bitter

One of the highlights of the Beer Bloggers Conference was a Night of Many Beers hosted by Camden Town brewery, most of which I spent hovering by the table of Swedish and Italian […]

Boon Oude Lambik 3 jaar oud

Toer de Geuze 2011, Top Tastings 2011

ABV: 6% Origin: Lembeek, Vlaams-Brabant, Vlaanderen Website: www.boon.be

Traditional lambic crocks and samples at Boon, Lembeek

On very rare occasions I taste a beer that’s so extraordinary it sends my rating system off the scale, and this, sampled direct from one of the gigantic oak […]