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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Harviestoun Ola Dubh Special Reserve

ABV: 8% Origin: Alva, Clackmannanshire, Scotland Website: www.harviestoun.com

A shorter version was originally published in BEER November 2008. For more smoky beers see previous post.

Harviestoun Ola Dubh Special Reserve

For a fine but mellow lightly charred experience I recommend Harviestoun Ola Dubh Special Reserve – not bottle conditioned but currently one of […]

Troch Chapeau Oude Lambik

Top Tastings 2009

ABV: 5% Origin: Wambeek, Vlaams Brabant, Vlaanderen Website: www.detroch.be

De Troch Chapeau Lambic

De Troch of Wambeek is one of the lambic breweries you really wish you could think more highly of. Its pedigree is impeccable: it’s a farmhouse brewery founded by Pieter de Troch in 1780 in the lambic […]

Traquair House Ale 1000th Brew 2001

Top Tastings 2009

ABV: 10% Origin: Innerleithen, Scottish Borders, Scotland Website: www.traquair.co.uk

Traquair House by James McIntosh Patrick, National Galleries of Scotland

Traquair House is the oldest inhabited stately home in Scotland and a new wave craft brewer ahead of its time. In 1965, several years before the launch of CAMRA, the rediscovery […]

Thornbridge Alliance Strong Ale Reserve 2007

Top Tastings 2009

ABV: 11% Origin: Ashford-in-the-Water, Derbyshire, England Website: www.thornbridgebrewery.co.uk

Thornbridge is currently one of the most exciting and innovative breweries in Britain, complimenting a range of high quality cask ales with a selection of bottled specialities including fine India Pale Ales and Imperial Stouts and the unclassifiable dark honey beer Bracia. It […]

Thiriez Vieille Brune

Top Tastings 2009

ABV: 5.8% Origin: Esquelbec, Nord, France Website: www.brasseriethiriez.com

Brasserie Thiriez

Daniel Thiriez seems incapable of making uninteresting beer: everything I’ve tasted from his self-named brewery has had something to say for itself as well as being consistently of high quality. The brewery is in the historic beer country of French […]

Russian River Temptation

Top Tastings 2009

ABV: 7.3% Origin: Santa Rosa, California, USA Website: www.russianriverbrewing.com

Russian River Temptation Barrel Aged Ale

My first encounter with a US brewpub was a fortuitous one. When I first crossed the Atlantic some years back, it was to San Francisco, but rather than head straight for the city we first […]

Rodenbach Vin de Céréale

Top Tastings 2009

ABV: 10% Origin: Roeselare, Oost Vlaanderen Website: www.rodenbach.be

Rodenbach Vin de Céréale

Rodenbach of Roeselare is a Belgian beer icon, one of the key breweries celebrated by Michael Jackson back in the 1980s when he first introduced the country’s remarkable beer culture to the wider world. It’s renowned then as […]

Orkney Dark Island Reserve

Beer sellers: Scottish Real Ale Shop Top Tastings 2009 (bottled 2007), Top Tastings 2011 (draught 2010)

ABV: 10% Origin: Quoyloo, Orkney, Scotland Website: www.orkneybrewery.co.uk

Orkney Dark Island Reserve

One of Britain’s northernmost breweries and one of Scotland’s strong collection of distinctive micros, Orkney was founded in a derelict schoolhouse by an Englishman […]

Molen Bloed, Zweet en Tranen (Bruichladdich)

Top tastings 2009

ABV: 8.1% Origin: Bodegraven, Zuid Holland, Netherlands Website: www.brouwerijdemolen.nl

De Molen Bloed, Zweet en Tranen

Menno Olivier’s De Molen (“the mill”) brewery is in a 17th century windmill called De Ardkuif beside the Oude Rijn river bang in the middle of the Groene Hart, the rural “green heart” within the […]

Dolle Cosmos Porter

Top Tastings 2009

ABV: 8% Origin: Esen, West Vlaanderen Website: www.dedollebrouwers.be

De Dolle Brouwers Cosmos Porter

This experimental brew divides opinion. I’ve spoken to several people who have hated it, and even its brewer, Kris Herteleer, seemed in two minds about it when serving it to the public at the 2009 Zythos beer […]