Friday 11 December 2009

The Beer Blogger Awards 2009!


The year is almost over and there becomes an inevitable point (for me, anyway) in which we take a look over our shoulders and evaluate how the past 12 months have been, before looking forward to the next. As Beer Swap rolls on (there’s no hurry, just drink and be happy), Andy (from Beer Reviews), Mark (Real Ale Reviews) and me thought we’d announce another joint project: The Beer Blogger Awards 2009.

We’ve come up with 20 categories to try and find the best of the best from 2009. All you need to do is copy the categories and give your answers in your own blog post. For anyone who doesn’t blog, then feel free to email your answers to Andy, Mark or me and we will post them for you on our blogs.

It’s just a bit of fun, celebrating all the good beer that we’ve had and where we’ve had it plus it’ll be interesting to see how everyone’s drinking year has been. If you aren’t based in the UK then wherever it says ‘UK’ replace it with your country. Here’s the categories:

Best UK Draught Beer
Best UK Bottled Beer
Best Overseas Draught Beer
Best Overseas Bottled Beer
Best Overall Beer
Best Bottle Label or Pump Clip
Best UK Brewery
Best Overseas Brewery
Pub/Bar of the Year
Beer Festival of the Year
Supermarket of the Year
Independent Retailer of the Year
Online Retailer of the Year
Best Beer Book
Best Beer Blog
Best Beer Twitterer
Best Online Interactive Brewery
Food and Beer Pairing of the Year
Open Category: You Choose
Next Year I’d Most Like To...

For the Best Beer choices you can give an honourable mention to any runners-up, if you wish. The food and beer ‘pairing’ of the year could be a slap up dinner or it could be a bag of peanuts, whatever you thought was the best. The Online Interactive Brewery should be the brewery who you think embraces social media in the best way (we’re an online community so let’s champion the best of the rest of the online beer community). The Open Category allows you to write your own category and answer (Bargain of the Year, Beer Drinker of the Year, Beer Moment of the Year, etc, anything you like). Next Year I’d Most Like To... is another open category, maybe you want to go to GBBF or GABF or Belgium, maybe you want to start homebrewing, maybe it’s just drink more great beer, whatever you hope 2010 has in store. And use links too, so if you’ve written about a beer which you think is the Best UK Bottle then stick a link to your blog on it.

Let’s get them all published by the end of 2009 so we can start a fresh on the 1st January and look forward to the beer delights that 2010 has to offer.

Here’s to 2009!

The image is from here where you can buy the glass (which holds 3-4 pints!). We are (hopefully) in the process of designing a logo for the awards so that it can be used any time we wish to award something to someone.

9 comments:

  1. Ooh fun. Here's mine...

    Best UK Draught Beer: Marble Pint
    Best UK Bottled Beer: BrewDog Chaos Theory
    Best Overseas Draught Beer: Birra del Borgo Re Ale Extra
    Best Overseas Bottled Beer: BrewDog/Stone/Cambridge Juxtaposition Black Pilsner
    Best Overall Beer: Marble Pint
    Best Bottle Label or Pump Clip: ? Zeitgeist?
    Best UK Brewery: Marble
    Best Overseas Brewery: Stone
    Pub/Bar of the Year: The Bull, Horton Kirby (of course!)
    Beer Festival of the Year: GBBF
    Supermarket of the Year: Sainsbury's
    Independent Retailer of the Year: Real Ale Ltd, Twickenham
    Online Retailer of the Year: BeerMerchants
    Best Beer Book: Hops & Glory, Pete Brown
    Best Beer Blog: Reluctant Scooper
    Best Beer Twitterer: @markdredge (of course!)
    Best Online Interactive Brewery: BrewDog
    Food and Beer Pairing of the Year: Marble Brew No.1 & Hog Roast Roll!
    Open Category - Best 'Local' Beer: Ramsgate Gadds' Ancestors Porter
    Next Year I’d Most Like To... continue to see a proliferation of interesting, high quality, tasty ales available in UK pubs.

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  2. Best UK Draught Beer: Motley Brew
    Best UK Bottled Beer: Brewdog Zephyr
    Best Overseas Draught Beer: Great Divide Titan IPA
    Best Overseas Bottled Beer: Stone Ruination
    Best Overall Beer: Otley O1(first pint after a hard days brewing)
    Best Bottle Label or Pump Clip: Brewdog Bashah
    Best UK Brewery: Otley Brewing Co
    Best Overseas Brewery: Great Divide
    Pub/Bar of the Year: The Rake(of course!)
    Beer Festival of the Year: Rake's Welsh Beer Festival
    Supermarket of the Year: Tesco
    Independent Retailer of the Year:Utobeer
    Online Retailer of the Year:Sainsburys
    Best Beer Book:Hops & Glory, Pete Brown
    Best Beer Blog: Pencil & Spoon
    Best Beer Twitterer: @jeffpickthall
    Best Online Interactive Brewery: BrewDog
    Food and Beer Pairing of the Year: Goose Island IPA and southern fried chicken
    Open Category - Best 'Local' Beer:Motley Brew(if you're 'local' to Pontypridd
    Next Year I’d Most Like To... Get Married

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  4. I've posted my picks on my blog here: http://beerbirrabier.blogspot.com

    They are:

    Best UK Draught Beer: Shepherd Neame Late Red
    Best UK Bottled Beer: Brewdog Bashah
    Best Overseas Bottled Beer: Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter
    Best UK Brewery: Brewdog
    Pub/Bar of the Year: The Rake
    Beer Festival of the Year: Great British Beer Festival
    Supermarket of the Year: Tesco
    Independent Retailer of the Year: Utobeer
    Best Beer Book: Brew your own British real ale - Graham Wheeler
    Best Beer Blog: Pencil and spoon
    Next Year I’d Most Like To: Attend more beer festivals

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  5. Right here we go:

    Best UK Draught Beer: Marble Pint
    Best UK Bottled Beer: Marble Special
    Best Overseas Draught Beer: Viven Porter (new 7% beer from Belgian "beer firm" - dark, smoky and intense - fabulous stuff)
    Best Overseas Bottled Beer - difficult - for pale 'n' hoppy it will have to be Jendrain Jendrenouille IV Saison. Dark and rich - De Molen Tsarine Ezra Reserva
    Best Overall Beer - far too many to pick a winner
    Best UK Brewery - Marble
    Best Overseas Brewery - De Molen
    Bar of the Year - Marble Arch, Manchester or Poechenellekelder, Brussels
    Beer Festival of the Year - Stockport (of course!)
    Best Beer Blog - The Good Stuff - always thoughtful and interesting.
    Next Year I'd like to - finally get to Bruxellensis (reputedly one of the best festivals in Belgium)

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  6. So where's yours then Marky, you unbearable tease you?

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  7. Best UK Draught Beer - Sam Smiths as it’s the cheapest, even cheaper than Spoons. Whatever’s cheap in Spoons second.

    Best UK Bottled Beer - Carlsberg Export, when its on the special

    Best Overseas Draught Beer - Beck’s Vier. Reliable stuff

    Best Overseas Bottled Beer - Beck’s, cheap and reliable.

    Best Overall Beer - FliegerBrau Weisse. Only available at the FliegerBrau Brauhaus and the finest beer on God’s earth. Drink in the company of a couple of comely local wenches for full effect.

    http://www.fliegerbraeu.de/front_content.php?idcatart=38

    Best Bottle Label or Pump Clip - One that says “Special Offer, 99p a pint”

    Best UK Brewery - Sam Smiths for flogging cheap grog

    Best Overseas Brewery -The FliegerBrau

    Pub/Bar of the Year - The Wetherspoons, for offering me cheap grog wherever in the land I am.

    Beer Festival of the Year - Mr John Clarke’s Stockport Beer Festival. It’s ace and I’ll be there next year video blogging it.

    Supermarket of the Year -Tesco on balance has the better of the offers and beats the rest hands down. Morrison’s comes close but cannot be relied on to be in stock of what is in the advert. Sainsbury’s have had there best year for years and deserve a mention. All hail supermarkets.

    Independent Retailer of the Year - People use these? Have they not heard it’s cheaper at the 24 hour Tesco?

    Online Retailer of the Year - Pay P&P, when it’s cheaper at Tesco? Are people mad?
    Best Beer Book - The rough pub guide
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Pub-Guide-Celebration-British/dp/0752898876

    Guide to all Britain’s best dumps

    Best Beer Blog - Mr Zak Avery. Where he leads others follow. A giant among us.

    Best Beer Twittered - I can think of a few twits, but no twitterer

    Best Online Interactive Brewery - You what? Good god. If they have time and money to do this they can afford to knock 20p off a pint.

    Food and Beer Pairing of the Year -Any beer and dry roasted peanuts

    Next Year I’d Most Like To...Ball Scarlett Johansson to within an inch of her life.

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  8. Cookie

    It's not exactly "my" festival but thanks for the vote of confidence. Look forward to meeting you at last while you video blog away - or will you be cunningly disguised?

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  9. I must say I enjoyed reading Cooking Lager's comment. Thanks, mate!

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