Marble Brewery: The One for 2010

My beer of the year was Marble Pint. It was totally deserving – it’s clean, hoppy, pale, so fruity and drinkable and rammed with flavour; a marvel at 3.9%. In a year where I’ve been chasing big, brutal and hoppy, this just side-stepped in and took all the glory from beers of much bigger fame, and it was also able to change my mind about ‘boring pale ales’. In truth, I would’ve happily drunk pints of Pint every single day. It’s a quality British beer, made to be drunk in the pub, brewed by a great brewery.

And it’s not just Pint that deserves praise. Earlier today I had a couple of pints of Manchester Bitter, a 4.2% pale bitter, fruity hops, delicious body, bitter but not too-bitter, juicy, gluggable. The word ‘Bitter’ has come to stand as a negative thing. It’s one of those old-style English beers, murky brown in colour, autumn fruit flavour, dry hoppy finish... It’s a classic style but one which, in its frequent incarnation, drags English beer back a peg or two from where it deserves to be. Manchester Bitter raises the bar on what a Bitter is. I just hope others follow it.

Beyond these there’s Dobber; Marble Pint plus a bit more - big bitterness, loads of fruity hops, so clean and fantastic. There’s Ginger, a fruity-spicy ale rich with the fresh ginger and tongue-tinglingly good. Chocolate Marble is a quality, full-flavoured stout. Then there’s Decadence and Special, two 750ml champagne-corked and wax-sealed bottles; one imperial stout, one barley wine.

BrewDog were my Brewery of the Year for 2009. More than anyone else they’ve kicked the arse of British beer and pushed it forward. For the quality of the beer, BrewDog also stand up to their media hype, and that’s very important. Part of why they are my brewery of the year is their social media presence, which cannot be denied or overlooked – they use and exploit it to their benefit better than anyone else (but the beer still stands up to it). If I were to stick my neck out then I’d say that Marble are the British brewery to look out for in 2010. They won’t be as loud and obnoxious as BrewDog but they will make a lot of incredible beer. I know for sure that I’ll be watching them and trying to drink their beers as often as possible. I hope that a new brewery will mean more beer and more availability. I also hope they bottle some more of their specials. Remember Marble. Drink them as often as you can. Taste just how good British beer can be in 2010.

The Hop Press: I rate beer

I’ve come to a decision and committed it to my latest Hop Press post... I’m going to start rating beer. For a year I will ‘rate’ and enter the score into Rate Beer for each unique beer I drink. I started on Christmas Eve (I was going to start on 1st January as that’s the most logical starting point but I’ve had too many great beers over Christmas that I didn’t want to miss out) and will continue until the end of 2010.

I have my reasons: I want to be able to look back at what I’ve drunk come the end of 2010; I want to understand the rating process and how easy/difficult it is and the pros and cons of doing it; I want to see if I become obsessed with raising my total or if I get disillusioned and disinterested in doing it after a while.

I haven’t entered any rates yet but I’ll start soon – I have a few ready to go in. The Hop Press post also asks: if you rate, then why do you do it?

Here’s the full post.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone, lots of love and festive cheer and all that. May the next few days be spent with friends and family and be filled with good food, good drink, happiness and lots of presents.

I finish work at 12pm on Christmas Eve and intend to pretty much stay drunk from then until January 4th when I go back to work again. I’ve got some great beers ready to open and share and I can’t wait.

If you are stuck for presents then what about a share in BrewDog? It seems they need people to buy a few more... They want £2.3million from Equity for Punks but the deal was always that they needed to raise £500,000 in shares by January 8th 2010 for any of the investments to be valid. They’ve now revealed that they are still £175,000 short of that target. Essentially this means they have so far sold about 1400 shares and need to sell another 760 in the next two weeks or they have to hand back the £325,000 with their tail between their legs. I wasn’t going to mention it but then got a great email from a British brewer (not one from BrewDog!) and here’s part of what it said:

…Now, I don't know them, or want a job with them (it's fucking freezing in Scotland ALL YEAR ROUND) but as a young (!) brewer, I recognise their importance to craft brewing in this country. Let's not forget that Dickie was at Thornbridge when Jaipur and St Petersburg came out, giving the microbrewers a right kick up the arse at the time I was just starting my brewing career. What about Hardcore IPA, and its ability to hold its own against the big DIPAs of the US? And do you not get butterflies in your tummy when they release a new beer (and not just when it’s the strongest beer ever)?

Imagine craft beer for the masses (which a big new brewery will achieve), AND the Abstrakt range for us beer geeks!! I know the business investment side is flawed, and I know your thoughts on the whole thing. But dare you not dream? ...I'm desperately worried they won't do it, and I really, really want them to.

This investment is as much about buying into a mentality as it is a financial one. I think they spiked their own drink with the Tokyo* thing and that was a bad move, but they know that now. BrewDog are at the exciting forefront of current British brewing. Love or hate them they make people talk and more people know about beer because of them (and British craft beer is getting seen and heard further away). Luckily for them their beers stand up to all of this attention and taste great. They are young, they are determined, they are passionate and they are doing great things for beer in the UK. If you can afford it and you want to be a part of the future of quality beer in the UK, then go on, treat yourself to a Christmas present and buy a share in BrewDog. Wooly Dave has written a great piece on this too and Brewdog have posted a Call to Arms. I really want BrewDog to succeed in all of this.

In other news, I’ve now booked my flight to the US. I’m going to San Francisco on 4th February for Beer Week (flying back 11th). I’m not bothering with the Extreme Beer Festival now and will focus on SFBW, ripping IPAs and monster steaks. Brilliant. My trip also coincides perfectly with the release of Pliny the Younger and I’ll be at the Double IPA Fest where it debuts outside of the brewery bar. If anyone wants to come then get your flights and I’ll see you there! My next job is to make a list of all the places I need to go and all the beers I need to drink. Could take a while...

Before I go, there’s still time to give your votes for the Beer Awards of the Year and if anyone is interested in the Sheffield Tweet-Up on January 23rd 2010 then just say – everyone is welcome. Oh, and if you haven’t seen them then you really must watch the Elf’d Blogger videos (1 and 2) created by Tandleman – brilliant!

Merry Christmas!

And the picture is from here.

Brewed a Stone's Throw Away?

Stone to open a Brewery in Europe? from stonebrew on Vimeo.

Something potentially exciting to think about before Christmas: Stone are entertaining the idea of opening a brewery in Europe. It’s just an idea now and they are looking into it, searching for locations, seeing if it’s financially viable, seeking an RFP (Request for Proposal). See the video above for more details or their blog post is here.

I think they should come to London. We need more beer brewed in the capital (even if it is American!) and we need a cool American-style beer bar attached to the brewery that sells great craft beer. A few brew sites have closed in recent years so it’d be interesting to see what’s going on with them now – Stag, Youngs, Bunker, or there’s room for development somewhere, I’m sure - Meantime, for example, are moving/growing into a bigger site soon. Here's a list of London breweries, past and present. The other reason I’d vote for London is that I’d quite like a job there and I can happily commute from Tonbridge.

I also suggest Holland or Scandinavia as the beer culture there would surely be welcoming of a brewery like Stone. Or, they could pitch up in between a couple of monasteries in Belgium and freak out some Monk’s with their big Bastard beers.

I think this is a cool bit of news. I’ve long liked the idea of beers being contract brewed in the UK so that they are fresher or more locally produced, but this is an even better, bigger step. Perhaps a coalition of the bigger US craft brewers could be formed to set up in the brewery – Stone, Dogfish Head, etc, spreading the cost more, or just allowing different contract brews and import/export. Who knows. In their own words, they don’t know where it’s going to go but they’re gonna find out. I’m excited to see the developments.

Any thoughts on where would genuinely be a good place for the brewery to go? Do you think this could be a good business move? Would you rather drink Stone brewed in Europe than US, assuming they taste exactly the same, or is there something essentially lost between brewing in San Diego and Europe?

Beer Blogger Awards 2009: My Winners

Personally, I’ve had a good 2009. I graduated from a Masters degree, I started a career, I moved in with my girlfriend, I wrote the first draft of a novel (and another 35,000 words of a second), I became an uncle and the BGBW award topped it all off. Beer-wise it's been a great year too. Lots of new beers tasted, new favourites found, new friends to drink them with and lots of great memories. But... it's time to announce my winners for 2009. It’s been really hard to select most of these, hence why I’ve gone for some honourable mention choices too. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while then most of the winners will be familiar names – I like to talk about the beers I enjoy the most. I did a semi-similar thing last year and my choices are quite different and I’m sure that this time next year they will be very different again.

Feel free to take these categories and the logo (designed, like Beer Swap, by Robsterowski from I Might Have a Glass of Beer – cheers!!) and paste them into your own blog, alternatively you can email me your winners and I’ll post them on here or you can comment yours below.

Here are my winners for 2009:

Best UK Draught Beer: Marble Pint (Thornbridge Jaipur is a very close second)

Best UK Bottled Beer: BrewDog Tokyo* (Thornbridge Bracia and Zephyr are close behind)

Best Overseas Draught Beer: Too many choices... Stone Imperial Russian Stout, Captain Lawrence Reserve, Bear Republic’s Racer 5, De Molen Amarillo... Ultimately, Racer 5 reminds me of a good couple of days in London and I won’t forget it in a hurry

Best Overseas Bottled Beer: Pliny the Elder (a few Mikkellers are up there)

Best Overall Beer: Marble Pint

Best UK Brewery: BrewDog for being constantly interesting, pushing and progressing British beer and making people talk about beer (Thornbridge, Marble and Gadds need mentioning and with all moving to bigger breweries it’ll be interesting to see how 2010 fares for them)

Best Overseas Brewery: Mikkeller

Best Bottle Label/Pump Clip: BrewDog’s Atlantic IPA (shame the beer isn’t as nice as the label!)

Pub/Bar of the Year: The Bull, Horton Kirby (The Rake is runner-up)

Beer Festival of the Year: GBBF (Planet Thanet is second – love that festival)

Supermarket of the Year: Sainsburys (Tesco almost got it for introducing Gonzo Imperial Porter, 77 and zeitgeist but they took away Orval in the process...)

Independent Retailer of the Year: Utobeer

Online Retailer of the Year: Beermerchants

Best Beer Book: Pete Brown’s Hops & Glory

Best Beer Blog: Reluctant Scooper

Best Beer Twitterer: @reluctantscoop

Best Online Interactive Brewery: BrewDog (for their ability to go viral – no one else in UK brewing has that power)

Food and Beer Pairing of the Year: Anything with the pork scratching at GBBF!

Open Category: Best Beer-Related Thing about 2009 is...: All the new friends I’ve made and all the great new people I’ve met through beer (The Best Non-Beer-Related Thing...: Becoming an Uncle!)

Next Year I’d Most Like To... : Drink in the US and make some beer-money from writing...

Dubbel, Rabidbarfly and John Clarke have commented their winners here. Chunk, Knut and Andy have blogged theirs. And I think Kelly from Thornbridge needs a special mention for putting the year of blogging into a poem!

2009 has been a good year... Here’s hoping 2010 is even better!

The Hop Press: Opening the special bottles

This week’s Hop Press post is now up. As it’s nearly Christmas and I’m planning on opening a few nice beers to share with family and friends, the post is about the special bottles which are saved up for certain moments or special occasions and how the actual opening of these bottles becomes a real and tangible event.

I’ve written about my beer hoarding before and how I just buy bottles and squirrel them away waiting for an 'event' to warrant their opening. It’s left me with a nice looking beer cupboard, that’s for sure, but I really should get around to drinking them, because, after all, the opening of them is an event in itself (and the drinking is good fun too). I’ll definitely be opening a few nice ones over Christmas and New Year.

Here’s the full post.

Maybe I should make my New Year's Resolution: Just open the bloody bottle and drink the thing!

Announcing: Blogger Tweet Up in Sheffield!

We’ve (Andy from Beer Reviews, Mark from Real Ale Reviews and myself) been discussing a beer tweet and blogger meet up for a while and now we finally have a date and a place: Saturday 23rd January 2010 in Sheffield.

The plan is simple: get to Sheffield train station for 12pm and the first pint will be ready and waiting for you (you just need to order it and pay and the bar staff will hand it over) in the Sheffield Tap (it's the new bar at the station). From here we will wander around visiting The Hillsborough Hotel, The Devonshire Cat and wherever else is considered must-visit.

The idea is that we can all meet up in the ‘real world’ and get to know who the real people are on the other ends of these avatars and blogrolls. Or, in other words, it’s a bloody good excuse to get pissed in Sheffield with other people who love good beer!

The Hillsborough Hotel (see Crownbrewerstu for more details - he's the one that makes their beer) is a good end stop if people want to sleep rather than get the last train back to god-knows-where. If anyone is around on the Sunday then we can go to Manchester or Leeds for a few more beers – I’ll be gunning for North Bar in Leeds, I think, or maybe the Marble Arch...

Everyone is welcome. Are you in?!

I’ll be coming up from London. If you book through East Midlands then tickets are £5 each way to Sheffield. At those prices it’s tempting to pop up every weekend, even if I don’t make it past the Sheffield Tap. One thing which might be important... if the football teams qualify on the next round of the FA Cup and are drawn at home then they will be played the weekend of the 23rd Jan. Could that be a problem or could we drink around it?

If you had to...

It’s been a long time since we had an If you had to, but it’s back!

It's simple: If you had to choose, would you rather have a cold, crisp pale beer in the hot sun or a warming, big, strong beer on a cold day?

You can only choose one, so would you rather the refreshing quality of cold beer or do you like the snug feeling of a warming beer?

And, thinking sideways, looking at 'extremes' of beer drinking, do you know if there has ever been a beer designed to drink warm or hot? I'm not talking mulled beer, just a beer that is made to be served hot, an intense coffee stout, perhaps? If this hasn't been done, then how long before it is?

Beers for Christmas Day

December 25th is my favourite day of the year. I just love it. It’s also the only day of the year when I can fearlessly open a beer for breakfast and drink through until I fall asleep watching TV, having eaten and drunk way too much. After yesterday’s post about the fantasy Christmas, this one is about what I will be opening.

I plan my Christmas drinking carefully and I save up bottles all year for it. I match not only the food but the mood and the time (which is important in a 12-hour-plus drinking marathon). My usual day starts at my parents’ with presents from Santa. Then the first beer. Then we play with whatever toys we get. Then another beer. And another. Then dinner and more beer. Then Lauren comes over and we open more presents. And a beer. Then we go to Lauren’s house (she drives, of course) and eat and drink some more with her family.

I wrote about last Christmas here and it’s interesting to see my choices (it’s always interesting to look back and see how far this thing has developed). I had Innis & Gunn’s Triple Matured beer with the turkey and it was completely perfect – fruity, oaky, slightly sour. Whatever your thoughts on I&G, that was a wicked-good match. As for the others... there’s more beer maturity in my choices now, although I’m guessing next year I’ll look back and think ‘why did I have that?’

Here’s what I’m having this year, sharing them with my Dad and hopefully my sister’s boyfriend:

It starts on Christmas Eve. I'll be at home with a few bottles. I have a Port Brewing Santa's Little Helper, which seems appropriate, there's also a Delerium Noel to keep up the festive cheer. There are plenty of bottles around so we'll pick some more depending on what we feel like drinking.

Christmas Day starts with coffee stout for breakfast. Always. I have Saints & Sinners Insomniac or Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Brunch Weasel and one of them will get opened. Then we’ll want something zingy and light to get us through the morning. I have a big bottle of Mikkeller’s USAlive which is ready to go. It’s 8% and should be like drinking c-hopped fizz with a little funk – sounds perfect to me. By this point we’ll be getting hungry, so a pre-dinner bottle of Orval, perhaps, or a palate-sharpening gueuze. My Dad, preferring dark beers, might go for a mild.

Then dinner comes. In the past I’ve attempted to pair to starter, main and dessert but the food alone is a battle of stamina and strength and adding three different glasses of beer in there just gets a bit unnecessary, so this year it’s one bottle – one big bottle made for sharing. The food is always turkey and all the trimmings. My favourite meal of the year on my favourite day of the year, so it needs something pretty damn good to go with it. I haven’t decided for definite yet but it’ll either be Deus or a Chimay Blue. The Deus will gently wander in offering sweetness and spice and a great lightness to work perfectly with everything on the plate. The Chimay is dried fruit and bready sweetness with a great complexity to plonk itself right in the middle of your tongue and let everything work around it. Both will be great. If I was serving the bottles between more than two or three then I’d open both.

After dinner I won’t be fit for much but a nice, big stout to sip on will be good (although I virtually cleared my stock on Stout Night). Or a Fuller’s Vintage. Or maybe Moor’s Old Freddie Walker – liquid Christmas pudding, as the label says. At Lauren’s in the evening I'll probably take a few bottles but won’t get around to drinking too much as I'll be at full capacity from all the food. I’m sure there’ll be a special bottle in there to share with her Dad – I’ll raid my garage on the way.

That’s the plan at the moment (although I may find something else hidden away in the cupboard when I get home). Sounds like an awesome day to me. What will you be drinking?

The Hop Press: Fantasy Christmas Drinking

Tomorrow I’ll be posting the beers that I will hopefully be drinking on Christmas Day but this one for The Hop Press is about the fantasy line up of beers that I wish I could be drinking - you know me, I always want to drink what I can’t get, the special bottles that are rare and famous and ‘Best’ listed – I’m a fickle, thirsty beer geek.

What would your fantasy Christmas Day of drinking involve? Rare bottles, favourite casks, festively themed beers? You also get presents - a weekend away and one bottle of beer, plus you can choose the movie you watch on the day.

The full post is here, complete with my choices.