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CRAFT BEER BEST BEE
FOURTH EDITION
Digital Edition
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IN THE WORLD TOP BREWERS INTERVIEWED ESSENTIAL BEER KNOWLEDGE UNDERSTANDING STYLES DISCOVER BEER YOU’LL LOVE BATTLE OF THE IPAS THE BEST BEERS FOR EVERY SEASON
craft beer
CRAFT BEER 365 BEST BEERS IN THE WORLD Future PLC Richmond House, 33 Richmond Hill, Bournemouth, Dorset, BH2 6EZ
Editorial Editor Dan Peel Designer Steve Dacombe Compiled by Sarah Bankes & Ali Innes Editorial Director Jon White Senior Art Editor Andy Downes Written by Matthew Curtis, Chris Hall and Claire M Bullen Photography All copyrights and trademarks are recognised and respected Advertising Media packs are available on request Commercial Director Clare Dove clare.dove@futurenet.com International Head of Print Licensing Rachel Shaw licensing@futurenet.com Circulation Head of Newstrade Tim Mathers Production Head of Production Mark Constance Production Project Manager Clare Scott Advertising Production Manager Joanne Crosby Digital Editions Controller Jason Hudson Production Managers Keely Miller, Nola Cokely, Vivienne Calvert, Fran Twentyman Management Chief Content Officer Aaron Asadi Commercial Finance Director Dan Jotcham Head of Art & Design Greg Whitaker Printed by William Gibbons, 26 Planetary Road, Willenhall, West Midlands, WV13 3XT Distributed by Marketforce, 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5HU www.marketforce.co.uk Tel: 0203 787 9001 Craft Beer: 365 Best Beers in the World Fourth Edition © 2019 Future Publishing Limited We are committed to only using magazine paper which is derived from responsibly managed, certified forestry and chlorine-free manufacture. The paper in this magazine was sourced and produced from sustainable managed forests, conforming to strict environmental and socioeconomic standards. The manufacturing paper mill and printer hold full FSC and PEFC certification and accreditation. All contents © 2019 Future Publishing Limited or published under licence. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used, stored, transmitted or reproduced in any way without the prior written permission of the publisher. Future Publishing Limited (company number 2008885) is registered in England and Wales. Registered office: Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All information contained in this publication is for information only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. Future cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information. You are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers directly with regard to the price of products/services referred to in this publication. Apps and websites mentioned in this publication are not under our control. We are not responsible for their contents or any other changes or updates to them. This magazine is fully independent and not affiliated in any way with the companies mentioned herein.
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Chief executive Zillah Byng-Thorne Non-executive chairman Richard Huntingford Chief financial officer Penny Ladkin-Brand Tel +44 (0)1225 442 244
“365 OF THE WORLD’S BEST BEERS TO ENJOY ALL YEAR ROUND, WHATEVER THE WEATHER”
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CONTENTS
FEATURES 06 08 09 10 11 12
Understanding Styles Coffee & Beer Ageing Beer Battle of the IPAs Terroir in Beer Why Fresh is Always Best
365 BEST BEERS Spring Summer Autumn Winter
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MEET THE EXPERTS Matthew Curtis is an award-winning freelance beer writer and UK editor for beer website and podcast, Good Beer Hunting. He sits on the board of the British Guild of Beer Writers and also writes for Ferment Magazine, Belgian Beer and Food and on his blog, Total Ales. Twitter/Instagram: @totalcurtis Web: www.goodbeerhunting.com Chris Hall has been writing about beer since 2010, and is co-author of the previous issues of Craft Beer (Volume 1 of 365 Best Beers in The World and 100 Best Breweries in The World). Chris is also Media & Events Manager for London’s Brew By Numbers. Twitter/Instagram: @chrishallbeer Web: www.chrishallbeer.com Claire M. Bullen got her start working in beer six years ago, when she led craft beer walking tours in Brooklyn, New York. Now London-based, Claire has contributed writing to Total Ales, the Evening Brews, and writes a bi-monthly food and beer pairing column for Hop Burns & Black. She is a CiceroneŽ Certified Beer Server. Twitter/Instagram: @clairembullen
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UNDERSTANDING BEER STYLES Beer has a huge variety of colours, flavours and origins, so how do you know what you’re drinking? Here’s our guide to the most common styles
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ike gravity, beer styles had certainly existed for a long time, but weren’t fully understood. The origins, stories, and connections between them all were mysteries, and it required a journalist with a nose for a story to get to the bottom of it all. This beer equivalent of Isaac Newton, who documented and set out what the world’s beer styles were, was a Yorkshireman by the name of Michael Jackson (1942-2007). Jackson was fascinated by the stories, the people, and the near-magical uniqueness of every beer he tasted, and he travelled the world trying to understand them all. His books, including The World Guide to Beer (1977), Great Beers of Belgium (1991) and Beer Companion (1993), were not just influential, but at least partially responsible for a global renaissance in beer appreciation. Craft beer is now a global, interconnected culture, and to make beers in styles from other countries, brewers can adjust recipes, use unusual equipment and even replicate the local water profile to help them do so. As well as helping drinkers make sense of the beer they were drinking, Jackson helped brewers to better articulate their intentions. That’s the main thing to understand about beer styles: it’s a shorthand for what the brewer intended the beer to be. On the right you’ll find a quick glossary covering many of styles you’ll find in this guide: as ‘esters’, like banana, bubblegum, cloves and apples, all of which are most obviously present in unfiltered wheat beers.
“JACKSON WAS FASCINATED BY THE STORIES, THE PEOPLE, AND THE UNIQUENESS OF EVERY BEER” 6 | craft beer
understanding styles
style
description Ale
Double IPA Dubbel Gose
A broad umbrella category for beers that undergo a warm fermentation. IPAs, Saisons, Stouts and Gueuze, for example, are all ales. A stronger, more intense IPA, typically over 8% and with scaled-up hop additions to match. A Belgian style of rich, brown ale with pronounced fruit notes from the yeast. A German-style sour wheat beer that typically uses salt and coriander. Modern versions may add other ingredients such as fruit or spices.
Geuze/Gueuze
A sour beer made by blending different ages of lambic beers together.
Hefeweizen
A cloudy, German style of wheat beer with notes of banana and clove.
Helles
A light style of lager from Munich. Generally less hoppy than Pilsner.
Imperial Stout India Pale Ale (IPA) Lambic Pale Ale
Higher strength dark beers brewed for export and ageing. Once the preserve of the upper classes, now a favourite with beer geeks for their intensity. Normally a stronger Pale Ale, historically highly-hopped for preservation reasons (English/ Traditional); but now highly-hopped for aroma and flavour (American). A spontaneously fermented beer from the Pajottenland region of Belgium, generally aged and blended to make styles such as geuze/gueuze (a blend of aged and young lambic refermented), sweetened faro, kriek (cherry beer) and framboise (raspberry beer). British examples (also called Bitter) are malty, bitter and herbal. American versions are typically stronger, with pronounced hop character. Belgian Pale Ales are dry, bitter and yeast-forward.
Pilsner
A pale golden lager with bitter hop character, originating in Pilsen.
Porter
Historically, a dark brown, oak-aged beer. Modern versions are frequently indistinguishable from Stout.
Quadrupel Stout Saison Tripel Wild Ale Witbier
A strong, dark Belgian abbey-style ale, often as strong as 10-12%. A dark, rich ale. Historically, the stronger version of Porter, but now the terms are seen as being almost interchangeable. A farmhouse ale originating in modern-day Belgium and France. A dry, bitter beer with pronounced yeast and spice notes. A strong, pale Belgian abbey style ale with fruity, spicy flavours. A catch-all term for farmhouse-style beers that use wild yeast strains, and potentially bacteria, barrels, fruit and other ingredients. A Belgian style of wheat beer, lighter in colour and flavour than German wheat beers, often using fruit peel and coriander seed.
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COFFEE & BEER Craft breweries are increasingly incorporating coffee in their beers in a variety of intriguing and delicious ways
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nyone who works in a brewery will tell you that it takes a lot of good coffee to make good beer. Brewers work early hours and have a taste for the finer things, including their coffee. In fact, a lot of brewery employees have some kind of background in coffee, and it sometimes feels like coffee geeks and beer geeks are basically the same set of people, and it just depends what time of day you catch them at. It was always just a matter of time until the two drinks became one. Brewed coffee and beer have quite a lot in common: there are hundreds of ways to make it, the principal ingredients have characteristics based on where they are grown, both grain and coffee beans are roasted, water profile can make all the difference, and both are all about managing temperatures and extracting flavours. That said, the use of coffee in beer is not an old tradition, born from the homebrewing community of the 1990s, and some beers with roast grains can have mild coffee flavours anyway. So why bother? Well, brewers have used fruit, spices, flowers and other natural ingredients for as long as beer has existed, and coffee is the latest of these to be used to add new dimensions of flavour. Speciality coffee culture in the past 20 years has opened people’s eyes to a huge variety of flavours, brew methods and coffees from around the world. Everything from tangerine, liquorice, blueberry, vanilla and coriander to delicate floral notes of jasmine can be found in coffee, in varieties diverse enough to rival hops. Whilst most commonly used in dark beers, coffee is now used in everything from IPAs, saisons and sour beers to add unique new depths to our favourite beer styles. There are now even beer festivals dedicated to beers using coffee, so there’s never been a better time to be a lover of these two truly global drinks.
HOW COFFEE CAN BE USED IN THE BREWING PROCESS Brewers choose to add coffee in a variety of ways, depending on the beer they are making and the brewing equipment they have. Broadly, it comes down to whether it is added hot (usually before or during fermentation) or cold (after fermentation), and whether the coffee has been brewed, ground or added as whole beans.
HOT
COLD
Coffee added at high temperatures or as hot brewed coffee typically has more roast character and is more acidic, so is sometimes best suited to beers with lower roast notes and acidity.
Coffee added at cold temperatures or as cold brew will add less bitterness and acidity, is often best employed in beers that already have pronounced roast notes and bitterness.
GROUND COFFEE
WHOLEBEAN COFFEE
If ground, coffee will release its aromatics and flavours more quickly and intensely, but these can fade quickly, so freshness is key.
If the coffee isn’t ground, it will release its flavours more slowly, which is useful if you want to finely control and monitor the intensity of coffee notes added.
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coffee & ageing
AGEING BEER: WHAT TO DRINK AND WHAT TO SAVE Most beer is best enjoyed fresh, but here’s a quick guide on how to get the most out of the beers in your collection that will appreciate with time
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lthough the majority of beer is best enjoyed fresh, there are many that will benefit from carefully considered ageing. Successfully doing so will mean that you can enjoy the transformation of flavours over a great deal of time. Before you head out to your nearest bottle shop to stock up however, you’ll need to make sure you’ve got a suitable space in which to store your beers. Not everyone will have his or her own cellar but wherever you do store your beer you need to ensure that it is cool, free of sunlight and keeps a consistent temperature. Your ‘cellar’ will need to be free of UV light and spikes in temperature that could cause unwanted off flavours to form in your beer. With your space set up it’s time to buy some beer – you’ll just have to temper your enthusiasm so you don’t drink your collection before it’s had a proper chance to develop. When it comes to ageing beer, your best friend is alcohol – as a general rule higher alcohol beers will age better than low alcohol ones, with the booze being far more sympathetic to the development of any off flavours. It also means that when the beer begins to oxidise, and it will go through many peaks and troughs as it does, the alcohol will be there too support it. If it pays off the result will be delightful notes of boozy stone fruit, not unlike a port or sherry. Imperial stouts, doppelbocks and barley wines are your friends here. Not everything in a high ABV beer will survive though – so sometimes it’s not always best to rely on alcohol to preserve the flavours you want to enjoy. Beers that use highly volatile ingredients such as coffee or those that are dry hopped will loose those flavours just as quickly as if it were a pale ale. As an example, Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout will develop beautifully over time, but if you really enjoy its coffee profile then there is little to no point in letting it age.
Some of the most satisfying beers to age are sours, farmhouse ales or anything fermented with ‘wild’ yeast strains such as Brettanomyces. The first advantage of this is that usually a small portion of live yeast will remain in the bottle and continue to eat up any residual sugars, as well as any pesky oxygen, as long as it remains alive. This makes Belgian lambic and gueuze perfect to age, despite the ABV being relatively low – although anything similar from elsewhere in the world will appreciate over time just as well. Of course the most important thing when it comes to ageing beer is having more than one bottle in your collection so that you can observe directly how
it changes over time. The Trappist beer Orval is perfect for this – a case is relatively good value and with live Brettanomyces in the bottle you can observe how it gradually transforms from a bright, hoppy Belgian pale into a far more funky, complex and curious beer. Just try not to drink it all at once.
“WHEN IT COMES TO AGEING BEER, YOUR BEST FRIEND IS ALCOHOL”
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THE BATTLE OF THE IPAS: EAST COAST VS WEST COAST After decades of West Coast dominance, the East Coast IPA is making a splash. What’s next for this latest evolution in the American IPA?
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n the American brewing scene, the differences between the West Coast IPA and the East Coast – or New England-style – IPA – are providing a glimpse into the way this style is changing, evolving and even splintering. Few beers have captured the public imagination quite like the IPA. Distinctly different from the maltier, lower-alcohol, less intensely hopped British IPA, the American IPA first found its footing on the West Coast. Some point to the release of Anchor Liberty Ale – technically a pale ale, but made with Cascade hops – in 1975 as the very beginning of the style. In the ensuing years, many of the earliest and most influential American craft breweries set up shop on the West Coast, and began experimenting with hop-driven brewing, particularly with American-grown hops that were, as a rule, powerful in their bitterness but also much richer in juicy, tropical fruit, and citrus flavours than their European counterparts. Sierra Nevada was launched in Chico, California in 1979, and soon made waves with its Pale Ale, which was the hoppiest beer around at its time of release. In 1994, Blind Pig, now defunct but formerly based in Temecula, California, turned out an Inaugural Ale that went even heavier on the hops, and is now considered the firstever double IPA. From these early innovators followed a wave of West Coast breweries that made their names with hoppy IPAs. Stone Brewing launched in Escondido, California in 1996, with a range of hopdriven styles; Green Flash began brewing in San Diego in 2002, and their West Coast IPA helped codify the burgeoning style; Russian River’s Pliny the Younger, a potent and hugely in-demand triple IPA, has been brewed since 2005. With each passing year, demand for and interest in the West Coast IPA grew. 2010 is cited as the high water mark of
“THE IPA REMAINS ONE OF THE MOST DYNAMIC, EXCITING, AND VERSATILE STYLES IN CRAFT BEER” the style: the year drinkers couldn’t get enough of that bracing bitterness; those distinctive flavours of grapefruit, pine, resin and citrus; that caramel malt base; and those intensely high ABVs and IBUs. But with every trend follows a backlash. That might explain the success of the East Coast-style IPA today, which is everything the West Coast IPA isn’t: soft on the palate, low in bitterness, murky in appearance, with a very discreet malt presence and a singular, almost overwhelming juiciness, guided by hop strains like Citra and Mosaic. The East Coast IPA is still in its adolescence. The Alchemist’s Heady
Topper, brewed in Waterbury, Vermont, is often cited as one of the forefathers of the style, and was first released in its distinctive silver cans in 2011. Today, a coterie of East Coast breweries – including Tree House, Trillium, Bissell Brothers, Tired Hands, and many more – are turning out key exemplars of the style. What’s next for the IPA, then? The East Coast IPA is still ascending, and will likely be the subject of great excitement for years to come. But if there’s any single takeaway, it’s that the IPA remains one of the most dynamic, exciting and versatile styles in craft beer – and its ongoing evolution is all but guaranteed.
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IPAs & terroir
TERROIR IN BEER Terroir may be a concept that’s borrowed from the wine world, but it’s gaining new relevance for craft brewers and beer drinkers
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erroir is an idea that originates from the wine world. Its main premise: that the flavours, aromas, and other characteristics present in a wine are directly representative of where, and how, it was cultivated. From the nature of the soil to the regional climate and the amount of sun a given slope will receive, every viticultural element will have an impact on what ends up in the glass. Terroir is a wine’s unique calling card. But expressing terroir in beer is a far more complicated premise. Unlike wine, which is, for the most part, made exclusively with grapes and yeast, beer has many component parts. A single brew can feature malt produced in the UK alongside hops grown in New Zealand with fruit that hails from California, all fermented with a Belgian-born yeast strain. Given the carbon footprints implicit in using ingredients from across the globe, the idea that beer can express idiosyncratic locality may not be obvious. And yet, there are ways that terroir is still relevant to the brewing process. Hops are one example. Just as Sauvignon Blanc grapes will taste profoundly different when planted in France than in South
Africa, so individual hop varieties will differ in their aromatics depending on where in the world they’re grown. Cascade is an excellent case study. First bred in the US in 1956, the hop is famous for its role in helping to kick-start the American craft beer revolution. Drinkers know it for its distinctive grapefruit and citrus flavours, as well as its good bittering potential. But when Cascade hops were planted in New Zealand, they instead offered lime and tropical fruit aromatics – so much so that the New Zealand planting of the hop had to be renamed to Taiheke, because it didn’t taste like classic Cascade. Harvesting unique microflora for use in fermentation is another way that a brewery can express its local identity. Breweries like Cantillon in Brussels are famous for using coolships: large, open-top containers that hold freshly made wort, and which are designed to attract whatever wild yeast and bacteria are in the vicinity. Once inoculated and produced, the ‘spontaneously fermented’ beer is utterly unique; even a brewery ten miles away will have a different array of microflora. Previously a traditional brewing practice, the use of spontaneous fermentation is now being explored by a number of up-
and-coming craft breweries, including De Garde in Tillamook, Oregon and Black Project in Denver, Colorado. Then there are the breweries for which terroir is an abiding concept. Brouwerij Hof Ten Dormaal, a farmhouse brewery based in Tildonk, Belgium, offers an excellent example of terroir’s role in beer. Not only do the brewers harvest wild yeast from Hof Ten Dormaal’s immediate vicinity, they even grow their own grains, cultivate their own hops, and use their own well water. The result is a beer that is profoundly expressive of where it was produced; it also demonstrates how farmstead brewing can be a model of sustainability for the future. That’s just the start. From the rise of small, independent maltsters to the use of hand-foraged fruits, herbs, and other local ingredients in the brewing process, the idea of terroir in beer is only going to become more prominent, and more relevant, in the years to come.
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introduction
spring It’s time for ambitious plans, fresh ideas and enjoying winter’s end. Pressing the restart button on your palate couldn’t be easier. Cast off the heaviness of dark, wintery ales, and in their place grow the bright, citrus-strewn orchards of blonde beers, pale ales and IPAs. As the sun peeks through the clouds and things bloom out of winter’s gloom, sip some fresh, invigorating, hoppy delights to accompany the first tempting thoughts of sunshine and warmth.
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spring
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spring
JARL A modern, citrus twist on the traditional session ale
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yne Ales in Argyll produce a core range of clean, balanced beers with real flavour and character. They also like to dabble in specialities and one-offs, but there are few brewers in the UK better than Fyne at making fantastic, flavourful, standard strength beers, especially on cask. Their bottled beers are just as good. Whilst the name of the brewery is apt, given their skill for clean, bright and delicious beers, it in fact refers to the location of the brewery near Loch Fyne in Argyll. Another example of a single-hopped beer using Citra, Jarl is a golden ale, rather than a pale ale, and is named after the Jarls (Norse Earls) who raided and claimed much of that area of Scotland. Jarl’s lighter malt body, close to a lager’s, makes it an extremely easy-drinking session beer that still has the flavour muscles to satisfy in small quantities. So much so in fact, that Jarl won the Champion Beer of Scotland at the 2013 Scottish Real Ale Festival and was also crowned Champion Golden Ale at the 2013 Great British Beer Festival. Jarl uses extra pale malt to achieve its straw-like pale gold colour, and its generous head is a fascinating bouquet of citrus and tropical fruit, particularly kiwi and grapefruit, and fresh biscuits. The relatively light body never seems thin, thanks to an even, mouth-filling fruitiness that is both soft and juicy. Rather than an assertive grapefruit character, Jarl displays a fruitness more like kiwi and white grapes, with a touch of grapefruit and lemon in the soft, long finish. It’s a remarkably balanced beer that is ideal for warm days in the garden and enjoying with light meals. Try a plate of mild cheddars, grapes and slices of pear on some warm white rolls, or a crispycoated chicken burger with lime mayo to enjoy the unpretentious and deliciously simple hop character of this extremely modern session ale.
THE BEER TALKING
MALCOLM DOWNIE BREWER AT FYNE ALES
What was the inspiration behind Jarl? The beer initially came about as a summer special – our previous head brewer had sourced a small quantity of Citra from the first batch that came across from the US. Popular demand decided that when the next season’s crop became available, we bought a lot more! The name is a wee nod to our previous summer special Somerled. He was the guy who drove the Vikings out of the West of Scotland. Our subsequent summer special, Rune, also takes a tilt at this line of thought. Which beer best defines who Fyne Ales are as a brewery? I’d say Jarl – golden, hoppy beers are a massive part of what we brew. It’s got a lot of flavour, but it’s well balanced and easy drinking, which is pretty much
The Facts Brewer Fyne Ales Origin Argyll, Scotland, UK Strength 3.8% Type Golden Ale Web www.fyneales.com Temperature 8-12°C
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NW DIPA EKUANOT A punchy, assertive, and deliciously potent double IPA THE FACTS Brewer Cloudwater Brew Co Origin Manchester, UK Strength 9% Type Double IPA Web www.cloudwaterbrew.co/ Temperature 6-8°C
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n 2016, Cloudwater was named RateBeer’s fifth-best brewery in the world. That achievement isn’t a surprise. From the get-go, Cloudwater’s IPAs – brewed largely following the East Coast model, hazy, almost absurdly aromatic, and flavourful – made palpable the brewery’s talent and ambitions. One of several leading British breweries that have made the call to eschew a core range in favour of developing a steady stream of new recipes, Cloudwater was also aware, early, of the role that optics had to play in selling beer. Every new release came plastered with a colourful, one-off label illustrated by a local artist, first in bottles and then in silver tallboy cans.
Consequently, every time a new double IPA was released as part of Cloudwater’s ‘v’ series, the crowds seeking cans grew in proportion. When the brewery announced that the series would conclude with v13 in early 2017, there was initial dismay followed by eagerness at what was to follow. Now, Cloudwater is moving forward with three variations on the stronger IPA style: the NW DIPA, the IIPA, and the NE DIPA. The hallmark of the NW DIPA experimental strand is the use of a local JW Lees yeast strain, either alone or in tandem with one of Cloudwater’s house yeasts. As with the prior ‘v’ series, each iteration of NW DIPA will be slightly different; this version centres on Ekuanot – formerly known as Equinox – a hop that derives from the Warrior hop. Rich in bitter alpha acids, it’s also highly aromatic, and offers a gorgeous array of melon, papaya, pine, and bell pepper flavours. As a showcase for this exciting new hop, this DIPA excels. And as an indication of what’s next for Cloudwater, it bodes very well indeed.
MARBLE BITTER The freshest cask beer to come out of a bottle THE FACTS Brewer Marble Brewery Origin Manchester, UK Strength 4.2% Type Bitter Web www.marblebeers.com Temperature 8-12°C
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he Marble Brewery was established in Manchester in 1997 as a means of saving The Marble Arch Inn from closing down. Fortunately, they made the right choice, and after more than a decade of brewing, Marble were noticed on the wider craft beer scene. The 12-barrel brewery now struggles to meet popular demand for their beers, which range from the no-nonsense-named Pint to the groundbreaking Earl Grey IPA. Manchester Bitter is Marble’s best-selling beer and is sold in cask and bottle across the UK. However, the popularity began when it was being sold from The Marble Arch Inn. It
captured the interest of Mancunians because it was a beer that perfectly portrayed the Manchester preference for bitter, golden ales with mountains of creamy head. Manchester Bitter has a golden hued brilliance and enough foamy white head to ski on. It almost gives cask beer a run for its money when it comes to being fresh and lively. The aroma is understated but full of charm, with lemon meringue, sharp lime zest and gentle lavender coming through. The body is as energetic and lively as they come; it genuinely swells and fizzes in the mouth. If you take long enough to let the head fade down all it takes is a quick swirl in the glass to rouse up a fresh avalanche of foam. The taste is refreshingly bitter, with clean citrus rind, pineapple and dry grain flavours and a bittersweet, floral hop finish. This is the exact beer needed to blow off the corporate cobwebs after a long day at work and to revitalise body and soul for the evening ahead.
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introduction
summer Few thoughts can match the knowledge that summer is here. Little can compare to the arrival of long days, balmy evenings and the chance of some blissful sunshine. It’s the time of year when your fridge really earns its keep, safeguarding those cold lagers, wheat beers and fruit beers for when you need them most.
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Summer
PILSNER URQUELL The grandfather of the modern lager style that still leaves its imitators looking like drain cleaner
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oday, almost every modern, mass-produced lager can trace its roots back here, to the town of Plzen in the Czech Republic. The definitive pilsner style of lager, with its crisp, flavoursome taste and sparkling light appearance, is the benchmark against which other lagers have since aspired and carefully imitated. This humble, Bohemian town never meant to change the world of beer, though; all they wanted was something decent to drink. It came about in a perfect storm. In the late 1830s the beer in Plzen was so awful it caused a band of leading townsfolk to revolt and form their own brewery. They invited Joseph Groll to become the brewmaster and they tasked him with making something they could happily drink. Groll had not long returned from Britain, where pale ales were forging their own path to dominance due to the development of coke. Compared to wood or coal, coke allowed barley to be kilned without becoming tainted by smoke, which was a characteristic of the dark porter beer of the era. Given a new brewery, pale malt and an abundance of Czech Saaz hops, it took just one more ingredient to make perfect, golden beer – the water. It’s easy to overlook the importance of water in beer, but it’s worth noting that it makes up most of the finished product, so it naturally has a massive impact on the flavour. The water in the Plzen region is still regarded as being amongst the softest in the world, with very low mineral levels and alkalinity. When Groll applied it to his cutting edge pale malt they came together to produce a beer that was light in colour and smooth in body. But it didn’t end there. The fermented product was then cold conditioned in wooden casks, stored deep within the subterranean cellars beneath the town of Plzen for several weeks. This lengthy maturation process was called lagering and gave us the name we apply to all similar beers today. Pilsner Urquell still claim to use the original recipe perfected by Groll in the
1840s and mature the beer for 40 days. However, a significant concession made in the wake of modern technology is that Pilsner Urquell is no longer conditioned in oak casks on a wider scale. Nevertheless, while you’re unlikely to come across it in the supermarket, they still make an unfiltered and unpasteurised version often served from wooden casks. It’s maltier, sweeter and chewier than the standard version, but it’s an experience that’s well worth seeking out if the opportunity ever comes up. Pilsner Urquell pours a dark gold, crystal clear beer with a dazzling white head of creamy foam and mild carbonation. The aroma is crisp and peppery, with warm, toasted malt bread and a slightly herbal kick. The supremely light and smooth body is the first thing you notice – it somehow walks a tightrope between crisp and full bodied. The flavour meanwhile is a quickly moving kaleidoscope of different flavours, swiftly emerging and disappearing, from an earthy tang and grassy barley, to honeyed malt and a bite of pepper, all leading to a bittersweet finish.
The Facts Brewer Plzensky Prazdroj Origin Plzen, Czech Republic Strength 4.4% Type Pilsner Lager Web www.pilsnerurquell.com Temperature 4-8°C
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“THE SUPREMELY LIGHT AND SMOOTH BODY IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ON THE PALATE”
SAISON LUNAIRE Forest & Main Brewing Co., Bend, Oregon, USA Type Flanders Red Ale Strength 6% • Since opening five years ago, Forest & Main has proven itself to be one versatile brewery, as adept with hazy IPAs as it is classic English bitters. But it’s especially beloved for its saisons. Saison Lunaire, which pours a cheery orange hue, was aged for a spell in wine barrels; consequently it offers an unmistakably vinous character, as well as peach, citrus, and funky yeast notes.
CHAMP DU BLANC New Glarus Brewing, New Glarus, Wisconsin, USA Type Wild Ale Strength 10% • Some beers are so vinous they seem to straddle the divide between beer and wine. New Glarus’s Champ du Blanc is one such brew. A blend of sour blonde ale and Chardonnay grapes, it’s aged in barrels in the brewery’s ‘wild fruit cave’. The result would please any sommelier: rich with butter and vanilla notes imparted by the oak, it’s balanced with a yeasty funk and elements of grape must.
BELGIAN ROSE SweetWater Brewing Company, Atlanta, Georgia, USA Type Wild Ale Strength 7% • Released in the summer of 2017, SweetWater’s phenomenal Belgian Rose has been in the works for three years. A Belgian-style wild ale that has been blended with Georgia-grown blackberries (at the proportion of one pound per gallon), fermented with two strains of Brettanomyces (as well as souring bacteria), and which has spent time in Cabernet and Merlot barrels, it’s bright with acidity, aromatic with fruit notes, and rosecoloured in the glass.
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autumn The shorter days bring cooler winds, carrying on them the auburn leaves that crunch underfoot as you make your way indoors from the diminishing sunshine. There’s an increasing need to hunker down, gather richer, more warming foods, and comforting glasses of luscious, fuller-bodied beers. As the days turn amber, russet and maroon, so do the ales. A Belgian tripel wouldn’t go amiss either, just to help take the edge off the chill in the air.
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SAISON SAUVIN
St Austell, Cornwall UK Type Bitter Strength 4.2%
8 Wired Brewing, Warkworth, New Zealand Type Saison Strength 7%
• Tribute is the best-selling beer from Cornwall’s largest regional brewer. First brewed in 1999 to celebrate a total solar eclipse in Britain which was best seen from Cornwall, it is now brewed to celebrate any occasion. It pours a light, oaky brown with orange and spice aromas, leading to a gently spicy orange marmalade, cinnamon and toffee taste with a complex, bittersweet finish.
• If you love the tropical and grassy qualities locked away inside New Zealand Nelson Sauvin hops then look no further than Saison Sauvin from 8 Wired Brewing. Saison Sauvin explodes out of the glass with notes of passion fruit and gooseberry before being rounded out with funky Belgian yeast esters and a bone dry finish.
HARVEST ALE RED ROCKET ALE Bear Republic Brewing Co, California USA Type Red Ale Strength 6.8% • This crimson-tinged mahogany beer has an aroma of caramel, roasted malt, pine, fresh bread and a little mango. The first sip screams malt and caramel sweetness. It sits heavily while a gradual rumble of piney, resinous hops roll across the tongue. A blast of roasted coffee signals the beginning of an imperial-stout-esque finish, full of red fruit and dark chocolate.
BROADSIDE Adnams, Southwold UK Type Bitter Strength 4.7% in cask, 6.3% in bottle • Whether Adnams Broadside is better from cask or bottle is a pub debate that will never die. It’s good in both servings, with cask lending it a creamy smooth body, while the bottled version is strong and, for some, has more flavour. They’re actually different recipes, with the bottled being the original. It has a deep, ruby brown colour, brown sugar and dried fruit aromas. Broadside’s big body wraps your tongue in a muscular hug and smothers it warmly with rich, malt loaf and toffee flavours. Widely available from supermarkets in bottles.
LITTLE BRETT Allagash Brewing Company, Portland, Maine, USA Type American Wild Ale Strength 4.8% • If you like Allagash’s famous White Ale then you’ll love Little Brett. This beer is 100% fermented with Allagash’s house strain of Brettanomyces before being graced with an addition of Mosaic hops. It’s tart and funky up front, with hints of mango and pineapple rounded off with a dry finish and just a kiss of acidity.
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JW Lees, Manchester UK Type Strong Ale/Barley Wine Strength 11.5% • A cult legend in its own right, Harvest Ale has been made by JW Lees since 1986. It is made from freshly harvested barley in autumn and released just prior to Christmas. Although pasteurised, it will mature in the bottle and is recommended for drinking fresh or ageing. The profile can vary from vintage to vintage and depending on when it is drunk, but common characteristics include sumptuous chocolate, sherry, dried fruits and spice flavours. Available from specialist off-licences, online retailers and the brewery website.
BREEZE Affinity Brew Co, London, UK Type Saison Strength 3.8% • Despite being such a young brewery, Tottenham’s Affinity Brew Co has quickly established itself as one to watch in the London brewing scene. Its flagship beer is a sessionable table saison called Breeze that’s brewed with lime zest and coriander seed, flavours of which mix and mingle with a slightly funky, dry Belgian yeast character.
SAISON DE BRETTAVILLE Almanac Beer Company, San Francisco, California, USA Type Saison Strength 7.2% • Almanac is famous for its oak-aged, farminspired ales. This complex, nuanced and delicious saison uses 12 different strains of Brettanomyces (wild yeast), before ageing the resulting beer in white wine barrels and dryhopping it with Hallertau Blanc, Mandarina and Mosaic. It sounds complicated, but the funky notes from the yeast and barrels dovetail beautifully with the delicate citrus hop notes.
RUMPKIN Avery Brewing Co, Boulder, Colorado, USA Type Pumpkin Ale Strength 17.5% • Rumpkin is a pumpkin ale of walloping intensity and heady, exhilarating strength. To make this seasonal brew, Avery produces a base of rich, spice-led pumpkin ale before transferring it to fresh rum barrels, which impart their molasses sweetness to the beer. Deep copper in the glass, Rumpkin offers a bouquet of pumpkin, gingerbread, clove, vanilla, toffee, and rye bread notes, plus a luscious, almost sticky mouthfeel.
CWTCH Tiny Rebel, Wales, UK Type Amber Ale Strength 4.6%
XXXB Batemans, Wainfleet, Linconcolnshire, UK Type Best Bitter Strength 4.8% • Lincolnshire’s Batemans Brewery is perhaps best known for its XB bitter, but those in the know will seek out its stronger, richer cousin, XXXB. This copper coloured beer is hopped with both Kentish and Styrian Goldings that add earthy and peppery qualities to a backbone of biscuit malt and vinous berry fruits before leading to a bitter finish.
BATHAMS BEST BITTER Bathams Brewery, Brierley Hill, West Midlands, UK Type Best Bitter Strength 4.3%
• Tiny by name and tiny by nature, this Welsh superstar brewery can’t keep up with the huge demand they receive, so their beers are available on a sort of revolving basis. Cwtch (pronounced ‘kutch’, the Welsh word for cuddle) is worth seeking out when it’s next available. It is amber in colour, with a vibrant hoppy aroma, and lush citrus, pine and caramel on the taste. It gives more than the modest strength would suggest. Available from some supermarkets, specialist off-licences and the brewery website.
• Some beers might be traditional, others might be the object of a cult following, but few can boast to be both. Only available locally to the brewery, ‘The Batham’s’ is the definitive Black Country bitter, balancing a honeyed, bready body with peppery, leafy English hop character and finishing with a session-beer dryness that makes it impossible to drink just one.
HOP ROD RYE
Boulevard Brewing Company, Kansas City, Missouri, USA Type Farmhouse Ale Strength 8.5%
Bear Republic Brewing Company, Healdsburg, California, USA Type Rye IPA Strength 8% • Bear Republic’s Hop Rod Rye is brewed with 18% rye malt – enough to impart the classic rye profile of spiciness and crisp-edged dryness to the brew. To match the rye’s intensity, as well as the caramel sweetness provided by the barley malt, the brewery is generous with its hops. The end result boasts an aroma of sugared lemon and piney bitterness on the palate.
D’ETRE
SAISON BRETT
• Tank 7 – Boulevard Brewing Company’s flagship farmhouse ale – is the base for this limited-edition release. Dry hopped, bottle-conditioned with Brettanomyces, and aged for a minimum of three months, Saison Brett offers a beautiful balance of honeyed sweetness and pleasing bitterness. On the palate, the beer offers a complex array of citrus, fruit, and vinous characteristics, which evolve into a spicy and off-dry finish.
Boundary Brewing Cooperative, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK Type Saison Strength Varies
LA (SAINT) JEAN
• Belfast’s Boundary Brewing Cooperative has quickly built a reputation on the back of its pale ales and stouts. However, its barrel-ageing project is where head brewer Matthew Dick’s true passion lies. D’être is a summation of his ambition, an ever-changing Saison that lets him push the boundaries of his creativity, whether it’s “hopped up the wazoo” or laden with fresh fruit such as passion fruit or raspberries.
• You wouldn’t think that some of the best craft beers being produced in France were being done so by a Scot – however that means you won’t have tried the excellent beers produced by Brasserie Craig Allen. La (Saint) Jean is a classic Belgian-style farmhouse ale that evokes aromas of cut grass that has been left in the sun to slowly dry, which mingle with the barnyard funk of Belgian yeast.
Brasserie Craig Allen, Plessis de Roye, France Type Saison Strength 4.5%
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winter Warmth washes over your face as the door closes behind you. It might be the coldest season, but everything you do in it is about warmth. The beer might be wet and dark, just like the nights, but it doesn’t have to be cold. Big, bulbous glasses filled with rich, luxurious stout, decadent, intense porters or perhaps something stronger. It’s the time of year that getting comfortable extends to everything you eat and drink.
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ADAM A dark and delectable strong ale from one of Portland, Oregon’s finest
I
t’s difficult to walk a few yards in Portland, Oregon without finding a great craft beer spot. This eclectic and creatively curious city has become something of a nesting place for craft beer in the United States. At the time this book went to print, there were 84 breweries in the Portland metropolitan area and at the rate at which they’re opening that number has probably already increased. In fact, Portland, Oregon has more breweries per capita than any other city in the world and around 60% of the beer sold in the city is classified as ‘craft’. Hair of the Dog was an early adopter in Portland’s craft beer culture, setting up shop inside a former fire station, by the banks of the Willamette River in 1993. It built a name for itself on the back of its strong beers inspired by historic styles, many of which take their names from folks in the beer industry that inspired Hair of the Dog’s Founder, Alan Sprints. Perhaps the most well known of Sprints’ beers is Adam, the first beer ever produced by Hair of the Dog. Adam is a strong dark ale inspired by a similar, historic style that originated in Dortmund, Germany. It’s rich with flavours of molasses, stewed stone fruits and sherry, with a comforting finish that’s marked by warming alcohol. It’s great on its own or paired with an equally rich and indulgent dessert but according to its creator this beer really comes into its own when paired with a roaring fire and a just lit cigar.
The Facts Brewer Hair of the Dog Brewing Origin Portland, Oregon, USA Strength 10% Type Strong Dark Ale Web www.hairofthedog.com Temperature 14-16°C
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GONZO IMPERIAL PORTER A bruiser of an American porter that’s certainly not to be trifled with!
F
9000
lying Dog Ales has produced some of the best bottle labels in the world of craft beer. It hired Ralph Steadman to do its artwork, the British cartoonist best known for his work with the Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas author Hunter S Thompson, and the words of the late anarcho-journalist are the firm’s mantra: “Good people drink good beer.” The label on the Gonzo Imperial Porter bottle features a guy with a skull for a face, an homage to Thompson himself, who drank straight Wild Turkey and purportedly chewed human adrenal glands as a morning pick-me-up. From the outset, then, this is being established as a big, powerful brew. Gonzo is black with a heavy gravity that pulls in the light and makes it that little bit darker. The body is oil thick and oozes into the glass, topped by a tarry, mocha-coloured head that levels out into a smooth, creamy consistency. The aroma is big, juicy American hops and malts, with umami notes of soy sauce and thick, sweet smells of molasses, treacle and candy being the dominant force. There’s also an oily hop aroma, with bags of strong, sweet liquorice, a hint of almond and a warming, boozy hit. The body is dense and alcoholic, sticking to the lips and rewarding the drinker with unexpected bursts of flavour. Initially Gonzo delivers brown sugar, cream, coffee, chocolate and almonds, which all add up to a decadent, Irish coffee liqueur experience. Over time, it takes a dark turn, becoming resinously hoppy with booziness in the finish. This is a fine beverage, and one the good Dr Thompson would be proud of. It’s a bold example of an American porter – a heavyweight battlecruiser of a beer, full of enough punch and flavour to take your face off and leave a grinning skull.
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The Facts Brewer Flying Dog Ales Origin Maryland, USA Strength 9.2% Type Porter Web www.flyingdogales.com Temperature 12-16°C
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