Boggle Awards 2013

As we're at the circle-jerk end of 2013, it's time to reflect on the Year In Beer. Per tradition, I don't bother with the Golden Pints, instead bestowing The Boggle Award on beers, brewers and bars I've thought were best through the year.

This year is a bit different, and my radar hasn't necessarily been targeted at beer. Still, I did get to try some some notable new stuff. I'll start with brewers. It seems much longer than 11 months ago that Brew By Numbers were getting attention. I blogged about them as part of my short 'New Boys' series. They were scaling up in the early summer, but various let-downs meant they're only just now brewing on a commercial scale. They've had their tasting room at 79 Enid Street in Bermondsey, open a while, and the beer has been very good, but I imagine they'll want to get 2013 out of the way and get cracking on getting their beer out to a wider audience.

A shout out, too, for Alpha State, Jon Queally's start-up. Much of his output is going to Scandinavia, but the odd keg of stuff finds its way onto the London scene - The Old Fountain will usually have some if he's selling. His fondness for mental hopping rates is legendary around the scene, as is his willingness to take on beer styles and mutate them with same - witness his doppelbock hopped with Sorachi Ace. His recent smoked Belgian ale was very good, and I hope more of his beer is on bars here, if only to tempt drinkers out of their comfort zones.

My brewery of the year, maybe controversially, is Meantime. Not so much for their regular beers, but for the small-batch kegs and bottles I've been able to try. I blogged about their pilsners in the summer, and I've also been able to try some of their 'Brewer's Collection' 750ml cork-and-caged bottles. The 2013 Cali-Belgian IPA was sublime, while the recent Imperial Pilsner, also hopped with Sorachi Ace, was offbeat yet drinkable. The recent Hop City Porter, hopped with 'crowdsourced' hops grown around the City, also drew favourable comments from my informal tasting panel (I should say Meantime gave me these bottles). As well as the beer, they showed they can put on a show with their World Beer Fest in the early summer. Coming soon after the clusterfuck that was London's Brewing, it was reassuring to be able to head down to the Old Brewery, drink some excellent beer,eat some good food and chill out in the early summer sunshine, and all for twelve notes.

For bars, I really haven't been to many new places this year. I did get to spend some unplanned time at the splendid Cock Tavern in Hackney. It became Twitter Central on the first Saturday in May as the London's Brewing fiasco unfolded before the horrified yet fascinated gaze of the UK Craft Beer Scene.I wouldn't have said it was a Blitz Spirit, but the gallows humour made the time spent there well worth while, and the Howling Hops beer they make in the basement soothed quite a few furrowed brows.

I've been to a few pubs in Woodbridge (near Ipswich) on a few occasions this year. It's been quite a reality check to see what happens away from big conurbations. Woodbridge is more or less in the middle of Adnams and Greene King territory, so their beers and pubs tend to dominate. There are a couple of free houses in the area, but the pattern tends to be food-led with events, and then some guest beers, usually from around East Anglia. It's nice, but after a few days I start to miss hoppy golden beers, and tastes around those parts are too traditional for there to be a market just yet, although The Cherry Tree, an Adnams house, has a new management team who ran a beer fest with beers from further afield including Dark Star, and they were trying to open locals up to new experiences by, for example, having Kostritzer on as a regular beer. Worthy, and I'll be checking them out for progress over the ho-ho-holidays.

I'm giving a special award this year for street food. Working close to hipster Shoreditch, there's a different vibe and a greater range of crafty food outlets. Fridays for me have been eagerly anticipated since I discovered the Big Apple Hot Dog stall near Shoreditch Fire Station on Old Street. Fantastic sausage, simple but really well-made, good value and great with beer. They do good business on Friday lunchtimes (I'm off for mine after this is finished), and the sausage is starting to find its way into a range of venues such as independent cinemas, pubs and bars, and even restaurants, I hear. The stall has a loyalty card scheme, which I think is innovative, and the owner has ambitious plans for his franks. They've been as far afield as Leeds and at the fabulous pit barbecue joint in Bristol, Grillstock. Keep an eye out for them.

Resolutions for 2014? To start home-brewing. I was talking about BBNo. They've had former Craft bar manager and brewer Steve Gray working with them recently, and he's also the guv'nor of Massive Brewery. This is an innovative full-mash home brew kit in a box, which he sells online for about a hundred quid. I tried some pale ale a punter had brewed on the kit the other week, and it was clean, with a good body and quite drinkable. Maybe some dry-hopping would have rounded it out. I mean to get myself kitted out and have a go.

So that's this year's Boggle Awards. Here's a final seasonal wish for my reader(s), dedicated to Rabid Bar Fly Glyn Roberts...

Golden Pints 2012

In the absence of 2012 Boggle Awards (haven't been to half the new London bars or checked out some of the new beer to make them meaningful), I've decided to pick out some stuff for the Golden Pints. My Year Of Beer will be up around Xmas Week...

Best UK Draught Beer Dark Star APA, Fyne Ales Rune, Camden Wheat, Marble Draft

Best UK Bottled or Canned Beer Table Beer from The Kernel Brewery

Best Overseas Draught Beer Moonlight Death & Taxes, as consumed at Flavor, Santa Rosa CA, in November
Best Overseas Bottled or Canned Beer I was given a bottle of Russian River Sanctification batch 1, which was stunning. Technically not 2012, but best I drank.

Best Overall Beer See above

Best Pumpclip or Label Revolutions' Unknown Pleasures and the white stick RRBC use for their Blind Pig IPA

Best UK Brewery In no particular order - Magic Rock, Dark Star, Fyne, The Kernel, Ilkley, Arbor all impressive this year

Best Overseas Brewery Russian River Brewing Co

Pub/Bar of the Year Toronado, San Francisco

Best Beer Blog or Website Boak & Bailey and Reluctant Scooper

In 2013 I’d most like to... keep up better with the London scene

The Boggle Awards 2011

Last year I shamelessly appropriated and subverted the concept of the worthy, democratic and inclusive 'Golden Pint' awards and made up my own, The Boggle Awards. As a London blogger, I wanted to recognise what I thought were the best brewer, bar, pub and retailer in our capital city. Luckily, over the past couple of years, that sort of thing has developed some meaning with the renaissance of London brewing, and the welcome addition of a lot of beer-centric bars and pubs across the four corners of the city (well, almost).

No sign of this year's Golden Pints yet, so I'm going to go first and name the 2011 Boggle Award winners. This year there are just two. As well as London Brewer, I decided to recognise a single pub or bar, rather than separate them, so there's a single award. And since pretty much the only bottled beers I've had this year were obtained from breweries, I haven't bothered with a retailer award. The only 'fer real' bottle shop I visited this year was Bottle Barn in Santa Rosa, CA.

So, who will be receiving the highly-coveted Boggle Xmas card this time? First, this years Brewer Award.

Another great year for Kernel, with Evin and his team consistently producing top-quality beers, including an amazing saison, the London Brick collaboration beers (number 3 in the series is being brewed next week, hosted at Brodie's). They've been honoured repeatedly, most recently by the British Guild Of Beer Writers.

Camden Town has grown up hugely since the 2010 London Brewers' Showcase. Then, it was a table and a few kegs. As today's Will Hawkes piece in the Independent relates, they expect to have outgrown their current premises within a couple of years. And their beers have come on, as well. I'll be looking out for their new Camden Ink stout.

Tucked away in the far reaches of Tottenham, Redemption have been solid and consistent. Keeping it simple with a compact portfolio of high-quality beers, this year they launched Trinity, a fabulous light mild of 3% which proved to be a bit of a signature beer for the London spring and summer.

All good brewers, all setting high standards with their beers. But this year's Boggle Award London Brewer 2011 is Brodie's. I'm late to their beers, but in 2011 I've had plenty of opportunities to sample a wide range, and I admire their 'no-limits' approach. From the longer experience of Boak & Bailey, it seems 2011 has been the breakthrough year for Jamie and Lizzie, and I've certainly been impressed with their determination to develop consistency across a defined core range of beers. They've taken occasional stick for the beer quality in their pubs, but I know they've worked hard to improve things with new stillages, work on cellar cooling and staff training. Drink the beers elsewhere (I've been supping them at Cask Pub & Kitchen recently) and the quality shines through.

The second award, for London Pub Of The Year, goes to Cask Pub & Kitchen. Honourable Mention last year, and some might argue somewhat overshadowed by the excitement surrounding the opening of Craft Beer Co., still, Cask is the Pub Made Good.

Failing as a Greene King operated premises, closed up, then just over two years ago opened as an independent bar. From a slow start, they've relentlessly promoted good beer from around the world, hosted Meet The Brewer events and, proof that a good pub is a meeting place for the whole community, attracted locals and workers as well as beer geeks. This year, they've developed complementary branding to sister pub Craft Beer Co. and recently I've been pleased to see lots of London beer available.

I believe Cask narrowly lost out to The Southampton Arms for CAMRA London Pub Of The Year with the latter's cider offering being ultimately decisive, so hopefully in some way this award will make up for any disappointment.

Next year I hope to be checking out the progress of Tap East, Craft Beer Co, The Bull @ Highgate and a clutch of other recent openings all helping to put good beer on the London map.

Congratulations to both winners, and here's to a cracking 2012 for London's brewers and pubs. Ho ho ho!

Kernel Scoops SIBA National Award

To Bermondsey to buy some bottles of beer, where I learn that London micro and 2010 Boggle Award winner Kernel Brewing has picked up the award for best bottled beer at the 2011 SIBA National Competition.

They won Gold and Bronze back in the summer of 2010 at the regional competition, for Export Stout and Simcoe IPA respectively, and it was the Export Stout which went forward for judging against these...
You'll see former London brewer Pitfield on there, now brewing in East Anglia, and bottled Kipling from Thornbridge.

Brewer Evin O'Rioirdian is delighted, though wasn't able to collect the award in person - he was only told the day before. I haven't seen the rest of the awards, so not sure if there's any more good news for London (Sambrooks were up for an award for Junction). I expect SIBA will update their website at some point.

I'm pleased for Kernel and also for London. CAMRA's champion pub of the year title for The Harp and now a SIBA national crown for one of our brewers. And, though modesty ought to forbid it, I will point out that both of these won Boggle Awards last year. Can I smell a winner, or what? We just want Cask Pub & Kitchen to pick up The Publican Tenanted/Leased Pub Of The Year title now...

Boggle Awards 2010

I don't have the budget or the engagement in the wider beer scene to be able to put together something like the impressive 'Golden Pint Awards' trailed on Young Dredgie's page. But I did want to recognise some good experiences in the London beer scene, so I've designed the "Boggle Awards", which are awarded in four categories:

Best London Brewer - Kernel Brewing
Best London Pub - The Harp, Chandos Place
Best London Beer Bar - The Rake, Borough Market
Best Beer Retailer - Utobeer, Borough Market

I decided to differentiate between a pub and specialist beer outlet because I think they cater to different demand, though it's clear that in some cases the lines are blurring. As London suddenly has a healthy brewing scene, I wanted to acknowledge my favourite local brewer, and the retailer award takes care of the off-trade.

The retail side might look like usual suspects, but it's still early days as new outlets look to craft beer to grow their business. Cask Pub & Kitchen gets an honorable mention for this year, and this time next year I'm sure there'll be new on- and off-trade outlets vying for recognition. As things develop, I'm sure I'll develop some more rigorous criteria to help me decide winners in future years. Or maybe not.

I haven't bothered to pick out a favourite London beer, since I don't take notes and I've supped several excellent brews this year. My top 10 UK-brewed would include Lovibonds' astonishing Sour Grapes, Saltaire's excellent Triple Chocolate, Kernel's delicious re-imagining of a Baltic Porter and my go-to pint, Dark Star's lovely APA, but really, so much affects the beer-drinking experience, so I'm not going to try and reduce a good year for beer to a list.

Thanks to all the brewers, pubs and bars, and shops for providing me with these experiences.