2017 Beer Year in Review

This article was originally posted to my (now dormant) poker blog (The Great Poker Adventure), but I decided it was more at home here, in my new taproom blog...   

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Today it's Wednesday 31st January, and I haven't had a drink since January 1st.

This year I have combined my observance of Dry January with exercising every morning on my cross trainer, as well as eating an almost exclusively vegetarian diet. The result is that I have lost over a stone in weight and I feel amazing!

However, I have loads of great craft beers in stock at home, that aren't going to drink themselves!

Before I embark on my 2018 craft beer journey, I figured it would be a good idea to log some reflections on the first year of my craft beer odyssey.

Twelve months ago, I had already had some exposure to craft beer thanks to Mikkeler and Warpigs in Copenhagen, but my general focus was on quantity rather than quality, and I was generally intimidated by strong beers.

I have been an enthusiastic attender of beer festivals for many years, but prior to 2017, my approach would be to stick religiously to sub 5% bitters and pale ales. How short-sighted I was!

In 2017 I started using Untappd properly, which for me means only checking in new beers (to me), writing proper tasting notes (to the best of my ability) and trying to be consistent n the score that I give. For me a 3.5 is a beer that I would order again, 4 is an outstanding beer, and 4.5 is a truly fantastic beer. This scoring approach also seems to work when I am looking at the aggregate scores of a beer in a category that I generally like (Pales, IPAs, NEIPAs, Stouts, Porters). I know that I am going to LOVE a beer from any is these categories rated 4 or above, and I know that a beer from these categories rated above 3.5 is going to be very drinkable. 

So valuable do I find Untappd, that I pay the £40-odd per year that is costs to be a supporter. (this subscription was partly funded by cancelling my CAMRA subscription, due to their luddite attitude to craft keg beer!)

I also began to seek out the best craft beer bars in every city that I visited, plotting them in  Google maps for future reference and to share work friends and colleagues. This has now built into a decent resource library, that I am always seeking to update.

I also subscribed to BEER52 which ships me a monthly case of interesting craft beers, which ensures that I always have something new and unusual in the fridge at home.

Beers of 2017

10. Stockholm Brewing Company Birra Nizza - 4.2% Session IPA

I drank a lot of beer in Sweden in 2017, and this was one of the very best. Amazing depth of flavours for 4.2% abv.


9. Amager Bryghus Bad Beard Day - 6% Hipster IPA

I drank even more beer in Denmark than I did in Sweden, and this was a great find. I love the name, the style description, the colour and the murk!

8. Heart of Darkness Brewery Saigon - Kurtz's Insane IPA - 7.1% APA

I spent an amazing week in Vietnam in April, including 3 days in Hanoi hitting the craft beer bars hard. This was a terrific beer, drank in the awesome, atmospheric Standing Bar, with my great friend Stuart. Very good memories!

7. Warpigs Booty Call - 5.8% Session IPA

No brewer or pub has more responsibility for my craft beer obsession than Warpigs in Copenhagen. This was one of at least a dozen APAs from Warpigs that would be worth a place on my top ten. I won't be there so much in 2018, but I will be back there sometime, I guarantee it!

6. Tired Hands Brewing Co Hop Hands - 5.5% APA

This is a great American Pale, which I enjoyed on a fine sunny evening on the terrace at Warpigs.

5. Siren Craft Project Barista Americano - 9.1% DIPA

My local craft brewery! Good to see Siren Craft building such a great reputation. They have just opened a really cool taproom at the brewery, and they are practically ever-present at the Nags Head in Reading these days.

4. Dugges Double Crush - 8% DIPA

Probably my favourite Scandinavian brewer, Dugges brew some amazing NEIPAs and DIPAs. Best enjoyed at the Brewers Bar in their home town of Gothenburg.

3. Verdant/Other Half - Now We Are Here - 8% DIPA

Very high on my bucket list is the need to make a pilgrimage to the NE USA to visit Trillium, Tree House, and Other Half, amongst others. This collab with UK brewer Verdant was fantastic, enjoyed at the Copenhagen Taphouse, which also must shoulder some of the blame for my craft beer habit!

2. Moor Beer Company JJJ - 9% Triple IPA

Enjoyed on JJJ launch day at the Nags Head in Reading. All the pomp and ceremony was justified! This beer has more depth and complexity of flavour than any red wine or whisky that I have ever tasted.

1. Cloudwater Spring + Summer DDH Pale Chinook Citra - 5.2% APA

This week, Cloudwater were ranked the number two brewer in the World by RateBeer, but for me, they are the undisputed Number One! Paul Jones and his Team bring their genius to a wide range of beer styles, but their NEIPAs and DIPAs are truly magnificent!