Best new beers of 2012…Roosters Serlo de Burgh

Following our initial nomination of Buxton Imperial Black yesterday, our annual look back at the most memorable new British beers continues. We have five other places to fill in the list, and for our next choice, we head more or less due north from the Peak District, into the similarly picturesque North Yorkshire. There, in the small market town of Knaresborough, you’ll find Roosters Brewery. In the Spring, they put together a small-batch India Pale Ale that knocked our socks off…

Serlo de Burgh (6.0%)
Roosters Brewery, Knaresborough, North Yorkshire
(750ml bottle, released March)

Six hops. Six percent abv. Six bottles released. At least, that was what it felt like. Serlo de Burgh was small-batch brewing on a Lilliputian scale. Only fifty-seven bottles were ever released (as far as I’m aware), making it unbearably frustrating for those who couldn’t get hold of one, or found out about it too late. It may be unfair to include something so rare in our best-of list – but, well, we managed to get one up in Edinburgh (via the always excellent Beer Ritz). It was, hands down, the best beer buying decision I made all year (and there were plenty).

Serlo de Burgh – new world hops from the US, Australia and New Zealand were balanced with counterparts from Slovenia, and the whole thing dispatched in satisfyingly hefty 750ml chunkware. We got hold of one entirely on reputation – as the Fozards know how to do Pale just about as well as any brewery in England. Brewer Ol pushing the boat out on the pilot kit with a sextet of different hops, it was always going to be something special. The aroma alone was majestic – as tropical as you could wish for, like Caribbean incense.

Some IPA’s bring the piney flavours to the fore – but Serlo de Burgh (named after the historic first Lord of Knaresborough) was all about the fruit. Bundles of passion fruit, peach, melon and pineapple. Yesterday I wrote about how balanced Buxton’s Imperial Black was – the marrying of the citrus hop and roasty dark malt – but Serlo was a perfectly constructed fruit platter. Refreshing, moreish, and completely unobtainable. In a word, wonderful.

For a second opinion on Serlo de Burgh – check out Leigh’s review here. Join us tomorrow for the next in our best new British beers of 2012, as we travel down south to the other capital. Find out then what beer it is. Roosters went through a re-brand in 2012, which really paid dividends. Their beers completely look the part, and with the talent of the Fozard brothers, for Roosters, the sky’s the limit.