The BeerCast

List-making is par for the course at this time of year – which explains our recent flurry of posts detailing our favourite new British beers. The trouble with compiling lists, however, is that you can’t add everything (unless it’s one of those Channel 4 shows like ‘the best 100 children’s breakfast cereals’). Listing our six – and I’m not sure why we decided on six – best new beers that were launched in 2011 left plenty out of the picture. But here they all are!

Well, we did actually mention Kernel IPA Double Black during our nomination of stablemate IPA 100 Centennial. It was almost a coin-flip decision on which of the two made it – they were both sublime. Other beers put out by brewers who made it into the top six were RedWillow Ageless, and Tempest Citra and Canyonero. Ageless in particular drew great praise in 2011.

Looking at Kelso’s Tempest Brewing – Canyonero was one of the more remarkable beers I’ve had for ages. On the face of it, a 5.9% bitter. But the Pacific Jade and Wai-iti hops produced all kinds of aromas and flavours – oak, vanilla, pepper, toffee, spices. Staying in Scotland, this year was a fine one for Black Isle – and their new Scotch Ale and Black Stout could make 2012 their best year yet. They could have made the list, easily.

One of the most blogged-about brewers of the year weren’t represented either – Huddersfield’s Magic Rock. Yorkshire pundits featured them heavily in their ‘best of’ lists – and with good reason. Human Cannonball, Dark Arts, High Wire – all superbly drinkable, and from a pretty much brand-new producer, Magic Rock have really hit the ground running.

Other great new beers that debuted in 2011 – Fyne Ales Sublime Stout, Meantime Yakima Red, Dark Star Carafa Jade and Thwaites Old Dan. Give me each of those on a night out, and I’d be a happy man indeed. The last twelve months have been a great vintage for British brewing – let’s hope the next twelve are even better…

If you have a standout new beer – then let us know in the comments section. Next up on the BeerCast, our annual Christmas Special podcast – our panel get to grips with six festive beers. After that, we preview our most important BeerCast of the year – our fifth annual Beer of the Year Show. Stay tuned…

Our final best new release of 2011 is a beer that appeared only a few weeks ago – from a small-scale brewery in Yorkshire. The Summer Wine Brewery have been going for about three years – but recently have firmly thrust themselves into the crosshairs of the bloggerati. All of their beers pack a punch (which is probably why) – their double black Belgian rye IPA is no exception…

Cohort (7.5%)
Summer Wine Brewery, Holmfirth, Yorkshire
(keg, released November 2011)

Stop me if you’ve heard something like this before – “We plan to tear up the rule book & brew beers that demand you sit up & take note by shaking up your senses.” Taken from Summer Wine’s website, it reads straight from the Fraserburgh school of beer marketing. If SW plan to go along the BrewDog route, they’ll need some seriously thumping beers to back up the talk. Luckily (or skillfully) they seem to be walking the walk – their strong IPA Diablo is a pithy grapefruit monster, Barista a caffeine thunderbolt.

Andy and James have also crossed the ultimate ‘craft’ line, by laying down a beer in barrels – Kopikat, an imperial vanilla coffee stout. Co-incidentally it was just after sampling another imperial VCS (Harknott’s rollocking Vitesse Noir) at the Free Trade Inn in Newcastle, that I got to taste Summer Wine’s Cohort for the first time. The beer scene in the North-East of England is thriving, and pubs from South Yorkshire to the Scottish border have been taking SW’s beers recently – a sure measure of their popularity.

Cohort was jet black, with a tiny, tight fizzy head. Once the beer warmed a little, the aroma was fabulous – resinous hop mixed with roasty malt. Clearly they love to pile zingy hops into everything, and the balance with the slightly spicy roast from the rye was really something. It may seem that 7.5% is the new 5% – but these kind of beers are just so full of flavour – and clearly Summer Wine are on to a major winner.

Well, that’s it – our six best new British beers of 2011. Tomorrow we’ll be posting the ‘nearly beers’ – we had to narrow the field down somehow, but there were far more than six great new beers around this year. If your latest favourite hasn’t been listed yet, it may well be tomorrow…

Only two more posts to come in our best new beers of the year feature – and for our penultimate gong we pay a visit to Macclesfield, and another producer who had a breakout year in 2011. Toby McKenzie’s RedWillow Brewery has set the blogs abuzz recently with some cracking beers – and a faithful rendition of a British classic is the next in our best new UK beers of 2011…

Fathomless (5.2%)
RedWillow Brewery, Macclesfield, Cheshire
(cask, released October 2011)

We’ve not seen much of Toby’s beer in Scotland to this point, but drinkers across the North of England are becoming familiar with the characteristic egg-shaped pump clips of RedWillow. His refreshingly honest, PR-free blog is well worth reading, as it charts the highs and lows of being a small, start-up brewery. It was in Leeds that I first tried his beer, in the excellent Mr Foley’s (named after an old-time local property baron) – on the bar that day was RedWillow’s oyster stout – Fathomless.

This particular style has been around for a long time – and dates back to when oysters and stout were a popular pairing (before anyone used the term in the ‘craft beer’ sense). There are a few on the market today – although many (such as those produced by Marstons and Adnam’s) contain not a single bivalve. This is probably down to cost, ease of brewing, and the perception of oysters that many people have. For Fathomless, however, Toby and a couple of mates spent an entire day shucking the little guys – ending up with 250 for the boil.

Oysters have such a delicate flavour, that boiling them into a beer can potentially leach the flavours away – but the joy of Fathomless is that you can clearly pick them out. Jet black, with dark, oaty, malty aromas (Toby had to hand-roast the oats in his kitchen oven) – there was also a slight briney tinge to the nose. The rich stout flavour was followed by a thick, ozoney edge to the finish – a fantastic aftertaste. A perfect fireside beer, Fathomless was a wonderful reward for Toby’s hard work.

Join us tomorrow for our final choice – who will make the list? If your pick doesn’t – stay tuned as we’ll also be posting the ‘nearly beers’. RedWillow’s strong IPA Wreckless recently won gold at the 2011 SIBA North awards – and speaking as one of the judges, I’d say it was well-deserved…

Yesterday we brought you one of the breakout brewers of 2011 – Kelso’s Tempest Brewing. For the next of our best new beers of the year, we move on to the breakout brewer of 2010 (and possibly 2011 as well) – London’s finest; the Kernel Brewery. Evin O’Riordain and his team are capturing the attention of not just bloggers, but people who’s opinions actually matter.* They released some stunning beers this year, one of which had to make our list…

Kernel IPA 100 Centennial (10.1%)
The Kernel Brewery, London
(bottle, released June 2011)

Attempting to limit the Kernel’s contribution to our best new beers feature was pretty tricky. They’ve put out some crackers over the last twelve months – IPA Double Black, Pale Ale Riwaka, IPA Borefts Rye, IPA Super Alpha Pacific Jade. In fact, there’s your top five new Kernel beers of the year, right there (when put with our choice – IPA 100 Centennial). In the interests of fairness, we’re limiting everyone to a single entry in our feature (look out for the beers that nearly made it, after our sixth and final winner).

This particular IPA has a nice story behind it – being an inventive chap, Evin decided to celebrate his 100th brew by producing a 10.0% Centennial-packed IPA. In the end, he missed the abv by 0.1% (in typical Kernel style, by going over – not under). We wrote about it in August – conveniently for our 300th post. As a brewery, they are astonishingly prolific – some would say maddeningly so. Hardly ever producing the same beer twice, it keeps the tickers on their toes – but it makes it harder to latch on to everything that comes out from the Bermondsey arches.

This brewing potency is down to a few reasons – most obviously a lack of brewspace on their current kit, and the sheer creative talent that obviously abounds there. Whatever they put in their coffee, I could do with (it’s probably hops). The 100 Centennial smelled like sweet orange syrup, laced with plenty of booze. Powerful alcohol flavours, finished off an almost jam-like hop marmalade taste – with the Centennial fighting back with a touch of dryness. A tremendous sipper – it was a suitably amazing celebration, and deservedly one of the best new beers of the year.

Join us tomorrow for our next choice – we have only two left, and it’s off to the North-West of England for selection number five. In 2011, the Kernel also celebrated winning SIBA Champion Bottled Beer of Britain (Export Stout London 1890), and then Brewery of the Year by the British Guild of Beer Writers. What will 2012 bring for Evin and the team – Olympic glory?

* To paraphrase the Simpsons

The halfway point of our best new British beers feature sees us in June, at the Scottish Real Ale Festival in Edinburgh. Last year, the SRAF introduced us to the wonderful Fyne Ales Jarl – hopes were high for a similar Eureka moment in 2011. As it happened, the very first beer to pass our lips on the trade session was just that – from a small brewery in the Scottish Borders…

RyePA (5.5%)
Tempest Brewing Co, Kelso, Scottish Borders
(cask, released June 2011)

The last twelve months have been quite something for the Tempest Brewery. Having been founded in the middle of 2010 by Gavin Meiklejohn, the brewing arm of Kelso’s Cobbles Inn has become a hive of activity. Customers at the Cobbles had been asking Gavin about the lack of local beer for years, before he decided to take the plunge and provide for his drinkers directly. Having been homebrewing for a while, following a spell at the Whistler Brewing Company in Canada, Gavin set about creating a few interesting ales for his punters, produced in the remains of a nearby dairy.

Fast forward eighteen months or so, and Tempest have now produced 16 beers (including such notables as a smoked vanilla porter and a similar dark beer spiced with chipotle chilli). From supplying the local Inn, you can now find their beers as far away as London – and in cask, keg and bottle. Showing no sign of slowing down, Gavin’s latest release is another porter – the bottled Red Eye Flight Mocha Porter – which is sitting in my cupboard ready to go. However, way back in June, it was a beer lighter in colour that really stood out.

30% of the grist bill for RyePA was malted rye, and to let it really influence the beer, the majority hop addition was done as dry-hopping rather than in the kettle. The result was a fabulous toffee, caramel and toasted bread aroma, with some orange edges from the hops. The balance of RyePA was perfect – the nutty, grainy element of the adjunct mixed with the floral, fruity hop. If this came from the USA blogs like ours would be raving about it – and with good reason – it’s a fabulous beer.

Join us tomorrow as we continue our series of best new British beers of 2011 – we move to the UK’s capital for another brewer who made waves this year [answers on a postcard]. RyePA was the first beer to be bottled by Gavin and his team, so keep an eye out at your local bottle shop…