pauljwhite's posterous

The Golden Pints Beer Awards 2011

It’s the Golden Pint Awards time again. Andy over at Beerreviews.co.uk posted this,

“The 2009 and 2010 Golden Pint awards were a laugh and seemed to go down well so here’s this years list. It couldn’t be simpler, just fill in your answers to the categories below..."

So, FWIW here's my twopenn'orth:

Best UK Draught (Cask or Keg) Beer - Hardknott Vitesse Noir, but only just, as frankly we've been spoiled for choice by the Free Trade and Bacchus this year

Best UK Bottled or Canned Beer - Difficult one, maybe The Kernel IPA, maybe not...

Best Overseas Draught Beer - Odell IPA, simply a revelation

Best Overseas Bottled or Canned Beer - Mikkeller Beer Geek Bacon, mad and complex in equal measure, it really does have coffee and smoked bacon flavours

Best Overall Beer - depends if I'm in a bitter mood or a black mood!

Best Pumpclip or Label - Brewdog Old World Russian Imperial Stout, unusual and beautiful label on a world class beer.

Best UK Brewery - Summer Wine, Tempest, Hardknott, too close to call

Best Overseas Brewery - Odell with an honourable mention to Brouwerij 't IJ and Cantillon, both of which I've had the pleasure of visiting this year

Pub/Bar of the Year - Free Trade Inn, Newcastle for a stunning range of beers on keg, cask and bottle, and the best view from any pub in the world, as our Twissup visitors will attest! Honourable mentions to the Beer Temple in Amsterdam and Moeder Lambic in Brussels - seek them out if you're in either city.

Beer Festival of the Year - only went to one: Newcastle, so it wins by default

Supermarket of the Year - Waitrose for stocking Kipling and St Peter's IPA

Independent Retailer of the Year - A close call between Rehills and Coppers8till8

Online Retailer of the Year - Summer Wine for great beers at sensible prices, and super quick delivery

Best Beer Book or Magazine - currently re-reading the late great Michael Jackson's 1993 Beer Companion (signed by the author when I met him)

Best Beer Blog or Website - http://zythophile.wordpress.com/ endlessly fascinating and historically rigorous

Best Beer Twitterer - too many to mention

Best Online Brewery presence - Brewdog for sheer front, and 20% off for shareholders

Food and Beer Pairing of the Year - Tyskie porter with pork and wild mushroom Pierogi. A breakfast of champions in Rynek Starego Miasta, Warsaw

In 2012 I’d Most Like To - visit a craft brewer in France, or failing that, go back to Cantillon with a van :)

Open Category: Belgium, for introducing me to stunning beers when UK brewing was in the mid 80's doldrums

Special mention to Tyne Bank Brewery, my local brewers, who have made two truly superb beers in their first year of operation. If you get the chance, do try the Southern Star and the Cherry Oatmeal Stout

Posted December 10, 2011

October heatwave - and a late BBQ

Posting this as an aide-mémoire as much as anything (my memory being so poor these days) as I can't remember an October day so warm - and certainly not one when your first thought is to fire up the barbeque for lunch! We did, and had nicely charred sausage sandwiches :)

In spite of, or maybe because of, the disappointing weather in July/August, we've still got sunflowers blooming and hanging baskets full of colour. And walking home after an evening pint in the Free Trade, although dusk was settling in it was still almost as hot as Nice had been 4 weeks previously. Various reports said 23, 24, even 26C in Newcastle this afternoon, and pushing 30C in London and Kent!

Enjoy it while it lasts - I'm sure I'll be posting about frost, fog and falling leaves before long...

Posted October 1, 2011

First Naga flower

I planted the seeds from an Assam Naga (or Bhut Jolokia *) chilli earlier this year, and to my amazement I now have a dozen healthy chilli plants which are starting to flower. They have to be carefully pollinated using a small artist's brush - but if all goes to plan it looks like I could have dozens of the world's hottest chillies to add to my cooking over the next couple of months!

(* In 2007, Guinness World Records certified the Bhut Jolokia as the world's hottest chili pepper, 401.5 times hotter than Tabasco sauce.)

Posted July 17, 2011

This is Warsaw 2011

I liked Warsaw a lot - a place of contrasts, from the historic Old Town to the large prefabricated housing projects, typical of former Eastern Bloc cities. There was evidence of urban poverty, but also of thriving "Western" style capitalism - Nowy Swiat wouldn't look out of place in Milan with its boutiques and expensive gift shops - but this photo just summed up how far it has come in the last 20 years. Starbucks, KFC and a Lamborghini within ten yards...

Posted July 9, 2011