Posted on 25/02/21
Oli Meade
This week saw beer shelves adorned marshmallow sours, an influx of Black IPAs and the return of the Polly’s DIPA that brought Polly’s widespread acclaim.
However, this week, this list can only start with one very special stout…
It’s here! This week, Neon Raptor released Centaur Army, the fabled impy stout that sold out in two minutes and that only a few privileged humans have ever managed to try!
Make no mistake, this is a BEAST filled with chocolate, caramel and peanut butter and that all fight it out to dominate the flavour-race, each taking turns to take you to new levels of impy bliss.
There are less than 1000 of these in existence… and at the time of writing 16 of them just so happen to be tucked away in our beer cavern. Now’s your chance – first come, first served!
Update: Inevitably, Centaur Army is now sold out. To get our emails about rare new beers as they drop, just join our mailing list below.
That’s right – I’m kicking things off with SOURS this week. It’s a situation brewers have pretty much forced me into due to the sheer quality of the sours that hit beer shelves this week.
The best of the bunch for me has got to be Staggeringly Good’s Burst Blueberry Wrecker with Pancake and Maple Syrup.
It’s sweet, it’s intense, it’s sour, it’s gloopy as slime. Will wreck your glass. Just as the brewery intended.
While you’re on the sour train, how does a Marshmallow Smoothie Sour sound to you?!
That’s what Vault City dared to unleash this week, in their ‘most outrageous recipe yet’ – which says it all coming from the brewery behind the iron brew sour.
Blueberry, raspberry and blackcurrant all collide in this epic creation, all tied together with a sprinkle of creamy sweetness. Epic stuff.
Centaur Army aside, By The River/Wylam’s Big Trouble Al’Owa Pecan & Maple Imperial Stout is a gem of a dark you could do worse than bag this week, a 14% monster of an impy stout. Just look at what’s gone into this!
You’ve got toasted malted oats, toasted wheat, malted rye, manuka raisins, blackcurrants, figs and pecan nut. Then you’ve got dark Canadian maple syrup, toasted coconut flakes and dark cacao.
It’s chewy granola, vintage fruit cake, port wine and a rich dark chocolate tart all in one. Come on!
Black IPAs arrived in droves this week, easing us into the change of seasons.
Northern Monk’s Seasons of Faith and Staggeringly Good’s Dawn Stealer are both fine examples, but the best of the bunch for me & ‘other’ Olly (as the other half of CM is affectionately known) was Danish brewery To Øl’s Black Malts & Body Salts Black IPA.
Coffee-tinged and roasty but clean as you like, it’s a nod to darks without treading into pudding territory. Great stuff.
Polly’s have come back with their latest Rosa DIPA, and I’ll tell you now it’s as good as it’s ever been and then some! This isn’t so much textbook modern DIPA as it is the person that writes the textbooks on modern DIPAs, in beautiful, hop-forward, modern DIPA form!
Featuring a five-hop mega line up of Simcoe, Galaxy, Mosaic, Citra and Ekuanot, it’s sticky, juicy, piney and dank – 100% Polly’s. Welcome back!
And a massive welcome to Sleeping Village!
As part of our mission to always get hold of the best new craft beers in existence – no matter where they might be – I picked up four new brews from this new Norwegian craft brewery this week.
Sleeping Village delivered the goods with their subtley brilliant Double Gardening Imperial Dry Hopped Farmhouse. A crisp and soft but tropical and resinous pale, this for sure showcases Sleeping Village’s ‘passion for soft and approachable beers built for drinking’. Check em out.
There’s tons more sour fun this week as Northern Monk’s Patrons Project sets its sights on sours, with Cherry Cola Sour IPA and Rob. C. Art Purpura Fruited Sour IPA the magnificent end products.
Add to that Track’s Freedom Of Choice Raspberry Sour, Pomona Island’s Peach, Apricot and Raspberry Sour and Maltgarden’s Corfu Food Advisor Greek Tzatziki Pastry Sour (trust us – it works) and you can see why sours topped this roundup this week.
Elsewhere, it’s not like Brew York to go straight down the line, but that’s exactly what they did with Dradis Russian Imperial Stout. How did they do? You be the judge.
Talking of straight down the line, One Mile End are back with The Pine Float Pineapple Pale Ale and Alphonso Mango Pale Ale, while Pressure Drop toyed with the idea of adding King Queen Knave New England Pale Ale to their core range. Better value beers you’ll struggle to find.
Overtone also continued to punch well above their weight – both Broon Sugar Muscovado Stout and Jammies To Work NEIPA are gems – and Lost & Grounded Helles is for lager drinkers everwhere.
Finally, how about Northern Monk’s Brewdog collab Breathe Coffee & Plum Imperial Stout? For me liquid brilliance, in a welcome 330ml can.
I hope you get to try some of these epic new brews this week – dive in, feel around, have fun exploring.
Cheers & happy drinking!
Oli
(The founder)
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