Posted on 22/12/21
Oli Meade
Loads of breweries have been releasing barrel aged brilliance lately, but Overtone have gone and raised the bar even further with Lost in AnCnoc, a barrel-aged imperial stout aged in highland single malt casks!
The casks were previously used to mature 18 and 24 year old AnCnoc whisky… which means they held a beautiful single malt whisky for almost a quarter of a century!
All that goodness has seeped into Lost in AnCnoc, which is full of warming honey, sweet vanilla, candied orange and woody coconut.
I’ve always loved Overtone, but this is next level!
We’ve just been handed our biggest ever haul of Amundsen’s famous Desserts-in-Cans! 18 lines of the stuff – where do you begin?!
Well, on the barrel-aged front, how does BA Coconut Choc Chip Cookies 11.5% Imperial Pastry Stout sound?
Or, if you’re a 5-a-day proponent, how about BA Mamma’s Blueberry Pie 11.5% Imperial Pastry Stout?
Mamma’s Cherry Pie 10.5% Imperial Pastry Stout isn’t barrel aged – but it’s still a flavour combo that had us all drooling.
Mango Chocolate Creamsicle. Pina Colada. Pineapple Upside Down Cake. All REAL beers, all invented and crafted by the first and best purveyors of big, boozy, brash and bonkers dessert stouts Amundsen – dive in, pick your favourite, and get them all delivered in time for the festive season!
Where Amundsen weigh in with some of the world’s best stouts, fellow countryfolk Stigbergets are fast building a reputation for banging out some of the best hoppy beers you’ll find anywhere in Scandanavia!
And as it’s Christmas, naturally, we went out and secured the fabled cans for you lot – and I can confirm the hop-bombs we’ve tried live up to their reputation!
There are a MAHUSSIVE 16(!) cans to choose from, including the rich and juicy Things Are Not As They Seem NEIPA and the six-hop monster Mega Muddle DIPA.
And check out the can art on Juleljus NEIPA, the Christmas tribute NEIPA. Can you really say no?!
Now while Azvex’s hop game is one we’ll all be watching in 2022, it looks like their dark beers are going to be pretty great too. They’ve just released two gems that everyone’s talking about right now – and for good reason.
Hazelnut Dreamcake Coconut & Hazelnut Imperial Stout is so rich and so decadent and just gets better as it warms.
Vantablack Creatures Peanut Butter Brownie Impy Stout – this is mega thick, mega roasty and mega chocolatey, with a measured level of peanut butter that doesn’t take over. It’s great!
Elsewhere, it’s barrel-aged madness left, right and centre down here at the mo!
BBNo are in on the action with Bourbon BA Bimber, Brew York have a Bourbon Barrel Aged Espresso Patronum, but maybe the most exciting prospect is Northern Monk’s Heaven 2021.
Monk only aged this in barrels for 6 months – which means the bourbon isn’t overpowering. Instead, it compliments the warming roasted chocolate, for a lovely little 330ml pour.
Drop Project have done something out of character in brewing a triple fruited imperial sour – and it’s bloody great!
Pucker Imperial Triple Fruited Sour is violent raspberry red in colour, and loaded with ligonberries, blackberries and tart cranberries.
It’s not sweet, nor is it creamy – it’s just a bold and unashamed face-scruncher that’s perfect for sour winter refreshment.
Colorado’s Left Hand were the first brewery EVER to release a bottled nitro stout, and they’re back up to their old tricks with the magnificent, chocolate-laden, smooth and creamy Milk Stout: Nitro.
Pour hard to develop this stout’s world-famous pillow-like, whipped cream head, then let the beers blissful velvetness take your drinking pleasures to places unknown. It’s great!
(For the curious, there’s an Imperial Version, a White Russian Version, and an (unnitrogneated) Peanut Butter Milk Stout too!)
Talking of collabs, there’s another dream team combination of Monk, Overtone & Neon Raptor behind The Ressurection TIPA.
It’s bright, it’s citrus, it’s gooseberry, it’s mouthwatering tropical juice, it’s smooth, it’s floral, it’s sweet – what more could you want?!
Elsewhere, we’ve had a few dream collabs in recently, and the latest is It Hovers Above The Water DIPA by Left Handed Giant and Polly’s.
Mosaic and motueka combine for this sticky, dank and piney DIPA with subtle notes of lemon and lime.
Polly’s upped their dark game quite considerably in 2021, and the pinnacle is Against The Darkness Christmas Spiced Imperial Stout.
There’s more Beak just in too – in Hi! IPA and Weather Rye West Coast IPA. There’s also more Whiplash, there’s more Verdant, there’s new OFS Monk and DEYA’s latest Something Good is here!
There’s a new double drop of solid hoppy stuff from Floc just in in Come to Me IPA and the slightly more subdued On The Inside Pale Ale.
LHG are also in on the hops with two new hazies. Young Hearts Hazy IPAuses whole, raw, fresh, unkilned citra cones and is citra at its very finest. Layers Of Reality Hazy IPA is less experimental, but still great.
Left Handed Giant also fired out a big, decadent stout in Woodland Creatures Milk Stout, while Drop Project dialled up the ABV for their first ever impy stout – at 12%, Voyage Imperial Stout is the booziest brew Drop Project have ever made.
New DEYA drop alert! There’s a cheeky DEYA session IPA to check out, then Road To Unruin DIPA is stronger (and drier, west coast stylee), plus Urgent Philosophy Porter is thick, sweet and biscuity.
And finally, a 2021 marzen from DEYA and kings of craft lager Donzoko? I’m sold – this is a gem.
Happy drinking!
Oli, Olly & Charlie
(The three people behind Craft Metropolis)
Step 1
We trawl the globe tasting great beer
