Posted on 12/01/22
Oli Meade
With Dry January and Tryanuary rumbling on, in this post, you’ll get tips for both wicked AF beers as well as great-but-out-there boozy brews.
We start with the alcohol-free stuff, and in particular Gipsy Hill’s two new AF sours – which are both top notch stuff.
Gipsy Hill have mastered the alcohol-free sour!
Apparently, these are a right mission to make, which might explain why so few exist, but somehow Gipsy Hill have developed two alcohol-free sours that make for pretty damn outstanding AF drinking.
Peach Bellini is full of soft and oh-so-subtle sour peach mixed with creamy goodness – this is kinda like peaches and ice cream, only with the peaches slightly soured.
Squashed: Raspberry, Ligonberry & Blackberry is more Gipsy Hill’s usual sour MO (minus the alcohol) – so a sour fruit medley with subtle sweetness all blitzed up into a sexy sour smoothie.
At 0.5%, these are both technically alcohol-free – they have about as much booze in as a very ripe banana! They’re borderine works of art – and they give those avoiding booze a wicked new avenue to explore.
The other AF beer I have to highlight this week is Mash Gang’s Chug XPA.
We managed to get a keg of this in for our taproom… and it turned out to be our bestseller this week! Here’s why: this is filled with all those nice biscuity, caramely and comforting malty notes we all need in Jan, but is unbelievably refreshing at the same time.
I know that sounds like some kind of praradox so just trust me on this – this is what you want when you bang your laptop screen down at 6pm.
Moving from Dry January into Tryanuary, Almasty and Zapoto’s new American Brown Ale is something completely different.
American Brown Ales are riding a bit of a wave right now (Neon Raptor have just jumped in on the trend), and this is an attempt that’s outside the box.
There’s a lovely sweetness to this from cara malts, but the hop bill is juicy and fruity, New England Style. Oats add creaminess, making this almost like a black IPA – just a little sweeter.
This is not one that the masses will flock to… which is exactly why you want it in your fridge.
Anspach & Hobday are dark wizards as far as I’m concerned, and their new The Stout Porter fuses traditional and modern brewing in the way only Anspach & Hobday can.
Here the brewery have taken their (excellent) flagship porter and advanced it into an export-strength stout, which means more roastiness, more coffee, and more burnt, malty goodness. Hides its booze well – take care!
While you might expect me to call out the exquisite Almasty darks Coconut Stout and barrel-aged Blended Barrels, in the spirit of Tryanuary (and probably to the detriment of my bottom line), the last beer I’m going to highlight in this section is Utopian’s Černé Speciální Black Lager. That’s right, not every dark beer in the world needs to be a creamy, thick and sweet!
No creaminess here. This is far more pure than that.
As you drink this, you can relax into your armchair and pick out the individual flavours. For me, that’s fruity hedgerow berries on top of roasted pine. This is a lovely, lingering beer. In the words of an old supermarket ad campaign, try sumink new today!
Pressure Drop manage to come up with such outstanding beers in every single style that they might just be the best brewery in the UK right now, and their latest Visit The Mountains Fresh Hop IPA shows they can make whatever they want miraculous.
In this, the brewers have been playing around with green hops – ie fresh hops plucked from their vines and used in beer quicksharp, without ever being dried.
The idea is fresher beer full of more hoppy flavours. Pressure Drop used West Coast classics Simcoe and Citra here – if you like your beers to end with piney bitterness, this is about as good as it gets.
I’m also loving the latest pale from Pomona Island, Clarky Cat, which for me draws you in with some sexy artwork uncharacteristic of this brewery, but then wins you over with a complex hop combo that combines for something special.
Cryo Citra, Ekuanot and El Dorado all unite for a lemon-lime pale that’s sweetened with mango.
A beautiful drop, even if it is winter.
Remember how I said Anspach & Hobday are masters of fusing traditional and modern brewing? Well, it’s almost like I predicted the future, cause their new Citrus Wheat Beer is yet another example!
Wheat beers usually have an in-built banana and clove combo and this is no exception, but Anspach & Hobday have brewed this one with orange and lemon zest for a citrusy edge.
On paper it’s weird… but that’s just one of the reasons it’s so great!
If it’s more traditional sour stuff you’re after, fret not, cause Brew York have your back.
Actually, is a marzipan and cherry Amaretto Sour Beer traditional?
I don’t recall the Belgian forefathers brewing up such concoctions.
Either way, at some point, we’ve all wondered if an amaretto sour beer would be possible to brew. Brew York have done it – and done a good job, too.
Almasty’s Blended Barrels Imperial Stout. Rum, whisky and bourbon barrel aged beer, all combined for a magnificent beast that would surely take top billing were it not for Tryanuary – get involved!
Brew York’s 11.6% Tonka, Maple and Ginger Stout ain’t half bad either.
As I’ve already mentioned, Neon Raptor jumped on the American Brown Ale game this week, and their Barnum Brown is much more in keeping with the style than Amasty’s twist.
Someone asked us to stock more craft bitters recently, holding their hands up and saying it probably wouldn’t be that good for business. First Chop’s Manchester Bitter is just for you.
Finishing off the darks this week we have Pomona Island’s Destroy and Exit Mocha Stout. And if you are all about Tryanuary, try The Dunkel.
Balance the indulgent darks with more low-alc stuff if you like – there’s more Mash Gang awaiting and an AF IPA from First Chop. Pomona Island Pale Todd’s Favourite Cheese and The Table Beer have a bit more booze but not much. School night beers, if you will.
We took in a lot of Almasty stuff this week, and curious drinkers could do much worse than check out their two new Farmhouse Pales. They’re a kind of fusion of sour and pale ales, tinged with funky, fruity esters and sweetness. The Elusive Collab is conditioned on blackberries. The Rigg & Furrow Collab is all citrus and spice. Almasty’s Czech Pilsner, meanwhile, swerves the funk in favour of a brew that’s clean and crisp.
Finally, in other Anspach & Hobday news, The Passionfruit Sour, The Pidgoen Queen IPA and The IPA are all available for your drinking pleasure. Great value too – which is something we’re gonna be upping as 2022 unfolds.
As always, I really hope you get to try some of these treats this week.
Happy drinking!
Oli, Olly & Charlie
(The three people behind Craft Metropolis)
Step 1
We trawl the globe tasting great beer
