Posted on 06/10/22
I was worried after the last two weeks that we’d peaked but NO CHANCE PEEPS!
Out of nowhere this week we’ve seen some of the UK’s best double IPAs emerge, some unreal stouts (including one of our fav breweries doing a stout for the first time) and tons of gluten free offerings from friends old and new.
Not sure how the brewers do it but maybe not sleeping is key, haha! Tuck yourself into some of these (that made more sense in my head). They’re the best new beers you’ll find anywhere this week.
Where else to start than a brew between two of the best breweries in the UK who are both two of our absolute favourites.
Originally I couldn’t get this beer in (long story) but by hook and by crook it’s now here for you. Beak x Verdant’s It Is Forbidden DIPA is a brew packed with Mosaic, Strata and, a CM fav, HBC 586.
It’s that classic, hoppy Verdant bite with the smooth finish we love Beak for. You’d expect this from these two but always good to be right isn’t it?
Once you’ve added that to your basket take a look at other beers just as worthy of your attention in the high ABV bracket such as Azvex’s Pentrich collab Consolation Prize Fighter DIPA or Overtone’s Everything Changing DIPA.
I’d say the Overtone is the smoother of the two but the more complex is the Azvex, with the Citra, Galaxy and Nelson hops making it punchy and bold. Get in!
I touched on Baron last week and explained why we all here hold them in such high regard and they follow that trend with another couple of hoppy bangers.
Top pick has to be Still No Cat Chris NEIPA. Smooth and grown up, these beers continue a trend for excellent work from the outfit from Buntingford.
Beak are also in the mix this week with two more sessionable pales around the 5% mark.
Both BLVD and Snoop are excellent as always but if you want more hops for your buck Talk is your brew – 6% of Citra and Talus so expect pineapple and grapefruit rind flavours for days.
I’ve been following the Allkin Brewing story since the very start, and am therefore thrilled to have grabbed their first official brew!
Formerly known as Good Things Brewing, their brewery sadly burned down in 2021 after being struck by lightning. But they literally rose from the ashes, rebranded themselves as Allkin and spent the last 12+ months brewing some banging collabs with the best UK breweries, all while plotting their return on the Road To Unruin!
Thirst Of Many Pale Ale is their first solo release, which coincides with the launch of a crowdfunder to fund a new brewery on their former site in Tunbridge Wells. Make sure to help them out if you can – more good beer is good for all!
People often swerve gluten-free beers but I’ve seen both an emergence of quality GF brews and people’s acceptance to drink them without noticing any difference this year. Abbeydale have long been a brewery that we’ve respected but not had on the roster, but we’ve loaded up because the beers are great and loads of them are lacking on the old gluten.
Our pick from the ‘normal’ brews this week is their Deliverance DIPA, with its killer juice-bomb combo of Galaxy, Idaho-7 and Nelson, but we also have the season’s first pumpkin beer in Pilgrim Pumpkin Spice Ale, which is just too much of a fleeting pleasure not to include.
Haters gonna hate but… erm… lovers gonna love, right?!
Nerd were always a bit of a hard sell. I’ve no idea why because they’re hands down one of the best brewers of dark beers I can think of.
The Barrel Series returns this week with the 013 Bourbon BA Oatmeal Stout. Always classy and always full of that barrel-aged goodness, this is thiccc from the oats and dripping in woody vanilla notes from Bourbon.
Over the weekend our leading beer nerd Charlie managed to crack open Dig Brew’s Judge Doom Slays Eddie Chilli, Cacao & Vanilla Imperial Cake Stout and all he sent to the Whatsapp group was fire emojis.
That’s good enough for me to recommend it as a superb dark beer, so I jumped in. It’s got chocolate cake vibes in truck-loads, with only the smallest tickle of chilli. Swerve it at your peril!
Finally this week you have an EPIC Vault City collab with which to wet your beak in Vault City x Browar Stu Mostów’s ART+59 Modern Silly Sour.
The name says it all with this one, with this strawberry, yuzu and coconut brew everything we’ve come to expect from a Vault sour. Immense.
Been a while since we picked up some Frau Gruber beers, and I really don’t know why cause they kill it with every style. Lagers, IPAs, Stouts, all are crushed with these guys, and two new Triple Fruited Goses continue the trend. Both are bangers, but the Pangeve Triple Fruited Imperial Gose takes the cake with its winning combo of passion fruit, orange and Pink Guava.
Dig Brew came through this week with fruit-galore in their brews, with Operation Burn The Sun Mango & Lime Sour a sharp, vegan-friendly sour that delivers with a thick body and deep tropical notes. I also picked up a couple of hard seltzers from them too with Cucamonga Grapefruit & Mandarin and Pulse Of The Maggots Purple Grape offering something for the beer-haters and gluten-intolerant we may have reading these blog posts!
With all this talk of DIPAs don’t miss the lower ABV stuff this week while you’re shopping for hops. Baron’s new pale Funk Pale Ale is sumptuous with a mix of Citra and Sabro and as easy drinking as they come.
We’ve also got more sessionable stuff from Azvex like Attosecond Tunnelling Pale Ale. With its mix of fluffy hops like Cashmere and El Dorado it’s a perfect warm up at 4.8% before going up a gear.
Don’t miss Moot’s new IPA El Toro IPA, which like all Moot brews uses a combo of UK and imported hops to max effect. It’s already a crowd favourite with our West-Coast-Best-Coast customers in the bars since it arrived… and our clientele know their stuff!
In the dark section the Northern Monk OFS085 Coffee Porter is a treat, with the Turkish coffee giving delicious roasty bitterness and berry flavours.
Enjoy picking your beers and, as always, thanks so much for your support!
(The three people behind Craft Metropolis)
Step 1
We trawl the globe tasting great beer
