Category: beer judging

(This is the sixth and final post detailing what I found to be the breweries of the year for 2011 in various regions. Note that there is no science to the choices I have made, just my own highly subjective reasoning as detailed in each post. You can find my pick of the Brewery of the Year for Ontario here, Brewery of the Year for Canada here, U.S. Brewery of the Year here,  Latin American Brewery of the Year here and Australasian Brewery of the Year here.)

I had some tough decisions to make before arriving at my choice of European Brewery of the Year for 2011. First was, should I separate out the U.K. for its own Brewery of the Year award, as I did Ontario from Canada and Canada and the U.S. from North America? In my head, I made a good argument for so doing, since my experiences in Britain last year left me quite impressed and very optimistic about the future of brewing there. But then I stared down the prospect of also separating out the Benelux, Scandinavia and Germany-Austria, just for starters, and the whole thing grew rather daunting. So Europe alone it remains.

Next up, I had to decide whether to make my focus experimentation and innovation, of the type at which the Italians and the Danes, in particular, excel, or stick to the kind of solid, ultra-reliable brewing seen across Germany and amongst the old school breweries of Belgium. And should I reward persistence within undeveloped beer nations, taking me back to Italy and parts of Scandinavia, even a bit in France, or reliability and character within developed nations?

Ultimately, I swept all those questions aside and asked myself this: “What European brewery has had the most focused, forceful and practical presence both within their home market and beyond?”

My answer, and my choice of European Brewery of the Year, is Brouwerij de Molen of the Netherlands.

Yes, their beers are multitudinous, often fleeting and frequently next to impossible to find, but my experience has been that there are enough of them that something is usually available at the better beer shops in the Netherlands, and sometimes elsewhere, and even if it’s not precisely what you’re looking for, it’s usually pretty damn good anyway. And besides, how many European breweries have the tenacity and sheer brewing prowess to list on their website the beers they produce by national inspiration, ie: “Belgian-Style,” German-Style,” etc.?

But as good as the above reasons are, they are not why de Molen is receiving this particular nod. No, the reasoning behind this pick is rather the way in which De Molen has brought forward Dutch brewing, encouraging other breweries to shed their conservative ways and embrace the diversity of beer, and then introducing that emerging face of Dutch beer to the world via tireless travels to beer fests all over Europe. For that leadership, De Molen, I salute you, and recognize you as my choice for European Brewery of the Year.

(This is the fifth of several posts detailing what I found to be the breweries of the year for 2011 in various regions. Note that there is no science to the choices I have made, just my own highly subjective reasoning as detailed in each post. You can find my pick of the Brewery of the Year for Ontario here, Brewery of the Year for Canada here, U.S. Brewery of the Year here and Latin American Brewery of the Year here.)

I’ll be the first to admit that my exposure to breweries in Asia, Australia and New Zealand is limited, and something I intend to remedy this and next year. But since I did make the acquaintance of a previously unheard of (to me) number of such operations in 2011, I thought I should in fairness include Australasia in my Brewery of the Year picks, even if the selection process is a little more unfair than it is for the rest of my year-end awards.

So my Brewery of the Year for Australasia is Renaissance Brewing.

Renaissance came to my attention early in 2010 and continued to impress through 2011. Their Stonecutter Scotch Ale has been a treat from the get-go, and their Elemental Porter is reminiscent of one of the finest porters I’ve ever tasted, that of London’s Meantime Brewing. In 2011, reports out of New Zealand and Australia indicate that the brewery has continued its winning ways with American-inspired ales and what I understand is a re-imagining of their Craftsman Oatmeal Chocolate Stout. They may not be as RateBeer and BeerAdvocate lauded as other New Zealand breweries, but they are richly deserving of much praise.

In a broader sense, I see this as an award for New Zealand craft brewing in general, about which I expect the world will be hearing much, much more in the very near future.

(This is the fourth of several posts detailing what I found to be the breweries of the year for 2011 in various regions. Note that there is no science to the choices I have made, just my own highly subjective reasoning as detailed in each post. You can find my pick of the Brewery of the Year for Ontario here, Brewery of the Year for Canada here and U.S. Brewery of the Year here.)

The year past was one in which I had the privilege of acquainting myself with many breweries from Brazil, Argentina, Chile and elsewhere in Latin America, which makes deciding on this honouree all the more difficult. No doubt there are several worthy candidates brewing up great things in difficult market conditions, such as Cervejaria Colorado, Cervejaria Bamberg and Bodebrown Cervejaria & Escola in Brazil; Cerveza Jerome, Cerveza Zeppelin and Cerveza Artesanal Antares in Argentina; Cerveceria Kross, Szot Microbrewery and Tübinger Microbrews in Chile; Costa Rica’s Craft Brewing Company in, well, Costa Rica; and Cerveceria Minerva and Cerveceria Primus in Mexico. But as I looked back on my notes and impressions, one brewery stood out.

My choice for Latin American Brewery of the Year for 2011 is Falke Bier.

Brewer and owner Marco Falcone’s beers caught my attention the moment I first tasted his Estrada Real IPA, which I thought more akin to an ESB, but nonetheless enjoyed tremendously. Then I  had a chance to linger over lunch with Falcone and sample many of his other brews, including the Ouro Preto, a schwarzbier for which he toasts the grain himself in a coffee-style roaster, the stylish Falke Bier Pilsen and Falcone’s attempt at a tripel, the somewhat variable Monasterium, which is spicy-fruity treat that in my opinion falls short of the stylistic mark, but remains a most appealing tipple.

What sealed the deal, however, was sampling his Vivre pour Vivre in Buenos Aires a number of months later. Lightly tart and quenching, this fruit ale undergoes lengthy barrel aging, exposure to lactobacillus culture and a final fermentation with native jabuticaba fruit, resulting in a beer of appetizing and spicy fruitiness and great character. I have read that it was the original product of a mistake in the brewhouse, which I have yet to confirm with Falcone, but even it it was, it remains a marvelous correction, and ample reason to push Falke over the top as my Brewery of the Year pick for Latin America..

(This is the third of several posts detailing what I found to be the breweries of the year for 2011 in various regions. Note that there is no science to the choices I have made, just my own highly subjective reasoning as detailed in each post. The first post, highlighting my Brewery of the Year for Ontario, is available here, while the Brewery of the Year for Canada is introduced here.)

I sampled a lot of beers from a lot of American breweries this past year, much of it in preparation for the writing of my and Tim Webb’s forthcoming World Atlas of Beer, and as such have numerous contenders in mind for this crown. Sun King Brewing of Indianapolis impressed the hell out of me, for instance, as did St. Louis’ new Urban Chestnut Brewing and the ever popular Boulevard Brewing of Kansas City. Out west, Green Flash made a very strong impression, as did The Bruery and Utah’s Squatters, and in the middle, more or less, New Belgium continued to turn out strong seasonals and special editions. And that’s not even scratching the surface of my notable reviews of 2011.

In the end, though, one brewery did stand out as my pick for the U.S. Brewery of the Year for 2011: Stone Brewing.

I suspect some will consider this a suspect pick, since Stone’s apologetically in-your-face ways with hops and marketing can be a bit too much for some people, and understandably so. But if there is a brewery that more consistently releases hop-forward beers with balance, I don’t know of it, and besides, as illustrated by several of their releases in 2011, notably the Elysian-Stone-Bruery collaboration pumpkin beer, La Citrueille Celeste de Citracado, this is also a brewery that can quite comfortable handle subtlety.

Add in the consistently convivial atmosphere of their World Bistro and Gardens,  their remarkably frequent, and frequently remarkable, collaboration beers, and their aggressive attitude towards growth, and you have what I consider a worthy winner of the 2011 title.

(This is the second of several posts detailing what I found to be the breweries of the year for 2011 in various regions. Note that there is no science to the choices I have made, just my own highly subjective reasoning as detailed in each post. The first post, highlighting my Brewery of the Year for Ontario, is available here.)

When searching for a Canadian Brewery of the Year, most beer aficionados would no doubt be tempted to look first to the province of Québec, where reside some of the most talented and innovative brewers plying their craft anywhere in North America. And indeed, that is precisely what I did at first.

But then I switched my gaze westward and arrived at what might be considered an unexpected champion: Edmonton’s Alley Kat Brewing.

I’ve been a fan of this largely unheralded operation ever since the company opened its doors with Full Moon Pale Ale, a subtly fragrant and tasty beer, back in 1995. (In truth, Alley Kat opened with a lager and a wheat beer, but Full Moon arrived so shortly thereafter, and the first two beers were so quickly jettisoned, that I think some poetic license may be allowed here.) In 2011, however, Neil Herbst, who co-owns Alley Kat with his wife Lavonne, took the brewery up several notches to something approaching greatness.

Full Moon is still around, of course, as are the tasty if somewhat simple Aprikat and Amber, but where Herbst has really excelled in recent years is in his seasonal and one-off releases, like the tasty Three Bears Oatmeal Stout, the highly hopped and laudable Blue Dragon IPA and the wonderfully sessionable Fireside Mild, which I saw fit to highlight in Ben McFarland’s World’s Best Beers. And this is not even to mention what might be Canada’s best barley wine, the occasionally brewed Old Deuteronomy.

Big or small beers, Herbst approaches each with skill and enthusiasm, as is most evident from the brews which result. And that’s why this little brewery from Edmonton is my pick as Canadian Brewery of the Year.

(This is the first of several posts detailing what I found to be the breweries of the year for 2011 in various regions, beginning with my home province of Ontario. Note that there is no science to the choices I have made, just my own highly subjective reasoning as detailed in each post.)

My home province of Ontario made great strides forward in 2011, with breweries embracing both new styles and a new found willingness to experiment. Some of those experiments were more successful than others, of course, but even the failures marked a change of approach for what has traditionally been a most conservative craft brewing culture.

To my mind, there was one brewery that stood out as embracing innovation, the tried and true and so-called entry level beers with equal enthusiasm, and corresponding success. It was the Muskoka Brewery of Bracebridge, Ontario.

Not since the brewery’s founding days has Muskoka so astutely read the lay of the beer land of Ontario and reacted accordingly, with flagship beers like their Cream Ale for neophytes, a dry-hopped beauty in the form of their new Mad Tom IPA for the hopheads amongst us — even more enticingly fragrant on tap than in the bottle — and a developing seasonal program of releases, including the highly impressive autumnal Harvest Ale, for people like me with short attention spans.

Add in a finely thought-out rebranding across the company — no, marketing is NOT a dirty word! — and some aesthetically pleasing packaging decisions, and you have a definite winner. Well done, Muskoka, and here’s looking forward to seeing how you top 2011 in 2012!