Beer Viking

In a time honoured tradition, the Beer Viking crew recently had their annual Christmas Cracker.  Sometimes we get more organised and arrange a pub crawl and send out invites and sometimes it’s just the two captains, Doc and Tank, trying as many quality beers as possible.  On that point, it really is about enjoying beer for what it is, a great beverage.  At the end of year of hard tasting, one’s palate and desire to enjoy a beer can get a bit jaded and so this is the kind of line under the year kind of thing.

2009 was along the unorganised, if you like unplanning line and as you’ll see below we had some incredible beers.

Doc had recently been on a mini-raid of California, where he managed to hit up some sweet spots and uncover a great joint near Los Angeles.  I got a text from him on the way to the airport and it was such a delight to read.  One bottle of Pliny the Elder is coming back for us to share.  We discussed various options and then went for a landmark shot, which you can see a picture of below.  It meant that the drinking conditions were sub-optimal but for such a rare treat as a fresh Pliny the Elder in the UK, it was worth it.

From here, we walked through the wet and cold night to the Rake, with full intentions of carrying on from there.  It turned out Borough Market was having a bit of cheese night and so it was a slightly different crowd than normal.  A couple of nights previous the Otley brewers were in, with a special they had brewed with Glyn Davies Roberts, the Rake manager.  Most of the beer had been drunk but lucky for us the Otley O Ho H was on cask.  I’m a big fan of this beer and Doc D was quick to give his thumbs up.

This was soon followed by bottles of the Anchor Christmas ‘09 (angled for by Doc due to his excitement of his Anchor Brewery Tour the week before) and the Sierra Nevada Celebration ‘08.  Which reminded me that on my previous days visit, I had been told that a couple of kegs of ‘09 were downstairs.  A quick word with Tom and at the first opportunity this was on and soon we were having some pints of this tasty seasonal brew.

Next was the Brooklyn Winter and Great Divide Hibernation, during which we had some more conversations with Tom and soon the decision was made to share some further bounty raided in NORCAL.  Some choice cans, yes you read that right, CANS of beers.  Soon we had set up camp on by the brewers signature wall and were making our way through 21st Ammendment IPA, 21st Ammendment Monks Blood and Big Sky Brewing Co. Moose Drool.

It was at this point things started to go off the boil but we all agreed that it was a pleasant surprise to have just tasty beers out of cans.  Reminders of teenage kicks, thankfully Doc had ignored my earlier suggestion on first viewing the cans as an opportunity to do a couple of shotguns.  We followed this up with the Great Divide Denver Pale Ale, which is the point where all brewrank scores stopped for the night.

We made our way through the rare treat to most, even more special in Europe, Moonlight Death & Taxes.  We then had to taste one of my favourite Christmas beers of all time, De Dolle Stille Nacht.  Then onto the Great Divide Fresh Hop ‘09 and finishing with the Goose Island Christmas.

There may have been a few more to round out the night, like I’m thinking the Dark Star Imperial on cask but can’t be sure as this is where the notes and the memory stopped.  All in all, a wonderful and solid Christmas Cracker ‘09.  Hope you can join us next year but for now, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

The list in full:

1. Pliny the Elder
2. Otley O Ho Ho
3. Anchor Chrismtas ‘09
4. Sierra Nevada Celebration ‘08
5. Sierra Nevada Celebration ‘09
6. Brooklyn Winter
7. Great Divide Hibernation
8. 21st Ammendment IPA
9. 21st Ammendment Monks Blood
10. Big Sky Brewing Co. Moose Drool
11. Great Divide Denver Pale
12. Moonlight Death & Taxes
13. Stille Nacht
14. Great Divide Harvest 09
15. Goose Island Christmas