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

Sierra Nevada Torpedo:

Sierra Nevada Torpedo Ale is a big American IPA; bold, assertive and full of flavor and aromas highlighting the complex citrus, pine and herbal character of whole-cone American hops.

Victory Hop Wallop:

We celebrate the pioneering spirit of old Horace ‘Hop’ Wallop and those who dare mighty adventurous things in this vivid, robust ale. As our annual homage to the hop harvest, expect loads of aromatic splendor and bitter beauty.

Below are my tasting notes:

• 16.  Sierra Nevada, Torpedo; Dark amber. Woody, nutty & boozy. Alkaline & thick bodied. Balanced hop bitterness w fruit cake complexity coming through
• 16.  Victory, Hop Wallop; Golden. Grainy, floral nose. Well-rounded mouth. Lovely subtle Harvest brew that is one to see out

Both are awesome beers and would have either of them again in a second (in fact, you’ll see I’ve given both of them 16s) but I have to pick a winner and it’s got to be the Hop Wallop, probably just for the name (but maybe for the subtle approach they seem to have taken).

This is my first Victory beer and as Utobeer has a few more from the range, I’m going to make a visit next week a priority to pick up a few more bottles.

Final note is that on first sip of the Wallop, my immediate thought was I’d really like to see how Thornbridge Kipling stands up against this.

In a desire to pick things up a bit in the hunt, I decided to pit two very excellent beers against each other.

Thornbridge Kipling is one of my current go to beers. I really enjoy the understated use of the Nelson Sauvin hop from New Zealand that is quite fresh and delicate but still satisfies my hop cravings.

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is an undoubted classic that is often most people first taste into the joyful land of hoppy brews.

The tasting was at the homestead, so obviously both were bottles.

The Kipling was first and I struggled to leave any for the head to head.  Don’t go to this beer expecting blow your head off bitterness. It’s quite gentle, fresh. A little grassy perhaps.  At first I was thinking the length was a little short near the end that perception was changed.

Even on the first sip, the Sierra Nevada tasted a bit heavy, maybe dirty even.  I obviously still enjoyed the beer and I liked the heavy hop notes more.

So, on the head to head. Like everything it’s all about mood, and perhaps as it was a nice sunny afternoon in Sussex I have to say that initial funk on the Sierra Nevada made me give the thumbs up to the Kipling here.  Well done to the boys up in Derbyshire, they really are making some of the most exciting beer I am tasting at the moment.

I’d love to hear opinions of anyone else who’s pitted these two excellent brews against each other.

In the meantime, I’ve been thinking about starting both an annual and LIFE ‘list’ of beers that I have tried. This is probably the super geek or science nerd trying to coming out — but hey what can be wrong with finding another way to enjoy beer and tell the world (or least remind the BV crew)?! So, what do I mean by ‘lists’? Well to start it would be a simple way to track all the different beers we get to taste each year – a running total of individual beers and would probably include some other notes as well. As a starting point here are the data points I would include:

Brewery Name, Beer Name, Region, Style, ABV, Tap/Cask/Bottle or Other, Appearance notes, including colour, Nosing notes, Tasting notes, date, location consumed, Optional details like interesting ingredients, IBU, etc.

The rules are you list the 1st one of the season (ie, if you drink a lot of Sn Pale Ale or Dark Star Golden Ale it would still only get one entry) and if you manage to consume the same beer in both cask and bottle form those each count as 1 entry each. A sort of running total. A simple list.

Here is a sample for 2009 so far (just a rough field list to be padded out later on):

Fullers Vintage Ale
San Miguel
Tropical
Meantime Pale Ale
Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale
Insulation Bitter, Hyde
Avibtinue
Rogue Juniper Pale Ale
Stone IPA
Little Creature Pale
Neglo Modelo
Stella (I know, bad form but I was on an airplane)
Brocklyn larger
etc etc

Feedback appreciated on both the data standard and the concept of ‘beer lists’!!! And if anyone knowns of any good beer lists please send us the link… In the mean time keep drinking.

Beer Viking plays out of the home ground that is London, in particular a lot of research is put into Victoria, Soho, The Rake at London Bridge, Dullitch and Fulham.  Hailing from Canada originally I often get asked if I can stand all the warm beer in England and isn’t there anywhere that serves beer cold?

This is a remarkable question for a variety of reasons.

Most of them are to do with a matter of taste.  I have found that real ale cellared well, will generally beat most typical ice cold beer (read:  piss water) hands down.  With that in mind, a good guide to finding a decent cold beer in London is look for Cask Marque pubs.

Still, I understand what’s it’s like and sometimes you’re just jonesing for something like Sierra Nevada or Coopers.  In that case, there’s a few pubs around (we’ll start mapping them) but you can’t go far wrong by going to either The White Horse in Parsons Green or The Rake in Borough Market.  Recently, we also discovered that the 5th floor bar at Waterstones on Piccadilly is serving some tasty brews (e.g.:  Anchor Steam) and they serve them in frosty ice glasses – they come at quite a price but on a sunny day the view and the glass are worth that little extra bit.

Finally, as a complete fall back, look for a JD Wetherspoon.  I don’t generally visit them but they do promise to serve their lager at a frosty 1-3 deg. C and are also not hated by  CAMRA, so can pour a decent ale as well.

Here’s a couple of books that are handy resources as well: