***ONLINE ORDERS: DUE TO HOLS NEXT POST IS MONDAY 28TH. BARS OPEN AS USUAL***
When people start talking of a beer as “beer of the year” you take notice. When it’s a Magic Rock and you’re about to load them onto your site as an Outsider you jump for joy! Good luck or genius timing? You can decide. We’ve had both Magic Rock and Verdant on our site before but never together and this monster 500ml can is basically the best of both.
Verdant do nothing but delivery soupy, hoppy, smooth, low-bitter big beers and Magic Rock are well versed in creating hop-forward brews so what could go wrong? Nothing at all, in fact it’s easily our beer of the month. There’s all that smoothness and tons of hops we spoke about previously but it has a very devilish slightly bitter and treacle-like triple edge to it that sets it apart from other DIPAs. For such a thick beer, and one with so much ABV, it’s scarily easy to drink and 500ml certainly won’t over-face you. Is What are the Odds “Beer of the Year”? Well that’s for you to decide but the only way to know is to try one – so grab one before they go (we have a few left as we type) and make up your own mind.
Notable runners up this month come from the ever-excellent Brew by Numbers and the “back to basics” beautiful 55|09 DIPA. A completely different beast to Odds but a stunning and beautiful brew none the less.
Cheers
It’s been hard picking a favourite beer this month for our online club. 50 beers added last month to the site and 50 more this has really tested out tasting team! There are worse jobs and all that. We were really excited about Mondo’s new brews as we haven’t had a brut (all the rage at the moment) on the shelves before. We were also very keen to try their fruit trio of Juice Crew and rightly so they are busting with flavour but it was another fruit infused beer that that grabbed out attention and fired all the way to the top of the charts this month – Tiny Rebel’s Fields Forever.
New England style IPAs are everywhere at the moment and with good reason; it’s a brilliant style to showcase murky hoppy beers. But what happens when you add a bucketload of strawberries to one? (Strawberry) Fields Forever is the answer. Now this gorgeous little drop isn’t just a Tiny Rebel masterstroke, Northern Monk had something to do with it as well and when great breweries collide it’s no surprise this is so damn good.
This is no ordinary beer though, it comes with a warning! It’s not like a Brewdog style stunt with a warning like “this beer will explode if not drunk at a 7 degree angle” or whatever their latest gimmick is this, no, is more of a subtle bit of advise to the lucky craft beer fan in question with this beer in front of them. The message is simple: “embrace the floaters”!
The breweries even went as far as writing up a blog on this to help beer drinkers understand this beer because putting it mildly it looks disgusting!
This {beer is full of} sediment {which} literally consists of lactose, fruit proteins and yeast. In other words, it’s really, really tasty. However, some people might not think it looks too appealing. Especially if you pour it like you would with any other beer, which would result in disturbing the large particles and distributing them throughout the beer – descriptions of the results of this include “chunky” and “snowglobe”. This is simply an aesthetic issue. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the beer – it just might not “look right” to some. Tiny Rebel Brewery
We wholeheartedly embrace this beer and enjoyed it in all it’s floaty glory. It drinks with a good amount of smooth hoppiness but with an incredible (but not overpowering) end flavour of smushed fresh strawberries in it. It packs a punch too but is so very easy to drink you will definitely be popping another one open as soon as the first is gone. If nothing else, and this isn’t normally your thing, you have to admit you are intrigued right?
Tiny Rebel / Northern Monk Fields Forever NEIPA is our beer of the month for fun, fruitiness and floaters! Buy, pour hard, stir and sip in happiness.
PS: A notable mention also goes to Tiny Rebels Imperial Chocolate Puft which is epic as well and was soooooo close to taking the crown
There is so much more to Scottish beer than Tennent’s, BrewDog, Caledonian and McEwan’s. With the craft beer scene booming the world over, Scotland has firmly been making its mark over the last few years with a reputable selection of breweries.
Edinburgh resident and self-confessed craft beer obsessive British Beer Girl tells us about some of the best breweries in her wee northern territory, who are making the Scottish craft beer scene one to be proud of:
Stewart Brewing
Brewing since 2004 just outside the city of Edinburgh, Stewart Brewing are famous locally for their cask ales, which are insanely popular in pubs across Edinburgh. However, they have started to earn critical acclaim (including at the World Beer Awards this year) for their ‘Hop Series’ – their Cascadian East American pale ale is utter perfection, in this beer fanatic’s humble opinion.
Six Degrees North
Hailing from the same area of Scotland as BrewDog, this Aberdeenshire-based brewery is hitting the country by storm with their fantastic range of Belgian-inspired beers (they’re six° north of Brussels!). Their bar in Edinburgh houses the largest tap selection in Scotland, with 40 glorious British and world beers at the ready. Their Hopocrisy Belgian pale and Brevet saison are marvellous, and they also do some great collaboration brews.
Fyne Ales
The Fyne Ales team has been brewing great beer within the beautiful west coast countryside in Argyll since 2001. They’re purveyors of some of the best cask ales in Scotland, and their Jarl (a hoppy blonde session ale) is one of the first beers in the UK to use the popular Citra hop. It’s their most-sold beer and has won multiple awards – if you see it, try it, and you’ll see why!
Fallen Brewing
Brewing out of the old Kippen railway station in rural Stirlingshire, Fallen have made a solid reputation for themselves by brewing some of the finest, most quaffable pales and IPAs in Scotland. Their Platform C IPA and Grapevine pale ale are just two examples from their core range of modern beers which is guaranteed to wow even the most discerning craft beer drinker.
…and, last but not least *drumroll* we have Tempest, which Craft Metropolis subscribers will be seeing in their boxes very soon!
Tempest
Based in the Scottish Borders on the banks of the River Tweed, Tempest are famous for their Long White Cloud, but have been killing it with their extensive selection of beer styles since 2010. Try their Marmade on Rye and their Mexicake. Just do it. You won’t regret it.
You can follow British Beer Girl’s boozy ramblings on Instagram, Twitter and Untappd at – @britishbeergirl
Sun beating down relentlessly, 35 degree heat, hosepipe bans and browned charred grass as far as the eye can see. If this English summer didn’t scream “the hottest since records began” nothing ever will. Until the next one I suppose? So what beer goes best with the most-blisteringly-hot-thing-since-1976? A cloudy yet zippy fresh IPA? A super-cold unfiltered lager? Nope, neither. Not for us. For us it’s a stout. It’s true, in the hottest month since the universe dribbled into existence a stout wins out for this months best craft beer. So it must be some stout eh? Yes, it absolutely is. Let’s lay everything out there; it’s no barrel-aged beauty or rare-fermented hype monster it’s just good old Hammerton Crunch but we LOVE it. Crunch is a beer that took a while to perfect. 37 attempts to be fair but I think you will agree they nailed it.
“After 3 Months and 37 experiments, this Stout has what we consider to be the perfect ratio of Peanut Butter, lactose and Biscuit. A massive hit of roasted peanut on the nose, followed by a silky-smooth mouthfeel and a sweet CRUNCH as it goes down”
Hammerton Brewery’s Crunch is a peanut butter stout that’s brimming with flavour. We fell in love with it simply because of just how naughty it was, and how spot on the flavour actually was. We added 50 beers this month to our range and grew the selection to over 200 beer so the competition was tough. Full disclosure; this beer is not for everyone but it’s one we utterly fell in love with and reach for over and over again. There’s a sweetness that hit you with every sip but a bitterness and a grown-up backbone that follows up to keep it from being too gimmicky. Then you sip again and the chocolate nuttiness come back in floods and you forget the adult sensibilities all over agin as you bask in a wave of childish nuttiness. It’s cycle that continues over and over until the can is diminished in record time. It’s not complex or cleaver, in fact it the opposite it’s moorish and daft. What it might lack in sophistication this beer makes up for in likability. Crunch is to us a a heap of fun and a bucket-full of nostalgia – there’ comparisons with Snickers and Reeses Pieces as comparative tasting notes, both of which are very accurate. It’s joy to drink, even in the blistering heat, and for us any beer that can stand out when really it has not right to is our beer of the month.
Congratulations Hammerton, Crunch is beer of the month.
You may recall a few weeks ago I asked you what craft beers from outside of London you would like to see in the virtual shelves of our fab beer subscription club. Well we listened to all of your input and are thrilled to add Tiny Rebel Brewery to our list of “Outsiders”. It’s always tough being a London specialist retailer as there are always beers outside of this great city we like drinking and trying. Our little non-London section is somewhere that really lets us showcase the best beers in the UK as well as the best beers in London too.
So why Tiny Rebel from Newport for our online beer club? The short answer is because so many of you voted for them! Far be it for me to ignore the demands of our fine beer drinking customers! Seriously though Tiny Rebel stand for a lot of great things in the beer industry that we do and their mantra and ethos is very much the same. Their core range is exemplary – they absolutely nail it for us – and their specials are dripping with fun and experimentation. The beer can artwork is something to behold too, plus they seem like a really fun brewery with a commitment to quality. A great example of what I’m talking about is something like Clwb Tropicana. A great core craft beer but on top of that anyone that tries this brew tends to say “wow it tastes like beery Lilt”. Not everyones cup of tea but I’d drink it all day in the sun. The same goes for Stay Puft. This marshmallow porter really is one of our go-to guilty pleasures. It’s packed full of sweetness and keeps you sipping away in a dangerously moorish fashion. Plus it’s got Mr Stay Puft from Ghostbusters on the can….call me shallow it’s all I need to try a beer!
Tiny Rebel set up in a garage in 2012 and now they are one of the biggest craft beer brewers in Wales. They now have their own Tiny Rebel Bar and if awards is a thing you look for when trying a new beer or a new brewery then look no further. They have a host of beer awards including SIBA Brewery Business of the Year and International Beer Challenge UK Brewer of the Year 2016. They can now add to that the much converted title of “Latest Outsider Beer to be Added to Craft Metropolis Range” to their growing list of awards. I’m sure they will frame it and pop it in the downstairs loo.
Joking aside we are thrilled to add them to our subscription box and feel that with Cwtch, Cali, Stay Puft and more to choose from theres a bit of something for everyone from a great pale ale to a crazy porter. We are proud to call ourselves Tiny Rebel stockists and delighted you can buy Tiny Rebel beer online with us. Most of all, however, we are thrilled that you help us choose these Welsh wonders to be part of the site.
Look out in the future for more non-London beers popping up – but don’t worry our quest for London’s best beer’s continues full steam ahead.
Thanks for reading, thanks for voting, and most of all enjoy your brews!
5/7/18: Refunds will be available to people should they wish to claim money back. Here’s what they have said:
We’d like to thank all ticket holders for their patience with us during this process. It was an important step, that took time, but one that was necessary to assess the impact on the event and plan the next steps. Following this consultation, roughly half of the breweries remain committed to putting on a show and pouring their beers for all of you that have bought tickets. Therefore, we have decided to offer a two-step process for Beavertown Extravaganza ticket holders.
All of you who still wish to attend will be given a £20 refund on your ticket. To get this you do not need to do anything. It will be refunded to the card/purchasing method you used to purchase the original ticket.
If you no longer wish to attend, you have 2 weeks (closing date Friday 20th July) to apply for a full refund. To do this you must email info@tickettannoy.com with the name you used to purchase the tickets and the ticket reference number(s). If you have forgotten these, you can find the details by logging into your Ticket Tannoy account at www.tickettannoy.com/signin , which you will have created at the time of purchase.
Please note, refunds are exclusive of booking fee and any amount will be refunded back to the card/purchasing method you used to purchase the tickets. Ticket Tannoy cannot refund to an alternative card/payment method.
Any requests for full refunds after the 2 week period will be rejected. From the end of the 2 week period please allow a further week (to 27th July) for actioning of those refunds. Then from the 27th July Ticket Tannoy will begin processing £20 refunds on the remainder of the tickets. This is a manual process so may take a little time. Normal processing time is 3 working days, however due to the high volume please allow up to a week.
Beavertown and the remaining attending breweries (list below) are committed to making The Beavertown Extravaganza a wicked party and we can’t wait to have a beer with all of you who still wish to attend down at Printworks!
Cheers!
Team Beaver.
As the news of the Heineken take over of Beavertown sweeps the craft beer world we thought it would be good to update the Beavertown extravaganza 2018 brewery list. Many of the craft breweries have expressed a strong take on the buy-out very much along the lines of what we posted here in our blog about the Dutch brewer Heineken taking a minority stake in Beavertown Brewery and how we will no longer stock their beer online on our online beer shop. The list includes huge British breweries, many of whom we stock online like Brew by Numbers. The best response in our eyes was Cloudwaters response. It sums it up to a tee on their beer blog.
“If we’d known then what we know now, we wouldn’t have signed up for this year in the first place.”
“We’re all deeply sorry that we withdrew from Beavertown’s Extravaganza.”
“If we had known early this year that Beavertown was working on a minority sale to Heineken, the world’s second biggest beer company behind AB InBev, we’d have pulled out months ago.
“It is a source of deep frustration that leaves us feeling a little used that around the time tickets were released for sale, a deal was likely already being drawn up with Heineken.”
“Not all bigger breweries are the same, and not all breweries that seek corporate investment do so at the expense of their wider independence,”
“Some big breweries appear to operate with the principles we hold dear in modern beer, regardless of their age, reach, or size, whilst other big breweries throw their weight around and engage in tactics behind the scenes against modern breweries’ values and existence.”
Cloudwater
Mirroring Cloudwaters strong stance on this takeover many breweries on the line up have pulled out and have decided to run their own days at their breweries at the same time as Beavertown to make up for disgruntled craft beer lovers who had tickets to the beer festival. To us it’s a great alternative, a good solution and a big two fingers up to the big beer owned North London brewery. There was no official line from the brewery and gossip swamping the fans forums is that although the line up has changed incomprehensibly there will be no refunds to unhappy ticket holders. That was until the news today (5th July) that there will be a money back option for people who are unhappy with the changes.
Here is the latest list of brewers who are no longer pouring at Beavertown Extravaganza 2018 (updated 5/7/18)
Cloudwater
BBNo
Brewdog
Brewski
Stigbergets
Verdant
DEYA
Evil Twin
Pen Druid
Jester King
Modern Times
Dry & Bitter
The Veil
We hope if you have a ticket to the beer festival you enjoy it – at another brewery haha
Thanks for reading this beer blog post
Enjoy your craft beers, wherever you are
We love a cold beer in the sun – it might be one after work I the pub beer garden or at home watching the football having a craft beer in your hand as the sun sets is one of life’s simple and brilliant joys.
So we had a quick look at a new summer brew or two that we have in stock for this months subscription box to see what the best craft beers right now were for summer suppin’.
In no particular order:
1) Jeffersons Jeffersons Hikari Ichi Japanese Very Pale Ale
New on the site and blowing us away are new outfit Jeffersons based in Barnes. This beer is creamy, almost like a cream soda with hints of very mild spice and lemon. Then on the flip side of it’s flavour profile there’s a super-clean bright effervescent crisp flavour that demand you open the next one. A brilliant alternative to any IPA, pale ale or lager and now one of our favourite summer beer styles.
2) Pillars Untraditional lager
We love this in the sun simply because although it is a traditional lager in style it packs a load of flavour into it as well. Crystal clear and like nectar to a dry throat this is a big two fingers up to anyone that thinks lager is boring.
3) Brew by Numbers 01|04 Saison Ginger & Grapefruit Saison
The top five beers could not be complete without a summer saison and this BBNo offering is perfect. Light, mellow but with enough heat from the ginger and enough bite and interest from the grapefruit to keep it from being boring. As far as good citrus beers go this is 100% the type of beer you need when you’ve got a bead on in the back garden.
See this website for the best beer fermenters
4) Fourpure Juicebox Citrus IPA
A bit of a classic craft beer in a short space of time. One of the first easily available juicy IPAs this little beauty is now a mainstay of summer. It’s the perfect beer to start with as the BBQ starts up. Clear amber liquid with an intense citrus of orange zest and juice are the first two things you notice about drinking this beer. The second is how easy it drinks for 5.9%. The best thing about it? You feel like going up a gear then reach for it’s big brother Deucebox (the double version) and party until the sun comes up again!
5) Weird Beard Sour Slave
We love this sour beer for two reasons: 1) because it’s so damn good 2) it’s so damn sessionable. A truly brilliant hot-day-thirst-quenching sour that is good enough for a seasoned sour fan but also perfect for someone that asks; “what is a sour beer?”. The citrus and zing are balanced just right with the hops that help mellow the tartness out. Want a nice sour beer or want to try a sour beer? Grab this and sit back in your deck chair with our best summer beers 2018 guide.
Want to try these and 150+ other craft beers online? Head to our Your Pick page
Cheers for reading, now get out in the sun!
Oli
When stocks are sold Beavertown will no longer feature on our site.
Of the scores of fantastic breweries in London they were in a very small minority of about three that were a pain to deal with. Actually, we didn’t deal with Beavertown per se. Since we started operating three years ago they have refused to add us to their direct distribution list as “demand was too high to take us on” while they concentrated on brokering deals with supermarkets. Helping the little guy eh? Of course they have no obligation to help anyone but we towed the line because they sell lots of beer and they were part of my own craft beer education, certainly in London at least. The writing was on the wall.
The crux of it is Beavertown have never been a brewery that have been part of the fabric of what we are building here yet heroes like Pressure Drop, Kew, Five Points, Weird Beard and countless others have (like an Oscar speech I’m afraid I don’t have time to mention you all but it’s a lot). While I asked awkward questions in the early days to these guys like “do you deliver?” and “can I order just four cases?” Beavertown asked us to go through expensive and crazy distribution routes instead – London beer from north to south via Manchester ? Yes, as insane as it was frustrating.
I’m sure to this day Beavertown don’t even know we exist but that’s not the point. This all sounds a little bitter but I’m simply adding context to a one-sided break up. The ramblings are that of a jilted lover moaning to their best friend – I’m sad and mad and shocked. I love Beavertown and always have. From the beer to the artwork and everything in between they are awesome at making beer. I can just about forgive them the rest but you can see that we probably saw this coming based on their track record.
The craft discussion is a long trodden and much argued point but from where we stand we believe that the essence of craft beer is it’s independent roots. Heineken don’t care about the trends, love, attention and craftsmanship that most London brewers do. They see a slice of the market. End of. Sure we all want to build successful businesses but we don’t believe in the ethics and direction of the Big Beer giants. That’s not why most brewers get into brewing great beer, at least I think not and sincerely hope not. I’ve met too many people in London affiliated with craft beer breweries to think otherwise. It’s about creating something unique, special and with soul not banging out units. All macro breweries want, in my humble opinion, is to take over something that is standing on their toes. It might be with a mouse-like pressure but stand on their toes they are are. We would rather concentrate our time, money, effort and focus on people who have their heart in craft beer. I’d say good luck to Beavertown but I wouldn’t mean it. Again I hope there not too much bitterness in that statement, it’s not intended, I just think they had an amazing opportunity to expand under their own steam and think this is bad news for great beer. They could have kept the core and the credibility of their business alive without this dirty Heineken cash but they they clearly think they need it. You can’t take over the world without shaking hands with the devil and their new fiery partner now has a vice-like grip.
So long and thanks for some groundbreaking beer
Beer of the month: The Experiment Requires That You Continue by Pressure Drop Brewing and Verdant
Great beer. Even better breweries. This is my favourite beer in the last month to land on the site not because of how drinkable it is or how fantastically packed with flavour it is but more about where it’s come from and the two breweries that combined to make it.
On the one hand we have Verdant. The Kernow outfit that have been making massive (Cornish surfer style) waves with their incredible hop soups and modern beer.
On the other we have Pressure Drop. An expanding north London set up who have come into their own in the last two year and are now firmly chasing down some of the best in the capital.
For my personal tastes these two releasing this beer and coming together is almost the perfect partnership – and that’s why it’s my beer of the month.
Falmouth is hardly the brewing capital of the UK, it’s hardly anything to think of it in terms of beer so when new brewery Verdant started to get rave reviews on social media outside of their home county the people of the UK pricked up their beery ears and started to seek out these new hop-forward beers. Hens teeth does not come close. Selling out in seconds and always in demand this brewery have dominated craft beer drinkers “must-try” up and down the UK and remains so years on. Their widespread appeal and demand is more quaint the more you look at their background. Falmouth is more maritime than monster IPAs but that’s exactly what Verdant started to do and have not deviated from since. From nowhere in 2014 to one of the most sought after beers in tap rooms and beer delivery boxes up and down the land the breweries main players Adam and James have created exactly what they set out to do. “we had decided that hoppy beers were what we wanted to be drinking. Think juicy, hoppy, unfiltered hazy beers and always vegan!”
Since then the beers have flowed thick and fast – sometimes way too fast for them to keep up with demand – but when you see Verdant on the label you always know you’re going to get high-hop, high flavour, high craftsmanship in that can or bottle of beer. So when the chance to take them onto the site came along I jumped at it when they announced their partnership with Pressure Drop.
Pressure Drop have not enjoyed quite the meteoric rise that the west country boys have managed but that’s not to say their output is any less impressive. Their beginnings are just as humble as the aforementioned Falmouth warehouse. 2013 saw a shed and a few friends give birth to an idea that is now very impressive Pressure Drop brewery. Armed with a very solid and very suppable core range (Pale Fire, Bosko and Street Porter etc) the unit are now one of the main players in north London after expanding into new premises in Tottenham.
Their beers, core and otherwise, are always very well rounded and smooth and have a somewhat playful edge to them. From the slightly 70s wallpaper style artwork to the zesty and punch tasting notes of Wallbanger Wit and Cast Iron Billy you know you’re onto a good thing with a Pressure Drop beer. What most excited me however about this beer collab was that Pressure Drop have recently been nailing the hop-forward beer like there’s no tomorrow. Stepping up a level from the go-to Bosko IPA is Domino Topple. You can go up a gear again to Alligator Tugboat and them mellow off again with the recent Parachute DDH. The main thing here is this brewery know exactly what to do with hops and when it comes to making a moody, cloudy hop-swamp of a beer then you’d be happy to let them take charge. Add into the mix the earlier protagonists and their affiliation with modern hop flavours and you have a marriage made in heaven. Two hop-forward, knowledgeable breweries coming together to brew something they both clearly have a passion for and are exemplary at doing. The result is a wonderful blend of two great minds and one great beer. A hazy New England style IPA – I think deserves to be dropped in every Craft Metropolis box this month.
We always like to add a little bit of something extra to the site so when Untappd came tapping we wanted to listen. Maybe because they have a database of nearly every beer going and maybe because they are part of the craft beer community but mainly because we are already users at Craft Metropolis towers and we love it – and now we are a verified venue!
For those not in the know Untappd is an app that allows you to search for beers, read up about beers, rate those beers as you drink them while adding your own pictures and tasting notes along the way. You can see if a beer is available near you on a map on the app and also if your Untappd friends have had it. You can even call a cab using the app to get you to a nearly Untappd venue! All in all it’s a beer lovers dream. Some love it because of the star rating you can give to beer. Others use it as a log and reminder of their tasting notes. Some just like getting the badges.
Yep, the app has badges that are awarded to you as you hit milestones. If you’re trying a new style previously not logged on the app you get a badge for that and gain different levels as you try more from that genre. The same happens with specific beers, celebratory days and the like – you’re never far from a new badge and that keeps people logging in and checking in as they sup their craft beer. You can even ask the app to warn you when you are near a beer you have on a wish list, and the options are growing.
We love it here because with each Your Pick order we can access the Untappd database and send over some drinking notes for you to compare, contrast and mull over just like this:
You can even follow us as a venue on the app so you know what we have in stock and when new beers come in. Give it a download, try it out and before you know it you’ll be badged up to the max!
Cheers
Oli (founder Craft Metropolis)
Step 1
We trawl the globe tasting great beer
