Oli Meade
Oli Meade
What with it being Easter and all, this week, craft brewers pulled out all the stops.
The best new beers we tried here at CMHQ this week included a bourbon & coffee laced imperial stout and a sour apple beer/cider hybrid from Somerset’s Yonder.
The big news this week, however, was DEYA’s new Triple IPA…
We ordered Right Brain Feeds The Left Brain TIPA along with an epic haul of new DEYA this week (including Something Good 13 and Glue IPA), and I was hoping DEYA’s new TIPA would live up to the hype.
DEYA went even more neutral in their yeast strain in their second TIPA for a clean hop monster that smacks of juicy tropical fruit.
Make no mistake, this is a very special beer.
Overtone’s Charlie Doesn’t Surf Oat Cream IPA didn’t garner nearly as much hype as DEYA’s TIPA, obviously. In a way that’s criminal, but it’s also epic, because it means there’s more of this stuff for you and for me!
Brewed with truckloads of oats and lactose, Charlie Doesn’t Surf is as creamy an IPA as you’ll get this Easter. Waves of apples, pears and citrus. Different. In a great way.
I know it might seem obvious to pick out Pomona Island’s new-in Thagomizer DIPA as a beer of the week, but trust me, there’s a reason people flock to this DIPA.
It’s juicy and it’s tropical. But it’s the piney punch at the end that makes this murk-monster magic. Once again, with Thagomizer, Pomona Island have brewed up excellence.
In a bumper Easter uptake, it takes something special to top the dark beer billing… and this year the accolade has to go to Maltgarden’s I’m Your Barista: Colombia DSB Pink Bourbon Coffee Stout.
Rich dark malts. Boozy and smooth. But what makes this extra special is a big helping of Colombia Diego Samuel Bermundez Pink Bourbon Specialty Coffee.
The ingredient quality is spectacular. All melded together, you get a frankly next-level imperial gem.
Next up, Amundsen’s overloaded Neapolitan Ice Cream Shake Imperial Pastry Stout isn’t as serious as the Maltgarden drop, but that takes nothing away from how good a beer this is.
The original Neapolitan Ice Cream Dessert In A Can. is a big hit, and for Easter Amundsen have amped it up with this 440ml version.
The best way to describe this is an ice cream made up of big, boozy stout, oh-so-sweet stout. Picture it. Only then can you imagine how glorious this beer is.
Is it a stout?
Is it a sour?
After a fair bit of deliberation, I’m including Pastore Brewing’s Coffee & Cacao Noire in the darks section simply because it’s loaded with all the beautiful coffee and cacao notes you’d expect from a big-hitting stout… but then sour black forest fruits remind you this is Pastore.
This is a boundary-pushing, genre-defying beer you won’t regret.
Capping off the darks, I can’t not mention Pressure Drop’s Black Treacle Stout.
Olly number 2 described it as a ‘perfect stout’ earlier this week, and the description is pretty much bang on.
What do you get when you combine dark roasted barley, fruity hedgerow hops and a touch of treacle?
This is the answer… and it’s effing great.
Leading the sour march this week is of course Vault City, who’ve gone with a big, a medium and a small sour for the Easter weekend.
My pick of the bunch is Pear Drop Session Sour. (When you’re drinking a few over Easter you want a session in there somewhere!)
A nostalgic hit of hard-boiled pear drop sweets in a Sessionable Modern Sour Beer. Sour sweeties?! Sign me up.
Serpents Wild Ale by Yonder is also mega interesting.
Brewed in collaboration with Pilton Cider, this is a kinda mixed-ferm beer-cider mash up with a load of sour apple juiciness from the two varieties of Somerset apples that go in.
It is Easter, after all!
So how about kicking things off with Maltgarden’s new big bottles, including Polish Craft Mafia: Proton Imperial Cheesecake Stout and Free The Parrots Imperial Coconut Stout?
And did I mention Amundsen’s Desserts In Cans are now barrel-aged?! You’re going to have to dive in… be sure to check out Amundsen’s Coconut Choc Chip Cookie Barrel Aged Dessert in a Can and Cherry & Chocolate Ganache Barrel Aged Dessert in a Can when you do.
I’ve already mentioned Overtone’s epic-smooth Oat Cream IPA, but you know they can do darks well, and Stoater Oatmeal Stout is proof.
On the hop-front Overtone has also offered up Nelson Sauvin single-hopped It’s All Nelson DIPA, while Burnt Mill keep us all happy with the likes of Citra Fog NEIPA and the extra pale, extra soft Emerald Table NEIPA.
There’s good new stuff from Polly’s of course, with blueberry, bubblegum, and mango laced Falter DDH IPA and the bang-on-trend sweet pineapple and coconut-tinged Oh My…Citra & Sabro Pale Ale.
Wylam are the go-to for rye this week, with Purgatory In Paradise Rye Pale Ale, full of dry pepper spice with oatmeal biscuit.
How are we feeling about a 0.5% sour? Maltgarden have bucked their own trend with the intriguing, low-alc Free Sunset Fruit Ale. Oh, and Maltgarden also sent over their (brilliantly named) Museum of Classic Beers Hallertauer Pils this week too.
Something a shade stronger on the sour front? Pastore Lemone is 2.5%. Amundsen In Cafruits #4 Cherry, Raspberry, Lemon & Almond Pastry Sour is stronger still.
Just FYI the very final deadline for Easter delivery is 1pm Wednesday 31st. But to be honest the sooner you order, the safer you are.
So dive on in, fill up, and have a wicked Easter filled with good beer and up to six people from a distance!
Cheers as ever & happy drinking!
Oli
(The founder)
Oli Meade
Last week’s best new beers were mostly imports. This week, it’s UK brewers coming up with the goods!
Neon Raptor. Left Handed Giant. Three Hills, Polly’s, Kernel.
They’ve all released genius this week, so let’s get into it, starting with…
Neon. Raptor. Griffin. Tamer. This is the beer we’ve all been waiting for since Centaur Army! And suffice to say Nottingham’s finest have once again delivered via their new 12% Coconut Vanilla Impy Stout.
You’ve got people arguing about whether it’s as good as Centaur Army, but in all honesty, who the hell cares?!
This is an outstanding stout in its own right, and deservedly takes top spot on the dark front this week.
Neon Raptor taking top spot is a fair feat given it’s up against none other than a new dose of Left Handed Giant’s 12.5% King Of The Woodland Pistachio and Honeycomb Imperial Stout.
We all went mad for this first time round, this time it’s just as good and even a shade cheaper too. If you missed the fun last time, get involved while you can!
Elsewhere, Three Hills continued their excellence in their BPAVK series, this time round with new Chocolate Torte Imperial Stout.
Two different varieties of chocolate flavour! WTF?!
Biscuit malts complete the brilliance here, and an 11% ABV makes for an even bigger Russian imperial pastry stout than usual. Great stuff.
With the impy stout game a crowded place it takes something seriously special to break through to the top, and that’s exactly what Beer Ink have come up with in Starbeer Imperial Stout.
A massive helping of peanut butter and a big old dollop of caramel lurk in this chocolatey number, which has a body so thick it could make a hip-hop lyric. Try it out!
Frankly, it’s criminal Kernel’s new Mosaic & Sabro India Double Porter is only getting a mention at spot 5.
The sabro hops here make for an interesting, fruity dark while the world swings sweet.
Refuses to copy. Cannot be copied. Kernel, with their understated bottles absent of screaming colour cartoons, are a brewery that deserve so much respect.
This week, one swig of the new Polly’s Deep Fake TIPA sent me momentarily loopy, to the point where, lost for words, all I could manage was to call this thing ‘fabulous’.
With more time to think about it, I’d say this is an orange hop-murkbomb filled with pineapple and papaya Polly’s Brew’s trademark hefty helping of hop-hop-hops!
But take a big old glug of this and see if you can manage that. My guess is you’ll be as bowled over as me.
By the time you read this, Thieves In The Temple TIPA will most likely be sold out. It’s a seriously limited beer with just 5 in stock at the time of writing. Filled with mango, papaya & candied orange, you can see why it’s so popular.
If you want to be notified of beers like this early on, just jump on our mailing list.
Those of you into your fruity IPAs are going to want to get in on Beak vs Northern Monk’s Wool DIPA.
This rum berry punch’s thick, fluffy and smooth body earn it the title of a beery pavlova.
Talking of smooth, Wylam’s Lush Pale Ale has finally been canned!
After however many requests, the brewery caved and squeezed their unbelievably popular cask beer into canned format, which means we can all now enjoy their zesty, zingy grapefruit-lemon cocktail from the comfort of our own armchairs.
(Which, after a year at home, are of course no longer that comfortable at all).
When you first cast your eyes on Dig’s 84 Gold + Grill Wonderland Special Marshmallow, Pineapple & Guava sour, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was something other than a sour. But that’s exactly what you’re getting here – albeit a sweet and chewy number.
Die hards will shun it. Others will love it.
A good bit of fun from the Birmingham brewsters.
Brick once again delivered the goods on the sour front this week, with their 5.8% 330ml Berry Sour.
An experiment with growing-in-popularity Kveik yeast and Brick’s own house Lactobacillus, a generous smattering of hedgerow berries make for notes of blackcurrant jam and blackberry coulis. Top stuff.
And finally on the sour front, Kernel once again make the cut with their latest Biére De Saison Sour Cherry.
Fermented as per usual with Kernel’s unique blend of house mixed yeast, wild yeast and bacteria culture, you get a dry, effervescent, tart beer fruited with a seasonal sour cherry punch.
Turning Point’s new Dark Matter trio really should get more attention than I’m giving them, and the only reason I’ve made it this far without shouting about them is they span the darks and hoppy sections I’ve used to segment the new beers this week. So take a long, hard look at Yellow Matter Custard and Pink Matter Custard. The first is a yellow custard wheat pale while the second is a raspberry custard dessert pale. And when you don’t see too many sweet pales on the go it’s awesome to see Turning Point nudging boundaries.
Dark beer fans, don’t fret! For you and I have Turning Point’s Dark Matter Custard to get their teeth into. Literally! This is a fun, chocolatey sweet dessert stout with a massive vanilla addition that’s thick enough to gobble with a spoon. Still standing post? Then Laguna Sunrise Salted Caramel Glazed Donut Stout awaits!
Back over on the hop-front, Verdant’s Track & Field hit our shelves for the very first time, Drop Project got jiggy with sabro hops, BBNo were only too happy to break convention and brew up a complex, premium lager with Vienna malt and spelt, and Box Car hit us up with new Holographic IPA and the creamy and sweet Dream Softly DIPA.
It was Box Car also that kept the mild train chugging with another helping of their hit Dark Mild, which gives you all the rich, dark and full-bodied chocolate, coffee and caramel notes you’d want but at just 3.6%.
You’ve got Pomona’s Blackcurrant Gose, you’ve got an orange, apricot and vanilla weisse from Neon Raptor, there’s Northern Monk’s Sticky Toffee Pudding Porter, there’s Brew York’s (limited!) Extra Brownie Pints, there’s also a treat in Black Iris’s Embers Remain Cinder Toffee Campfire Stout.
Finally, as an Easter treat, we’re doing a bargain Choccy Box and a bargain Hoppy box. We’ll be shouting about these next week, but as both are limited if you want one, you can get in early.
Either way, I really hope you get to try some of these epic, epic brews from magician brewers closer to home this week. Dive on in, the fun awaits!
Cheers as ever & happy drinking!
Oli
(The founder)
Kveik, Mild, Helles and Brut. At first glance you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d stumbled into the travel section of a magazine and were exploring potential retreats to a Scandinavian island. Thankfully not. Kievek, Mild, Helles and Brut are all in fact beer styles, and with brewers gearing up to showcase their takes on rather more challenging and on-trend styles during this year’s upcoming festival season, now is a great time to explore each. Pale ales and stouts are two a penny – the beers below are beers not to be missed.
Northern Helles by Donzonko Brewing
With every year in craft beer labeled as ‘the year of lager’, it’s important to never dismiss the classic and understated style of beer. Helles beers tend to have a sweeter and lighter edge – hell meaning ‘light’ or ‘bright’ in German. Unfortunately, it’s rare that anything actually lives up to the billing. Donzoko’s Northern Helles, however, does. Quite simply, if you don’t like this, you won’t like modern craft lagers. That’s a bold statement, I know. But Northern Helles is just about as good as it gets for a UK-based brew. Slightly malty and dark with a sweet edge, it’s a beer that flows down and one you can turn to time and time again. It’s so well executed you’d expect it to come out of Germany rather than Donzoko’s base in Hartlepool. It’s no surprise that Donzoko harbours a fixation with German brewing. The brewers label this “our version of a Bavarian Style unfiltered lager. Sweet malt, subtle floral hops and a crisp refreshing finish. Inspired by lazy days by the river Eisbach, this is our flagship beer that will change what you think about lager.” We can’t argue with any of that and, if Northern Helles is anything to go by, this really IS the year of the lager. Until next year, of course.
Haakon by Drop Project
Kviek is certainly riding a wave in the brewing world at the moment. It’s a type of Norwegian Farmhouse Ale yeast and, when used to ferment at certain temperatures, it “provides plenty of fruity esters and tropical top notes.” That’s basically a pale ale with a bit of funk, and it’s showcased wonderfully in Haakon, a full-flavoured pale ale by the new startup brewery Drop Project. The yeast is a little more sour, more acidic and more raspy (all in a good way, you understand), which leads to a more powerful beer. You still get all the classic pale ale notes but what you tend to get at the end of the sip is an interesting bite. Normally breweries would use bittering hops to give their brews a lingering flavour, but here Kviek takes over, making for something slightly different to your average brew. One to try from a brewery worth watching as they grow.
Zero Gravity by Lost+Found
Onto Brut. This little known beer style is exactly what you think it’s going to be… although if you’re thinking of an 80’s talcum powder you’ll be disappointed. Brut beers have risen in popularity over the last year as breweries seek out a sweet spot somewhere between a lager and a pale ale. This style bridges the two well and at the same time brings an air of sophistication to both. The name comes from brewers using champagne yeast or similar to drive the dryness of a beer down to near desert levels.
In the case of brut IPAs, all the wort’s sugar is converted into alcohol during fermentation thanks to a special enzyme called amyloglucosidase. With no sugar left to caress the palate, the resulting beer is totally dry. This all sounds rather specialist but in Zero Gravity Lost+Found have created a brut beer that’s as drinkable as the day is long. Too dry to be a beer but not winey enough to be wine, brut styles have historically been something of a flash in the pan. New styles keep popping up though, and with summer just around the corner you’ll be sure to find some somewhere near you.
Dark Mild by BOXCAR
When you think of a pint of mild, most minds conjure up an old midlands boozer with uninspiring cheap beer piled on every table as smoke lingers in the air mid-afternoon. “What’s wrong with that?!” I hear you cry. Admittedly not much… but the point remains that mild has long been in need of a resurgence, and it’s happening! BOXCAR are one of the most up-and-coming breweries in London (which itself houses a great many up-and-coming breweries), and they’ve taken on the challenge of making an exciting mild. The result is mild, yes. But not as you know it. Dark Mild has all the classic mild flavours but dialled up a level or two. It’s slightly sweet, brown and delicious. It’s about as far from a working men’s club as you could get – but, thankfully, still not a million miles from mild’s true roots.
Oli Meade
I usually group this round up into darks, sours and hoppy beers.
But seeing as so many of my favourite new beers this week were from overseas, let’s try something different.
Ready?
Straight off the bat and claiming headline spot has got to be Equilibrium’s Deviation TIPA. The brewery promises even more juiciness and drinkability than its other TIPAs in this, and they’re not wrong.
Flavours of pineapple, fresh squeezed orange and fruit punch lead the way along with mango, lychee and lime in a big beast of a Triple IPA.
Come on!
And while we’re on the US, who’s in for a bit of Grimm?! Grimm by name, great by nature.
There are a few epic Grimm cans now in stock, but Black Forest is the pick for me. Here you have a dense, rich, cake-like sour, brewed with velvety dark malts, fermented with a mixed culture in oak, then refermented on tart Montmorency cherries, and finally conditioned on cacao.
Make no mistake, this is one very special beer.
Also in from the US are some outstanding brews from New York’s KCBC, including the tongue in cheek Iceberg Zombie Apocalypse Fruited Sour.
Packed to the rafters with strawberry, banana, peach & blackberry, then with just a sprinkle of Vanilla & sweet milk sugar, this is a sour fruit extravaganza.
Dark beer fans, you’re gonna have to get in on Thin Man’s Peanut Butter Jenkins Imperial Stout! This is an 11.7% peanut butter, chocolate, dark caramel & honey impy peanut butter cup in liquid form.
Aaand there’s no way I could close this section without mentioning Barrier. There’s Crowning Achievement BA Imperial Stout on the stout front, but what I especially want to highlight Kickin’ Knowledge: Horchata Style Milkshake IPA.
It’s hopped up with a wicked dose of Mosaic, Motueka and Citra, then finished with Vanilla, Coconut, Cinnamon and milk sugar.
Epic stuff!
There’s only one place to start when discussing the new brews from Europe, and that’s with Stockholm’s Omnipollo.
This is such a highly regarded brewery that just keeps on smashing it out the park. My pick of the new-in Omnipollo’s has got to be Anagram Blueberry Cheesecake Stout.
Comes with a 12% ABV warning.
Save it for the weekend.
If you can resist…
Garage chomp on Omnipollo’s heels this week with Spice DIPA, a DIPA that showcases what Barcelona’s leading brewery can do when given free reign on hop-of-the-moment Strata.
Grapefruit, tropical fruits, pear and wondrous dankness is the answer.
This really is superb stuff.
Then there’s new Kees, with a beer other Olly is a big fan of in the elegantly named Black IPA.
The black IPA is gaining quite a bit of traction at the moment, and this Kees number is about as good as it gets.
Dry hopped with out-there Sorachi Ace, Talus and HBC 472 hops, expect vanilla, coconut and a kinda oaky vibe too.
A new DEYA drop this week included both Saturated in Strata DIPA and Saturated in Simcoe DIPA – both as DEYA as ever, which is to say top drawer stuff.
Strata is hop of the moment right now, but I’m going to go ahead and highlight DEYA’s single-hop Simcoe effort. Murky as hell, juicy as a Sunny D, and tropical like those holidays we all used to go on. Like I say, top-drawer stuff.
Actually, on the subject of hops, hop-heads will surely be interested in Neon Raptor’s Suburban Hercules TIPA. Tropical, coconut-y, not to mention unbelievable value.
Thinking about it, the UK scene for me was all about the hops this week, and I’m gonna go ahead and say Polly’s The Feels Vol. 4 Oat IPA could well be the best hoppy beer I’ve had so far this year.
A juicy mango, pineapple, and tangerine beauty, it’s also brewed with a truckload of oats to make it all soft and fluffy.
Pressure Drop restock too! No, I won’t stop going on about their brews. Not when they’re as good as the ripe & juicy, dank & fruity 7 Crystals For Psychic Abilities & Intuition NE DIPA or the Understanding Whole Systems NEIPA anyway.
7 Crystals For Psychic Abilities & Intuition NE DIPA is the brewery at their best. A ‘ripe and juicy, dank and fruity beauty’ they say – and I couldn’t agree more.
Pastore, meanwhile, delivered the goods as far as sours were concerned. They always do, which is what makes Frutti di Bosco Acido so epic.
This is a pimped up impy version of Waterbeach Weisse, conditioned on raspberry, blackberry and blackcurrant.
One for sour fans, for sure.
And I can’t close this off without mentioning Three Hills’ Kitchen Sink TIPA.
Boozy, juicy, citrusy.
Can you see why I reckon UK brewers went full throttle on the hop-front this week?!
So much more. In fact, I’ve just checked and it looks like we now have more than 650 beers on the site.
It’s madness!
Obviously, I can’t talk about them all here, so just get stuck in and see what takes your fancy.
You might wanna check out the likes of Neon Raptor’s Nothing But Tents NEIPA. Or Left Handed Giant’s Inner State Hazy Pale Ale.
Or if you’ve got a special occasion coming up (or you’ve just sold your first NFT), how about Thin Man’s Life Is But A Dream BA Blended Ale?
Omnipollo entered the hard seltzer game with Neophresco Karpologi Hard Seltzer, Ārpus Brewing sent us Kiwi x Mango x Pineapple Imperial Sour Ale all the way over from Latvia, To Øl introduced us to their Mexican Hot Chocolate Imperial Stout, and Dig heard someone say ‘Mexico’ and pulled out their Cancun Mexican Lager.
It’s all there, all online, all awaiting so get involved!
And finally, as a little preview to everyone who’s made it to the end of the newsletter, we’ve been busy putting together The Choccy Box Beast Craft Beer Box ahead of Easter.
We aren’t saying too much about it just yet but if you wanna secure one early now’s your chance. It’s beery chocolate stuff, at about 20% less than you’d pay if you buy the beers separately. Just keep it to yourself for the time being – we’re not ready to promote it fully just yet!
As always, I hope you get to try some of these epic beers this week.
Cheers as ever & happy drinking!
Oli
(The founder)
Oli Meade
3 stouts. 2 sours. And a milkshake IPA.
Still, with spring poking through, there really is only one place to start this list this week.
That’s right. Hops. And get ready for some controversy, cause this week we begin with…
Now, don’t get me wrong, Match Book NEIPA hasn’t been for everyone!
For some reason Pressure Drop beers quite often divide opinion, and this beer is no different. So let me make my stance clear… Pressure Drop are an epic brewery releasing epic stuff that’s just so underrated it’s almost criminal.
In Match Book, you’ve got this lovely, orangey, syrupy, murky mutha of a NEIPA. Give it a bash, then let me know what you think.
On the safer side, new Verdant!
We ARE The People West Coast DIPA reminds us all of how outstanding the West Coast DIPA really is. It’s clean, it’s grapefuity and it’s malty all over. A great style done justice by the hop kings of Cornwall.
I’m also gonna give some love to the brewers over at Beak this week.
Alongside a rebrew of the always popular Parade IPA, I’ve been loving their new Locals IPA. It’s hop-forward, it’s hazy, and it’s full of juicy tropical mango goodness – what more could you ask for in an IPA? Great stuff.
Only one place to start on the darks front this week and that’s with Low Key’s Last Gunslinger Speyside Barrel Aged Chocolate & Tonka Imperial Stout. I mean, these guys smashed it out the park with their inaugural effort (which quickly sold out) and this follow up is just as beautiful a beer as the first.
Although it’s 10%, you wouldn’t know it – the tonka deliciousness takes full-on centre stage from the outset, then there’s the sweet hint of Speyside whisky lurking in the background. Lovely stuff, bound to sell out quick – get in early if you fancy one of these. (We have 11 bottles left at the time of writing.)
If you do miss out, don’t panic – Three Hills BANANAVK: Banoffee Pie Imperial Stout is another new dark gem on the same level of excellence. If you like your stouts for dessert, then this is for you.
You’ve got sweet banana, sticky toffee & fresh vanilla all combined here in decadent & rich goodness from a brewery that knows it’s way around an impy stout.
Talking of dessert stouts, Neon Raptor’s new Clusters Peanut Butter & Chocolate Stout has been winning as much attention as you’d expect over on Untappd… and not without reason.
We all know how good peanut butter and chocolate stouts are, and we all know how good Neon Raptor are. This is the two combined – can you really resist?!
Pomona Island have been absolutely smashing it on the sour front of late, and their latest effort with One Man Conga Impy Sour raises the bar yet again.
Has there ever been so much juice in a sour beer before?! So much mango, so much pineapple, so much passion fruit all in one.
This is a full on solero juice-wise, all topped off with a pinch of salt for balance. Get in!
And no, you’re not seeing things. Brew York’s epic Rhubarbra Streisand Milkshake Pale Ale is back, only this time with an extra helping of thick custard pudding!
Rhubarb all the way here with a sprinkle of fiery ginger, now creamier than ever and deliciously sweet. Those that like the standard will love this version. Those that haven’t tried the original – where have you been?!
And finally on the (kinda) sour front this week is something with a little more traditional zing… it’s Left Handed Giant’s Where’s The Ground Sour Cherry & Peach Fruited Sour.
Zingy sour cherry plus sweet peach all layered on a velvet malt base. It’s indulgent and it’s zippy all in one.
Now, I know we were all expecting a new and outstanding DIPA from Polly’s – and that’s exactly what you get with Polly’s Wallow DDH DIPA. But of much more interest this week is surely Polly’s new Progress Blues Best Bitter. Yup, a best bitter from Polly’s. Check it out.
Three Hills proved once again they aren’t just about barrel-aged stouts with In Pursuit No. 7 IPA.
Plus, after their continuing popularity, we had to go out and order in a load more Sussex Small Batch. Ruffles White Stout and Reece’s Stout are both online now.
There’s also tons more Yonder – check out Blue Jam Blueberry Gose.
A Green Pale Ale, Neon Raptor’s Naughty Luggage NEIPA, a Rye Saison from S43, plus DEYA’s ESB.
It’s all there, all online, all waiting, so dive on in – there’s goodness to be had!
Hope you get to try some of these gems this week. Cheers & happy drinking!
Oli
(The founder)
Oli Meade
As far as I’m concerned, one theme dominated the best new craft beer releases this week: JUICE!
New DEYA, Whiplash & Gipsy Hill releases were all packed full of it, which means there really is only one place to start this list.
So, when you’re ready, let’s begin with the…
Lancashire-based brewers Rivington put big old smiles on the faces of beer fans everywhere this week when they released Never Known Fog Like It NE Pale Ale.
This murky beauty has been lingering in casks for a while now and has always been a belter, and it’s now available in 500ml cans!
Some say it’s the new Steady Rolling Man. That’s for you to decide…
Also alighting the hop charts this week is Gipsy Hill’s new and outstanding special Tankslapper DIPA – a heavy hazed golden DIPA packed full of juicy grapefruit and pineapple twangs. Brewed with none other than ‘Verdant’ yeast (who apparently know a thing or two about dialling up the joose), it’s tropical, fruity and chewy but still drinkable as heck.
(Talking of Verdant there’s a major Verdant restock awaiting online right now – Sharks, Laps, Neal, Allen plus more, dive on in!)
It’s a seriously close call for third hop hat-tip this week – in any other week DEYA’s smooth and easy drinking Sound Machine Groove DIPA would take it – but this week I’m gonna go ahead and big up Whiplash for their Headlines TIPA.
This is a true belter of a TIPA from one of Ireland’s finest. I don’t know how they do it for the price point and nor do I care.
Thick, hazy, zesty and malty, Headlines has it all!
In Siren’s Shattered Dream Nitro Imperial Breakfast Stout we’ve got a scaled-up version of Siren’s award-winning Broken Dream stout. That’s right: an award-winner, scaled up!
Impy strength, a glug of espresso, extra cacao, and luxurious vanilla are all melded together then nitrogenated for something thick, creamy, smooth and indulgent. Come on!
While you’re at it, you might well wanna check out what Pomona Island have going on with their Wake Up And Smell The Covfefe Imperial Orange & Coffee Stout. Creamy espresso mingles with zesty orange for the usual unusualness from Manchester’s funsters.
The question is, how nerdy are you?!
Because this week, sour experts will recognise the excellence on display in each of Little Earth’s mixed ferm experimental sours, Hedgerow Blend, Blueberry Sour and Crab Apple Sour 2020.
The Crab Apple is my favourite, with Little Earth’s characteristic attention to detail resulting in a zippy sour bursting with sharp apple balanced with a hard-to-pin-down sweetness that makes it incredible to drink – a must try for those properly into sours.
Elsewhere, you’ve got those lovely little bottles from new to CM brewery and sour nerds Alvinne to contend with, which take the form of Phi Rhubarb Sour and Wild West Cherry & Raspberry Sour.
Wild West is barrel-aged in Bordeaux barrels then pimped with seasonal sour fruits for a limited edition sour gem, and one you could do worse than get your hands on this week.
Then there’s a load of new in stuff from UnBarred, who I could’ve mentioned in any section, but whose Mango Sour especially deserves your attention. A Berliner weisse with lashings of ripe mangoes, this is about as close to a smoothie as a beer can be.
Juice heads, feast on a DDH pale from Neon Raptor, a tropical mango NEIPA from Howling Hops, something more experimental in Northern Monk’s OFS030 Zagovor DDH DIPA or how about Chevron Action Flash TIPA from Pomona Island?
If darks is what you’re after, have a crack at Turning Point’s Spiral Static Peanut Butter & Marshmallow Stout, or Mad Squirrel’s De La Whip Walnut Milk Stout, or try Rivington’s Porter with Blackberries, Raspberries, Blackcurrants and vanilla, or even this Sea Salt & Chilli Stout from Anspach & Hobday.
Too experimental for you? Northern Monk went more down the line with OFS029 Russian Imperial Stout, while Alpha Delta’s Oaked Imperial Stout is currently on a hell of an offer.
Mad Squirrel’s Ribes Blackcurrant Sour shows they know what’s what, Brick continue to punch above their weight with Raspberry & Thyme Sour and, let’s be honest, it wouldn’t be a CM newsletter without a mention of Vault City.
I hope you get to try some of these epic new brews this week – dive in, feel around, have fun exploring.
I’ll be back same time next week. (Hopefully with a bit less to rattle on about!)
Cheers & happy drinking!
Oli
(The founder)
Oli Meade
This week saw beer shelves adorned marshmallow sours, an influx of Black IPAs and the return of the Polly’s DIPA that brought Polly’s widespread acclaim.
However, this week, this list can only start with one very special stout…
It’s here! This week, Neon Raptor released Centaur Army, the fabled impy stout that sold out in two minutes and that only a few privileged humans have ever managed to try!
Make no mistake, this is a BEAST filled with chocolate, caramel and peanut butter and that all fight it out to dominate the flavour-race, each taking turns to take you to new levels of impy bliss.
There are less than 1000 of these in existence… and at the time of writing 16 of them just so happen to be tucked away in our beer cavern. Now’s your chance – first come, first served!
Update: Inevitably, Centaur Army is now sold out. To get our emails about rare new beers as they drop, just join our mailing list below.
That’s right – I’m kicking things off with SOURS this week. It’s a situation brewers have pretty much forced me into due to the sheer quality of the sours that hit beer shelves this week.
The best of the bunch for me has got to be Staggeringly Good’s Burst Blueberry Wrecker with Pancake and Maple Syrup.
It’s sweet, it’s intense, it’s sour, it’s gloopy as slime. Will wreck your glass. Just as the brewery intended.
While you’re on the sour train, how does a Marshmallow Smoothie Sour sound to you?!
That’s what Vault City dared to unleash this week, in their ‘most outrageous recipe yet’ – which says it all coming from the brewery behind the iron brew sour.
Blueberry, raspberry and blackcurrant all collide in this epic creation, all tied together with a sprinkle of creamy sweetness. Epic stuff.
Centaur Army aside, By The River/Wylam’s Big Trouble Al’Owa Pecan & Maple Imperial Stout is a gem of a dark you could do worse than bag this week, a 14% monster of an impy stout. Just look at what’s gone into this!
You’ve got toasted malted oats, toasted wheat, malted rye, manuka raisins, blackcurrants, figs and pecan nut. Then you’ve got dark Canadian maple syrup, toasted coconut flakes and dark cacao.
It’s chewy granola, vintage fruit cake, port wine and a rich dark chocolate tart all in one. Come on!
Black IPAs arrived in droves this week, easing us into the change of seasons.
Northern Monk’s Seasons of Faith and Staggeringly Good’s Dawn Stealer are both fine examples, but the best of the bunch for me & ‘other’ Olly (as the other half of CM is affectionately known) was Danish brewery To Øl’s Black Malts & Body Salts Black IPA.
Coffee-tinged and roasty but clean as you like, it’s a nod to darks without treading into pudding territory. Great stuff.
Polly’s have come back with their latest Rosa DIPA, and I’ll tell you now it’s as good as it’s ever been and then some! This isn’t so much textbook modern DIPA as it is the person that writes the textbooks on modern DIPAs, in beautiful, hop-forward, modern DIPA form!
Featuring a five-hop mega line up of Simcoe, Galaxy, Mosaic, Citra and Ekuanot, it’s sticky, juicy, piney and dank – 100% Polly’s. Welcome back!
And a massive welcome to Sleeping Village!
As part of our mission to always get hold of the best new craft beers in existence – no matter where they might be – I picked up four new brews from this new Norwegian craft brewery this week.
Sleeping Village delivered the goods with their subtley brilliant Double Gardening Imperial Dry Hopped Farmhouse. A crisp and soft but tropical and resinous pale, this for sure showcases Sleeping Village’s ‘passion for soft and approachable beers built for drinking’. Check em out.
There’s tons more sour fun this week as Northern Monk’s Patrons Project sets its sights on sours, with Cherry Cola Sour IPA and Rob. C. Art Purpura Fruited Sour IPA the magnificent end products.
Add to that Track’s Freedom Of Choice Raspberry Sour, Pomona Island’s Peach, Apricot and Raspberry Sour and Maltgarden’s Corfu Food Advisor Greek Tzatziki Pastry Sour (trust us – it works) and you can see why sours topped this roundup this week.
Elsewhere, it’s not like Brew York to go straight down the line, but that’s exactly what they did with Dradis Russian Imperial Stout. How did they do? You be the judge.
Talking of straight down the line, One Mile End are back with The Pine Float Pineapple Pale Ale and Alphonso Mango Pale Ale, while Pressure Drop toyed with the idea of adding King Queen Knave New England Pale Ale to their core range. Better value beers you’ll struggle to find.
Overtone also continued to punch well above their weight – both Broon Sugar Muscovado Stout and Jammies To Work NEIPA are gems – and Lost & Grounded Helles is for lager drinkers everwhere.
Finally, how about Northern Monk’s Brewdog collab Breathe Coffee & Plum Imperial Stout? For me liquid brilliance, in a welcome 330ml can.
I hope you get to try some of these epic new brews this week – dive in, feel around, have fun exploring.
Cheers & happy drinking!
Oli
(The founder)
Oli Meade
New Amundsen Desserts In Cans! A new pale ale that rivals Steady Rolling Man! And a banging Yuzu sour from an unsuspecting brewery that always punches above its weight!
Kicking off with the best new darks, here are my favourite new beer releases this week.
Whenever you get hold of a new Dessert In a Can, you know it’s going to be a belter, and all 4 of the new Amundsen’s are genius. White Chocolate S’Mores has been the fastest seller so far but I’d have to say my own personal favourite is Tonka & Caramel Swirl Ice Cream – so thick, so creamy, it lives up to the name!
DEYA’s Wiper & True collab Hoppy Porter is another interesting new brew that caught my eye this week. DEYA are clearly known for their hoppy brilliance, while Wiper & True know their way around a porter. Put the two together and you get a wicked-smooth chocolate porter with a dose of hops. Sounds bonkers, but it somehow works!
Elsewhere this week, mild’s resurgence continued via Left Handed Giant’s Dark Mild. Berries mix with caramel and lightly roasted malts in this little 4% package, the perfect way to see out winter.
DEYA hit us with three new specials this week, and the stand out is Break Me Into Bigger Pieces IPA. Don’t get me wrong, Bundobust Pale and Invoice Me For The Microphone IPA are equally magnificent, but the lime and lemon peel in Break Me Into Bigger Pieces makes this a summer-tinged citrusy IPA. With the spring sun coming, it’s worth having one on hand!
Next up, 360 came out with one of the best sub 5% pales I’ve had in a long time this week in the form of Sussex Haze. A juicy, pillowy, tropical pale, this was so good I ended up buying the rest of the 360 range. Has Steady Rolling Man met its match?
Polly’s bring out so many mega new hop-bombs so often that it almost feels like cheating including them in this newsletter, but then Nada DIPA really is a belter. A rebrew of last year’s show-stealing epic, tuck into a swag bag fill of dank and tropical hoppy goodness. It’s Polly’s at their best, which is all I need to say.
Brick brewery topped the sour charts this week with their new 10.4% gem Imperial Yuzu Sour. Brick combined yeast of the moment Kveik with their house lactobacillus to brew this monster, with everything conditioned on pools of yuzu juice laced with citrus peel. It’s a citrus sour flavour bomb, get involved!
No, you’re not seeing things… my second sour hat-tip this week goes to a sour by none other than Amundsen! Amundsen released a few new sours this week. They’re just about as mad as Amundsen’s world-famous Desserts in Cans – but check out pick of the bunch Mango, Peach & Chocolate Creamsicle Pasty Sour – you’ll soon be adding Amundsen to your regular sour line up!
Back over on the dark side, DEYA released their own porter with Astral Planes Porter. Think plenty of brown malt, roasty, tobacco, leather and dark chocolate vibes. Yes please!
Left Handed Giant weren’t about to let a week go by without releasing another epic stout. Cosmic Starry Dimension Chocolate, Pecan & Tonka Stout is silky, sweet and nutty with vanilla and cacao. At 7%, it’s like a box of those chocolates with liqueur in the middle.
Amundsen also released darks outside of their famous DIC series, the epic 440ml Cool Beans Four Bean Imperial Pastry Stout and ditto Tall Stack Chocolate Chip Maple Covered Pancake Imperial Pastry Stout.
Aaaand then Amundsen went and brewed up some hoppy numbers too, showcasing Vic Secret, El Dorado and Strata hops in all their naked glory.
Burnt Mill continued their dependable brilliance with a wicked West Coast DIPA, while Gardens of Green Strata & Citra NEIPA is the latest in their dual hop series.
New hop numbers also landed from Neon Raptor, Pomona Island, Almasty and By The River, and BBNo bucked convention with their new East Coast IPA.
I couldn’t go without mentioning another fun S43 sour – You’ve Been Mango’d Sour IPA. This is fresh off the back of having to change the name of You’re Not You When You’re Thirsty, which officially makes S43 full on legends! Let’s hope Britvic can take a joke, shall we?
As always, I hope you get to try some of these epic new beers this week.
Cheers & happy drinking!
Oli
(The founder)
Oli Meade
Brew York’s new Tonkoko milk stout, an experimental Triple IPA from Vocation and a Polly’s Imperial Sour! The brew train continues!
Here’s what I’d really recommend checking out this week.
This week, I’d like to introduce you to brand new craft brewery Low Key. Most new breweries play it safe. Maybe come out with a core pale, an IPA and possibly even a lager. Low Key? These guys – a barrel aged specialist – have come out and smashed the craft beer world in the face with nothing less than Jörmungandr Laphroaig Barrel Aged Chocolate & Tonka Imperial Stout. And it’s epic! Sold out all over the shop, we literally have two left at the time of writing so be seriously quick if you want to see what all the fuss is about! [Update – those 2 bottles are now gone. To hear about new beer releases as and when they come out, jump on our newsletter.]
If you miss out on Low Key, do not fear! Brew York released another epic set of their famous Tonkoko darks this week, the best of which has got to be Brew York’s S’more Tonkoko Marshmallow, Coconut, Cacao, Tonka & Vanilla Milk Stout. This new edition brings toasted marshmallows to the coconut, cacao, vanilla and tonka bean party. How they do beers like this for such an epic price point is a question we’re yet to ask, and probably won’t to be honest with you.
There’s also a ton more Left Handed Giant goodness in this week I’d like to highlight… giving a special mention to When The Moon Collapses Stroopwafel Imperial Stout. As all bake-off fans know, the Stroopwafel is traditionally placed over the top of a cup of coffee so that the caramel melts and becomes even more delicious than it once was. This coffee-tinged toffee and caramel delight is a nod to the stroopwafel, and it’s bleedin’ lovely.
In a week in which we’ve got new hop-bombs from Polly’s, Verdant and Burnt Mill in, it takes something seriously special to take top Hop spot this week… and Dig Brew Co’s Full Restore Imperial IPA is exactly that. Who the hell are Dig?! Good question. So these guys are a relatively new craft brewery based in – of all places – Birmingham. The city is a bit of a black hole when it comes to craft beer, right? Dig are stepping up to change that. We have a few of their brews just in, but Full Restore is the best of the bunch. This Impy IPA is a huge helping of thick, sweet fruit juice backed by a load of piney hoppiness. Give them a try!
Next up – have you seen how experimental Vocation have been getting lately?! Their core range you’ve obviously tried. But when I saw how much messing around they’d been up to lately, I went out and brought in a load of their new stuff… including an ESB, a Kveik DIPA and the epic Mesmerisum TIPA. Big hitting hops mingle with smooth malts for a wondrous new hop monster. Get involved!
And finally for the hops this week… Verdant’s Unconventional Tactics DIPA was always going to be a gem. Nelson Sauvin is Verdant’s favourite hop. And in this DIPA, they’ve used Nelson Sauvin, added more Nelson Sauvin and paired that with Nelson Sauvin for a juicy celebration of their all-time favourite flavour cannon. Epic stuff.
Look, you know a beer is good when you head out to photograph it and end up drinking it instead, and that’s exactly what happened this week when I tried to photograph Polly’s Plant Sugar Imperial Rhubarb & Quince Sour. There’s a jammy tartiness here and a mouth-shrivelling rhubarb twang, with a sprinkle of sea salt that makes you just want more. Nice work.
Dig Brew Co have also treated beer fans to a gem of a sour this week, with their California Fruit Smoothie Sour. Filled with raspberry, cranberry & blackberry, this proves the brewery are far from a one trick pony.
I’m also going to recommend Pressure Drop’s Wu Gang Chops the Tree Hefeweisse here. As a Hefeweisse it’s obviously not technically a sour but it’s mega funky and let’s be honest beer fans all love it. Order one if you’re yet to try it – especially if sours aren’t usually your thing. Branch out!
On the subject of Pressure Drop ‘sours’, Future Sunshine Peach, Pineapple & Passionfruit Sour is back. It divides opinion but we’re very much in favour… sour fruits and cream, what’s not to like??!
There’s a load more Wander Beyond madness, who I could probably recommend every week. Metropolis Of Gold Imperial Milkshake IPA has the craziest Untappd rating, but all of their lactose-y, creamy, milkshake IPA gems are immense – and all await.
Two solid new Burnt Mill darks are also worth your time. You’re going to have to choose between Glints Collide Baltic Porter and Higher Grounds Coffee Porter though. Good luck…
And while we’re on darks, Verdant have a new dark out. They’re obviously not known for their darks, so fair play to them for coming up with the likes of Don’t Fear The Ferryman Imperial Stout. It’s one of those where you can’t help but think that, weirdly, it might get more attention if it DIDN’T say Verdant on the can. Still, you know their 40 Watt Moon DIPA is gonna steal the show.
NEW BREWERY ALERT! Can’t believe I haven’t mentioned these yet – Dark Revolution are in the house! There’s loads to choose from so have a rummage. Movin’ on Up Cookies & Cream Imperial Stout is epic. Blood Red Moon Hibiscus & Lime Sour is also top drawer. Mercury Rising Hazy NEIPA is interesting. What happened to the hazy NEIPA influx in the end?!
Polly’s return with Spur IPA (only a few left), Northern Monk’s OFS025 Strawberry Plum Sakura Fruited Sour and OFS026 Red Bean Stout are both treats, and we have a mega new uptake of Duration back in! You love Duration, we love Duration, there’s five lines awaiting, dive on in!
As always, I hope you get to try some of these epic new beers this week.
Cheers & happy drinking!
Oli
(The founder)
Oli Meade
DEYA’s first ever Triple IPA, a show-stopping mild from Boxcar and an Iron Brew sour! Are you as excited as I am?
This week’s list is, once again, off the charts. Here are some of the best new beers to try this week.
£8.75
Kicking things off, there really is only one place to start. DEYA have released their first ever TIPA!
Routines Bite Hard calls in a truck load of punchy Simcoe and Mosaic to create a 500ml, 10% juice monster from a brewery at the very top of their game. Does it need more hop variety? Absolutely not! It’s everything you’d imagine and then some – the first ever DEYA Triple. For us, a must try.
£7.50
Meanwhile Alpha Delta weren’t about to let DEYA’s TIPA go uncontested. This week, they launched Talos TIPA – so thick, so hoppy… this thing is like a soup. A DEYA beater? You’ll have to decide that one yourself…
£5.75
Overtone’s Plur DIPA set social alight this week with a gaggle of excited beer fans singing its praises – and rightly so. I’ve been banging on about Overtone’s genius for months, and it seems like people are finally starting to catch on! This 5-hop monster (Galaxy, Citra, Azacca, Simcoe, Chinook) is a cascading waterfall of tropical fruit gold – epic stuff, get involved!
£5.50
Set the stouts aside for a second: Boxcar’s Double Dark Mild tops our list of the best new dark beers this week! As if the original wasn’t good enough, this is an amped up, tricked out, double-dosage version. More malt! More chocolate! More raisin! And oh-so smooth.
£7.95
At spots 4, 5 and 6 this week you’ve got three new releases from the B.P.A.V.K series that are as un-ignorable as ever. Which is better?! Three Hills Marshmallow Smor Imperial Stout? Or the Cherry Bakewell Imperial Pastry Version?!?
It’s such a close call but, for experimental outrage I’m gonna go with the Marshmallow Smor. Oh, and there’s a suave and sophisticated red wine version too!
£7.50
Just when you’re wondering what Vault City have been up to of late, they go ahead and lob an Iron Brew Sour at your face! How is this possible?! What the hell is even in Irn Bru in the first place??! In this boozy version you’ve got a bubblegum-citrus sour that pours as orange as the original. It’s equally mysterious. And equally magnificent.
£6.95
Finally this week is Left Handed Giant’s Blender Fruited Sour IPA Mark 3… a sour that apparently gets better with every iteration! In this one you’ve got Raspberry, Papaya and Vanilla intermingling with fruity and piercing Nelson Sauvin hops, all combining for a sexy sweet treat with serious fruited zing.
Fair enough. Well, elsewhere this week, you’ll find two new Polly’s hop-bombs on our virtual shelves, starting with a new issue of Polly’s Uncanny Valley IPA. This is, naturally, packed full of all the pineapple, mango, and papaya notes you know and love. Polly’s Magnolia Pale Ale is a more experimental mix of coconut, lime, ripe tangerine and 20kg of Citra hop dose. Both are as thick as ever.
Ārpus Brewing’s Secret Hops IPA is a fun IPA all the way from Latvia. Any idea what they’ve used to hop this? Test your inner nerd. See if you can work it out.
Talking of nerds, check out the epic new wax top range from Nerdbrewing themselves! There are six insane Nerdbrewing darks now online, and I’m torn between Nerdbrewing’s Typecast Imperial Licorice Lemon & Vanilla Stout and Infix Vanilla Macchiato Edition. They come at a fair old price point – but, luckily, you really can’t go wrong.
Talus hops are hops of the moment, and Signature showed us why with their new Nocturne Black IPA this week. A freaky, unintentional 6.66% ABV bundle of gnarled tropical fruit. See what Talus is all about.
There’s also a big Anspach & Hobday drop going on (Ordinary Bitter is a personal favourite), Alpha Delta’s Corymbus Blackcurrant & Blackberry Imperial Sour Ale is a 10% treat and Little Monster are back with their much acclaimed Squash Court DIPA and some epic can art on Back Home IPA – liven up your fridge!
As always, I hope you get to try some of these epic new beers this week.
Cheers & happy drinking!
Oli
(The founder)
Step 1
We trawl the globe tasting great beer
