Oli Meade
***DUE TO STOCK MOVE TO NEW BAR (SE26) NEXT POSTING DAY IS MON 15TH. THANKS***
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)
Oli Meade
Verdant Putty, a Burnt Mill / Finback collab and Gipsy Hill’s first ever pastry stout. Hold on to your beards – this week’s new beers list is a corker!
That’s right – Verdant Putty 2021 has arrived!
The annual Putty release is just about THE most anticipated beer release of the craft beer year… and we were lucky enough to secure a couple of cases so you can join in the fun!
This year’s Putty is as packed with mango, apricot and pineapple as it’s ever been. Everyone’s talking about it, and just about all are raving. If you haven’t tried Putty yet… this is your chance.
With Putty out of the way, Burnt Mill released a new collab with Finback this week that was always going to be a must-try in our eyes… and I’m happy to report Swimming Giants DIPA does not disappoint!
What stands out is the sheer care and detail that’s gone into this beer. The process and recipe were tailored to make the most of the Idaho and Sabro hops used, guaranteeing this 440ml, 8% DIPA screams of tropical fruit (from the Sabro) and Idaho-imparted pineapple, peach and juicy mango.
This week, we were also ecstatic when we unwrapped a whole load of new Desserts In Cans from Amundsen! With flavour combos as crazy as Chocolate Toffee Peppermint Cookie and Marzipan Chocolate Shortbread, it’s hard to single out any one can… but gun to my head I’d probably have to go with Gingerbread Creme Brulee. Creamy burnt caramel paired with soft and sticky gingerbread… need I say more?!
Elsewhere this week, our South London neighbours and all round top brewery Gipsy Hill released their first ever sweet and big-hitting pastry stout. Waffler Pastry Stout pairs 100% grade A Canadian Maple syrup with smoky rauch malts for a kinda pancake & bacon combo, then tops it all off with a sprinkle of decadent black coffee. This is an epic maple-bacon stack-of-pancakes stout – and it’s vegan too!
The big sour beer release this week was – in our eyes at least – Yonder’s Who is Nellie? Triple Fruited Melba Sour. Packed with 360 g/l of fruit, this sour houses the most fruit Yonder have EVER squeezed in to a beer – and it shows. Who is Nellie? is full of sweet and fragrant but slap-you-in-the-face tart fruits alongside a cheeky vanilla dash. A Peach Melba of a beer.
Meanwhile, Pomona Island refused to let the January frost derail their sour production. Their new Didja Get any Onya? Damson and Cherry Sour celebrates winter, and it’s a sour cherry and tart damson tug-of-war that, at 6.2%, is made for savouring.
There’s always too much to talk about in these posts, but I couldn’t leave this week’s round up without showing some love for Gipsy Hill’s Scalatrice DIPA. After a mega intake of Gipsy Hill this week, this was the beer I reached for after a three-day abstinence… and the beer I haven’t stopped talking about ever since.
Ahhhh – and Polly’s new Every Piece Matters Triple IPA! Incredibly, Polly’s released a new Triple to rave reviews… and I haven’t even managed to squeeze it into the opening.
Northern Monk’s alcohol free Hazy Pale continues to prop up all those who’ve made it to the tail end of Dry Jan (fair play), Frau Gruber’s Macaroon Imperial Stout leaves you demanding more and there’s a Triple Fruited Tropical sour from Amundsen that’s been so popular I had to order more.
So much good stuff, get stuck in!
I hope you get to try some of these fresh new beers this week – and if there’s anything I’ve missed, let me know via oliver@craftmetopolis.co.uk.
Cheers & happy drinking,
Oli
(The founder)
Buxton’s Coward, a DEYA bitter and a new passion fruit weisse from sour kings Pastore. It can only be one thing!
That’s right. It’s my round up of the best new beers out there this week.
Buxton’s Coward 2021 is finally here!
This epic stout has already built one hell of a rep for itself, and I’m delighted to report the 2021 edition once again exceeds the hype. Bags of peanut butter and biscuit; thick, rich and delicious. My only minor quibble is it’s a 330ml… but then at 11%, maybe that’s a good thing?!
Dark beer number 2 this week is a toss up between two new DEYA beauties… and the winner will likely depend on how adventurous you are. Let’s go with DEYA’s Alright Mate Stout to begin with. A stout de triumph, this is rich, roasty, syrupy AND nutty… in short, it’s got it all.
But then, as well as the above, DEYA have come out with Best Foot Forward Best Bitter. This is more unusual and (you might say) more exciting. Bitter is making a comeback… and bitters like this explain why.
Getting tired of the deluge of big, juicy hop bombs? Well, DEYA’s new Show Nuff IPA kicks things on. Citra, Idaho 7 and Ekuanot make up this lychee, pineapple and squishy fruit cocktail, but a sticky mix of rye and light caramel malt make for an amber glow and an interesting twist.
Where Show Nuff brings a fresh twist to the traditional juicy hop monster, DEYA’s new Write That Down IPA is more down-the-line. Here you’ve got a juicy IPA with a soft mouthfeel. Dry hopped with Centennial, Galaxy, Mosaic and Riwaka, it’s a classic.
For those unaware, Trolltunga is a freaky wild cliff that juts out 700 metres above Norway’s lake Ringedalsvatnet (Google it, it’s bonkers). As if to highlight the cliff’s severity, Buxton’s Trolltunga Gooseberry Sour IPA got an upgrade this week to 440ml cans, making a tried and tested Goseberry sour great even more alluring. Dare you tread to the very edge?!
7. Pastore Brewing – Passion Fruit Waterbeach WeissePastore’s Passion Fruit Waterbeach Weisse is the other outstanding sour I want to highlight this week. With 200 g/l of passion fruit puree in the mix, this is a tropical solero sour from a sour specialist that knows what’s what. |
As always in the craft beer world, the above beers really are just the tip of the iceberg.
There’s loads of bonkers barrel-aged dark stuff coming out right now, including Maltgarden’s Gate Nr. 4/2020 Heaven Hill Bourbon Barrels Aged Imperial Stout and, more left field, Buxton’s Single Barrel Rye Whisky Barrel Aged Rain Shadow Rye 2020. Kees joined in the fun too, with their Caramel Fudge Stout BA Jack Daniels Edition.
As you’d expect at this point in winter, brewers continue to favour heavy dark releases. Frau Gruber Brewery’s Macaroon Imperial Stout is pumped with 500kg of Coconut from the Philippines. Kees Brewery & Frontaal’s Pindakees Caramel Peanut Butter Sundae Stout is actually a gem for those into big darks but with work the next day – OK, it’s 10%, but at least it’s only a 330ml!
I can’t stop myself from mentioning another magnificent Maltgarden this week… Iceman Interview Chocolate Ice Cream Imperial Stout is a brilliant brew.
Finally, Buxton’s Rudenko Bourbon Barrel Aged Barley Wine is something different to explore. You don’t see many of these around – grab one while you can.
Hope you get to try some of these epic new brews this week. Happy drinking & stay safe out there in the wild!
Step 1
We trawl the globe tasting great beer
