Top 10 Craft Beers of 2020

Reflecting on the last year… where do we begin? Shall we talk about the global pandemic? The crazy US elections? Brexit? Maybe best we just stick to beer. It’s helped us traverse the toughest year of our lifetime, so let’s give some shout outs to the best brews from the shambles of a year that was 2020..

The list below only includes beers we’ve actually tried (sorry if your favourite beer isn’t on here, we didn’t get out much this year), beers purchased in 2020 and acquired within the UK/Ireland. We’ve also kept it to one beer per brewery, and to ‘new’ beers brewed in the last 12 months …ish.

10th April 2020

Buy the NHS a Pint – Pay It Forward

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Some of the UK’s leading craft breweries have combined forces to start a new initiative, allowing us to buy a pint for the NHS. The NHS staff are on the front-lines fighting for us during the coronavirus pandemic – and one little way to show your appreciation for the unbelievable work they’re doing is by buying them some much deserved beers.

Gipsy Hill began offering the ability to Buy The NHS a Pint on their web-shop towards the end of March and within a week, they’d sold 400 pints. Since then, a group of breweries across the UK have come on board and are also offering the ability to buy the NHS a pint on their websites too.

If you buy the NHS a pint on any participating brewery’s web-shop, they’ll make sure that a drink gets into the hands of a well deserving NHS worker once the lockdown is over. It’s the perfect way to pay it forward to the NHS workers that deserve our gratitude and it also helps support our local breweries during this difficult time.

The COVID-19 pandemic has, quite literally, driven us apart but it won't break the bond between us.
We've joined up with 10 other indie breweries to launch a new scheme showing love to the people providing us with remarkable care. #BuyTheNHSAPint https://t.co/Rde220gHxn pic.twitter.com/qM9Tdd7lJc
— Cloudwater Brew Co (@cloudwaterbrew) April 10, 2020

Where Can I Buy the NHS a Pint?

Fyne Ales (Cairndow, Scotland)
Buy the NHS a Pint on Fyne Ale’s Web Shop

Wylam (Newcastle, England)
Buy the NHS a Pint on Wylam’s Web Shop

Cloudwater (Manchester, England)
Buy the NHS a Pint on Cloudwater’s Web Shop

North Brewing Co (Leeds, England)
Buy the NHS a Pint on North Brewing Co’s Web Shop

Verdant (Falmouth, England)
Buy the NHS a Pint on Verdant’s Web Shop

Left Handed Giant (Bristol, England)
Buy the NHS a Pint on Left Handed Giant’s Web Shop

Deya (Cheltenham, England)
Buy the NHS a Pint on Deya’s Web Shop

Duration (Norfolk, England)
Buy the NHS a Pint on Duration’s Web Shop

Gipsy Hill (London, England)
Buy the NHS a Pint on Gipsy Hill’s Web Shop

Boundary (Belfast, Northern Ireland)
Buy the NHS a Pint on Boundary’s Web Shop

Each “Buy the NHS a Pint” bought on any of the web-shops will be forwarded to their respective taprooms – so if you’d like to support NHS staff locally, pick your nearest brewery above!

As soon as they’re open again, anyone from the NHS and by extension any volunteer signed up to help, can pop in, show their ID and redeem their drink.⁠

28th January 2020

Top 10 Craft Beers of 2019

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Top 10 Beers of 2019 - Woodworkers, Belfast

It’s that time of year again when we look back at the best beers we tried over the last 12 months.

The typical caveats apply – the list only includes beers we’ve actually tried, beers we purchased in 2019 (nothing we’ve had stored away in the cellar – and by cellar, I mean back of the wardrobe), and beers we acquired within the UK/Ireland.

No doubt there are countless beers that could’ve made the list that we didn’t get a chance to try and I’m sure this list would look very different if we were based in a different part of the world – we tried some amazing beers when we were in San Francisco but what’s the point listing some super obscure micro-brew that you have to take a twelve hour flight to sample?

16th August 2019

Pales, Trains & Pub Crawl Ideals – Best Craft Beer Venues in North England

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Northern Monk Refectory Manchester - Hit the North Neon

On a recent episode of one of my favourite beer podcasts, Hopinions, the show focused on the concept of a fantasy pub crawl – they picked eight pubs or bars that they would visit in one trip if time and money was no obstacle. This got me thinking… I was struggling to limit myself to just eight as they did on their worldwide fantasy pub crawl.

I expanded my selection to ten whilst also limiting my drinking zone to the north of England. I think it makes my route somewhat plausible though it may take an overnight stay at some point. READ MORE